Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

ee l n n P a c e Formula USA National Road Race S e r ie s Round 5 : Pocono Int ernational R a c e way Bec aus e th e ra ce was red-flagged, there was no a ve ra ge spe ed or time of ra ce . Th e numbers th at m atte r to Parri ott are th e 68 p oints he h a s , three mor e than Lee Acr ee , with the fin al round a t Da yton a to b e run . Hopk ins ca m e into th e race le a d ing th e championship . By cra sh ing , h e effe ctiv ely took himself o u t of the championship , th ough , math ematically , he 's still alive with 50 po ints . Th e red flag was flown du e to a number of different incidents in d ifferent c o rne rs . Because th e y we re spread out throughout th e trac k, the re was an extended clean -up period . Whe n the race was stopped, Hopkins had been leading Parriott, Spies, J oseph Gill, and Arclight Racing's Acree . Acr e e hadn 't gotten su ch a good start in th e first leg and had a spot of bad luc k in th e second on e , though he did get a much better sta rt. "The restarts were actually giving m e a glimmer of hope becau s e I ke pt bot ch ing th e start, and that la st s ta rt, th e flagman kind of flinch ed a nd half th e fie ld went , half th e fiel d did n't," Ac re e sa id . "Luc kily, I was o ne of the o nes th at went when h e flin ch ed. I wasn't s ure th ey wer e goi ng to sta rt m eatba ll flaggi ng ." se q ue nce to s ol id ify h is spot at the front. "I didn 't want to stay behind very lo ng because I kn ew J ohn [Hopk ins! would be coming ," Parriott said. Hopkins never ca m e, crashing out in the hairpin early in the re -start a nd slowly circulating to a 36th-pla ce finish. "I don 't even know where' pa ss ed him [Spies] to tell yo u the truth : Par riott said. "I just put m y head down . I thought I rode the hardest laps of the weekend ." And that was that. At the e nd of the fina l four la ps , Parriott off icia lly had .722 of a sec o nd on Sp ies , but t he m a rgi n had been greater and had grown on eac h succes s ive lap aft er th e start - itself a c onte ntio us is sue . Some riders got great starts, ot he rs d id n 't , and all blamed it on the starter. Pa rriott had gone to school on th e starter and sa w something in his te c hn iq ue that he could c a p ital ize o n. "I got a great sta rt, a phenom en al start," Pa rriott sa id. "I learned some thing in all th e sta rts I've se en toda y. He drops th e flag with his fing e rs a nd moves th e stick. As soo n a s his fingers moved , I went." And he wa s go ne . Aprilia CUp Challenge Round 5: Pocono International Raceway t's By ete Mototek's Derek King (90) was handed the Aprilia Cup Challenge w in after Brendan Clarke (149) was docked a lap for passing under a waving yellow flag. Aaron Clark (49) finished second and holds on to a seven-point lead In the standings going Int o the final round at Daytona. H E N N Y R A Y A B RA M S LONG POND, PA, AUG 27 he Aprilia Cup Cha lle ng e Fina l w a s a c u r ious m ix of ac ti o n and inac tio n, bo t h on the track a n d off - a nd during a nd afte r th e race . T he race wasn 't particu lar ly eventful. Australian t e e n a g e r Br en d an Clark e edged his Cann on Ra c ing moun t away to a comfortable win over th e Team Motote k Ra c ing e n t ry o f De re k King . It would h a ve been h is first of the year. Unfortu nate ly it wasn 't to b e . T 24 SEPTEMBER 6, 2000' c u e Formula USA officia ls disqual ified Cla rke afte r it wa s reported tha t he'd passed a no t h e r rider, in t hi s case Bla ckm an Cycles ' Micha el Himmels ba ch , under a waving