Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Texan Schwantz was easily the fastest rider all week at Daytona . In the bigg est ,race of his li f e he eve ntually lapped t he ent ire f ield , except Polen . Superbikes competitively, managed to tum in th e I I th fastest lime p rior to his turn six gel-off. Gra y was happy to q ual ify fifth after spe nding a night in pain . " I couldn't mo ve last night," he said. " T hey had to ge t a key to come and get me. It j ust ma kes it hard to mov e aro und o n the bike." Gray, li ke Polen , was mounted on a 1987 Suzuk i rather than an '88 like Sch want z. " I th ink th e aerodynami cs and the suspensio n might be better , o n the '88 bik e," Gray said. " And th e shorter wh eelbase might mean hi gher cornering speeds. If we get 'em for th e rest of the season we get 'em ; if we do n 't, we don 't. " Fr ida y's Superbike h eat ra ce, wh ich wou ld decide th e six riders wh o would tak e part in th e $ 17,500 Cam el Challenge, produced some of th e best racin g of the week. T h e fir st heat o pene d with a Sch wa n tz, Baldwin, Gray, Polen battle. The hard -riding Bal dw in exch an ged blow s early, slidi ng the rear end exiting turn one an d diving hard into every corner on th e circu it. On the third lap , while trai li ng th e Schwantz/ Pol en fight for th e lead, G ray shot past Baldwin between the Intern at ional Horse shoe and the fast kink, turn fo ur, but moved over a little pr emat ur ely, hitting Baldw in 's fro nt tire. T he co n tac t caused a vibration in Gray 's bik e a nd th e Suzuki pilot raised his hand in turn five. He rejoined the fray when the vibration diminished , bu t was no lon ger a facto r. " I apo logized to hi m afte r the race ," Gray said. " I though t he had mi ssed a shift a nd didn 't kno w he was that close." Bal dwin was calm about the incidental contact. " Everyone was ridi ng good; he moved ' over a nd I had to sh ut off, bu t he hit my fro nt wheel. That's racin g." O n th e six th lap, Baldwin cras hed horrifica lly j ust prior to entering turn one coming off the banking. H e and th e H ond a car tw heeled down the fro nt straigh t in a heart -stop p ing :accident. ' " I th in k I got ou t to where th ere was some sand o n th e track ," Baldwi n, who lost a lot of skin and put a in ch-a nd-a- ha lf hol e in his left forear m, said later. " It hap pen ed just whe n I gOI on the fro nt bra kes; it gets light there and the fro nt just tu cked und er. " Schwantz and Pol en continued to battle un til the ninth la p wh en Schwantz pulled , 1.2 seconds clear, turn ing tim es in th e low I :57 bracket. Pol en ended up a safe second wi th G ra y third , Ashmead fourth and Ren fro w fifth: The second heat race saw Sh obert taki ng th e holeshot and opening up a short lead. O n th e fif th la p , h owever, th e Texan lost th efro nt end ente ring the horseshoe and crashed. H e remounted and charged to as high as fift h before rea lizing that the crash had worn through the cases of the H onda, . " I wasn 't push ing it, " Shobert said of the cras h. " I just lost it. After I go t go ing I noti ced my feet were slipping off th e pegs and it started vibra ting rea l bad so I had to p ull in." With Shobert gone, 'O h sh i rna inherited a lead he would hold to th e fin ish. Second pl ace went to Swede And ers And ersson aft er a great ba ttle wit h even tu al th ird place finis her Gary Goodfellow and non- Iin isbers Doug Chand ler ' (b lown engine) and Richard Arn aiz (turn one cras h ). Chandler rode the majority of the ra ce with loose handlebars. " We were changing some stuff and they didn 't ge t tig htened," he said. " I noticed the bolts vibrating arou nd on the warm-up lap and we only had tim e to tighten one o n the line. I co uld Bubba Sho bert didn 't start the 200, on the rig ht foot as he stalled on t he warm-up lap when the Honda vapor locked; he sta rted dead last. 7

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