Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GWIDUcr~m~_~ ~ m Lee Pounders (132), and eventual winner Michael Barnes (2) lead a group of Expert Middleweight Supersport riders. Canadian Pascal Picotte won the Expert Heavyweight Superbike race at Daytona. II 00 compete at Daytona By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Abrams and courtesy Daytona International Speedway DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR 1 ·3 o me were here for practice, some were here for trophies, and so me were here to cherry pick, but mos t were here to race and they had p lenty of opport u nities to do so in the AMAI CCS spri nt final s o n the weekend prior to th e 50th running of the Dayton a 200. On a weekend filled with volatile wea ther, including tornado warn ings, there were over 1100 en tries in the 23 races with the most impressive performan ce being turned in by Thomas Steven s on the Vance & Hines Yam aha FZR750 superbike. Stevens, the polesitter in last year's Daytona 200, served earl y notice of hi s 199 1 intentions by rapidly roc keting into th e lead of the Expert Solo GTO class o n Friday afternoon and winning by over a minute in the 14-lap, 50-mile race. Stevens averaged 107.034 mph. S 10 " I thought Mike Smi th (45th), Tom Kip p (53rd), and som e of the others woul d be right there," Stevens , of Cape Cora l, Florida , said. " I never think my competitio n isn 't go ing to be th ere. " We've made a lo t of gains wit h the bikes since last year and this sho ws it. T he eng ine is really strong, but 1 think the biggest improvement is that I'm using carbon fiber front brakes. I'm still gell ing used to the feel and · the difference in th e weight on th e front wheel." Ray Yoder was the distant second place finisher on the Racing Engine Services Suzuki GSXR750 with Ri ck Kirk third on the Mad Dog Kawasaki ZXR 750. It was the first ride on their resp ective machines for both and both said their confidence grew as the race progressed. " I had to tip toe th roug h some of the corne rs until the tires got scru bbed in and I got used to the bike," Yoder said. In th e on ly other Expert race o n Frid a y, Bou ld er Yamah a 's Dann y Walker won the Expert Solo GTU class beating fellow Yamaha T Z250 rider Rick Tripodi by 10.49 seconds. Walk er averag ed 100.659 mph for the , 50-mile race. Ph il McDonald , co ntin u i n g his return to racing, finished a close thi rd o n th e K&N Gun & Pawn Yamaha FZR600. " I th ink I had a cou p le of seconds more in the bik e," Wa lker said. " We cou ld have upped the pace a bi t." "Thi s race was to get som e practice for th e endurance race on Sunday," McDonald said. Eight more Expert races were ru n on Saturday but they were sho rte ned from seven to five laps du e to inclement weat her . Kipp won th e Middleweight Superbik e Expert on th e Atlantic Motor Sport Group Honda CBR600 F2 and Bri ll T u r ki ngton too k h is Team Suzuki Endurance GSXR lloo to the Un limi ted Supersport Expert victory. But bo th had to deal with the wet and windy conditio ns and their lap tim es reflected it. Turking ton, who wo n by over 25 seconds, averaged lap times in the low 2:34s, well off the two-mi nute pace the bik e is capable or. And Kip p , wh o fin ished 3.68 seconds ahead of William L uke, averaged a slig h tly faster 2:32.646 a lap fo r a n 83.959 mph average. " It was q ui te wet out there, bu t th e bike ran and handled like a top," Kipp said, addding the machine, whi ch was prepared by last year 's Daytona 200 win ner Dave Sadowski and the Atlantic Motor Sport Group, was brand new and basically stock . "T he main difference (be twe en th e ' 90 and '91 machines)" Kipp said, was th e " new mod el ha s a lot more power and a beuer suspe nsion." The closest race of the weekend was in the Expert Lightweight GP. Three Yamaha TZ250 riders went for the lead _ to the end with Andrew Trevitt com ing o ut o n top. Trevi tt moved into second behind Ri ck Kir k on the second lap, holding the spot when Michael Barnes leapfrogged th em both a lap later. The trio shuffled pla ces for th e majority of the . final lap with Barn es taking the lead going onto the banking and holding off Barnes by just over half a second. Kirk was a close third. Both Rossanese . Racing's Trevitt and Bames were on 1990 mod els with Kirk on a 1991. " I th ink Rick Kirk was a bit down on horsepow er with his '9 1 model," Barnes, who 's spo nso red by Arai and New T ech Cycle, sai d. "I don't th ink they've had a lot of time to work on the bik e yet." Trevitt, who has both a '90 and '91, said he wou ld decid e lat er in the week which he would use in the following weekend's Internation al Lightweight race. Also sorting out machinery for the foll owing weekend was Great Britain's Ala n Cathcart. T he Bimota/Syd 's - Cycl es-sponsored racing journalist wa s aboa rd th e $40,000 hub-steering Duca ti 906 powered Bimo ta T esi , one of on ly five in the wor ld , in the Expert Heavy weig h t Super twi ns and quickly jetted into the lead from his fourth row starting spo t; He was second by the end of the firs t lap and passed leader SCOll Zampach and hi s Buell 1200 traversing the banking over th e tunnel in turn four on the second lap. The two were never more than a few lengths apart with Ca thca rt stay ing low on the banking and Zam pach opting for the high line unt il Ca thcart wa s able to break his draft with th e deft use of a backmarker in tu rn one on the fin al lap. Still, he was o n ly .900 of a second ahead a t the checkered £lag with a new respect for the Buel l. " Those Harleys run fast," he said. "This is the first tim e we' ve run the Bimota in tra ffic and it behaves, let' s say, no t perfectly, so we have some work to do before the Pro Twi ns race next week. " Su nday was reserved almost excl usively for Experts with five races and o nly a Twins race interrupting them. There were no mu ltiple wi n ne rs, which was understanda ble since most of the ride rs didn't go out for the first two races d ue to monsoo n-like conditions. The conditions were so bad o ne and a half inches of rain fell in one 10 minu te period - that th e races were suspended and the order of the day ch anged. . There were 54 en tries in the Unlimited GP Expert, but, because of the rain, only nine showed up o n the grid and of those nine on ly six finished, the first being Peter Villacaro of Port St. Lucie, Florida. The self-sponsored rider led every sloppy inch of the way lapping in th e mid 2:40s on his Yamaha FZRIOOO. " I thin k I probably weigh about 400 pounds righ t now with these soaked leathers," he said. " I don't know how we kept it on two wh eels. " The races were suspended for over an hour whi le the sky cleared and the track par tially dried. In th e first race back, the Expert Middleweight GP, Brutane Racing Yamaha TZ250-mounted Rick Tripodi fought a spirited bailie with William Luke, on the Yamaha FZR600 before taking the lead for good on the fourth of five laps and extending his lead to nearly four seconds at the end of the 12-minute race. Lee Pounders, the big winner here at the fall AMAI CCS meet was third. " I was a little nervous and I just wanted to find out where the puddles were," the Canadian Tripodi said.

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