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/126631
~ DAYTONA'83 ~ (left) Team Honda's Bob Hannah charges t hro ugh the Daytona sand f or a wire-to-wire win . (A bove) David Bailey f inished t hird and now trails Hann ah by 18 points in the series standings. AKA/Wrangler Super Series: Round 5 "Hurricane" strikes at Da~tona By Tom Kolnowski DAYTONA BEACH , FL, MAR. 12 Bob " H u rricane" Hannah turned in a flawless performance to win the Wrangler/Honda Sup ercross held at Daytona International Speedway, his third victory in the five events held so far th is seaso n. Hannah , riding a works Honda , pulled th e holeshot in the 12lap final and never looked back 18 as he led from start to fini sh in front o f th e cheering cro wd. Team Honda 's J ohnn yO 'Mara an d David Bailey p laced 2-3, giving Honda a clea n sweep for the da y. Atla nta wi n ner Mark Ba rnett fini shed in fourth on his Suzuki. Han na h padded his series points lead, garneri ng a n addit io na l 31 points, givi ng him a to tal of 154 to second -place David Bailey's 136, Mark Barnett remains in third with 124. " Professo r" Gary Ba iley once aga jn ha nd led th e design a nd co nstructio n o f the race co urse, wh ich inco rporated a fu ll ISO-degr ee corner a t th e end of the ISO-foot sta rt ing a rea . Du e to the extra len gth of th e o u tdoor Daytona track , a ll preliminary races were six laps in len gth ins tead of th e usu al eig ht. Heats Po ints leader Hannah started th e afternoon o ff by grabbing th e lead go ing into the first corner, with team mate J oh nn y O 'M ara in tow. Yama ha 's Mike Bell held on to the n u m ber three -spor. H a nnah contin ued to increase h is lead over O 'Ma ra on eac h succeedi ng lap. O n th e fift h lap, Bell fell back a nd Tom Ben o lk in (H on) a nd Bill y Lil es (Kaw) moved in . H annah won with O ' Ma ra second , the n Ben olkin a nd Li les. J eff Hi cks p ut hi s Honda into th e lead in th e second heat race, with Clint Hardick (Suz) a nd Phil Larson (H on) on ly a few bikelen gths behind. T ea m H onda' s Dav id Ba il ey was knocked over in a first corne r mishap, and q uickly jo in ed the chase , runnin g 21st whe n he got underway.By th e th ird lap, Bailey had worked his wa y up to th ird, in back of Hicks a nd H ardick . Diving into a corner, Ba iley ca rved an o u tside line around H ardi ck, draggi ng some banners in th e p rocess . Ba iley th en pa ssed Hicks on the next j u mp to secu re th e lead. They finished th e heat in that order. Team Yam aha 's Broc G lo ver controll ed the th ird heat from start to finish , with Suzuki's Mark Barnett holding o n to second. Further back, Steve Ma rt in (Hon) held th ird for the first two la ps, befo re Ri cky Joh nson powered by. Ron Lechien (Yam ) was usin g some impressive riding back in th e pack , a nd had worked hi s way up to displace Martin in fourth position . Fin al or de r was Glover, Barnett, J ohnson, Lechien a nd Martin. Kenny Keylon (H o n) took control in the last heat ra ce, with Kawa saki's J eff Ward moving into second after th e first comer. G oat Breker (Hon) held onto third position. Ward got by Keylon in a tight corner, with Breker moving up fast. Breker con tin ued hi s push for th e win, pa ssing Keylon and finishing the heat less than a bikelength behind Ward. ' Quarter-f inals As th e first of two quarter-final s got underw ay, Tom Carson (H on ) shot into th e lead, with Kris Bigelow (H on ) in close pursuit. After a collisio n wi th sever a I tra ckside tires, Bigelow picked up th e pace on th e last lap. squari ng off on the inside corner andgetting by Carson. J eff