Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Pascal Picotte (second from left) laps the field en route to the Supertwins win. Scott Zampach (1) leads Jeff Heino (23) in the TwinSports final; Zampach won. biggest lead of the race, though only a second, and Filice reeled him in a lap later as the two were now over 10 seconds in front of third place. That race was a cork er, Cornwell and D'Aluisio having swapped third, Petersen watching from behind. "I had an advantage in the stop-and- go twisties and onto the banking and Chris had the faster bike. Robbie's and mine were about the same," Cornwell said. "Robbie was riding the shit out of it, especially because of his injury." "Jon's internal gearing was much bet ter than ours," D'Aluisio said. "It helped him onto the short back straight before the kink. I was making time in the fast kink and getting a good drive onto the front straight." The complexion of the race changed dramatically on the 19th lap, and would change again five laps later. Filice came up on backmarker William Quinn in the slow, tight left-hand turn four. He explains: "I should've waited. He didn't know I was there. I backshifted to first from second and almost high-sided. I'd worked too hard to catch Colin the other two times, so I settled for second. I almost crashed and there was no hope." Edwards made the run to the flag uncontested, his best lap time for the race an unofficial 1:08.11, a full 1.6 seconds faster than he'd qualified. "The gearing helped tremendously. Mike had the bike running awesome," Edwards said. The fight for third was largely decided on the 25th lap when Cornwell coasted to a stop along pit lane, the victim of a bro ken spark plug on his number two cylin der. "I thought I'd make a charge the last four laps. I'd backed off to save myself, my bike and my tires," Cornwell, who ended up in ninth place, said. "Next time. Next year." "I looked back on the white flag lap and saw plus-one on my pit board and it was Robbie," D'Aluisio said. "I was going as hard as I could because I thought Jon was there." "I have to tell you I was happy today," Petersen said after finishing fourth. "Colin was so good on the first lap and I was a little wary the first few laps. I haven't been able to train for a month. But this is the best Steve (Biganski) has ever had the bike running." Carmichael pulled away from Jimmy Mosley to take fifth, Bruce Baldus ran alone most of the race and finished sev enth. (N RESULTS^ ~~ QUALIFYING: 1. Chris D'Aluisio (1:09.566/93.149 mph); 2. Jon Cornwell (1:09.763); 3. Colin Edwards (1:09.800); 4. Jim Sabin (1:09.853); 5. Jim Hlice (1:10.083); 6. Robbie Petersen (1:10.216); 7. Rich Oliver (1:10.255); 8. Danny Walker (1:10.357); 9. Kenny Roberts Jr. (1:10.601); 10. Doug Carmichael (1:10.705); 11. Rick Tripodi (1:11.162); 12. Jimmy Mosley (1:11219); 13. Bruce Baldus (1:11.605); 14. Rick Kirk (1:11.898); 15. Mike Myers (1:12.060); 16. William Quinn (1:12.568); 17. Kurt Dimick (1:12.661); 18. Mike Montoya (1:14.308); 19. Frank Klementich (1:16.058); 20. John France (1:17565); 21. Dan Wisehart (1:19.872). RESULTS: 1. Colin Edwards (Yam); 2. Jim Filice (Hon); 3. Chris D'Aluisio (Yam); 4. Robbie Petersen (Yam); 5. Doug Carmichael (Yam); 6. Jimmy Mosley (Yam); 7. Bruce Baldus (Yam); 8. William Quinn (Yam); 9. Rich Oliver (Yam); 10. Dan Wisehart (Yam); 11. Jon Comwell (Yam); 12. John France (Hon); 13. Mike Myers (Yam); 14. Jim Sabin (Yam); 15. Danny Walker (Yam); 16. Rick Kirk (Hon); 17. Rick Tripodi (Apr); 18. Kurt Dimick (Yam). FINAL 250cc GRAND PRIX SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Colin Edwards (138); 2. Chris D'Aluisio (103); 3. Jimmy Filice (101); 4. Kenny Roberts Jr. (98); 5. Rick Kirk (91); 6. Robbie Petersen (86); 7. Danny Walker (70); 8. Bruce Baldus (64); 9. Doug Carmichael (43); 10. Fabian Cortez (31). Time: 32 mins, 13.787 secs. Distance: 28 laps, 50.4 miles. Margin of victory: 9.267 secs. Average speed: 93.826 mph. AMA Supertwins Series: Final round_________ Picotte laps field at Texas World By Henny Ray Abrams COLLEGE STATION, TX, OCT. 11 T he twins are dead, long live the twins. Finally, after a years of declin ing interest, and a season in which Pascal Picotte made a mockery of the competition, the Supertwins class, which began in a very different form ־ Battle of the Twins in 1982 - is dead. Fast by Ferracci's Picotte continued his mastery of the class at Texas World Speedway, circulating a full five seconds a lap faster than anyone else, and lapping the entire 12-rider field with less than four laps to go. After that he backed off, shrinking his winning margin to 1:14.537 minutes, while averaging 90.648 mph for the 20-lap, 36-mile race which he com pleted in 23 minutes, 49.703 seconds. "I never thought I was lapping those guys," the French-Canadian Picotte said after carrying his newly earned number one on the front of his Ducati 851. "I was very happy to do that with the number one plate on my bike, because I don't think they're going to have this class next year." The race was for second and it was a good one, four different riders fighting for the spot, GiaCaMoto's Jimmy Adamo taking it at the finish line from Fast by Ferracci's Stephen Mathews. Both were Ducati 888-mounted. "Pascal came around us and me and Steven were left to duke it out to the fin ish line," Adamo said. "For a while it was a lot of fun fighting for second, but at the end we pulled away." · "I don't know exactly where we ended up," Mathews said after the close