Cycle News

~ .ROAD R C AMANational Championship RoadRaceSeries:Round I AE e Da ve Sado wsk i (25) rode a consistentl y smooth race to fin ish fou rth in hi s debut ride for Yosh imura Suzu ki . Jimmy Adamo pilied o nly once wh ile the o th ers stopped twice and it allowed him to fin ish seventh. 10 pu ll o ff th ose two guys on the banking and was able to ca tch right up. As soo n as he ca ugh t in my draft, boy , he j ust went shoo ting by. That's th e way it goes. You can try a nd strategize all da y . long - I cou ld have probab ly slammed o n th e brak es a nd he wou ld have had to go by, a nd th en I co u ld hav e foll ow ed hi m. Bu t it di dn' t work o u t th at wa y." Sm ith 's race began with a scrap with J am es and P ico tte for fo urt h pl ace, and lat er into a ba ttl e for third with o nly j a m es w he n Sc h wa ' s Ka wa sa ki exp ired on the 34th la p. After his seco nd pit stop, Smi th had to run down Adamo, wh o p itted o nly once during the 200 mi les, to secure third. james' race ended on the 48t h lap when h is exha us t syste m go t damaged from bein g banged on the a ll iga tor bumps in the chica ne. " I was really riding a co nse rvative race," j am es sai d. " I was trying to get hi m (Sm ith ) to mak e a mi stake, bu t he's got a lot of end urance experience a nd he was riding well. I was havin g a lot o f hi gh spee d wob bles and I'd hav e to back o ff. It was sha king its head so bad I tho ugh t it 'd spit me o ff a t tim es." " I was in a cou ple o f good battles o u t there, bu t no t the one u p front, " Sm ith said. " We had a gre a t day. This is th e fir st time I've ever made a p it stop a t Dayton a a nd th e first o ne went a little rou gh . but th e seco nd o ne was better. The bike ra n strong all wee. kend. T his finish , th ird, wi ll p ut us in a good pos it io n for the Superb ike Series Ch ampionsbsp. so mayb e we ca n give the o the rs a ru n for th e tit le. We ran a pace we were comfortable with - I tr ied to exceed tha t a cou p le of times a nd it d idn 't feel safe. I just ho ped fo r th e best. A couple of times I got int o the cor ne rs ho t and th a t m ade th ings exciting rea l q u ick. Everythi ng p retty mu ch wor ked o ut as p la nned. We were stro ng , but we just co u ldn't run with Sco tt a nd Do ug." Sadowski had a fairly lon ely race to . fourth p lace, in his debu t rid e a board th e Yo sh i mura Suzuki . " W he n I started going faster I found th at we didn 't have th e right setu p wi th the suspe ns io n link age," Sadowski sa id . ..It was too linear. It was sett ling rea l ha rd a nd com ing aro und in th e ho rsesh oe corners. The 770 (Du nlo p ) in the begi n ning was working gr ea t and when I ca me in I said, ' No tire.' T hey just hea rd th e word tire a nd th ey changed it. It never rea lly ca me in . I've go t to than k my crew because th ey were aw esom e - Cra ig Westwood a nd Zen ta Sugim ura." After pi tt ing early because o f hi s ch u n ked rear tir e. Crev ier carried on to finish fifth . " I set m y goa ls at finishing in th e top five, " the Ca na - . dian said. " So I' m p retty sa tisfied." Tsukamoto fin is he d six th after being forced to cha nge hot h fro nt a nd rea r tires d ur ing hi s firs t pit stop on the 15 th lap . "This wa s �� m y fi rst Daytona 200, a nd it was go od ," th e j apan ese rider sa id. " I lik e Am eri ca. I had some tir e tro uble, the sa me as o n Frida y with Schwa 's bi ke. The front tire over heated a nd had some bl ister- in g. The fro m ti re had a bad vibrati on. I ha d to p it too early a nd cha nge th e fro nt ti re, otherwise th e bik e was fine. I just had th e o ne tro ubl e. After that , no prob lem. At th e end of the race, I was tryin g to ca tch Tho mas Steven s, a nd I lost control in