at the top of the track because I found if
I didn 't I had trouble through th e
m iddle of the tu rns ."
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(Above) Ted Boody (12) beat Steve Morehead (42) in the Expert main.
(Below ) Bryan Villella (65x) edged Robert Lewis (SSe) in the Junior final.
Wiseco Daytona Dirt Track Series:
Round 1
Boody wins Daytona
Busch Half Mile
By Henny Ray Abrams
BARBERVILLE, FL, MAR. 2
College Bike Shop's
Boody used a daring
Morehead to win the
Busch Half Mile, the
fo ur-race $36,000 Wiseco-Davt
D' tT
k Seri es at Voluc;:ma ir r a e ,
sta Co unt y Speedway.
Morehead, on the KK Mo tor-
26
cycle Supp ly/Tex Peel H-D, grabbed
th e hol eshot and led u nt il Boody went
under h im between tu rn s th ree and
four on th e 10th of 14 laps. Once pas t,
Boody spe d 10 the win with Moreh ead
second and . Gardner Racin g 's Pete
Ham es third.
A unique format gave all 36 of the
Experts a cha nce to ru n for a titl e, with
th e ride rs who did n't quali fy for the
feature event running in B an d C
final s. T he B final, for those riders who
fin ished fourth to sixth in their heat
races. was won by th e on ly fema le
holding an Expert dirt tra ck license,
T ammy Kirk , ah ead o f Rog er Durkee
Honda-moun ted Ted
late-race pass of Steve
12th Annual Daytona
opening round in the
and Sco n Ada~s. ~xpert fina l C, for
the last t~ree n ders m.each ht;at, ~ent
10 Donme H owa rd with David Mi ller
second and Steve Labordus third.
In on ly h is second ride on the Mike
Camphouse-.sponsored Ron Wood R~tax, Bryan VIllella edged R? bert LC\~ ls
. on th e J. L.&H Sales, LeWIS Grocenes
Wood-ROlax to ta ke the Ju~ ior rac~.
Bryan McDow ell on theS hoeI~ B ru~e s
Body Sh?p Wood-Ro~ax ~me m th.tr~.
And in th e NOVICe fina l, W III ~e
M.cCo y overcame a bad start on his
RIchard Bates-sponsor:ed ~onda to pull
a~a~ from T .M. R~cml:. ~ 26-year-o ld
NOV
ICe Tom Maj ewski ~ nd SCOll
Sau nders H on da for the wm.
Pro-Am
With the track being constant ly
wa tered an d groomed, th e hard, narro w, dark groove gave way to a loose
Pro-Am winner Willie McCoy pulls
away from the pack.
cus hion, making for three and four
abreast racing. Willie McCoy of Garland, Texas, won the fastest of the
eig ht hea t races wh ich narrowed the
45-rider P ro -Am field to a 12-ri de r
fina l. After one red flag, which put
Rob Churchill out of th e final, Saund ers bolted to the front with Majewski,
Tyler, Mike Merrill a nd Mark Wyskiel
in p urs uit. Tyler dispa tched Majewski
just before the halfway mark and just
past the crossed flags was by Saunders
for the lead. O nce clear, he cruised to
the win. Majewski p ushed Saunders
back 10 third ahead of Wyskiel; Merrill
held fifth .
" I kn ew I co u ld win it if I ca ugh t
up wi th th e gu ys in th e front," T yler
sai d in vic tory lane. : 'Th e tra ck got
slic ker as th e day wa rme d up a nd I
adj usted to it."
Vision, or lack of it, was Saunders'
problem . " I ran ou t o f tear-offs in the
early laps. I th ought I had to stay ou t
front just to make th e fini sh ."
Junior
Eight heats and two Sem is whinled
th e 64 Juniors down to a 12-main
main. .
Eric Sassaman was th e fast heat
win ner , and sin ce the second semi was
red-flagged with a lap to go and didn't
ge t a time , Sassaman 's semi win was
also the fast o ne putting h im on the
po le for the fina l. Bryan Ville lla wo n
the secon d semi .
Sassaman went fro m the pole to the
lead in the fina l with Ville lla and
Robert Lewis foll owing. Bryan MeDowell was fourth a head of Houston
Short Track J un ior winner Bru ce
Johnson.
,
Villella was maki ng his Wood- Rotax
work on th e low , slippery groove, with
Lewis scooting by in the cushion. MeDow ell, in third, lost a shot at the win
after overshooting turn three, but held
th ird to th e end. Sassaman dropped
back to fourth where he would hold off
Recil Hart at the fini sh .
With Villella and Lewis using different parts of the track it was only at
th e sta rt-fin ish lin e that you cou ld tell
who th e leader was and on the fin al lap
it was Villella, bu t just barely.
" I rod e thi s bike for the first time at
Jacksonville and really started to feel
co mfortable on it in the second practice," Ville lla said. He went o n to win
th e race a t J acksonville and after his
win here said, " I won my firstthree as a
Novice and I'd lik e to wi n my first
th ree as a Junior."
Lewi s was passed by Villell a on th e
backstretch during th e fin al lap and
adm iued it was his o wn mistake. "I just
slip ped off going up the top." With the
short half m ile Vol usia Co unty Speedway track bein g almost egg -sha ped, it
was a com mon mi stake.
