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/128633
Gene Romero 's e -moola .com West C oast F lat T r a ck Series Round B: V entura Raceway Ritchie and Rob Da m ro n . Bereman , Hart a nd Johnson had th e best re a c t ion s to th e g reen light , and when th e y ca me off of turn tw o , Bereman had th e lead . Damr on , w ho w ~ s la bo rin g to m a ke up th e poi nts g ap b e twe en h ims e lf a nd series le a d e r Ronn ie Br own ( Bro wn was a bsent fro m Ven tur a ) , was mired in s ixt h pla ce . Dam ron m ad e h is wa y t o fift h p la ce while Ber eman contin ued to set a tor rid pace out f ro n t. Johnson dropped off th e pa ce a nd s lid ba ck wa rd by th e halfwa y po int. Ber eman , Hart a nd Ritc hie wer e runn ing togeth er o n th e tr a ck , no s e to t ai l, wh en Hart m ade his mov e with a bo ut five laps to go . In turns on e a nd two , Ha rt stuffed it un d ern e ath Berem an , who la t e r admitted that he was gett ing t ired, to take the le ad . From there , Hart pull ed a way , auth oritativel y securin g t he vi c t o ry. Bereman fini s h e d s e c o n d, with a gam e Ritchie hang ing on fo r t h ird pl a c e . All thre e r id er s wer e clearly s pent du ring th e awards cerem on ie s , a s th e m ostl y s mooth a n d tig ht Ventura tra c k had re quired a lot of effort if a rider wa s to negotiat e it a t high s peed . That fac t was not lost o n Ber eman. "I fe lt pretty good for a while, but t he n I started to get wind ed : Bere m an s aid . "It was a little bumpy in th e t urns , a nd I was having trouble getting on th e gas. I just drift ed high , and h e [Hartl got und erneath m e . But e ve rything wa s working gr ea t. It wa s a lot of fun ." Ritchie was happy with his third-place finish, as he feels that it won't be long before he stands on top of the box. "It' s coming : the Brown 's Cyc les ba c ke d Ritch ie sai d . "It was a good race , and the track was good . Lik e Randy , I just got winded , too . It was a good ba tt le . I a lmost got Ra ndy o n STO RY BY S COTT R OUSSE A U PH OT OS BY S COTT R OUSSEA U AND DENN IS SU T ER VENTURA, CA,SEPT. 9 I nte ns e ra c ing o n th e "s ho rt" qu a rter-m ile Ventura Speedwa y bu llring produced th e s ixth different wi n ner during round eight of Gene Romero' s e -moola.com Wes t Coast Fla t Tra c k Series, as Dan Hart of Sa linas, Ca liforn ia , effectively kicked sand in the faces of the competiti on on th e track, whi ch is lo ca ted a t S e a s ide Park on the be a ch in Ven tur a County . Hart ca me from behind a boa rd his Phil Nich olson -tuned Rac e Tech /Loc kha rt Phillips /Bob Swanson CCM, waiting until lat e in the 15 -lap Open Pro ma in event before gunning pa st race lo ng lead er Randy Berem an for t he victory. . "O h man, that was so mu ch fun ," Hart sa id. "I' m a little b it wind ed . I t h in k that I need to tra in hard er. It was a great track , and we had th e bik e wor k ing so mu ch bette r. I'm read y fo r Placerville. I wa s n' t su re that I was go ing to be a ble to get Randy. I just figur ed th at if I co uld run it into th e turns a little ha rd er , then I could get him off th e e xit of tu rn two . It ju s t s e emed like la p after lap we were s tayi ng even , a n d t he n in the last five la ps I started to reel him in. I wasn 't going any faster, but I tho ught , ' He's getting tired .' I figu red that if I j ust stayed r ig h t there , he m igh t m a ke a mistake, and he did . Th en I got a little excited myself in three and four. But th is is a br and new bik e this yea r, a nd we 're getting it work ing . And I'm coming after 'e m." Hart came from the middle of the fro nt row , with Fox Rac ing /Bi ts £, Pi e c e s /R o n Be rem an - s p o n s o re d Ber ema n coming off the low pole and J eff J o h n s o n be twee n th em. Th e re mainder of the front row, to Hart's right , included Allon Mc Bee, Da nny 20 OCTOBER 4 , 2000' c ue • e n e uv s Jeff Johnson (1V) and Randy Bereman (5Y) lead the pack into tum one at the start of the Open Pro A Main during the Ventura round of 'Gene Romero's e-moola.com West Coast Flat Track Se ries. Don Hart (partially hidden behind Johnson) was the eventual winner. the last la p, bu t I wa s ju st too tire d. But we wo n the trophy dash ton ight we beat Dan [Hart] in th at one. Th is was a great night fo r us , way better tha n Auburn. " Damron worke d his way into fou rth place before the race was over. It was a so lid effort, one that left him a mere six points be hind Brown in the series points sta ndings with jus t on e round to go. "Be fo re thi s ra ce , we had to g e t e ig h t h or b etter at the last c oupl e ra c e s to re a c h o u r goal s : Damron sa id. "We ended up having to ride a bike that wasn 't our first choice, but it wa s a reliable c hoice . We fin ish ed , a nd we can pu ll thi s off, but if not, I'm s ti ll happy. Ronn ie Brown is a re al go od friend of m ine , a nd I wish him a ll the best. Th is wa s a ctua lly sup pos e d to be my reti rement ye a r, bu t since Gene Rom e ro has been having s uc h good ra ce s , I decided to ra ce his ra c es on c e a month ra ther th an e ve ry week like I was . S o nex t yea r I'm goi n g t o r u n Gene 's races . We 're go ing to build a new motorc ycle th is winter a nd give it one fina l shot. We'll see how it goes: Th e O pen Vintage A Main o nce aga in came down to a ba ttle involvin g re ign ing c las s cha m pion J e ff J ohnson , a ltho ug h this time , for once, J ohns on cam e o ut on th e losi ng e nd of a fe rociou s battl e for th e win. The origina l sta rt was quickly aborte d aft er Norton rid er Clyde Den nen wen t down in the middl e of the pa ck in turn one and collected Wayne Warring ton. Neither rider appeared to be seri ously injured, but both of them elected not to take part in the ma in event. On the restart, the Fontana Radia tor/Prog ressi ve Suspension-backed J ohnson quickly jumped out a hea d of a snarling pack that fanned out five wide be hind h im as they went down the back straightawa y. Joe Carrera was the first rider to e merge from that group wh en th e y ca me back to the strip e , wit h Bud Mart in /E£'V Eng ine ering BSA -rider Brad Spen c er run n ing third , ah ead of Ken T h ie ba u d an d Mearl Barn ett. Spen c er was a p pa rently just getti ng warmed up at tha t point, how ev er. Spencer q u ick ly s hot b y Carrera a nd we nt to work on J ohns on on lap thre e , with Th iebaud , Carre ra , Barnett a nd J oe Steffen bun ching up behind th e qu ickly flee ing front two riders . Spencer then ran it in h ard und erneath Johnson , in turns one and two to c onte st for th e le ad with two laps to g o. As they ran d own the bac k straight, J ohnson leaned over so far that he wa s pra cticall y in between Spencer's bod y and handlebars , bu t Spencer refused to be blocked , and he motored throug h to take the lead in turn three. He would hold it the rest of the wa y to score a c onvinci ng win , fd@@@@ !J!J@f!l5@@ f]Ij}@@5(]5@@ [;J[f@@[1f}@fJ5@[jj) @fJDU0[JfJ[jlJjJ @fJDu0@D~ iilifD@7]fJD@[l \!}Jfj[jiJ After bagging his first series win at the previous round in Auburn. California. J ason Chisum (158) was back again to see if he could make it two straight at Ventura Raceway. When all was said and done, Chisum left the competition seeing green for the second race in a row. Chisum grabbed the holeshot aboard his Kawasaki KX250, leading the pack through the first tum while Honda-mounted Scott Watkins (99) and Yamaha rider Dennis Voll ran in second and third. That order remained the same through lap two, with some excellent three-wide racing taking place in the battle for fourth place among a Suzuki-mounted Rich Taylor (2 1) , Honda XR-m ou nted Brad ley Spencer Jr . and Kawasaki KLX- mounted Stuart Stratton. Voll's run in third lasted only a few laps, as his Yamaha began burbling off the turns, the appa rent victim of the wrong jetting for the dense Ventura air. He would slip all the way to the rear of the field. Me an wh ile Watk ins c losed up on Chisum and began pressuring him for the lead at every tum. The 10 laps went quickly, however, and Chisum was able to stave off Watkins' efforts to stea l the victory away. Taylor broke free of Spencer and Stratton to land the third spot.