the horsesh oe a nd a lmos t cras hed. T he n I change d my mind - six th pl ace wa s o ka y, I thought. " Instead it was Steven s who crashe d, wh ile trying to citch Adamo on the fin a l lap. The defen din g AMA Su per . bike Champion had put in a sp irited effort to charge from th e back of the pack. b ut it was some wha t sp oil ed by the last la p cras h. Still, he was credited wit h eig h th p lace. " I was wa tch ing th e boa rd," said Stevens , w ho q uesti o ned the fin al resu lts. " And I was fift h a t the last sto p. Then th ey d idn ' t have me a n th e lead er board . Tsukam o to had to cha nge a front tire ea rly in th e race, so how d id he ge t in from o f me? I wasn' t giving up a nd then I saw o n the board tha t Adamo was a hea d of me. I was closi ng on him five seco nds a lap and I j ust lost th e front end. I was trying too hard, I guess . I needed a pace car so I could catc h u p in th e beginning, but I didn ' t ge t o ne. I'm di sa p pointed more for the crew th an a nyth ing else.Jf'hey wor ked so ha rd putti ng the bike back togethe r again after I crashed o n Frida y a nd th en I fell off it agai n." T he reason Ada mo had slowed so m uc h was beca use he'd lost a ll use of his rea r brak e. In addition: hi s faceshi eld was covered in oi l. And he, too, di d n 't beli eve th e fina l scori ng .o f th e race. " I never saw Sadowski go by," th e New York er said. " I did see Crevier go by, but no t th e j a pa nese guy. I had no rea r brak e la te in the race a nd o il was co m ing out o f the breat he r in from. At the end of th e rac e I co uldn 't see wh ere I was going." Adam o a nd his G iaCa Moto Duca ti fin ished th e 200 wit h o nly a single gas stop. Severa l o thers failed to fin ish th e race: Dal e Q ua rterley a nd his Bimota p ulled o u t aft er 31 laps when th e fuel pu mp stopped wo rking; Brit john Reynolds p ulled ou t on la p 27 wh en his Kawasaki overhea ted wh ile he was sevent h; a nd o n th e sa me la p his team mat e Brian Morrison cras hed in turn one wh en he lost th e front end; Ireland ' s Ph i lip McCall en esca ped fro m a horrific cras h with o nly a brok en co llar bo ne whe n his from tire exploded en tering tu rn o ne. Dirt tra ck legend j ay Springsteen pock eted 6000 for winning th e Dirt . Track Achi eveme nt a ward th at goes to th e top fini shi ng dirt tra ck racer in th e 200. Sprin ger fini shed 17th o vera ll on a Suzuki he bor row ed from T exan Ottis Lance. " O n th e last la p it ra n out of gas coming o u t o f the chicane ," Sp ring st ee n said. "Part way aro u nd th e bankin g I reached down a nd turned th e choke on. It mad e it ou t of turn four a nd to the middle of the short stra igh taway and it qu it , so I�� pulled in th e cl ut ch a nd I coas ted in and stopped a ll the way down in turn o ne." Larry Pegra m was th e seco nd highest fini sh ing dirt trac ker in 25th p lace, ea rn ing $5000. 0 Resul ts DAYTON A 200 Q UALlFYt NG: I. Dou g Polen ( 1:50.388): 2. Sco u Ru ssell ( 1:50.743): 3. T akah irn Sc hwa (1:52.201); .1. Sho ichi Ts uka mo to (1:52.6 19); 5. T ho mas Stevens ( I:52.76 1): 6. Pasca l Picon e (I :52.793): 7. La rr y Schwar zbach (I :53.099): 8. Freddie Spen cer ( I :53. 324); 9. J o h n Reyn o lds (1:54.049): 10. Mike Smith (1:54.363): I I. J am ie Jam es (1:54.365); 12. Dav id Sadowski (1:54.448): 13. Brian Morrison (1:54.H8): 14. Tom Kipp (1:54.563): 15. jacques G uene tte. Jr. ( 1:54.872); 16. Steve Crevier (1:55.9 151: 17. J im my Adam o (1:55.9 15); 18. Dale Qu ar terley ( 1:55.927): 19. Britt Turkin gt on ( 1:56.087): 20. Mark Ch in (56.997); 2 1. P hilip McCa llen ( 1:57.038); 22. J ohn Ashmead (1:57. 131 ); 23. Rueben McMu rter (1:57. 177): 24. Scou G ray

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