Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

F ormula USA Buell LightningS eries Round 2: W illow S prings Raceway B y P AU L C A RRU T HERS PH O T O BY B RIA N NE LSON F o r Sh a w n H ig b ee , runn i ng aw a y an d h iding fr om t h e Buell light- n in g S eri e s fiel d at D a y t ona lntema ti o nal Speedwa y w as sudden ly a fad , i ng m em o r y . W illow S pr i ng s, i t s ee ms , was c o mp let ely d iff e r en t. a t D a yt o n a , Hi gb e e s i mply r a n off er. Roeder' s ma d e 95.4 h ors epo w er "I w a s a li ttl e intimid at ed [ b y and hid , ulti m at ely winning b y al m o st an d h e was disqua lified , giv ing third p lace in stea d to J e ff J o h n son. Shawn H igbee' s qual if yi n g t ime]. but I wen t back o u t thi s m o rn ing a n d went 23 sec o n d s o ver M ike C ic c o tto . T h a t wa s then, thi s is now. A t W illow Sprin g s, Cicc o tt o w a s up t o the task o f k eeping H ig b ee in si g ht. In fa ct, h e even led H igbee . An d Cic - It was Higbee ge tting th e j u m p on fas te r t ha n what h e 'd gon e y es te r - th e relatively small field at t h e start , but C i c c o t t o wasn 't backing d own . da y : C icc ott o sa id . "I k n e w w e w ere going to b e th e re . Shawn ri des hard H ig bee led lap o ne , but Cicc otto led from th e start, but I w a s able to get cot t o e n ded up ch as in g h im ri ght to lap two . Th e n Higb e e was b ac k in .3 o f a sec- front and he h e ld it to th e fin ish - but n ot w it ho ut se rious heat t he ent ire around h im a cou ple o f t imes. O n ce I k n ew th at h e w anted to be out front, I the fl ag , losing out b y just ond . Th ird p lac e o n t h e rac et rac k went wen t ahead and le t hi m b e o u t th ere . ti me fro m the Flo ri d ia n . " It w as a l o t different t h an D a y - I put m y h e ad d o wn a n d s t a r te d t o H e sta rted gappi n g m e a little b it, but Suddenly , H ig bee h ad a ra ce o n h is t o J ess Ro ede r , but the Oh io an didn't f are a s w e ll o n t he p o st - r a c e d y no to na , " Hi gb e e s aid . " I d id n ' t reall y reel h im b ac k in . I tri ed t o g et close h ands. c h eck . F -U S A rul es d i ctate t h a t t h e k now w hat t o ex pec t h ere. M ike [C ic - 95 h orsep o w - cotto ] rides good so I fig u re d he' d be in there t o so m e degree , but h e was enoug h t o m a k e a dri v e o u t o f n in e , eN b ut i t w as n 't h a ppen ing ." In t h e o p eni n g round of th e series Buells ca n't m ak e o v er riding ex c ep t ion ally w ell this w eekend a nd it w as a fun race. It w as fu n - it m ad e m e really ride. It wa s a lot m o re exciti ng t han D a y t o n a . I h adn 't r idden side-by-side in a w hi le. It w a s inter esti ng an d it wa s fu n actua lly passing so meo ne - I hadn 't d o n e that in awhile . T h e d ic e back a n d forth was fun for a w h ile, but I wanted to see if I co u l d ta k e c ha rge . He didn 't com e b ack by m e, so ... " C ic c otto ha d b een o ut- q ua li fied by a wide m arg in , b u t b y ra c e ti me he was ready to compete . The Buell L ightning race gets under way with Sh aw n Higbee (19 ) and M ike Ciccotto (1) ready t o do battle. Higbee won, b ut only just. BRIEFL Y• • • The Valvoline EMGO Suzuki team wasn't on hand in an official capacity for the Willow Springs round, though G rant Lo p e z took the opportu nity to take part in the race after hauling his bike ou t to C aliforn ia him self . " O ur te am' s co ntrac tual ob liqa- ti o ns are for the AM A Serie s. " tea m own er J ohn Ul ric h e xplained. " Yo u can' t ju st add ano the r seve n races in t here. Grant won $ 10.000 at Dayt ona, so he bought a trailer and came out there. He's got a friend of Chuck Graves helping him with the bike. It' s really just a logi stical problem as far as the team not being here. " Lopez finished second and first in the two legs of the opening round of the series at Dayt ona. with his teammate J ohn Hop kins wi nning the first leg and fry ing his clutch in the second leg. Acree rode his Pirelli,shod. F,USA ,spec 1999 S uzu k i GSX, R750 in the two Superbike races. He has a 2000-model GSX-R. but he's saving that for the AMA 750cc Supersport Series. "We have 2000s and we're going to run those in Supersport trim," Acree said. "This series allows you to do some work to them and right now there's not a lot of stuff for the 2000s. We're going to stick with the '99 for this series and run the 2000 in Supersport trim. I have to admit. the 2000s look pretty good. To be able to run With the 1000s and bikes like mine in Supersport trim. they're making some great power." Roger L e e H ayde n didn't have much luck in the Unlimited Superbike race. The Chaparral Suzuki rider blistered a front tire in Will ow Springs marked the professio nal racing debut for the 2000,model Suzuki GSX,R750s . The new GSX-Rs are about roughly 10 pound s too. light (dry) for the 380-pound minimum weight limit for the Unlimited Superbike class, so teams using the bikes wer e