After being put on th e pena lty lin e
for jum ping th e first star t, McDowell
was pleased with his fin ish . " I was
hoping to do everything I could from
th e back line. I was riding th e high line
Expert
Ted Boody led the Experts in q ualifying, turn ing a 21.839 second lap whi ch
was close 10 two seconds slowe r than
Randy Gass ' 1980track record of 19.918.
Morehead was second fastest, followed
by Dan e Ingra m, Don Estep and George
Roeder Jr.
" It' s real slippery here," Boody said
after picki ng up $200 for being fast
qualifier. " I went out in practice and
th at hi gh lin e was th e one th at worked
real well."
.
Bood y stayed hi gh in his heat an d
quickl y built up such a com ma nding
lead th at he co u ld pick hi s left foot up
halfway through th e turn and power
h is way out. Canada 's Jon Cornwell
used th e middle of th e track to finis h
second and George Roeder passed the
low-running Roger Du rkee for third.
R un n ing even higher than Boody
was Morehead who, desp ite a misfire
toward the end of the race, held on to
beat Ronnie Jones by 30 yards wi th
Sam my Sweet edging defen di ng series
champ Terry Poo vey for th ird.
Pete Hames split from the third heat
and let Dan Ingra m and Will Davis
battle for second with Ingram getting
the nod at the flag.
The final heat went to Tim Mertens
with R usty Rogers second and Don
Estep the last transfer into the main .
With the sun rapidly dropping, the
main was waved off at 5:30 in the
afternoon with Morehead and Boody
in a class by themselves. They were
using th e cushion so well that the rest
of the pa ck was nearl y blinded by the
dust in th eir wak e. Hames and Ingram
were contesting third while Mertens ,
Sammy Sweet and Cornwell went at it
for fifth .
Boody pressured Morehead the entire
race and looked read y to pounce at an y
second . It would have to be an inside
move since Moreh ead was riding the
outside rim o f the track. The move
cam e on lap 10 with Boody coming
underneath Morehead and moving him
out just enough to get by.
Once Bood y went by, Morehead had
no chance of catching him and settled
into second, seven seconds ahead of the
Hames-Ingra m duel which went in
H ames' favor. Sweet narrowly edged
Mertens for fifth with Roeder sevent h.
"What can I say," was Moreh ead 's
im mediate reaction after th e race. "I
was watching his shadow and I knew
where he was every lap. He tried to
come underneath me and I didn't
think that was called for. He hit my
bars with his leg and it knocked them
out of my hands."
"Steve beat me off the line," Boody
said, " I tested him on one side and I
knew I couldn't go around him on the
outside. I slip ped a lilli e bit going in
and I don 't kn ow if I even touched
him, .a lth ough he said I did. There
•
were no marks on my bike."
Results
PRO· AM FINAL: 1. Willie McCoy (Hoo); 2. Tom
Majewski (H-Dt. 3. Scott Saunders (Hoot. 4. Marl:
Wyskiel (Hont. 5. M ike Merrill (W-Rl; 6. Eddie Howe
(W -Rt. 7. Chance Derling (W ·R); 8. J ames Ma goon
(Hont. 9 . Dave Cook (Hon); 10. John 80va (C·A); 11.
Larry Amett (H-D); 12. Bob Yboma (W-R).
JR FINAL: 1. Bryan Villella (W-Rt, 2. Robert Lewis
(W-R); 3. Bryan McDowell (W-R); 4. Eric Sassaman
(H·D); 5. Rocil Hart (C-A); 6 . BrueeJohnson (W-Rt. 7 .
Brad Furlong (H-Dt. 8 . Danny Ange l (W·RI; 9. Jack
Mayer (H· D); 10 . Ron Bertrand (W-R); 11. John
Holmes (Hon ); 12. J im Slaug hter (H·D).
EX FINAL C: 1. Donn ie Howard (H-D); 2 . David
Miller (H-D); 3. Slave Labordus(H -Dt. 4. Bryan Hardin
(H-D); 5. Randy Green (H-D); 6 . Curt Rehm ert (H-D); 7.
Rich King (Hon); B. Delbert Beck (Han): 9. Gary Conk·
ling (H-D); 10 . M art in Lavoie (H-D); 11. Randy Texter
(H-D); 12. Robert Sweeten (H-D).
EX FINA L B: 1. Tammy Kirk (H· D); 2. Roger Durk ee
(H-D); 3. Scott Adams (H· D); 4 . Guy Hughson (H-D); 5.
Doug Davis (H· D); 6. John Parker (H·D); 7. Eric
Rausch (H-D); B. Rendy Triplett (W-Rt. 9. M ike Ragan
(H-D); 10. Davey Durelle (H·D); 11. Tony Pitcock (H-D);
12. Terry Poovey (H·D).
EX FINAL: 1. Ted Boody (Hoot. 2. Steve Morehead
(H- D); 3. Pete Hames (H- D); 4. Dan Ing ram (H-Dt. 5.
Sammy Sweet (H· Dt. 6. Tim M ertens (H-Dt. 7 . George
Roeder (H· Dt. 8. Jon Cornwell (H-D); 9. Ronnie Jones
(Hont. 1D. Don Estep (H-Dt. 11. RustY Rogers (H-D);
12. Bill Davis (H·D).