ye llow. C larke' s team app e al e d , but th e appeal wa s denied , a nd Cla rke was docked a lap , dr opping him to 19th. Th e win wa s King 's, his firs t afte r a I e n e vv s Th e No rth Carol inian was in the th ick of a pack cha rg ing to th e front a t th e start of the second leg when Hop kins cra s he d in fron t of him . "Ho ppe r [Ho pkins ] got back by on the b rakes at the end of th e b a ck stra ighta wa y and th en Ty Howard got underneath me and just kind of stuck it up under me in the ha irpin and got righ t on top of those guys, a nd whe n Hoppe r spun a ro un d he kin d of co llected Ty a nd 1 had to check up a nd wa it on those guys ," Acree sa id . "That gave the le ad two a ga p . They wer e riding wa y too well for me to be able to make up th a t k ind of a ga p." Spi es wasn't rid ing quite as we ll as Parriott. He said he was going to try to run Parriott down in th e beg inn ing, but made a c ouple of mistakes . Spies also s a id he thought he could have caug ht Par ri ott , but pa s sing him wou ld have been difficult. Parriott wa s a few sec onds back of Spi e s with a s im ila r gap on Hyd -Me ch S a ws ' O wen We ich el in fourth. Beh ind We ichel was Glenn Szarek , with Lander s Motor sports ' Ryan Lan ders just a he ad of e Powerspo rts .com's Manny Manu suthakis, and Eion Sm ith a little bett er than Micha el Ga llagher. eN TE AM PRO ·MOT I ON SPORTB I KE : 1. B rian Parr iott ( Hon) ; 2 . Ben Sp ies (S UI ); 3. Lee A cree (Suz) ; 4 . Owe n Wei c hel ( Ho n) ; 5 . G len n Szarek ( 2 5 0 ) ; 6 . Rya n La nder s (Suz) ; 7 . M ann y Manu suthakis ( Yam ): 8 . Eio n Smith (Yam) ; 9 . Michael Gallagher ( Yam ) ; 10. Ton y Meiring (Hen) : 1 I. David Fett (Yam) : 12. Laurence Borst (Yam ); 13. Chris Arbor (Yam) ; 14. Mark McC orm ick (Yam) : 15. Micha el Nlk se (Suz) ; 16 . C hri s Ul rich (Suz ) ; 17 . Robert Ludlum (Hon); 18. T im Cochra n (Hon) ; 19. Matthew Silva (Kaw ); 20 . Raymond Bowm an (Suz)1 2 1. Chri s Nealy (Hon ); 2 2. Garett King (Hon) ; 23 . Adam Coco ( H-D) ; 24 . Jeff Mus kopf (Yam ) ; 25 . Fr ank Wiof (Yam) : 26 . Grego ry Faie lla (Yam) ; 27 . David McPherson (Yam) ; 28 . Dav id Sandel (Yam); 29 . Lyn d a In nocenzi (Ya m ) ; 30 . A rt hu r Wag ner (Ya m) ; 31. Da le Seaton ( Yam); 32 . Denn is Ki ng (Kew ): 33 . Michael Evils izer (Yam) ; 34 . Kevi n J ohns (Suz) ; 35 . A lis ta ir Sm ith (Hon) ; 36. J oh n Hopk ins (Suz); 37 . John Costa (Y am) ; 38 . Da vi d We iss (Yam) ; 39 . Jo seph Gill (Yam ); 40 . Ty Howard (Kaw ); 4 1. Keith Marquez (Yam ); 42. Aa ron Risinger (Yam) ; 43 . Mic hael Cusano (Yem ): 44 . Opie Cay lo r (Suz); 4 5 . J i m Bi rns t iel ; 4 6 . Paul L uev an o ( Hon ) ; 4 7 . Richard Kelly (Yam) ; 48 . Cha rles Neig hoff (Yam) ; 49 . Timothy Otis (Hon); 50 . Jo hn D' Agostin o (Suz); 5 1. Jim Lester (Hon ); 52 . Peter Fell er (Suz) ; 53 . Paul Hop k in s (Ya m); 54 . Ke nne th Snyder ( Yam ); 55 . Devi n Batt ley (D ue) ; 56 . Chris Decel les (Bue ); 57. David Schwe itzer (Kaw); 58 . Brian Gibbs (Suz); 59 . Jeff Bo strom (Hon) ; 60. Stephen Pushka r (Hon) ; 6 1. Jason Johnson (Due); 62 . Geoffrey Pestes (Hon); 63. David Dalzell (Yam ): 64. Gil Sc hweitze r (Hon) ; 65 . Willia m Stoltz (Kaw ); 66 . Tim Berni sderfer (Yem ) . Time : N/ A due to red flag . Distance : 12 laps. 30 m iles. Averag e speed: N/ A due to red flag . Margin of victo ry: 0.722 sec. SPO RTB IKE C' SHIP POINT STANDINGS (A ft er 5 of 6 round s): 1. Bria n Parri ott (68/1 win) ; 2. Lee Ac ree (65) : 3. John Hopkins (50 /2) ; 4. (TIE) Dam on Buckmaster/Be n Spies (4 5/1 ); 6. Ryan Landers (35); 7. Owen Weichel (33); 