Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

enough. In his first time at Road Atlanta and on an Arclight Racing GSX-R600 that was new this we eke nd, he had gotten the jump, the lead, was turning fast laps and had built up over a two-seco nd lead, but there were four beh ind him work ing as a team who finally caught him. "jeff Wood had two/t hree seconds on me," Smith said. "I just ran him down through the infield." It came on the ninth lap wh en Smith and Lee Acree came by, but not before Smith and Bre nt George had a com ing together on the back straight. Acree saw the incident close up. "Mike [Smith] was weaving, trying to break the draft, and he came across and clobbe re d Brent George's brake lever in middle of the back straight ," Acree said. "I saw smoke come off. I'm sure it was the fron t tire of George's bike." Smith didn't remember the incident , but George d id. "Going down the back straight and I had [Smith's] slipstream, and I we nt to go around him, and at the last minute he came a litt le bit wide and my fro nt brake hit his elbow and it locked up, and I nearly went down ," George said. The final lap started with Smith in fron t of a pack of four that included George Acree, Russell Holland and je ff Wood, now back in fifth. "If it was a six-lap race , I'd have it wrapped ," Wood said. Smith was marginally in fro nt of the chasing pack on the final lap , his margin of victory .367 of a second . First to fifth was covered by just I.304 seconds. "It' s the first time I rode this," Smith said of the Cycle City-backed 600 . "This is actua llya customer's bike. We're building it for Bobby Hilliard. He wanted a good bike. Figured we 'd build him one o f the best we could. We wo n two races [Smith also won the WERA Grand Nationa l 600" Superstock Final] w ith it so far. He shou ld be happy w ith it." George hadn't ridden a Suzuki or ran Dunlop tires for ages. Nor had he ever been to Road Atlanta . This was also his first time in the United States . "It' s a fun trac k," the Melbourne res ident said. "The walls are fairly close, but it st ill makes for good competition here. I th ink the local boys here are pretty down to speed straight away. We 're taking a while to get up to it, but hopefully this next race we can come w ay wit h a w in instead of a second place." Lee Acree finished third , the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki Schoo l instructor unimpressed with th e standard of racing late in the race. "It was just a lot of weaving and pushing peop le right to the edge o f the track, forcing passes," he said. "Just more aggressive than you typically even see in the AMA guys. Either that or that aggression level without that skill level." On the second to last lap Acree moved from fourt h to second on the brakes ent er ing turn 10. "Had I wanted to force the issue, I probablycould have take n fi rst, but it wou ld have bee n a little over the top," he said. There was a tra ffic jam in the same place on the final lap. Brent Geo rge too k both Acree and Smith to the outsi de edge of the track in the left-hander at the en d of the back straight. "We wou ld have hit and both probably fallen had I not re lented when I got out to the edge," Acree said. "Either that or my other option was to keep it pinned and go straight through the gravel. So I picked the opt ion that seemed the most feasible at the time, and it resulted in a third place." Polesitter Russe ll Holland was less aggressive than his fellow Australian George. "The racing 's pretty full-on , like e lbow-to-e lbow kind of th ing," Ho lland said. "I got pushe d ou t ea rly in the race . A lot of riders wen t past me because I was n't aggress ive enough." The n he got up to speed about halfdistance but rea lized it was too late and had to settle for fourth . jeff Wood he ld on to fifth. 7 50c c C UP F I NA L Polesitter Tray Batey and Smith were swapping the lead when the race was red- flagged on the fourt h of 10 laps. Wes Good had cras hed , unhurt, but his GSX· R750 was blocking the trac k. A complete restart was gridde d. Smith and Holland got away at the front this time , with Blake Young an early third until Brent George dropped him to fourth on the fourth lap. Then the race was on . George joined the pair on lap six, and on lap seven Smith put his 2002 GSXR7S0 into the lead. "Whe n Mike [Smith] came underneath me, I thought that might have been it, but I could stick with him and managed to break by him at the end of the back straight ," Holland said. Holland, who was riding a GSX-R750 bor rowed fro m Brian Stokes , took the lead back going into turn one on the seventh lap. Smith kept the heat on but was n't able to pass, and Holland, in his first trip to Road Atlanta, had the win. "just made sure the last two laps I got a good run through those last two corners and also kept it tight over the bridge and just didn't give him the opportunity," Holland said. The margin of victory was .096 of a second . Smith tho ught his weight and the we ight of the 2-year-old Suzuki might have made the difference. "I think we had a tire on him," said Smith, who uses Michelin to the Dunlops of Ho lland. "It was just my bike wouldn't pull once it stood up. I be lieve it was a litt le bit of my weight and the bike's. We hammered on in there, and I tried to make a move . I probably could 've won the race if I would 've not passed him unde r the bridge like I did. But I wasn't real sure I co