Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

G e n e R o m e r o' s e-m o o la .c o m West Coa s t Fl a t T r a ck S erie s Round 4 : P e r r is A u t o S p e edway (Top) Rick Hocking cruised to the Open Vintage win after the rest of the front row Jumped the start. (Above) Scott Rousseau (3) got t he holeshot, but Ron Hinton (2 ) took the win in the 250cc Novice Modified Production class. Brad Bannister (85) was third. STO RY BY S COTT R OU SSEAU P HOT O S BY D OUG A LL EN PERRIS, CA, J(]NE 17 n ta king the win at round four of Gene Romero's e -moola. com West Coast Flat Track Series , on a super -fast halfmile clay gr oove , Northern Ca liforni a rider Mark Corsetti effectively restated a most valuable of racing adages: It a in't over till it's over . After passing reigning se ries champion Ronnie Brown at the ha lfway point, Cors etti held a commanding lead , only to see his hopes for a flawless run to the ch e ck ers in the Open Pro A m ain dashed whe n another rider cra shed. To I Mark Corsetti (shown) drove past Ronnie Brown just before the finish line to score the Open Pro win during the emoola.com West Coast Flat Track Series event at Perris Auto Speedway. mak e matters worse, Corsetti bobbled off turn four on the op en ing lap of the restart , allowing Brown to sneak und er nea th h im and retak e th e lead. But Corsetti never ga ve up, and with a brilliant dr ive off the last turn , edged his Frank Corsett i/Ron Wood /Shoei WoodRota x past Brown to take the win by a whee l. The mov e pulled the 3000-strong crowd to their feet, and put a smil e on the face of Romero himself, as it was just on e more highlight in a 2000 series that @I§)@@@ [J[J@ l!7a@ [5J@ arm@ !P[Jt§)(i][!f]@a@[fD @ @ @ fJDD[fD71@[fD fJfB fJD@fili@fB71 Scott Rousseau nailed the start in the 250cc Novice Modified Production class main to once again lead the field on the Perris half mile. The speed of the open bikes may not have been there, but the competition certainly was. o Rousseau was quickly joined by Ron Hinton, with Hint n taking the lead on the front straight, while road racer Brad Bannister improved on his heat race low-side to pull into a solid third on his bent YZ250. While the top three were sorted out, in a Yamaha swee p, fourth was still up for grabs between Frankie Eubanks and Bill Kiriakidis. Eubanks held the spot, with Kiriakidis gaining in the middle of the corner, but his Honda seemed a bit down on power, leaving Kiri akidis in fifth. With four races and four different winners just as in the Open and Vintage classes, the race for the championship is far from over. Once again, several bikes entered the Novice class with the bare minimum of modifications, looking more like they should be joining the freestyle motocrossers for the infield program. This included changing the rear tire, adding rubber covers to the footpegs and disabling the front brake. The jumpers , however, thought the dirt trackers were the crazy ones! Fred Windum 30 JULv12,2000' c ue I e n evv s has featured simila r competition at each sto p on a tour that has yet to produce a repeat winner in any of its three divis io ns . Cor s etti, not surp risi ng ly , was overjoyed after ea rning the win in such dramatic fash ion. "I thought I ha d it in the bag already [be fo re th e re d flag], bu t the ra c e is never over until it's over. I tried to ge t a good restart , but I got passed by Ronnie. I made that last run to the line , and that Ron Wood b ike was wo rk ing for m e ton ight. Ron mad e the bike for me spe cia l, and I'm just so happy with it. This tickles me to death." Tic kled to death re placed scared to death whe n Co rse tti's ha rd -compound tire cooled off during the red flag , forcing him to s lip wide off four a nd let Brown by. " I k now Ronni e Brown is a re all y good racer," Corsetti sa id. "Once he gets out front, not too many peopl e can ge t ba ck by him . I'll tell you what, I wa s happy to be the one to do it because this is just as good as winning a Nation al to me ." Brown was in co ntrol aboard his PIC Racing/B rown 's Cycles/Rod Lake Rotax du ring th e first seven la ps, but when Corsetti pas sed him on the front straightaway as the two took starter Sc ott Zimm erman 's halfway flags , it look ed a s though Brown wou ld ha ve no answer. Then came the restart, Brown's pass for the lead and the wild dash to the finish which saw the champ come up inch es sho rt. "We had the tire to do it there at the end, because his CD8 was cooled down from that restart," Brown sa id . '" didn't realize it till we took off, but I was all over him. I just got a little too excited on the last lap and coo ked the tire myself. He had a real fast bike down the straightawa ys , and he just got a good run on me . I haven 't sa id anything abo ut it, but si nc e I started rid ing Gene 's series , I haven 't gotte n any worse than second . I'm glad to do that aga in tonight. Loved the crowd, loved everything ton ight." The Perris cro wd was no doubt fortified by the fact that the event promoter had e lected to add a freestyle motocross jump co nte st to the program, runn ing it in co njunction with the flat tra ck races, but it was Wood Racin g ride r pro tem pore Don Hart who got in so me flying in the Open Pro A ma in event. The Salinas, Californ ia , rider came from down in the field on one of Ron Wood's house bikes to fly thro ugh traffic and finish a fantastic third. "Ron Wood has probabl y got one of the fastest bikes around, and I'm rea lly gl ad th a t h e let m e rid e it t on igh t bec au se it did me a lot of good, " Hart sa id. '" got the tire heated up enough to whe re I co uld pic k up the pace a little bit. I sta rted seeing those guys [up front] gett ing clos er and closer. I ca ught so me of th em . It was a good thing for th at restart." The Op en Vintage A ma in was rathe r anti-climactic, as practi cally the entire front row jumped the start , leaving Rick Hocking and his Dodg e Brothers HarleyDavids on XR750 a ll alone on the front row. Hocking then sim ply did what one might ex pect of a form e r AMA Grand Nat ional regular , pulling cleanly off the line and leading all 15 la ps for a rath er easy win. "We're still livin' the good old da ys ," Hocking said . "If they got cows here , I s how. So meon e sho uld ha ve given me a litt le bit of not ice that I was a little bit ahead , because I thought everyo ne was right on my ass. It was hoo king up good, a nd it was just a case of the slowe r I go the faster I go." Hock ing was followed to the line by a pa ir of Triumphs, the first belonging to defend ing class c ha m p J eff J oh nson, who handicaped himself twice before the main event go t sta rted. First, Johnso n rolled to the line a board his stock 650 Triumph afte r his number -on e ma chine ha d valvetrain prob lems du ring pra ctice. Then to m ak e matters worse , Johnso n was one of the front row offenders , and was forced to sta rt on the penalty line. A

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