Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Team Nordica Roberts' John Kocinski dominated the shortened250cc Grand iSrix class at Daytona. Danny Coe rode his Phil Schilling-prepared Rotax to a f ine th ird place finish; Coe was aboard arguably the fastest motorcycle on the t rack . AMAjCastrol 2S0cc Grand Prix Series: Round 1 Kocinski shines By Pau l Carruthers . Photos by Henny Ray Abrams and Daytona International Speedway DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 6 . , T eam Nordica Rober ts' defending 250cc G ra nd P r ix Cha mpion John Kocin ski started off the 1988 season .th e way h e ended 1987, by soundly defeating the rest of the 16 I 250cc field on · h is Yamaha The soon-to-be-Ztl-year-old T Z250. . Modesto, California, resi dent domina ted practice, but was relega ted to a third row sta rt in the final because of a poor finish in hi s h eat race due to mechanical ills. Come ra ce day , however, Kocinski shot from tha t third row start to first place in two laps. After cross ing th e start! fini sh line ninth at th e sta rt o f th e seco n d go-around, Kocinski passed nine co m pe tito rs in one lap to tak e th e lead he would hold to th e finish. " I went th e whole lap with my eyes as big as th e wheels," Kocinski sa id o f th e hot lap. " I was passing people everywhere." En gl and 's Alan Carter rode a smart race to finish seco nd o n hi s J ohn La ssak-tuned Yamaha TZ250. T hi rd pl ace in what was th e rac e of th e . day went to Phil Schilling! Rotax-rnounted Dann y Co e, wh o narrowly top ped four-time World Champion Kork BaIIignton, threetime AMA Grand Nati onal cham p Bubba Shobert who was co m pe t in g in hi s first-ever 250cc Grand Prix ra ce, and a no th er class newcomer, Thomas Stevens on th e second Team Nordica Rob erts Yamaha en try. . Southern California 's R ich a rd Moore, an o the r newcomer to th e grow i n g class, fin ished se ve n th a hea d o f Sou th Afri can Robert Peterson, Doug Brauneck arid Andy Leisner on the new Apri lia. The new Yamaha TZ250s wer e th e talk o f th e pits during. practice. Kocinski got th e ball roll ing by turning a 2:01.64 lap time on only h is ninth lap. O n Friday, Kocinski turned in an unofficial 2:00.95 with talk of entering th e I:59-ra nge. " I wou ld like to be the first guy ' to do a .59 on a 250," Kocinski said. " I'm going to try. The new Yamaha runs really good, a nd it handles reall y good; it's pretty aw esome. " Carter was impressed with th e new Yamahas after making the change from th e Hondas of Team MacLean he rode last year. "I'm really happy," he said. "T h e new Yamaha is rea lly good to ride. You don't have to rev it real h ard . 1 feel that everything on this team is 20 percent better; the people I'm working with are great." Word through the garage area spread quickl y th a t in the case of the Yamaha T Z250 and Dayton a - stock was best. Kocinski 's bike seized twice early in th e week with his n ew teammate Stevens also suffering through a seizure while trying to find the right combinati on. That combination ended up being stock. " Let' s just say we had a combination th a t worked better, but we had togo back to stock," Nordica Rober ts tuner Bud Aksland said. Don Green e wa s a lso having seizure problems w i th th e new Yamaha. " It keeps eating the piston o n the left side." Tuner John Lassak, h owever , was getting good results o ut of hi s two bikes, those ridden by Carter and Ri ch Ol iver , claiming that they were bo th stoc k. The first 250cc G rand Prix heat ra ce got underway on Thursday with Carter grabbing th e .ho lesh o t over Peterson. After one lap, a 2:04, Carter sti ll held th e lead over Luis Lavado, Eddi e Layco ck , P eterson , Garry Griffith and a s lo w st arting Kocinski. " With our seizing problem s we h ad the bi ggest j et s (430 mainjets . . . Editor) we co u ld find in it," Kocinski said. " We were a lso br eaking th e m otor in . The jets were so big it just wouldn 't go. " Kocinski got th rough to secon d place and closed to within striking di stance o f Carter, but Kocinski's Yamaha loaded up co m in g out of the chicane and he finished sixth. Carter held on for the win over Yamaha-mounted Lavado and a fastlearning Stevens. . Carter, wh o has made th e switch from Mich elin to Dunlop for 1988, was pl eased with th e heat race win. " All my life I've been told that Daytona is a very prestigious race to win. We 'r e real happy with the heat ra ce. The tir es a re working good. We a re usin g wh at t he c ha m p io n (Kocinski) is using. " T he seco n d heat race saw a good battle from the beginning with Oliver taking th e lead into turn one and holding it unti l the final lap. That's wh en Brauneck took over on his J ohn Hasty-owned 1988 TZ250 to ta ke th e win, drafting past on th e fron t stra igh t. Coe rode th e ultra-fast Rotax to seco nd place in th e heat ra ce, holding off O liver and Shobert , wh o was making his 250cc deb ut on th e BelRa y-sponsored World Championship Motorsport (forme rly Team MacLean ) Honda 1988 NS250. Oliver , who sha ttered both feet recently at Willow Springs while testi ng, may have had th e race won · if he hadn't hit one of his sore feet on the cu rb in the chicane. "I thought 1 was going to fall off the bike," he said. " Bu t 1 managed to draft back to third. We didn't deci de to come here until Thursday, and I'm happy to be here; 1 would hate to read about it." Coe also had problems in the heat . race when he shattered his rear disc on the second lap. ''I'm learning m ore and more, " Coe said. Le isner, who finished seventh in the second heat race was having trouble getting the $20,000 Aprilia working correctly. T he bike di d go through the speed traps at 154.5 mph, accordi ng to Leisner. "We're having trouble getting it dialed in," he said. " It keeps cutting out af ter 12,000 rpm. We thought It was fuel problems, but we found silicone in the fuel line; it's still hesitating though. Bo th Leisn er an d James Stephens, eigh th in heat two, agreed that the

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