uld do that move. He came charging hard down into one. He was going in th ere re al good . He just was bette r, a real good rider." George lamented having to wo rk through tra ffic . On ce wit h the leaders, he didn't have the speed to make a pass. "If I didn't have the ir tow, there's no way I co uld have bee n there," he said. "If I was in fro nt of them, they would have just passed me down the straight anyway." His GSX-R750 was brand new and near ly stock, fi rst ridde n o n Tuesday during GNF practice. Young finished fourt h on the track but was disqualified when it was discovered that his GSX-R750 had a 600cc swingarm. "I'm the new kid o n the block and just try ing to take some notes from these vetera ns out here schooling me ," Young said. "I learned a lot to day, and every time I get o n the track I learn a lot." Jeff Woo d put t he Arclight Racing Suzuki in fifth but was elevate d to th ird by Y oung's DQ . The ride was Wood's first on a 750" in his first visit to Road Atlanta. "I th ink with a few laps here and a few more laps on that bike we could run up front," Wood said. "It was just neck and neck the whole race . The re was no bigdifference. That's why we finished so close." 10 0 0cc C U P F I N A L So close was the Suzuki Cu p racing that Geoff May's win in the 1000cc Suzuki Cup Final was the closest th ing to a runaway, and his margin of victory was only 2.080 seco nds. Starting from the pole position, the Georgian never saw anything but clear track during the 10-lap race. He pulled away qukkly, taking 1.7 seco nds from the field by lap two and over three by lap four. Then he waited for an attack that never came. "I looked back once or twice out of seven," he said. "I ke pt getting pit signals from my crew and they were showing that I still had a big gap. I knew I had it in the bag. So I just kind of put it on cruise control , and if Mike [Smith] actually ran me down, the n I wou ld have been able to battle with him and take off again." Smith closed the gap in the final laps but didn't believe he could have won . It too k him until the halfway mark to take second, and by then May was comfortably out front. "I ran some guys down the other day I didn't think I had a chance of running down," Smith said. "So I just stayed on him, doing what I could do and try not to make any mistakes. And he just had enough ." George had run an early second before Smith made the pass. His th ird place was never in jeopardy, despite feeling fatigued at the e nd. "I think I wore myself out in the other two races," George said, adding that he felt tired three or four laps in. "I tried so hard and I was so far back that I just didn't have the energy in that one. A I000 is a lot harde r to ride than the smaller bike. I was kind of hopingthat the I000 race wou ld be first." Arclight Racing's Scott Greenwood had dropped out of the earlier 7S0cc Cup race with a stuck thermostat. Th is time he finished fourth , one second in front of Russell Holland. www.cyclenews.com Geoff May w as un stoppable in 1000cc Cup action, the Georgian winning the race by over two seconds, ''At the end, I was pretty much by myself," the New Englander said . "I kept pushing, hoping that Smith and Brent George would get racing each other and allow me to catch back up. But it looked like things sorted things o ut." Holland had to come through traffic, while fending off an attack fro m behind on a mot orcycle that was skittish. "It was hard to get up to the front guys while I was trying to kee p away the people behind ," he said. "I don't think I quite have my setup right. It started sliding arou nd a lot in that race . I had to just take it easy because of that ." eN ROAD ATLANTA BRASELTON, G EORGIA RESU L TS: O CTOBER 17, 200 4 600 CUP FIN AL: I. Mike Smit h; 2. Brent Geo rge ; 3. l ee Acree; "'. Russe ll Holland; 5. Jeff Wood; 6. Geoff May; 7. Nicky Moore ; 8 . David Weber, 9. Blake Young; 10. Mark Junge; I I . Man Futtek; 12. John Jacobi; 13. Ryan Elleby; I" . Tristan Schoenewald; 15. Keit h Marshall; 16 . Sco tt Jackso n: 17. Telly Steimel : 18. Michael Garafalo : 19. M ichael N iksa: 20. C had Lewin; 2 1. Wes Good ; 22. Marcus McBain; 23 . Ben Tho mpson . Time: 13 min., 17.943 sec. Dista nce : 10 laps. 22.5 miles Ave ra ge sp eed: 112.790 mp h Margin of victo ry: 0.367 sec. 750 C U P FINAL: I. Russell Holland; 2. Mike Smith; 3. Brent George; "I. Jeff Wood; 5. Tray Batey: 6. John Jacobi; 7. Reuben Frankenfield : 8. Michael Niksa; 9. Cale Swiger: 10. Ben Thom pson; II. Shawn Con rad; 12. Shannon Ball; 13. Michael Garafalo : I "I. Cor ey Eaton : 15. Mike de Brabant; 16. Shannon Huffman: 17. Joe Ribeiro ; 18. Chad Dupree: 19. Carlo Garavaglia; 20. Tom Bibea u; 2 1. Scott Greenwood . Tim e: 13 min., 6.872 sec . Dista n ce : 10 laps, 22.5 miles Ave ra ge sp eed: I I"U77 mph Ma rg in of victory: 0 .096 sec . 1000 C U P FINAL: I. Geoff May; 2. Mike Smith; J . Bren t Georg e; "I. Scott Greenw ood ; S. Russell Holland: 6. David Weber. 7. Byron Barbo ur; B. J.J. Roetlin; 9. Blake ynn: Young; 10. Mitchell Pierce; I I. John Jacobi; 12. Matt L 13. Reuben Fran kenfield: 14. Ryan Elleby: 15. Matt Elliott: 16. Tell Steime l; 17. Marlt. Nude lman: 18. Billy Eth ridge: y 19. Jason Swan: 20. Tom Bibeau: 2 1. Jeremy Gordon. Time: 13 rrun., 3.8 13 sec. Dista nce : 10 laps. 22.5 miles Average s peed : I 14.823 mph Margin of victory: 2.080 sec . CYCLE NEWS • OaOBER 27, 200 4 29

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