Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Ashmead (37) leads C~nadian Reuben McMurter (24) early in the 200. McMurter's Honda vapor locked after following the pace car for several laps. Shobert in the chicane at the start of last year's Da ytona 200 cos t McMurter the race early o n when th e Honda refu sed to run after an early pace car incident. The Rube had been holding down third place, closing on th e leaders and turned some of th e fastest laps of th e race (h igh I:56s) before he was forced oUL Texan Otis Lance tallied a fourthplace finish on a Suzuki in his first race in over a year a fter being sidelined by injuries, whi le Georgian Mike Harth took fifth on a Suzuki 'which consumed no less than three motors during th e week and which was rebuilt in the pit ar ea without the benefit of a garage. West German 250 cc Grand Prix a ce Martin Wimmer, who last rode a Superbike in 1987 at Suzuka, finished six th on a virtually stock Suzuki street bik e borrowed from Fl oridian H enry DeGo uw wh en the Mik e Trirnbyarranged Superb ike he was supposed 1O ride was found unacceptabl e. Northwestern ers Keith Pinkstaff and Charl es Pillman took a pair of Suzukis to seventh and eig h th places, while Wisconsin rider John Eiden berger rou nded ou t the to p 10 o n another Suzuki. Not o nly was the hi gh level of aurition reminiscent of NASCAR stock car racing, so too was th e use of a pace car. The red Pontiac Grand Prix, dr iven by AMA/CCS Director Roger Edmondson, was used for the first-ever time in the 200, sell ing th e pace of the leader s for lap s six through II whi le a n oily tr ack situation at th e approach to th e chicane was brough t under con trol. Qualifying Practice for th e spring classic was sporadic du e to inclement (for Flor.ida ) wea ther. Qualifying, origi nally slated for Wedn esda y aft ernoon , was postponed due to ra in to Friday morning but was still held o n a damp track. Polen, as expected, was the class of the field as he qualified with a time of 1:55.778, a second-and-ahalf faster than hi s closest co mpetition, teammate R ussell (I :57.169). New Vance & Hines rid er David Sadowski was third (1:57.973) a tick behind R ussell , with J am es fourth (1:58.030) and Canadian Gary Goodfellow fifth (I :58.753). Goodfellow Forme r Grand National Champion Jay Spr ingsteen won $5000 for topping the othe r dirt tracke rs in the 200. was riding th e same Suzu ki th at he rode for Frank Ciampini in 1986, wit h a Yosh imura mo tor th at he' d bo rrowed just four da ys before th e ra ce. Wimmer (1:59.865) and Canadian McMurter (1:59.955) were th e last of th e sub-two- minu te lappers. Dal e Quarterley was rid in g a Fast By Ferracci Ducati 851 in Superbike competitio n for the first tim e since th e mach ine 's hom ol ogation a nd qual ified eig h th with a time of 2:00.065. According to th e par t-time stock car racer, th e new Superbike steers quicker than th e sim ilar Pro Twins mount, but still had th e stock street gear ratios with an extra-large gap between fifth and sixth. Since the bike was received just a few da ys before the race, modifications were limited 1O enlarged forced air intake ducts, Ferracci would like to have increas ed the fu el ta n k ca p aci ty (wh ich li kely would have allowed 200 miles on o nly one ga s stop ), bu t th ere jus t Wasn' t time. On the da y before th e race, Ferracci elected to install the more powerful motor from the P ro T wi ns bike in th e Superbike chassis, as well as th e lar ger (320mm as op pos ed to 3OOmm) from brake rotors, One rider who was goi ng well in q ua lifying was Team MOlOr Sport's dirt tr ack er-turned-road ra cer Richard Arnaiz, who unfortunately crashed his Yam aha FZR750R while hurrying after making a mid-session carburetor swap. Arnaiz qualified nimh with a best lap of 2:00.462, and ma y ha ve been quicker had he no t fall en. H e'd blown his fast motor in practi ce and was relyin g o n a spare for qualifying and the heat races. Local rider Mark Ch in ro unded out the top 10 q ualifiers on hi s Yam aha FZR750R with a 2:00.877. The 10 fastest would lock up th e from two rows of the Dayton a 200 gri d, with sta rt ing positions 11-60 to be deter m in ed by the Twin 50 Qualifiers, 61-75 go ing 1O riders from timed practice who were not already in the field, and 76-80 1O riders el igi ble for th e AMA Performance Bonus Pl an (to p 20 riders in 1988 Superbi ke standi ngs) or additiona l timed q uali fiers. Arai Twin 50 Qualifiers T he first of the two 50-mile qualifi ers took a wh ile 1O get underway as both J ohn Hopperstad and j immy Adamo cras he d on co nsecu t ive warm-up laps. Adamo was o kay' and would later C OOlest the Pro Twins 7

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