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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128625
AMA/Ch e vy Tru c k s U .S. S upe r b ik e C h a m p io n s h ip R o u n d 10: B r a in e rd In t e r n a t io n al Racewa y ner s faster than I d id. He didn 't get quite as good driv es out of them , bu t he ro lled th r ou gh them reall y good and so he ' d pull me going into all those corners and I'd have to try to make it up on the dr ive." It was o n the penultimate lap that Renfrow gained some breath ing room o n Sorense n for a secure second , his best fi nis h of th e yea r. Sorensen con t in ued h is st ring of fin ishi ng o n the podi um at eve ry race w ith his third . " It w as quite a fight ," Sorensen said . "Randy came by on maybe the second or th ird la p and I tr ied to do some p a s s i n g in the infi e ld and maybe cut th e passes there. I fi gured if I ca n k eep h im beh in d m e goi ng onto th e front, I c an try to st ay with him going down the front t o kee p cont act with him as soon as we g et ba ck to turn three. So that's what I " If Chuck win s th is cham pionship, he abso lutely deserves to wi n it bec au se of h is team and his co nsiste nt rid in g and I can 't tak e anythi ng away fro m the World Sports team . T hey ' ve done wha t 1 couldn't do this year, which is be cons istent. I'm going to try m y best to ke ep w inning and I can't real ly do anything about an ything el se othe r than that - th at ' s ki nd of my pla n." Renfrow and So re n sen we re the so le combatants fo r second place , the pair going back and forth until Renfrow settled in on the seventh of 13 la ps . His advantage was on the stra ightaway s. " I thin k tha t b a si c all y t he front straight, turn on e and tw o , some of t h e fast er st u ff," Renfrow said . " C h uc k 's advantag e w a s th a t h e roll ed thr ough some of the infi eld co r- was trying t o do early on ." Th e pair dropped the fourth -place r id er , Sore n se n 's t eammat e C hris Ulrich , in the early go ing, and he was alone i n fourth , as was GP T ec h 's Michael Barnes in fifth , though he' d been chall eng ing early on. World Sports Imports' thir d rider, Perry Melneciuc , third in th e champi o nship , h e ld off M in ne so ta n B r y an Oku bo , a nd h i s Da les Per f o rm ance Yama ha , fo r sixth . Th en came a racing quartet led by Ed Sorbo with GP Tech 's Derek King, Fabweld 's Greg Esser, and Stephens Motorsports' Eric Ste phens crossing the str ipe in q uick succession. CN Brai nerd Inte mational Racewa y Brainerd, Minnesota Results: July 3D, 2000 [Round 1 of 91 MBNA 250 GRAND PRIX: 1. Rich Oliver (Yam) ; 2 . Ran dy Renfrow (Hon) ; 3 . Charles Sorensen (Ya m); 4. Chris Ulric h (Yam) ; 5. Michael Barnes (Yam) ; 6. Pe rry Meln ec iuc (Ya m) ; 7 . Brya n Okubo (Ya m ) ; 8 . AMAleSportbike.com Formula Xtreme Round 6: Brainerd International Raceway _ _ __ EMGO Suzuk i 's Grant Lo pez d id all the y co uld to ta k e it aw ay fr om him. Th e p rocess was ca p tivatin g , th ree rid ers on th e edge of traction as th eir ti res expi r ed , a ll hav i ng m a j or moments in the fin al sta ges - non e wi ll ing t o co nce de an inch . Roberts led the last two lap s, th en Lopez m ade a fin al pu sh in the last c orner , b ri efl y lo c k ing up his front w h eel b efore reali zing t h at second was the best he'd do on this day. T he d iff erence at th e na g was .2 72 of a second . Hay es was th e tough -lu ck story of th e ra ce. Going into turn one on th e fi nal lap his Erion Rac ing Honda inexp l icably qu it. Th e t eam i n i t i a ll y thought it wa s a mechan ic al problem and thoroughly check ed it out in th e pits. Someone th ought to tr y starting B v H EN NV R A V A BRA M S P HOT O B V B RIA N J. N ELSO N BRAlNERD,lI\N, JULY 29 his was racing at its best. Ku rtis Roberts owns th e eSp orth ike.com Formu la Xtr eme class , win ning this year with impunity , a perfect ' season through the fir st fi ve rac es. In qu al ify in g, Rob erts shattered th e t wo- y e ar - o ld Fo rm ula Xtrem e l a p record by ove r 1.5 seconds , his best a 1:3 7.328, about half a second better than teammate J osh Hayes and a second on thi rd fastest Mark Miller of Attack Performance. It l o o k ed lik e another Roberts romp , until the start. The Eri on Racing Honda