Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Hyper Cycle Suzuki’s Vincent Haskovec won the WSMC Toyota Cup Unlimited Race and the Open Superstock sprint on his Dunlop-equipped Suzuki GSX-R1000s; Lee’s Cycles’ Jeremy Toye was first in 750cc Supersport, 750cc Modified Production and 750cc Superbike; and Tommy Hayden won the 650cc Superbike and WSMC Formula Two races on his Kawasaki ZX-6R Saturday at Willow Springs International Raceway.

Haskovec and Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Chuck Graves dueled for 12 blistering laps–lap times in the high-1:21s–in the WSMC Toyota Cup Unlimited Race. Graves held the early lead but ran wide twice. Capitalizing on Graves’ second mistake, Haskovec took the lead from Graves on lap four. As Haskovec led the final eight laps, Graves looked to be sizing up a last-lap move. A backmarker, however, got in Graves’ way on the final lap, securing Haskovec’s win.

Further back than normal, Toye finished third on his GSX-R1000. Toye said he is still trying to set up his bike after adding new hardware to it for the WSMC Toyota 200 race on Sunday.

Riding a GSX-R1000, Team Orthopedics’ Jack Pfeifer held off Hayden to finish fourth. Hayden brought his Kawasaki 600 home in fifth with Team Embry/Roadracingworld.com’s Geoff May sixth on a Pirelli-slick-shod GSX-R750 Superbike. Jeff Stern, Andrew Nelson, Marte Cooksey and Mark Watts rounded out the top 10.

Later in Saturday’s race program, Haskovec came from behind on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 to beat Yamaha YZF-R1-mounted Graves by half a wheel in Open Superstock.

After crashing unhurt in Saturday-morning practice, Graves skipped most of his WSMC races except for the Toyota Cup and Open Superstock events.

Toye turned high-1:22s on his GSX-R750 to beat Haskovec in 750cc Superstock. Toye then took a runaway victory over Frank Aragaki and Cooksey in 750cc Superbike. Toye’s third win came in 750cc Modified Production.

Young gun Jason Perez led the first lap of the 650cc Superbike race with Jacob West, Jeff Dixon, Kenny Kopecky, Robbie Dowie and Hayden in hot pursuit. Kopecky faded, but the remainder of the five-rider group battled fiercely including going into turn one five-wide at one point. After too many passes to keep track of, Hayden took control of the race on lap three. On lap four, Hayden turned a 1:23.86, the fastest lap of the race, and cruised home to win ahead of Dowie.

Perez and West were close behind Dowie on lap five when Perez fell in turn two. Perez lowsided directly in front of West, who couldn’t avoid the fallen teenager and ran over his arm. West also crashed, destroying his Yamaha YZF-R6 in the incident. The full extent of Perez’s injuries were not known at post time.

Dixon took third in 650cc Superbike with Canadian teenager Andrew Nelson closing fast in fourth. Kopecky placed fifth.

Hayden returned to win the eight-lap Formula Two event by over eight seconds. Dowie was holding off Nelson through most of the race, but a slower rider in turn four on the last lap forced Dowie to check up. Nelson made the pass and held on to take second over Dowie.

Dowie beat Nelson earlier in the day in 600cc Modified Production with Dixon third.