Toyota 200
W illow S p r in gs In t e r nation a l Raceway
- Like a Swiss Watch
th ough , the journey th er e was ce r ta inl y not easy . Hask o vec , who fin ished third in last year's inaugural BO l ap race , ca ught a vi ol ent f lu la st
week and spent seve ra l d ay s ta k ing
anti bioti cs and ge tti ng shots every
ot her day . O n Wednesday , he fi nally
decided to call his tea m , HyperCycle,
to cancel. He said he fel t really bad
S TO RY A N D P HOT OS B Y B LA S K ISIC
ROSAMOND,CA,OCT. 19
T
he ca pa b le A tta c k Su zu ki team
stu nn ed the competition at Willow
Springs Inte rnational Racewa y in the
second annual Toyota 200 classic by
hel ping i t s ri ders a chieve a w ell deserved one-two result .
The u su al suspect s app eared on
top of th e timing sheets : names like
for the crew becau se he knew they
had worked hard , but he didn't feel fit
eno ugh for a two -hour race.
But som eth ing funn y ha p pe ne d
Vincent Haskovec, Chuck Graves and
Stoney Landers . Fo r some of th em ,
Thursday. Haskovec - who is also an
ice hockey fan - was watching t elevision as th e Toron to Ma p l e Le a fs
pla yed the New Jersey Devils.
" [The Mapl e Leaves] lo se, but th ey
pl ay like th ey' re wi nners anyway ,"
Hask ovec later said. Th is spu rr ed hi m
to call HyperCycle ag ain, but unfortu nately, they had alread y hired anoth er r i der . Undeterred , th e c hee r f u l
Czech said "It' s not over 'til it's over ."
Incredibly , not one m inute after uttering those words , he got a c all from
Attack Suzuk i. Jason Pridmore's broken l eg hadn 't mended qu i ck l y
enough to allow h im to rac e, so his
Josh Hayes (3) sw apped th e lead
continually w ith hi s Attack Suzuki
tea m mat e Vincent Has kove c but came
away w ith th e win.
b i k e w a s availab le , a n d wo u l d
Hask ovec like to race for them?
T he next d ay , Haskovec wa s at the
track , postin g a record-breaki ng ti m e
of
1:19:990 , wh ich was on ly topped
by his Attack Suzuki t eam m ate, Josh
Hay es.
Austral ian Adam Fergusson , th e
rac er hired by HyperCycle to replace
Haskovec , ca me f ro m a succ essful
(Left) Ha skovec pitted fi rst, and he had a 21-second stop. H is teammate Hayes (not
shown) only stopped for 14 seconds. That was the difference.
(Below ) Haskovec hu ng on for second.
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N OVEM BER 12, 2003'
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