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/128626
PACE/Formula USA/Wrenche ad .com N a tion al R o a d R ace S eries R o und 4 : P o rtla n d In t e r n a t ional R a c e w a y Lockhart-Phillips U Unlimited Superbike SA ed b y two re d flags and ext e n d e d track clea n -up time . For finishing second in both leg s Lop e z earned $7000 . More to th e point, he gained ground o n Arclig ht Racing 's Lee Acree , fourth a nd third to day , in the champio nship chase. With races in the Poconos a nd a t Da yt on a t o be ru n , Lo p e z leads Acree , 166-122. Ho pkins , who 's now won four of the e ight races, m oved into a t h reatening third with 120 points . B Y HEN NY R A Y A B RAMS PORTLAND, OR, AUG 6 t 's hard to say who had a better day in the Unlimite d Superbike class at Port land Internatio nal Raceway , Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's John Hopki ns , who got both holesh ots and won both races, padding his ba nk a ccount by at lea st $ 1 1,000 be fo re co nt ingenc ies (they added up to $4100 at Road A m e r ic a ) ; or. his t e amm at e Gran t Lo pe z who fin ished second in both races a nd padded his points lead to 44 points with two ra ces left in the Wrenchead.com Nation al Road Race Series. By eit her measure it was a go od day for the team which dom inated every thing but qua lifying. "In the first leg , he jus t beat m e ," Lopez admitt ed . "T h e s ec ond leg , obviously h e just beat me too ." But ne ither time by mu ch. Th e m a rg in of victory in the first leg was .229 of a second and .273 in the sec ond, a race that was interrupt- I 12 A U GUST 16, 2 0 0 0' c u e I RACE ONE Hopkins got the jum p on the 44 rider field in the first leg, onl y to get passed by his tea m m at e at the end of th e back stra ight. Lopez was loathe to re linqu ish th e point, hold ing onto it as the pair edged awa y from th e fight for third . It wa s n't until the 10th lap th at Hopkins made his wa y ba ck to th e fro nt , but not for long. The pai r swapped ba c k and forth, Hopkins establishing himself out front e n E! "" S Yal voli ne EMGO Suz uki team mat es John Hopki ns (2 1) and Gra nt Lop e z IS) battle it out for the w in in the Unlimited Superbike class at Portland Int ern at ional Rac eway. Although they were this close for both races, Hopkins ended up w inning both times out w ith Lopez second. going int o turn one at th e start of the 12th la p. Tha t's whe re he wa nted to be - un worri ed that Lo pez wo uld draft him on the back s tra ight . "I knew m y strong points if it came down to the last la p ," Hopkins sa id, nam ing the e ntra nce to the c h ic a ne a nd c o m in g onto the front stretch . "Coming on to the front straightaway I had a pretty good line picked out wher e I could go pretty good and get a good driv e if it c a m e down to that corner." It didn 't, b ut Hopki ns needed a perfect d rive to hold off the clos ing Lopez at the line . "I knew I could get a pretty strong drive and wo rked on m y line s coming out thes e last two comers: Hop kins sa id. Th e re was an early ra ce for thi rd betwe en Arclig ht Raci ng' s Le e Acr ee and Ricc i Motor sports' J immy Moo re . Moor e was the fa stest ride r in qua lifying , hand ily taking the po le position. But he 'd run into tr a nsmi ssion trou b les in p rac tice th at h ad t o b e add ressed . T he y we re , b ut not com plete ly, a nd he ra c ed wit h a tra ns m iss ion th a t d idn 't wan t to o pe ra te pr op erly in se co nd gear. "In q ua lifying ye ste rd ay , for some re a son , the bi ke d id n 't wa nt to ride well , it was ju mping in second gear, m issi ng , cl unking o r whatever," Moore ex p lai ned. "I gues s there was so me kind of issue a nd the y fixed it. In this m o rn ing ' s practic e th e t ra ns m iss ion issue was s ti ll th e re and th ere ' s no tim e to rea lly do much. And we just h ad to run it a nd k e ep o u r fin gers c ross ed a nd it ju st did n' t wo rk out. "I kind of wa s so wou nd up that I was ign or ing it. I co uldn' t dr ive out of th e tu rns the way I wa nted to . You do th e who le ba c k se c t io n in s e c ond g e ar , a nd any tim e I dr ove o ut of a turn it would s kip . It felt like it was mi ss ing a tooth on th e gear and the ba ck of th e bik e wo uld s p it out. If we d idn' t h av e the t ra ns m iss io n prob lems, I wou ld ha ve roc ked tho se bo ys hard, " Moore s a id . Ins tead he had to dea l with Acr ee fo r muc h of th e ra c e , only putting him away in th e final la ps . "I did th e best I could ," Acr ee sai d . "I'm a littl e s or e and g oi ng int o th e first race I wa s wa nti ng to ta ke it easy a nd m ake sure I d idn' t ge t over my hea d . S o I ju st p layed th e gam e a s best I could and tried to kee p up with th e s e g u ys and t h e y we re in c hi ng awa y fro m m e . T he n J imm y Moo re got by me . I guess he had a bad sta rt a nd he got ba c k by m e and we we nt ba c k a nd forth a co up le of tim es a nd th en onc e he got by me the la st time I made a co up le of mist akes and he inched away a little bit . The last couple of la p s I knew there was no s ho t of ca tching Ji mmy . I loo k e d a t m y split to make sure I was safe where I was and jus t brought it ho me ." The Zlock Rac ing Kawa sak is of Michael Barnes and Mike S u lliva n were next a cross ; though Barnes was well cl e ar of the Wash ing tonian who emerged the best of a fou r-rider scrap, RACE TWO Aga in in the second ra ce Ho pkins got the ju m p , and agai n Lopez wa s second. This time Acree was right in the m ix , t h e le a d t rio easi ng away from Millennium Technologies ' Sh awn Higbee who 'd had a rough first race. Just before the race the tea m had just taken delivery of a 2000 Su zu ki GSX-R750 and hadn 't had time to do much engine work . Tho ug h he 'd q ualified s ixth , Hig be e was o ff to a b a d s tart and soon fo u n d him s e lf a mong riders who made him un e a sy . "People were just rea lly sca ring me