required to add weight - six pounds of lead in the case of the Chaparral Suzukis of Damon Buckmaster and Roger Lee Hayden. Competition Accessories Ducatl's Larry Pegram only recorded a few laps in the final qualifying session for the Unlimited Super. bike class. but he still ended up eighth on the grid. "I had a broken motor mount right away: Pegram said. ' I came in and they fixed that, then I went out and the battery went bad. I did a 24 (t";24) lap, but I was doing 23s in the session right before that. I ended up eighth. but what are you going to do?" In the Superbike race, Pegram encountered overheating prob lems and finished seventh and sixth. Although he had the most success ful day of anyone at Willow Springs. Lee Acree is definitely not a local. The North Carolinan in fact has very little time on the ultra-fast Willow layout. ' I was kinda worried coming out there because I'd only ridden in the 24-Hour in the dark: Acree said. ' I knew these guys had some time here and I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to do. I rode five stint s in the dark here last year, so I guess the dark helped me more than I thought it did.' Willow Spri ngs Raceway Rosamond, Cali fornia Resuhs:ApriI3D,ZDDD BUELL UGHTNING: t . Shawn Higbee ; 2. Mich ael Cic cotto ; 3 . J eff ery Jo hnson; 4 . Rich ie Morris; 5. Jason Smith; 6 . Brian Bodine: 7 . Chad Healy; 8 . Mark Re ynolds ; 9 . Bria n Fra nk ; 10. Chris Dece lles ; 11. Scott Korol ; J 2 . Clark Dodson; t 3 . J u st in McReynolds. Time : 13 mi n.• 8 sec. Distan ce : 10 lap s , 25 m iles. Ma rgin of victory: 0 .392 sec. Faste st lap : Michael Cicc otto . I:26 .69 5 . lap 3 B UELL LIGHTNIN G C'S HIP PO INT STANDINGS (A ft er 2 of 6 rounds) : I. Shawn Higb ee (50/2); 2. Mic hael Cicco tto (40): 3. Chad Healy (25) : 4 . Ric hie Morris (24) ; 5 . Brian Bod ine (23 ); 6 . Jeff J ohn son ( 19 ); 7. Mack Reynold s ( 18); 8. Jason Smith ( 17) ; 9 . Brian F rank ( 16) ; 10 . Michael Fr iberg ( 8) ; 11 . Gregory Avell o (7) ; 12. Chris Decelles (6) ; 13. (TIE) Scott Korol /Russ McCalli ster (5): 15. (T IE) Clark Dodson /Joseph Benna rdi (4). Upcoming Rounds: Round 3 - Elkhart Lake. Wisconsin , May 21 Round 4 - Portland, Oregon, August 6 ing. I did my one safe lap, and on the second lap I crashed in tum three: Gross said. ' I think the bike landed on my hand. Painkillers do wonderful things. lt's an ugly bike now, and I apologize to the fans. but it was ugly," The crash left Gross 23rd on the grid for the first race, But he didn't stay that far back for long. "I had a terrible grid position. I just wanted to hang out and pick people off one-byone and hopefully get up to 15th or something. I picked off as many as I could and my girlfriend told me I was 10th. I was riding pretty conservatively in the first leg. so it was in my head right then that. 'Hey. let's put the hammer down and try to hang with the top five guys.' And we did. I saw the top five and hung with 'em. I had everybody 's number in tum two. and I had to trail my brakes in there because everybody was entering real slow. I could get 10 bikelengths just entering that corner, but everyw here else they pretty much had me. In tum two. I was flying.' Gross won the race but was disqu alified when his Yamaha proved to have too much horsepower for the 145-horsepower class. Doug Pol e n returned to action at WiI· low Springs, working his way up to 10th place before destroying his rear tire and pitt ing in the second race. Polen's Ducatt was basically stock, and he missed all of practice gett ing things put together. He finally got in a few laps on Saturday. "We've been going back and forth with parts and stuff.' Polen said. ' I didn't get on the track until basically qualifying. It went - that was about it. The gearing isn't where I'd like it to be . but there's nothing I can do about it now . I need some mo re ho rsepower. but it' s fun . I can' t wa it to the first raceand had to start race two from the second wave. He ended up 15th. And that wasn't the worst of his troubles. During Saturday's qualifying run. Hayden had a brake pad go bad on him in - of all places - turn eight. ' Going through tum eight, something broke off my brake pad and it locked up the front wheel." Hayden said. "That wasn't good. It was a bad deal.' Willow Springs local Bryce Gross also crashed during qualifying on Saturday, injuring a finger in the process. ' Yesterday in qualify- get it all going so I can ride and test . I want to get back into the groove again.' Polen' s last ride came at the Pocono round of Formula USA last year. The top three finishers in the Unlimited Superbike class all used different brands of DOT tires. Acree used Pirelli. Lopez used Miche lin and Haskovec used Dunlop . Ditto for the Sportbike final , wi th D am o n Buckma ster w inn ing th e ra ce o n D unlo p s . Acree fini shing secon d on Pirelli s and Brian Parriott taking third with his Michelins. cue I ... nevus M AY 1 0, 2000 31

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