Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Honda-mounted Willie McCoy took a wire-to-wire victory at Memorial Stadium 's Pro-Am /Junior short track final on Wednesday. Ronnie J ones took his GF Racing-backed Honda to the winner's circle o n the fina l night of Junior/Expert short track ra cing at Memorial Stadium . The w in gave him the Wiseco Daytona Dirt Track Series overall title . Pro-AmLJunior Short Track McCoy wins at MemorialStadium By Hanny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 5 Willie McCoy of G arl a n d, Texas, the only Pro-Am rider in the ltl-man P ro-Am /J unior final, scored a flag-to-fl ag win on the firs t of four nights of short track racing a t Mem orial Stadium. McCoy, the Pro- Am winner of Su n day's Dayton a '1 Busch Ha If MI e, wa~ I?ressu red by second-place Floridian Mark 42 Ma n nschreck, bu t did n't bobble a nd held on for the win. Junior Ro bert Lewis was third. The 10 six-rider, six-lap heats were mostly follow-the-leader affairs with little opportunity for passing on the heavily-grooved limestone Memorial Stadium track. Four ri ders from each heat transferred to the four 10-rider semis and Mannschreck's win in th e fifth heat was th e fastest, putting him on the pole for the first sem i. Bryan Villella led for half of th e first eight-lap sem i, bu t Mannschreck got underneath him in turn two a nd lifted him out of the lead . On ce past, his cushion grew, wi th Vill ell a second and Jack Mayer third. Eric Sassman had no trouble winning the second semi and h ad no idea of the action behind him. P .J . Sanchez took over second on the seventh lap and on the last lap, Sco tt Bucha n - \f~h3ftdt!d Mll. ••• • ••• • r The th ird sem i was a ll McC o y. H e got the. hol eshot an.d won by a lmost th e enure front straightaw ay . Robert Lewis got a bad start, but moved up to third wi th a second-t urn pass on lap three, and a lap later , took over seco nd from eventual third-pl ace fin ish er David Bett en court. The semi was the fastest of th e night, with all three riders going to th e m ain . Three would go from th e two fast est h eat s a nd two from th e slower he ats, rnaking up the fie ld for the m ain. . The final sem i went to Craig Estell e a fter h e slid under ea rly leader Bruce J ohnson o n the seve nth lap. Dave Lamb ea rned th e fi na l spot in th e feature event. McC o y was o n th e pol e for th e fin al , surrou nde d - bu t n ot intim idat ed - by Juniors. H e sped into th e lead , with Mannschreck close beh ind . Nex t ca me Sassaman , Lewis. Vill ella a nd Johnson. Lew is m o ved to third o n th e seco nd lap an d th e top three were set, although Mann sch reck kept th e heal o n . McC o y would d ive deep into turns one and two, sometimes ~ Jl\1Sh ~g ttl • frt>m t'Ifd ~ lthatd • a nd Pegg y Bates' H onda wh ich h is parents, Eddie and Debbie, help spon sor. But a ny time lost was m ad e up a t the o the r en d of th e sta diu m . McC o y was o n ly worried wh en he'd "slip off th e groove a few times. But it was working rea l well in three an d four. " Beh in d the lead ers ma ny o f th e riders were havi ng thei r p roblems h angin g o nto the groove. Vill ell a , fourth o n th e third lap, slip pe d back to finish eigh th , o ne spo t belo w Sassama n, wh o was third o n the fir st la p. Estelle h eld fourth a t th e ha lfway point, but a lap lat er, Sa nchez got by and hel d o n to the end . Estelle finished fifth . Lewi s m oved up near th e McC o y/ Mann schreck duel o n the ninth lap, bu t with o n ly three laps to go , ran o u t of ti me. " I wa s ga in ing a little going in to turn o ne a n d losing a little going o u t. . I was getting o n it too h ard, I guess, " th e J.L.&H Sal es/Lewis Groceriesspons ored rider said. " It wa s a little bi t slick out there." Due to the expense of racing, this wa s Mann schreck's first race in over a yea r, a nd h e had a lot of people ro th ank. " J o h n Eaton built the motor a nd h e was he lped by Ace Miller and my dad Ed , in setting the bike up. My wife Pa tt y helps out, too." The bike was set up nea rl y perfectly a nd Mannschreck didn 't look too rusty after his one-year la yoff. " H e got a better line through one and two , and I had a better line through three and four. He made a few mistakes , but I haven't ridden for a yea r. It 's just too expensive. This bi ke's for sal e now, but I' ll run the short tracks the next three nights. " " I love it, " McCoy said in th e wi n n ner's ci rcle. H e did ad mi t to being surprised that he'd beaten th e field of seco nd -yea r Pros. " A little surp rised, or a lot surp rised?" he was as ked . "A lot surp rise d," h e sa id with a g rin . _ Results PRO-AM I JR: 1. Winie McCoy (Han' ; 2. Merk Ma nnschreck (Han); 3. Robert Lewis (W-R); 4. P.J. Sanc hez (W· R); 5. Craig Estene (H· D); 6. Br uce Joh nson (Hon): 7. Er ic Se5sman (H-Ot: 8. Bryan Vill ena (W-RI; 9. David Bettencourt (Han); 10. Oeve ~(tf~ . . . . . .& . Wiseco Daytona Dirt Track Series: Round 2 Ingram's ho/eshof By Hanny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH , FL, MAR. 6 Griswold Racing's Dan Ingram took th e holesh o t a nd was never challenged for th e win on the opening night of Junior/Exp ert short track racing a t Memorial Sta d iu m , round tw o of th e Wiseco Daytona Dirt Track Series . From turn two of th e opening lap in th e 12-la p main event, th ere was virtually no p assing an d GF Racing's Ronnie J ones a nd Chris Ca rr on th e Ron Wood/Harley-Davidson Motor Co .! Sh oci Wood- Rorax maintained their second and third spots, resp ectivel y, to the end. The win moved In g ra m to the top of th e seri es point standings, with 31 points. College Bike Shop's Ted Boody, 10th here, drops to second and Steve Morehead, on the KK Motorcycle SupplylTex Peel HarleyDavidson, fa lls to third by fin ish ing th ird here. Bood y and Morehead were 1-2 after the Busch H a lf Mile. Of the 10 heats run , Jones' was the fast est at I :55.865 for the six -lap race. Carr's win was next fastest wi th Sammy Sweet, Ingram, David Hebb, P ete Hames , Do n Howard, Eric Ra usch , Mic key Fay and J o n Co rwell winning also. The top three from the four semis would advance to the main. with Jones winning the fir st semi easily over T erry Poovey, who had 50 ya rds on third-place Boody. Carr won the second and fastest semi , taking Hames and Sco tt Pearson into the main with him. The win wa s th e m ost impressive of th e night with Carr ta kin g th e checkered flag as Hames ent ered turn four. Sweet wa s seco nd off the line behind Morehead in the third semi, but tested the veteran in turn three just before the ha lfway mark. Three laps la ter he , slid under Morehead in three . ami ,

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