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/127124
Bubba Shobert (1 ) turned in quite a performance during the N ational; after starting last he worked his way to th ird. Here he battles Baldwin. however. it was Schwantz in front of Gray and McMuner. The dash for the cash was underway. Polen was third by the end of the first lap with Ashmead, Goodfellow, . Ohshima and McMuner in tow . By the second lap it was Polen in the lead and looking for his first -ever shot at th e $10,000 winner's share of th e Camel cash. Larry Sh orts became a first turn crash victim at th e stan of the second lap. " I got shoved out in turn one and lost th e front end," said th e Kawasaki rider who received new motor from Californian Rob Muzzy on ly day before the National. By the third lap the race for the lead had become a four-rider duel with Schwantz, Pol en. Ohshima and Gray all within striking distance. A small gap lat er saw Baldwin battling Ashmead, followed by. McMuner. Lap three also saw Richard Moore toss his Suzuki away in turn four. Shobert, meanwhile, was one minute and 29 seconds behind the leaders and was riding the wheels off th e Honda. As the leaders exited the chicane and headed to the finish line to decide the order of finish in the Camel Challenge on 'the fifth , lap, Po len led and held the lead with Schwantz second, Ohshima third and Gray fourth , with Gary Goodfellow fifth and Andersson sixth, completing a Suzuki sweep of the race within a race. " T he only way 1 could draft ' by him was if I got a good run at him," Schwantz said la ter. "Winning the 200 was the most important thing to me." . Things settled down to a three-way scrap for the lead following the first five lap s with Schwantz, Polen a nd Ohsh ima exchanging th e lead. Gray, meanwhi le was begi n ning to fall off the pace. Behind them it was Baldwin battling' Ashmead, McMurter, Andersson a nd Chandler, a gap to Farmer a nd Quarterley a nd a nother ga p to Mark Ch in, Pa ul Mac Mill a n, 'and H arth . a a Jo hn Ashmead (37) leads Ruebe n McMurter (24) during the 200; McMurter finished fifth despite using 17inch wheels at the last minute when it was discovered that his 18-inch wheels were leaking air. 8 move the bars back and forth. But th e thing was 'ru n ning great before it blew up; 1 was pumped." Amaiz, who was having the race of his life before crashing hard. in turn one, said. "Coming in 1 hit neutral and couldn't get it slowed down." The former dirt tracker had another scare earlier in the race when he ran off the track in the 100 mphplus, turn four kink, riding onto the , grass and rejoining the four-way battle in the next corner without losing his postion. "I was down on power and praying for traffic," Goodfellow said after his third place finish and a transfer to the Camel Challenge. Wit h downpours on Saturday wreaking havoc on the schedule, Sunday's proceedings were altered drastically. Fo ll o win g the 600cc Supersport class. the Daytona 200 by Arai got underway in cold and blustery conditions. Because of the hectic rescheduling. the Camel Challenge was taken off the program as its ow n race a nd was instead based on the first five la ps of th e 200. . The riders were given five practice laps prior to the warm-up lap because all the earlier practice sessions had to be scrubbed. Shoben's fiasco took pl ace on the war m -up lap. • "I think it vapor loc ked," Shobert explained later. " I pushed it back, someone pushed the gas cap down and then we got it going. " When the first wave hit tum one it was McMuner showing the way. When th e field exited ' the infield section of the 3.76-mile Speedway,