Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme Round 3: Road Atlanta The win didn't affect the top of the championship standings, but second did. With his third consecutive runner-up finish, Zemke moved ahead of Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies, winner of the first two rounds, 96 to 89. Spies crashed out of the lead when he hit a false neutral not long after the midpoint of the race. Until then, Spies was in control. He'd led the first two laps before giving way briefly to Zemke, whose move to the front coincided with a number of problems. Instead of putting new brake pads in for the wet morning warm-up, Zemke and his crew waited for the race, figuring they would bed in during the sighting and warm-up laps. It didn't go as planned. "Right after two laps the things were just totally glazed and really inconsistent, and I was having some problems with that," Zemke said. "Then I stuck my knee in the grass over there in turn three, in that new section, and lost my knee slider. And I rely on my knees a lot when I'm riding. So that kind of messed me up quite a bit." Buckmaster took the lead on the fourth lap and mostly held the point until Spies passed him on the eighth lap. The young Texan wouldn't complete the ninth. Forced to use a tire he wasn't comfortable with, Spies said he felt out of sorts all race. He'd run down Buckmaster and was looking to pull a gap when he hit a false neutral at the beginning of turn three, sending him careening across the muddy, wet grass. He nearly had it stopped when he hit a gully and was instantly down. "I never touched the brakes, so it must have spit me off," Spies said, adding that it wasn't the tire's fault. "It just didn't feel like the other one did. That's not why I crashed." That put Buckmaster into the lead for three laps until his mechanical problem on the 12th lap, when he rode into the pits with a broken shifter. The lead went to Hacking, who had a clear track and comfortable lead. Erion Honda's Roger Lee Hayden crashed on the 14th lap, his bike coming to rest on the racing line, forcing a red flag, the second one on the day that Hayden had caused. Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's Adam Fergusson went down avoiding it. Scoring reverted to the 12th lap, with Hacking in the lead, Zemke second and Craggill third. "I hated to see my teammate (Buckmaster) go out," Hacking said. "He was riding well. He pulled away, kept stretching it. Sorry about Damon (Buckmaster) breaking there. At least one of us from Graves Motorsports brought it home." Hacking had his share of dramas, including once hitting the kill switch while adjusting his front brake. He also turned the adjuster the wrong way at one point, the lever coming back to the bar when he arrived at the hard-braking turn 10. Then there was a front tire problem. He'd chosen a medium compound front which lasted about six laps, he said, after which his face Jamie Hacking won the first Fonnula Xtreme final of his career. shield fogged up. "Three laps toward the end there, my shield just all of a sudden got real soiled, like the anti-fog on the inside just started running.. and I couldn't hardly see the lapped riders," he said. "Everything was falling apart, kind of like his race in the middle. Luckily it ended." Zemke was unlucky that it ended. With Hacking getting balked by lappers, Zemke was poised to make a run. "I could see him coming back to me, and I was kind of bummed when I saw that red flag," Zemke said. "That's just the way it goes. Jamie (Hacking) rode a great race." Craggill was chasing Hacking late in the race when his visor, like Hacking's, and many others', fogged up. "I couldn't see where I was going," he said. "I dropped back about two seconds a lap and then clicked my visor going down the back straight, and I could see where I was going again, and Jake (Zemke) come past, and we got into traffic, and Jamie (Hacking) was getting the bad run, and we were getting the good run, and then the red flag came out basi- cally. It was pretty uneventful except for the helmet fogging up." Attack Suzuki's Josh Hayes was the only other rider close to the front, finishing less than a second behind Craggill. Then came Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Aaron Gobert followed by Attack Suzuki's Jason Pridmore. eN Road Atlanta Braselton, Geo'llia Results: May lB, 2003 (Round 3J LOCKHART-PHILLIPS USA FORMULA XTREME: 1. Jamie Hacking (Yam): 2. Jake Zemke (Han); 3. Marty Craggill (Han); 4. Josh Hayes (Suz); 5. Aaron Gobert (Yam); 6. Jason Pridmore (Suz); 7. Adam Fergusson (Suz); 8. Steve Rapp (Suz); 9. Geoff May (Suz); 10. Ty Howllrd (Hon); 11. Chris Ulrich (Suz); 12. Damon Buckmaster (Yam); 13. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 14. Roger Lee Hayden (Hon); 15. Douglas Duane (Suz); 16. Kevin Hanson (Suz); 17. Nathan Hester (Suz); 18. Ben Spies (Suz); 19. Chuck Allen (Suz); 20. Doug Chandler (Hon); 21. David Guy (Suz); 22. Jason Curtis (Hon). Time: N/A due to red flag. Distance: 12 laps, 30.48 miles Average speed: 116.5 mph Margin or victory: 2.004 sec. LOCKHART-PHILLIPS USA FORMULA XTREI'IE C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 3 of 10 rounds): 1. Jake Zemke (96); 2. Ben Spies (89/2 wins): 3. Josh Hayes (78); 4. Damon Buckmaster (75); 5. Steve Rapp (74); 6. Adam Fergusson (73); 7. Marty CragQill (72); 8. Aaron Gobert (70); 9. Jamie Hacking (65/1); 10. Jimmy Moore (64); 11. Ty Howard (61); 12. Chris Ulrich (57); 13. Doug Chandler (52); 14. Roger Lee Hayden (42); 15. Jason Pridmore (40); 16. David Guy (25); 17. Geoff May (22); 18. James King (21); 19. Lee Acree (19); 20. Jason Curtis (18). Upcoming Rounds: Round 4 - Fountain, Colorado, May 31 Round 5 - Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, June 7 Genuine Suzuki Accessories Superstock Round 4: Road Atlanta BRASELTON, GA, MAY 17 t's entirely possible that no one in the history of AMA professional road racing has ever been as happy to win his first race. Certainly no one's ever been more. The most dangerous job at Road Atlanta on Saturday afternoon was trying to wrest the microphone away from Hooters Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec on the victory stand. In heavily accented and slightly fractured English, the 29-year-old Czech immigrant wanted to tell his story, every lap, every turn, and no one was going to stop him, not after he'd waited this long and not after the savvy bit of riding he'd employed to snatch victory from Attack Suzuki's Josh Hayes in the final corner of the Genuine Suzuki Accessories Superstock race late on an overcast and gloomy afternoon. It appeared that the race had come down to the final corner, with Haskovec using a bold inside line to snooker Hayes at the line, but Haskovec explained that the race was decided one bend earlier. Cresting the hill under the turn 11 Suzuki Bridge, Hayes spun his rear tire very slightly, not much, but enough to force him to alter his line down the hill, running wider than he might have into the ultrafast right-hand turn 12. With Hayes going wide and Haskovec hooking up, he was able to hold the tighter inside line and edge Hayes at the line by 0.108 seconds. "I make a good line through the chicane and go over that crest (Suzuki Bridge), and I'm like, 'Now or never,''' Haskovec said of the final pass. "I rode good. He got a little bit of slide, and in this class it's every- 16 n STORY AND PHOTO BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS I MAY 28, 2003' cue I e e "" s Josh Hayes 141 and Vincent Haskovec 131 fought for victory in the Superstock class, with Haskovec passing Hayes on the run to the final comer to steal the win. thing it takes. A little hesitation on the rear tire spin a little bit more and it's putting forward, and here you go, it's over. I got half bikelength, and I push by his side, and I got the inside line, and he couldn't do anything. It was over at this point. But he tried really hard to go and set up for that corner. He probably open the throttle a little bit too much, and that was it. So I got him in the last corner." Haskovec credited the Pirelli tire on the rear of his Suzuki GSX-R750. "I ran him down, so obviously I carry a little more speed around those few last laps," Haskovec said. Hayes had led from the start, opening up a gap of around two seconds before Haskovec closed in the final stages. Two laps from the end of the 15-lap race, Haskovec was on Hayes. "I knew he was coming," Hayes said "I knew he was behind me. I had a plus zero. He'd run me down in a matter of about two laps. I said, 'Well, that's all right. He's going to have to pass me. That's going to be a differ- ent story.'" Hayes had run a consistent race. His laps at the end were as fast as his laps in the beginning. It was only the glitch at the top of the hill leading to the final turn that would be his undoing.

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