Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"It looked like the right side of his tire might be starting to spin up a bit," Acree said, biding his time. He also knew that, because he was smaller than Fergusson, his Suzuki GSX-R750 accelerated and had more top end than Fergusson's. Out of tum seven on the final lap, Acree made his move. "Once I got in the draft, I started reeling him in and picked up the draft and really got some momentum on him and was able to get around the left side of him, which gave me the inside line down in the braking zone," Acree said of turn 10. "I just tried to get real wide because he'd been coming down the hill a lot better than I had, so I tried to just get in the way and I think it helped." "I've only actually been in the U.S. for probably five days," Fergusson said "To come away with a second place, it's not exactly what I wanted, but I'm still really happy with it. It was a good race." Fergusson got the call the previous week asking if he was interested in racing at Road Atlanta. Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki needed a replacement for Canadian Jordan Szoke, who remained north of the border with visa problems (see Briefly... ). He was racing as a privateer in Australia and had no conflicts. He'd never been to America, let alone Road America, but was happy to take up the challenge. By the end of qualifying, he was on the pole position. "In qualifying, after the laps I could string together in qualifying, I was pretty confident I could come together with the win," he said. "What I didn't realize was how hard these guys wanted it as well, and they didn't want me to win." Though he'd been fastest in qualifying, he hadn't hit the setup and the result was premature rear-tire wear. When the last lap came, his drives were muted, and he was an easy mark for Acree. Still, he tried getting around Acree after getting passed, but had no real chance. "I thought there was nothing to lose, really," Fergusson said. "I knew I was pretty safe for the speed I was carrying around there. Last chance try didn't really work out." Smith finished third, just 0.5404 of a second behind Acree. Without a factory ride, Smith had somewhat retired, though he doesn't really know what that means, having been out of racing before. "A buddy of mine talked me into riding a Suzuki for him in WERA, and I had so much fun, I said well, if I can do that, I might make as much money doing this as Bobcat work and I know how to do this better," Smith said. When he first went out, Smith said he "was trying to figure out how not to knock anybody down or crash. The tires, it's the first time that I ran the tires that I ran. The Pirellis... I've run the hard ones, I ran the soft ones. I was looking for some surprises. I didn't want to crash my bike. That's my bike." Smith qualified 11 th, nearly two seconds behind Fergusson. In the race, the old instincts kicked in and he was moved right to the front. "I was really surprised," Smith began, "I was like, 'Lee, you guys wait on me, come on, come on, come on: Anyway, they weren't waiting real good. I made a couple of moves out there. I got a little tired, pumped up, made a few moves and started reeling them in. I was actually going, 'Oh no, I'm reeling them in up here and it looks like I'm really going to have to start riding because they're not slowing down a whole lot or nothing.'" Nor did they to the end, which meant Smith had to settle for third, which wasn't bad considering he was ready to go home a day earlier. "My mom and dad, they bought these bikes for me," 'Smith said. "It was kind of a blessing and a curse because now I have to work real hard at getting all these parts, brake lines, bodywork, maybe this will help me out to get a team up here. "I don't know. I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm going to do some Suzuki Cup stuff. I'm going to go have a good time and ride the bike, AMAIMBNA 250cc Grand Prix Series Round 4: Road Atlanta By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTO BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS BRASElTON, GA, MAY 19 or Chuck Sorensen, all the trivial things that lead up the actual race are becoming the hardest part of his race weekend. At Sears Point, his Stargel Aprilia suffered mechanical problems that hampered Sorensen's practice and qualifying runs. At Road Atlanta, it was a crash on Sunday morning that threw a wrench into things. At both events, the races proved to be the easy part. For the second successive race, Sorensen was able to put his practice woes behind him to score his third win of the season, this one coming at Road Atlanta. Sorensen had his hands full with Cruise America's Jason DiSalvo for most of the race until gapping the teenager in traffic on the 13th lap. That was the critical moment of the race, and it cost DiSalvo any real chance of making a run at the race leader in the final laps. Third place went to Irishman Simon Turner, the Yamaha TZ250 rider running with the lead duo early on before his bike started slowing. JF Still, he was well clear of a battle for fourth place between Rising Sun Cycles' Chris Pyles and Team Oliver Yamaha's Perry Melneciuc that ultimately went to Pyles. Bakersfield Yamaha's Darren FUlce, Bridgestone-backed Ed Sorbo, Himmelsbach Racing's William Himmelsbach, Cortes Racing's Leon Cortes and Vickery Motorsports' Ty David Piz rounded out the top 10 finishers. It was DiSalvo who grabbed the holeshot on his Honda RS250, but Sorensen was right with him. Those two ended the first lap over a second ahead of Turner, though the Irishman would soon prove to have a bit of fight in him. Sorensen took the lead for the first time with a pass on DiSalvo in turn three on the second lap, with the duo AIIILS vo sitting back in second. Turner, though, started to lose contact as his Yamaha began to slow. "They didn't go faster, I went slower," Turner said. "The engine started to fade a little bit." do what I know how to do. I thought about retiring, but I don't know what I would do." The battle for fourth went to Cruise America's Jason DiSalvo, who passed Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's Jimmy Moore on the final lap. Read Atlanta IInslIllDn. &eO'llia Results: May 18, 2002 (Round 4 of 10J GEN

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