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/126034
.... . It • • ~ • t Re9-Prid mo re (163) Bee-Ems past Cook Neilsen on his way to fil m clip finish w ith Steve Mclaughlin. Smile Stevie! Photofinish! By Gary Van Voorh is DA YTONA BEACH, FLA. , MAR. 5 n the end it ca me d own to a m atter of in ch es and the m an ahe ad by th ose scant inches was Steve McL aughlin. Mc Laughlin led BMW te ammat e Re g Pridmore to th e flag in the thrilling 50 mile Superbike Production ra ce with a finish so close that it had to be decided by th e Sp eedway in a finis h line high speed photo sequence th at told all the story. Early contender Cook Neilson took his Du cati to third place just two sec onds b ack from the fron , running duo with the Kawasaki of Wes Cooley taking fourth and the Moto Guzzi of Mike Baldwin fifth . The ra ce was a thriller from start to finish. A trio of BMWs o ccupied the first three grid positions with a Ducati and t he Gu zzi alongside. It was an ticip ate d that the race would take shape as a BMW-Kawa sa ki duel , but th e green meanie challenge never really materialized with DuHamel, among others, not gri dding for the event. Cook Neilson put h is Ducati ahead off th e starting line and sprinted into the in field, but once on the banking it was the power of Gary Fisher 's BMW that held sway. "Go Fast " Gary slipstreamed past on the fast back straight as McLaughlin, Pridmore and Mik e Baldwin formed a small group a short distance behind. The speed for lap one was 91.643 mph and would rise as the racin g got hotter. Side by side, the Neils on , Fisher an d McLaughlin trio cr ossed the fin ish line wi th Fisher ta king ad vantage of late braking to rega in the lead. Pridmore then m oved into the fray and the four wen t merrily about their business swapping the lead at will with no o ne havin g a stran gle hold on it. On lap four Wes Cooley slipped h is way in to fift h a fter having cut his way t hrough traffic from his last place star ting posit ion on t he grid. There then be gan a duel be tween Cooley and Baldwin fo r supremacy of fifth posit ion. Baldwin lo st so me time in a brief excursion in to the grass off the fast in field left-bander, and Coole y man aged to hammer by as Baldwin w as st ill getting ba ck in the groove. By th e fift h lap the"flying trio o f lea ders had upped the average lap spe ed to 97 .87 mph and were still cu tting a few tic ks o f the clock off o n eac h lap . The infield told most of the st o ry o f th e race with a major amoun t of passing taking p lace in the are as where bra king and handling were p aram ount. Fisher seemed his best at taking ad vantage o f late braking on the en trance to th e in field and to the chican e. Mc Laughlin con tinu ed to challenge Fisher at every ch ance with Pridmore movin g back into the fray , ta king second an d then the lead on the eigh th lap ; at least for the moment as the lead changed and changed again before any on e could hold it long en ough to be called the leader. Pridmore regained a bit of ground and the lead o n lap ten with McLaughlin n ow t he main challe nger as Fisher slowed t o fourth behind Neil son. Fisher co n tin ued to slow on t he next lap an d finally parked the bike with wh at was diagnosed as a broken rocker ar m . It stopped what appeared to be shap ing up as a BMW sweep of t he top three spots. " The front runnin g duo co nt inu ed to swa p the lead until the final lap wh en Pridmore led in to the infield and ap peared to be o peni ng up some breath in g ro om o n the last lap cha rge to th e checkere d . Exiting the infield it was st ill Pridmore with hi s lea d holdi ng up as he le d McLau ghlin th rough th e ch icane . Onto the turn four bankin g McLaughlin began to cl ose an d inched h is way alongside wit h th e pair side by side as th ey blist er ed th e fro n t stra igh t. Pridmore to o k the low er line as Mc Laughlin rode high , coa xing t he last ounce of power from his bike and wit h it , th e win - by half a wheel ! • I II... Results 1. Steve McLaughli n ( BMW) . 2 . Reg Pridm ore ( BMW ). 3. Coo k l\teil\Op • (Pl.lc;) .. ~ •• YVe s. Coo ley (Ka w ). 5. M ike r Le n z Ka w . 7. T err v T h ompso n (Kaw) . 8. Kurt L iebm an (C ue) . 9 . A rt Kow it z ( K a w ) . 10. Fre d Walti ( K aw ) . 11 . Will H a rd ing (Ka w ) . 12 .. Joh n Long (N o r ) . 13. John Sam wa ys ( La v) . 14 . G eral d Wh itehou se Y am . 1 5 . Gar y F isher (B M W ) . > ~ litl Q. I/) .J c( Z a: UJ I- Z c( Z o I- > c( C > III I/) o I- ~ 11