Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128348
Championship Cup Series
Steve Rapp (5) beat Jeff
Wood (9) and Scott
Harwell (2) to win the Expert
Heavyweight Supersport class.
:-_ -=_ • •
parts on bot h the Y
amaha and the Suzuki.
Johnson came back four races later to
take the Amateur Middleweight Superbike
race, Parrish crashing out of the top three
on the third lap.
Parrish came seco nd in the Amateu r
Heavyweight Superbike race but was
awarded the win after Expert Fernando
Amantini was disqualified for racing as an
Amateur.
The Amateur Middleweight Grand Prix
win we nt to Parrish with nearly nine seconds o n Bre nt li lly. Parr ish's final win was
in Sund ay's Amate ur Speed screen
Unlimited GP, the Suzuki GSX-R750 putting him six seconds in front of the Honda
CBR600RR
-mounted lilly.
His success mea nt that Parrish would
move up to Expert stat us in 2005.
"I don't have any choice, I guess," he
said. The plans are to run WERAand a few
Champio nship Cup Series races. "Iwant to
try to race a couple of AMAraces, just for
the experience. I know I'll be way back in
the pack, but I know I'm fast e nough to run
with the guys."
Floridian Steve l eckie rode his Suzuki
650 to a trio of Amate ur wins over the first
two days before his weekend came to a
crashing thud in turn five. l eckie was going
for fourth win when he came toge ther
with another rider four laps into Saturday's
Amateur lig htweight Grand Prix race.
"I do n't know if I hit the Ducati in front
of me or if the second place guy came up
and hit me and pushed me into him and
came aro und in front of me," leckie said,
his arm in an improvised sling. "T he bike
was going to stay up and I was going to
head into the gravel traps. Then his body
got in front of me and I ran him over. As
soon as I hit him the whee l we nt up and
the n the handlebars hit the ground and my
shoulde r just slammed the ground. They
say it's not a collarbone, but it's reallysore.
I'd hate to see what a collarbone feels like
if this is really sore ."
Even the day-e nding injury cou ldn't
diminish his happiness.
"This is the most pe rfect race weekend
I've ever had, and not because I won, " said
the Floridian, who considers Homes tead
his home track. "Everything I wa nted it to
do , it did. You can't ask for mo re than
that."
l eckie's first win came over Ross Ryals
in Friday's 30-minute Amateu r GT lights .
A red flag on the second lap, and the subseq uent clean-up, meant the race was
shortened to o nly eight laps.
The next was in Saturday's Amateu r
li ghtw eight Supersport , where he again
beat Ryals. The Amate urs we re started in
a second wave behind the Expe rts, and
l eckie finished ninth overall.
Ryals again came up short in the
Amate ur lightweight Supe rbike race ,
l eckie's final win. But Ryals too k a pair of
wins o n his Suzuki SV-6S0, w inning
Amateur Thunde rbike. He was awarded
the Amateu r SupertWins title after racewinner Fernando Amantiniwas disqualified
for being an Expert .
The re were a number of oth er multiple
w inners. Arclight Suzuki's Jeff Wood wo n
the GTU Expert and Expert Middleweight
Supersp ort races while gaining valuable
track knowledge for the For mula USA
finals. Wood was one of the few nonlocals
with any track knowledge at all, having
ta ught the Pe nguin Racing Schoo l at
Hom estead.
"We were trying hard," Wood said.
'There's good purse money in the races
and Suzuki pays money, so I'm trying to
pay the bills from the fi rst half of the season when I had my own stuff I was riding,
and trying to get the bikes set up the best
we can for the 18 lappers to morrow."
Wood fini shed seco nd to Valvoline
EMGO Suzuki's Steve Rapp in Saturday's
Expert Heavyweight Supe rsport race.
"That was on the 750 and I've only ridden the 750 once before, and we didn't
pract ice it this weekend," Wood said.
"Basically I jumpe d on it this morning, did
one practice session, then did the race .
We're pretty happy. Steve Rapp's one of
the front -running AMA guys and he practiced all wee kend, so we we re happy."
"Iwas on row nine, the back row, and it
was an eight-lap race," Rapp said. "Y
ou
don't have a lot of time and the guys are
fast. I rode pretty hard to pass them and I
think I passed them on the seco nd to last
lap or something like that."
Rapp also wo n Friday's Expert
Unlimited Supersport sprint by 2.436 seconds over Prieto Racing's Geoff May.
HOMESTEAD -MIAMI SPIIDWAY
HOMESTEAD , FLORI DA
RE SULTS: O CTOBER 22·24
EX PERT GT U GlfTS, I. Ed Key (5uz ); 2. Stephen
Servis(So2); 3. Christopher Boy (Bim): 4 . Darren Danilowicz
($v,); S. Robert FOheo ($v, ).
AMATEUR GT LIGH T S: I. Steve Leckie (502); 2. Ross
Ryals (So2); 3. Bruce Akioka (Suz); 4. Dave Ellis Maney (Due);
S. Dirk Hanleo ($v,) .
AMA TEUR GT O , I. Carl Cohen (Suz); 2. Clay Ad"",
(Hon ); 3. Jenny Moooe (Yam 4. jose Mo rea u (Suz); S. Gene
);
Paul G ilch rist (So2).
EX PERT GT O : I . Scott Harwell (Suz ); 2. Robe rt Jensen
(Suz); 3. Marco Mart inez (So2); 4. Jim Pthok ken (Suz); 5.
Michael Niksa (So2).
A CROPOVIC GTU AMATEUR: I. Ryan Johnson
(Hon); 2. B,.. ndon Pan;,h (y",,); 3. Jonny Moo,. (y",,); 4.
Bren t Ulty (Hon ): 5. ZoItan Boros (Hon) .
AC RO POVIC GTO AMATE U R' I. Jeff Wood (Suz); 2.
Mike Him me lsbach (Yam); 3. Marco Mart ine z (Hon); -t. Greg
Me lka (Yam); S. Darre n Luck (SUl).
125 G P: I. Steve Wenner (Hon); 2. Scott Coccoli (Hon );
3. Tom Swage r (Hon) ; 4. Dale G reenw ood (Hon) ; S.
Federico Cortes (Yam).
EX P ERT ULTRA LIGHT SUPERBIKE: I. Md>ael
Dube (Due) ; 2. Antonio Caparros (Hon) ; 3. Kevin Weir (MZ); 4. Jason Roughier (Hon ); S. Daniellenarduzzi (Apr) .
A MAT EU R ULTRA LIGHT SUPWERBIKE, I. J""'"
Hillis