Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

[ljJ@f!lD[JiJ@.L----=-.@_[JiJ _ Larry Pegram won't look back fondly on his year in Formula USA, the Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki rider ending his short tenure with a tirade against FUSA officials. "I'm just happy to be away from these idiots, this series," he said late on Saturday aftemoon after being told he and teammate Michael Bames would be fined $500 for passing under a red flag in the Honda Pro Oils Sportbike race. In the second Lockhart-Phillips Unlimited Superbike leg, Pegram was accused of jumping the start and docked a startand-go penalty. After serving it, he had machine troubles and crashed in tum one. "The second race, they said I jumped - I didn't," Pegram said. "They make up shit as they go along. It's a joke organization. I'm so happy I don't have to race with them any more. ot The reason he won't have to race with them any more is because he's become a member of the Dream Team - Dream Team Ducati, specifically - a new AMA Superbike team based in Los Angeles. The team is the dream child of Kaming Ko, a Los Angeles-based businessman who imports car parts and wheels from China. "They want to get into motorcycle stuff," Pegram said. "They make parts for cars and want to get into motorcycles. They just got a new shop in Camarillo and they're looking for sponsors. But it's not one of those deals that if they don't get sponsorship it won't go." Pegram said the team would be getting Ducati F03s from Bologna, and that Mike Velasco, Pegram's current crew chief at Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki, would be with the team, though not as the crew chief. That position has yet to be filled. Pegram said he'd be the only rider in 2003, but that the team would like to expand to two riders in 2004. Pegram had come to Daytona hoping to win two titles. Both were longshots - one more than the other. In order to win the Sportbike crown, Pegram had to hope that Arclight Suzuki's Craig Connell didn't score a point. That hope ended when Connell took the pole position, the point that went with it, and the title, in Saturday qualifying. The other title was well within reach. Pegram trailed Kneedraggers.com/Sportbike Zone's Matt Wait by six points in the inaugural Grand National Championship. The two contenders for the inaugural Grand National Championship tangled off the racetrack late on Friday aftemoon. The dispute was over a rules violation, and whether Wait should be allowed to start from anywhere but on the back of the grid. Pegram thought not. Pegram claimed that, after he'd qualified it third fastest in Sportbike qualifying, Wait's Kneedraggers.com/Sportbike Zone Yamaha was taken behind the pit wall before being run on the dyno, in violation of FUSA rules. Because of the infraction. Wait's qualifying time was disallowed and he was placed 45th in qualifying, which was posted as final at 1:40 p.m. Then things get interesting. FUSA official moved Wait up to 20th, his time determined by averaging his times from the moming practice session, a judgment which isn't mentioned in the FUSA ruJebook. Pegram asked to protest the ruling and was told he couldn't, but that he could file an appeal, which he did, after coming up with $500 cash. The matter was then put to a three-man jury culled from the pits. Their decision was that it was clear that there was no provision for averaging the practice times. even though a clause in the rulebook allows for latitude in judgment. Wait was put to the back of the grid. It wasn't the worst thing that would happen to him. In Sunday moming's warm-up Wait pulled into the pits when his Yamaha made noises "like a bunch of chains coming apart." But he rebounded. borrowing an engine from teammate Toomer Levy. Wait was watching his pitboard and knew that if Pegram finished third, he had to finish seventh, which he did, good enough for the $20.000 GNC bonus. Barnes in the lead from Wood and Higbee, with Connell at the back of the quartet. needed for here. I hope we never have to do it again because, on the right side, it wasn't that nice to me. I must have come out of the saddle five times between the two superbike legs. As long as I was smart with it and used a lot of finesse and was real gentle in transitions, it seemed to be okay with me. I usually go real hard at the beginning. the fact that I backed off a little bit at the beginning instead of roasting it out of Six and One made a difference." Wood was also thinking about his tire after the race, and lamenting his tactics. "I should've been able to win," he said. "The reason we didn't win the first race is I abused the tire too much. It got a little greasy because I was a little throttle-happy. I could match his pace - whenever I tried to gain on him too much, I started getting sideways. and that was it." That he was able to maintain second surprised the third-placed Pegram. "Eric Wood's tire hung in, which I didn't think it would," Pegram said. "They [Barnes and Wood], were going too good." Acree's hopes of getting anywhere near the leaders ended when he hit lapped riders on the final run up to the banking out of turn six. Bames celebrates a championship. tem. When they replaced it, it sat lower than normal, and rubbed against the front tire. "The bodywork was touching the front tire and sliced it, and I lost a huge portion of the front tire," Wood said of the freak incident. "It was coming apart all the way down the banking, and when I tipped it across So they went, Wood and Higbee swapping spots, Barnes and Connell guarding the margins. Pegram was making his way back "There at the end, I actually started closing back in on Larry [Pegram] and Eric [Wood], and I thought I was close enough to have a shot at them," he said. "I just hit some lappers in the wrong place." Higbee was an uncomfortable fifth, with Himmelsbach sixth on an ailing Aprilia, which was stuck in sixth gear. "We had trouble at the end with the transmission," Himmelsbach said. Since he didn't have a back-up bike, he wouldn't make the final race of the year. Seventh went to New England Performance's Scott Greenwood on an underpowered machine. "I tried my hardest to keep up with the lead group," he said, but with a Suzuki GSX-R750 in Supersport trim that dynoed at ] 27 horsepower, he had little hope. "I came down here to try to win CCS championships." through the field when he crashed in turn one. "I went in, and when I went to back the tri-oval a huge section flew off and blew the fender off. shift, it made noises and I grabbed "The second race, I know everyone talks like this, but I was just sitting there and whenever I wanted to gain 10 of 15 bikelengths on the brakes there or in the chicane I could do it. I was purposely saving my tire and the clutch and I couldn't get it stopped without any engine braking and I went into the dirt," Pegram said. He was bruised and beaten, but not seriously hurt. Wood had his own problems in turn one a few laps later. He'd warped a front-disk rotor in the first leg and Bames leads a freight train in race two, with Craig Connell playing the caboose. the team had to remove the bodywork to change the entire brake sys· RACE TWO Pegram again got the jump on the field, but this time FUSA officials thought it was too good of a jump and he was given a stop-and-go penalty. He'd already been shuffled back a few spots when he pulled in with cue I e n e _ S • OCTOBER 30, 2002 23

• Cover