Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Jamie James celebrates his firstever Daytona victory. Louisiana' s Jamie James (10) leads David Sadowski and the rest of the 750cc Supersport field . AMA/CCS Yoko ama 75Occ: Supersports Series: Round 1 James nips Sadowski By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL , MAR. 10 Not wanting to show his hand too early, Yoshimura Suzuki's Jamie James stalked Vance & H ines' Suzuki-mounted Dave 22 Sadowski the entire race before usi ng the famous Daytona draft to make the pass just befo re the fin ish li ne and win the 750cc Supersports race at Dayton a International Speedway . Mi ke H ar th finis hed third despite transmission tro ubles o n h is Suzuki of Corpus Christi/ Michel in /BelRa y-spo nsor ed Suzu ki . Team Kawa saki /Muzzy's Doug Chandler, weakened by the flu , was a distant fourth with Georgian Cam Roos fifth on a Suzuki. - . "I was si tti ng back every la p ," the . soft-spo ken James said in victory lane after the 10-lap , 35-mile race . " I coul d 've done it sooner , but I did n 't want to let him know I could do i t." Sado wski had tho ugh t he 'd lost J ames to backmarkers exiting th e chi cane on the last lap, bu t James was in th e perfect spo t to draft him and when they crossed the line James was abou t a wh eel ahead. " I got aro und two riders in the chicane and when I looked back I saw a lapped rider and not Jamie," Sadowski said. " So I just beared down, I did this to him at T all adega so now he owes me one." Although the series sponsor, Yoko hama, o ffers a substantial co ntinge ncy p rogram, none of the to p r ider s used the J apan ese ti res . Mich elin debuted a new rear tire, the TX-23 Hi-Sport Radial that both J am es and Harth used, a long with a TX- i l on th e front. Sadow ski and Chandler used Dunlop K591s. A day earlier, James had fin ished second to Yosh imura Suzuki teamma te Sco tt Russell in the fir st of two five-lap hea ts. Russell bolted to th e lead off th e start taking J ames wi th him at a slight distance. By th e third lap R ussell and James had a significant advan tage on Jeff Heino in third with Cam Roo s fourth and Mark Chin fifth on a Yamaha FZR600. Becau se th e track was damp and the tempera ture was in the mid 40s, lap times were down with Russell turning a 2:06.68 on the third lap . A lap later Pau l Bray moved into fourth. The same lap R u sse ll dropped his lap time over a seco nd to 2:05.22, his tires now warming. T he finish in g order was Russell , James , H ein o , Bray, and Roos with a time of 10:35.358 with an average speed of 100.856 mph. In the second heat, Sadowski showed the ' same command of the field that Russell had. Opening with a 2:08.87 on th e first flying lap , Sadowski ' was unchallenged u ntil late in the race , b ut by then he was too far ahead and he crossed the line wi th a time of 10:39.899 averaging 100.141 mph. Doug Chandler was off th e line in third, but took over seco nd on the second lap and set out for Sadowski, turning low 2:06s, but settled for second. The rider he dropped to third, Suzuki-support rider Mike Smith, held his position until the fin al lap when he was passed by third-place finisher Mike Harth. Smith was fourth with Marc Smith fifth on another Suzuki. Condi tions for the final were considerably better with temperatures in the mid 50s below intermittent clouds. O ne problem that didn 't change was the wind which p ropelled the riders down the front straight but slowed them on the backstretch. Bu t a few of the top riders never got to see how bad the wi nd was. Fast heat race win ner Russell never made the final. The new Yoshi m ura recr u it had en gi ne problem's in hi s heat and a new engine, borrowed fro m a Yoshimura su p port rider, was installed before th e race. Bu t an oil leak was detected a nd R ussell sa t ou t the final. P aul Bray d idn 't h ear the an no u ncement calli ng ri ders to th e pre-grid , and Jeff H eino similarly missed the main. Marc Smith's ra ce came to a grinding halt with a firstlap cras h in the In te rn a tio n a l Horsesh oe. Sadowski had led through the infield with James second and Harth third. Chandler was fourth a nd Roo s fifth going up on the banking and, two laps later, o nly the order of the top two would change. By the third lap the lead trio had lef t Chandler about five seco nds