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Formula USA/Lockhart-Phillips Superbike Rounds 11/12: Pocono Raceway STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS LONG POND, PA, AUG. 25 t seemed like it took aU day and it V did. Even longer. It took years. In the end, after the red flags in the fading light were put away and the protest over the finish was denied, Blackman's Cycles' Michael Himmelsbach had given Aprilia its first Formula USA/Lockhart-Phillips Superbike win, the historic success coming in the second leg of an interminable day at Pocono Raceway, in the Pocono Mountains of northeastem Pennsylvania. Himmelsbach hadn't been so lucky in the first leg, the motor on his RSV1000 expiring in a big way while he was challenging for the leaq less than two laps from the end. The race would go to Millennium Technologies' Shawn Higbee and his Suzuki, the defending series champ proving he was more willing to take chances by passing Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki's Michael Barnes on the final lap. "14K the Movie's' Eric Wood, on another Suzuki, was slightly down on power and finished third, as he'd do in the second leg. By failing to finish, Himmelsbach was put near the back of the sevenrow grid for the second leg. The Pennsylvanian, from nearby Quakertown, was fifth when the race was stopped by the first red flag on the 11th of 18 laps. That put him on the second row for the second part of the ra (Above) Shawn Higbee (1) and Michael Himmeslbach (2) split race wins in the Formula USA Unlimited Superblke event at Pocono Raceway. Higbee won the first race, Himmelsbach the second. Michael Barnes (34) gives chase to the pair In the first leg. (Below) Eric Wood (4) leads Lee Acree (84). Higbee (1) and Larry Pegram (72) in the second of the two races at Pocono. second leg, and from there he quickly moved to the front, holding the spot when the race was stopped again, this time just as Himmelsbach was starting the 14th lap. He'd led the previous lap and was given the win, though Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki's Larry Pegram, who'd led the previous two laps of the restart, thought he should have won. Pegram's team filed a protest, but FUSA officials showed Pegram the lap charts and the rule book which affirmed their original decision. The popular win went to the local boy and a vocal horde of followers, including his fellow bleach blonde mates at Quakertown Wrestling. "The race was awesome,' Himmelsbach said. "We came from the back. The bike worked awesome, and we just worked the best we could to get to the front, and then the red flag came." 20 SEPTEMBER 4, 2002' cue I • n __ s Making the win sweeter was the work his team had put in. Himmelsbach's father, William, who builds the engines, had fallen at the AMA finale at Virginia International Raceway, hurting his hip, breaking ribs, and puncturing a lung.