rid er blew the st a r t and that meant he had t o race to the front, then race hard t o keep it while Hayes and Valvoline 12 AUGUST 9, 2000 • cu e I Formula Xnme gets u nderway with John Hopkins (21) his teammate Grant Lopez (5) and a chasing pack ' that includes eventual race winner Kurtis Roberts (1). ~~~ Iead i:ng e n e _ so it and it fired right up and ran fine. The te am coul d not ex p lain wh y the bike quit. H a ye s goi ng o ut m eant t ha t Lop e z's tea m m a te J ohn Hopk ins inherited thi rd. And because Hayes ended up 17th, Roberts stretched his points lead to 55 po ints , now over Bru ce Transportati on Group 's Jake Zemke, wh o was fourth today . Wh ic h mean s t ha t Rob e rt s needs to fini sh 14th or better at Pik e's Pea k Intern atio n al Ra cew ay in two week s to retain his ti tle. Roberts 's win was record setting , his time better than a second a lap faster than last ye ar's ra ce. He co m pl eted the 13 -la p , 39 -mile ra ce in 21 minutes, 26.810 seconds at an averag e speed of 109.107 mph. It didn 't look lik e he 'd be there Edward Sorbo (Yam ); 9. Derek King (Hon) ; 10. Greg Esser ( Hon ); 11. Eri c Steph en s ( He n); 12. T yl er Wad swort h (Yam ) : 13 . Ja m es Bonner ( Yam) : 14. Geoffrey Malon ey (Yam ); 15. Mark Dargi s (Yam ): 16. J ohn Mensch (Yam); 17. Ja mes Worthi ngton (A pr); 18. Bruce Un d (Yam) ; 19. Glen Christi anson (Yam ); 20 . And rew Edwards (Yam ): 21 . Jocel in (Yam) ; 22. Hal Keegan ( Hon) ; 23 . J ohn Burgoyne (Han ): 24 . John France (Hon); 25. Mark Vanderwerf ( Yam) ; 26. J eff Japs (Vam ). Time : 22 m in.• 9 .94 0 sec. Distance: 13 laps. 39 miles . Average speed: 105 .569 m ph. Margin of victory: 24.260 sec. MBNA 2 5 0 GRAND PR I X C ' SH I P POINT STANDINGS ( A ft er 7 o f 9 r ound s) : I . Charles Sorensen (2 12) ; 2. Rich Oliver ( 197/5 wins): 3. Perry Melneci uc ( 171); 4. (TIE) Michael Himmelsbach/ Chr is Ulrich ( 132): 6 . Michael Barnes ( 130) : 7. Derek King ( 122) : 8. (TIE) Greg Esser/Edwerd Sorbo ( 118): 10. Quenni King ( I I I) : 11. Roland Sands (96 ): 12. Eric Stephens (90) ; 13. William Him m elsbach (87) ; 14 . (TIE ) Jo hn France/Ran dy Renfro w (86 ); 16. Ja mes Bonner (7 4) : 17. Geoffrey Ma lo ney (7 1):. 18. (TIE) Thom as Dinard o{fyl er Wads wo rth (66); 20 . Jimmy Filice (6 3/1 ): Upcoming Rounds: Round 8 - Fountain, Colorado, August 13 Round 9 - Rosamond, California, October 1 judging from his start. Rob erts adjusted his starting procedure because the sta rt li ne is on a rubber-coated drag strip . He tried a co uple thousand rpm l ess than usual " an d the t h ing j us t died, and I kept it running and I wa s back there in 10th it seemed li k e, and I had to get all those gu ys in turn one , two, and three and it to ok me a cou pl e of laps to get by a coup l e of them, and g ot up to John [Hopkins] and got him and j u st started afte r these gu ys. " Rob erts was on th e bo il , setting the fast lap of th e ra c e o n the th ird, then bac king it up w ith another sc o rc her on the fo urth. At tha t point there were f o ur a t t he fro n t - H a y es l ead in g Lopez , Hopk in s , and Ro berts, with Hop kins showing signs tha t he was n't goi ng to be o n the race pace. " I wish I would've been up in the battle, bu t I had a bit of ti re trouble there probably about th e second or third lap [and he would end up alone in fourth for much of t he rac e]: he said. "Pretty b ori ng race a ct u a ll y . Just went out and t hey were getting me little by little each la p and I k ept see ing about sev en or eight seconds on my board. " On th e fifth lap Rob erts was up to se cond , th en in t o the l e ad on t h e sixth, but on ly nom ina ll y . And he was ha v ing probl ems wi t h h is gearbox and his rear tire, possibly as a result of a bad c h o i c e . Th e t eam had n 't been able to enduranc e test the Dun lop 50 1 whi c h all of th e Supe rb ik e r i de r s were us in g: goi n g w i t h the harder 747 w hich they'd put 10 la ps on in practi ce. "I was worried wh en I started rac ing wi th th em and I st arted mi ssing shifts about th e third la p o n , then I was really wo rried ," Roberts sa id . " So rt of like Atlanta , I didn 't know if the thing wou ld make it." He , Hayes, and Lopez were run n ing as one, the pa ir swapp ing throughout, with alwa ys at least one