behind, but he had a six-second cushio n on Roos and settled into a pace he was confortable with given his physical condition. " I got the flu Monday night and I've been dragging," Chandler wou ld la ter say. "The Superbike heat race (held shortly before the 750cc Supersport fin al ) took a lot ou t of • me. Those guys got away and I co uldn ' t hit a ll my marks. I'd been perfect a ll week ." Sadowski led J a mes over the stripe starting lap .four, but entering the horseshoe, Sadowski let off early lett ing James temporarily past. Since Smith was still being hel ped just off the edge of the track in the hor seshoe , a waving yellow a nd red cross flag were being shown just before the corn er and there was some thought that James would be penalized for passing u nder a waving yellow. H owever , the AMA offi cials decided that th e pass was inadvertent and no advantage was gained. Clearly, it was the right decision because later on th e sa me lap Sadowski re-asserted himself with James second and H art h dropping back slightly in third. At first it appeared he had tire problems, b u t he la ter said it was h is tra nsmission that was slowing him. Still, unofficial clocks showed Harth to have the fastes t la ps, a pair o f identical 2:01.51's o n the third and seventh laps. T he eigh th was shown to be th e fas test for Sadowski , leading with a 2:01.75. James was still ri ght on hi s . ta il, despite having to deal with lapped n ders from th e sixth lap on. H arth stuck in there in third with Chandler 15 seconds ba ck , yet 12 ah ead o f Roos. R o o s, wi th six • seco n d s on Kye Gunn , Ri cky Orlando and Bri tt T urki ngton. Orlando had held sixt h most of the race wi th Kye Gunn seventh fro m the fourth la p on. Gunn ma de his move on the seventh lap and, although Orlando wou ld pressure him, Gun n wa s unmoved and took sixth. Orlando held onto seventh with T urkington all alone in eighth. John Eidenberger, the first Yamaha, was ninth with Titian Bue 10th on a Suzuki. Out front the order remained constant until the last lap. O n the ninth, James turned up the boost cutting his fast lap of 2:01.83 still stuck to Sadowski. Entering the chicane, Sadowski cleanl y went through two back markers wi th Ja mes getting held up on the second o ne. Sadowski seemed to have the edge. Bu t as they exited the chicane and headed up the ba nking it was apparent that James was setting his rival u p and, although the bikes were near equal on power, J a mes was able to slip by usi ng the draft. For James it was a ·b ig win in his de b u t Yosh imura Suzuki ride. H e'd been so intent o n wi n ni ng it th at he appeared lost in tho ught earlier in the day during superbike hea t victory lan e ce leb ra tions. (He fi n ished second to R ussell in the second heat.) " I really was conce ntrating on th is race," he ad mi tted. " I needed it. I always seem to be coming from beh ind. This year's off to a good start." Sa dowski said tha t a geari ng change that he made after his heat race may not have had the effect he wa nted. "We took a tooth off the ba ck sprocket," he said. " It was revving to 13,600 in top gear in the heat. Today it would do 13,600 with the wi nd, but 12,500 going into it. I had to hold fifth another five seconds o n the backstraight or it would fall on its face. The bikes were pretty equal. It 's more a matter of putting it together." H a rt h concurred. " T hey didn 't have m uch on top, " he said. " But with the transmission dragging I couldn' t acce lerate with the m. I feel good though. I proved I can ride with the boys." • Results t . Jamie James (Suz); 2. Dave Sedowski (Suz); 3. M ike Hanh (Suz); 4. Doug Chandler (Kaw); 5. Cam Roos (Suz); 6. Kfe Gunn (Suz); 7. Ricky Orlando (Suz); 8. 8ritt urkinglon (Suz); 9. John Eidenberger (Yam); 10. Titian 8ue (Suz); 11. Gary D'Aluisio (Yam); 12. Kevin 81ais (Kaw); 13. Mitch Boehm (Suz~ 14. Kirk Hoeppner (Yam); 15. Jose Xavier Soares (Suz); 16. Andy Fenwick (Suz~ 17. Jeff Harder (Suz~ 18 . Tad Heben (Suz); 19 . Brian Wh ite (Suz); 20. Ma rk Reynolds (Suz). 750 S IS POINT STANDINGS : 1. James (20); 2. Sadowski (16); 3. Hanh (131; 4. Chandler (1 1); 5. Roos ( 10~ 6. Gunn(9); 7. Orlando (8); 8. Turkington (7~ 9. Eidenberger (6~ 10. Bue (5); I I , D'A1uisio (4~ 12. Bla is(3 ~ 13 . Boehm(2~ 14. Hoeppner (1).

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