finish. "It's too bad this is the last Supertwins race because I had a fun time running with Jimmy Adamo and the other guys." Fourth went to David Kieffer aboard a Fast by Ferracci Ducati 851 with Greg Kopp fifth on a similar machine. The final championship point tally has Picotte at the top with 167 points, Adamo second with 144, and Mathews third with 120. Brilliant sunshine and high tempera tures greeted the 11 riders who would be chasing Picotte's shadow and theirs would be a long day. By the end of the second lap, Picotte had over a seven sec ond lead which ballooned rapidly. Halfway in, at the ten lap mark, Picotte had nearly a 47-second lead and was quickly catching the fight for second. By the 14th lap he'd lapped up to fifth and was up to third a lap later, a spot he held for a lap before lapping the field on the seventeenth lap. He lessened his charge and stayed just a few seconds in front of second place at the end, though a lap ahead. Mathews, Nigel Gale, and H-D of Jamestown's Shawn Higbee were away in a trio for second, though joined on the fifth lap by Adamo and Kieffer. The quintet changed places all over the track. Kieffer briefly dropped back on the ninth lap, but was up to second on the 11th. Three laps later Mathews and Adamo forged past and would stay there. The pair fought to the line, Adamo getting the nod from Mathews, Kieffer a safe fourth, with Greg Kopp moving into fifth on the thirteenth lap and holding it without challenge to the end. Gale dropped back to finish sixth ahead of Kiyo Watanabe. cn Results SUPERTWINS FINAL: 1. Pascal Picotte (Due); 2. Jimmy Adamo (Due); 3. Stephen Mathews (Due); 4. David Kieffer (Due); 5. Greg Kopp (Due); 6. Nigel Gale (H-D); 7. Kiyo Watanabe (Hon); 8. Shawn Higbee (H-D); 9. Jerry Wallace (H-D); 10. Mark Cruz (Due); 11. Jerry Jirkovsky (Kaw); 12. Michael Reilly (Hon). Time: 23 mins, 49.703 secs. Distance: 20 laps, 36 miles. Margin of victory: 1 min., 11.485 secs. Average speed: 90.648 mph. FINAL AMA SUPERTWINS SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Pascal Picotte (167); 2. Jimmy Adamo (144); 3. Stephen Mathews (120); 4. David Kieffer (98); 5. Greg Kopp (83); 6. Nigel Gale (69); 7. Ronald McGill (68); 8. Kiyo Watanabe (42); 9. Shawn Higbee (38); 10. Mike Tiberio(34). Zampach regains control of TwinSports By Paul Carruthers Photo by Henny Ray Abrams COLLEGE STATION, TX,OCT.ll B artels' Harley-Davidson's Nigel Gale threw away his championship points lead when he Crashed on the second lap of the Harley-Davidson TwinSports final at Texas World Speedway, and he's put himself in the unenviable position of trailing race-winner and defending class champion Scott Zampach by six points with one race remaining. Any advantage Gale had gained when Zampach crashed at the last round at Mid-Ohio was quickly given back to the Tilley Harley-Davidson rider at Texas World Speedway. The TwinSports class' dominant duo were racing together at the front of the pack when Gale crashed his 883 Sportster in the final comer leading to the front straight. Zampach then cruised to a 3.667-second win over Shawn Higbee on the Harley-Davidson of Jamestown entry, while Gale remounted and fought through to finish ninth, earning himself seven valuable points. The victory was Zampach's seventh on the season. Third place today went to Harley- Davidson of Missouri's Andy Fenwick with Low Country H-D's Chuck Blackmon and Earl Small's Harley- Davidson's Jerry Wallace rounding out the top five. The championship, which unlike the rest of the AMA series will feature a final round at the AMA/CCS Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway on October 18, will go to the wire with Zampach now leading Gale, 145-139. Third place in the series point standings is Blackmon with 103 points. The race got underway with the fast starting Blackmon in control, leading Zampach, Gale, Higbee, Jerry Wallace, Fenwick and Jeff Heino, on Zampach's spare Don Tilley-tuned Harley-Davidson. Blackmon led until the second lap, with Zampach and Gale moving past. Heino was also on the move, passing everyone but the lead duo as he swept into third place. That third suddenly became second when Gale departed at the end of the second lap, but Heino had his hands full with Higbee and Blackmon. Heino, though, put on a charge, catch ing his teammate Zampach and bringing Higbee with him. Those three pulled clear of Blackmon, who would later come under fire from Fenwick. On the 11 th of 14 laps, Heino came out of turn two being dragged by his Harley. "I was playing around, not thinking," Heino said later. "I caught the white line with the front and it threw me off. I aimed for the grass and eventually spun it out." What followed was an easy Zampach win over Higbee with Fenwick edging Blackmon for third. Results H-D TWINSPORTS FINAL: 1. Scott Zampach; 2. Shawn Hibgee; 3. Andy Fenwick; 4. Chuck Blackmon; 5. Jerry Wallace; 6. Tony Montenegro; 7. Jeff Johnson; 8. Nancy Delgado; 9. Nigel Gale; 10. George El were; 11. Jeff Heino; 12. Jon Stauffer. Time: 18 mins., 06.375 sec. Distance: 14 laps, 25.2 miles. Average Speed: 83.507 mph. Margin of Victory: 3.667 sec. H-D TWINSPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Scott Zampach (145); 2. Nieel Gale (139); 3. Chuck Blackmon (103); 4. Ronald McGifl (92); 5. Andy Fenwick (79); 6. Shawn Higbee (70); 7. (TIE) Richard Koehler/Jerry Wallace/Nancy Delgado (54); 10. Tony Montenegro (51). O ctober 21, 1992 3ÍB 3S O 2□

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