8. J oseph Prusslenc (26) ; 9 . Ri cha rd Al exand e r (23 ) ; 10 . (T IE) Rob ert Underwood /E ric Wood ( 16 ); 12. Roger Hay den ( 14); 13 . (TIE) J ohn Dugan/Mark Junge/ Jess Roeder ( 13) ; 16. (T I E) Br i a n G i bb s/R ob Car pe n te r / B ry c e Gross/G lenn Szarek/Chris Arbor ( 11), season of second - a nd third -p lace finishes . '" rea lly wa nte d this one this wee ke nd ," King said after being elevate d to the top s po t. "The sta rt wasn' t so bad. I lost a littl e bit to Brendan [Clarke ]. I've go t to lose 4 0 po unds in o rde r to catch him . We ha d a good rac e . Mike [Himme ls ba ch ] took off from the front an d he re ally pu t the hammer on thos e opening laps and I just tried to hold on and chase him . , wasn't q uite ge ttin g off the corners quite as well as they we re, but I m a de it up in the e ntries a nd a lot of corner s peed." Muc h o f th e ra c e was deci ded in th e ea rly lap s . Brend an Cla rke a nd Dere k King had gotte n 'a wa y ea rly b e h in d Himm el sb a c h wit h T e am Motote k Raci ng 's Cla yton Ch a pm an in the mix . Bre nda n Cla rke to ok the le ad fro m Him m el sba ch in t urn s ix, with Him m el sba ch going down in turn s ev en just after. Eyew itn e s s e s sa id th ere was c o n t act with Clark e , and th at pass was one of the ones the F-USA officia ls used to d et erm ine that a pass had been-made on the wav ing ye llow . In any c a se, it was now Cla rk e out in front of King with Chapman third . Th en Ch apman lows ided in turn on e , slid ing onto the grass unhurt, but out. Starting lap three Clarke he aded King , Clark , and Pro -Mot ion's Jeffre y Wood . T eam Mototek Racin g 's Dan Fischer wa s fifth . Nothing about the or der would cha nge unt il the end th at 's when Clarke wa s ta ken down and the ra ce was m ostly d ram a -fre e from th at point on . All o f t he m a chin es passed t he po st -ra c e d yn o and wei g ht c hec ks, but not th e s crutiny of the offici a ls. Clarke was out; King wa s in. "I' m prett y si nce re: Ev er yb od y wou ld love to ha ve this cha m pio ns hip a n d I'm a co u p le poi n ts dow n o n Aa ro n [C la rk] a nd unl e s s h e h a s a mechanica l or cras hes out of Da ytona , this is for second place ," King said . With thre e wins on his ca rd Clark le a d s th e p o int s chase w ith 1 04, se ven m o re tha n King , a nd heaps mo re on GP Moto rcycles' Balz Reng gli, who wa s 12th after runn ing off the tra c k o n th e first lap . Clark's seaso n ha sn 't be en s pot less . Th er e was a c rash a nd re -m ou nt in the o peni ng race at Da yt o na . He knew he ha d to finish tha t race, a nd he knows he has to do the same at the end of Oct obe r if he wants to ta ke the c rown . "When I went down in Da yton a I knew 1 had to get up and finish th e ra ce becau s e , in a serie s like th is, I got nine points a nd those are going to be c rit ic a l, and if I'm go ing to beat Derek I've got to ke ep my he ad back on and just try to finish and stay rel iable ," Cla rk said . Third today was Jeffrey Wood, of th e raci ng and teaching Wood family of Massachusetts. Wood settled int o fourth , th en m ov ed onto the podium when Brendan Clarke was ta ken down . "Th is is the first tim e we've ridden the bik e sin ce Daytona and we h a v en 't d e ve lop ed it that mu ch , " Wood sa id . "It work ed pretty good. We 'r e ju st out to hav e fun." Pocono Inte rnati onal Racew ay Long Pond, Pennsyl vania Results: August 27, 2000 (Round 51 Upcom ing Round : Round 6 - Daytona Beach. Florida. October 22

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