Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Another crash that left fluid on the track in the West End Horseshoe brought the pace car out for the second time at about the 2:10 mark. Team America switched back to Kling from Gardner, Fastline/MCM Suzuki put Barnes back on for Zampach, and Lynch replaced Kirk on the Two Brothers mount. "This is it," Zampach said after the team sent Barnes out with a new rear tire. "They're racing to the flag and it's tough. These guys don't know which way the track went for two and a half hours. They still don't know where it goes and now they're tired." When the pace car pulled off, with about 40 minutes to go, Hall was out front, Barnes second, and Lynch third. Team Amerita's Kling was fourth with John Ashmead holding fifth, his N2 Racing teammate Jim Sabin thought, though he wasn't certain. "We're not sure right now," Sabin said. "We're a little down on power and gas mileage is a problem. The pace car came out just in time. I could stay with the Team America bike on the west banking in the wind. I didn't even have to draft them because our 7S0 is so aerodynamic." With half an hour to go, Barnes was up on Hall and took the lead. Hall pitted less than five minutes later with a broken footpeg and shi fter mechanism dangling from the cases. It was quickly fixed, Martin took over, but the shifter snapped as he left the pits. He and Hall pushed back to the pit area and it was, again, repaired, but the delay cost the team four laps and they would finish sixth. Just up pit lane there was another incident that would help decide the out.;orne of the race. Lynch was forced to pit for another rear tire change and, whatever the problem, the Two Brothers team wasn't anxious for anyone to see it since they quickly wrapped the used tire in a tire-warmer. The race for first was, effectively, over and the win would be Fastlinel MCM Suzuki's. "These guys stayed out of troable and they stayed out of other people's way," team manager Jeff Stern said. "For me it was a perfect endurance race," Zampach said. "Last night at dinner we talked about the lap times to run. I ran a little faster, but I wanted to stay with the pack. The only problem was the pace car guy didn't stay on the racing line. He was out in the pickers and blowing dirt and gravel up. We don't have air cleaners and I thought it might get in our carbs." "I thought we had this won, but things didn't come to us today:' Two Brothers Kirk said. "That's why they call it endurance racing, it's really tough." "We spent a little bit extra lime in the pits than planned:' team manager Kevin Erion said. Gardner, of third-placed Team America, was already looking ahead, as was teammate Kling. "We were a little down on horsepower; there's no doubt about that. At smaller tracks that might not have hurt us as bad, but here at Daytona it's a problem." "The tracks only get smaller from here so the boys with the big bikes and big horsepower aren't going to have an edge:' Kling said. The GTU class was led off the start by Danny Walker on the Southwest Motorsports TZ2S0, though American Flyers' Harrington was right on him a were Hornblower Racing's Bill Hornblower, and Moto Liberty I Nankai's Doug Carmichael. Carmichael crashed on the second lap braking off a clutch lever which was replaced along with front brake pads. "We got going a little later than everyone else:' Carmichael's teammate Mike Himmelsbach said. As the pace car came out with the crash in the chicane, Harrington pitted on the American Flyers machine, but was back out and near the front when racing resumed 10 minutes later. At the half-hour mark, Hornblower had taken over the lead with Moto Liberty INankai II second, ahead of Semoff Brothers Racing's Glenn Szarek, and Pete Johnson on a Moto-Guzzi 992. Gators Havlin David Estok was in fifth and moving forward. Moto LibertyINankai II held the lead at the hour mark, but Chris Taylor was soon to move into the lead, a lead that teammate Walker would hold at the halfway mark after taking over just after the hour. Taylor said that traffic was a problem, since "everybody's going all over the place." Taylor had run with Harrington and noticed that his TZ Yamaha had better handing, but "he had motor on the banking. Our bike is in real stock configuration. I was shortshifting the engine and not riding it any harder than I had tQ. My TZ250 revs to 13,000. This one gets up to 12,500 if you hit the wind right." But just past the halfway mark the Southwest Motorsports team would bring the Yamaha behind the pit wall to replace a primary gear. "It was making a noise when I was in the lead. I had plus-1S, plus-'16; I. wasn't sure:' Walker said. "It started making a funny noise and I thought a pipe was dragging. It didn't really slow down, it just vibrated. We lost about six laps." Harrington was also in for an unscheduled stop to change a front tire on the 25th lap. Moto LibertyINankai II was also in for an extended stop with front brake problems, the problem dropping them to 22nd at the end. Hornblower had handed off to Owen Weichel for the second hour and Weichel rode through his stint thinking he was out front. "I guess we must have been in the lead:' Weichel said, adding that he was still recovering from a season-ending crash at Texas World. "(Steve) Crevier ran over my upper arm. It exploded the left humerus. You can see it's still bowed. It was broken in three major pieces. lf you can pin it or plate it you recover faster. But three and a half months later I still couldn't raise it. At least here I could relax on the banking." Cornwell took over for the mop-up work, but not without problems. The wrapping had come off of the exhaust pipe and he ran with the pipe hanging free for the final hour. Harrington was sharing the riding with Mike Murphy and the team had worked their way back into the lead following their early tire problem. "We were leading until my front tire started getting flat," Harrington said. "It blistered and I almost lost it six or seven times so I thought something was wrong. That cost us about a lap and a half. Our pit stops after that were out of sequence so we were able to work our way back to first." With Cornwell chasing frantically to catch up in the final stages, American Flyers' Murphy was forced to pit on the, white flag lap with a fuel shortage. "It sputtered in the infield and he switched to reserve. It wouldn't make one and a half laps:' Harrington said. "He motioned to the pit board guys in the infield that he was coming in." As he was getting a splash of gas, Cornwell sped by on the front straight to take over the lead. A lap later Hornblower had his first win at Daytona. Hornblower Racing won the GTO portion of the endurance race. FasilineIMCM's Scott Zampach «eft) and Michael Bames (right) celebrate. "I thought we were going to have to settle for second, but we got some luck going our way for once:' Hornblower said. "Luckily, we made a quick pit stop on the last pace car period to top up the gas. We were able to go the distance when the others weren't. I think that's what made the difference." "I'd like to thank the guys at 4&6 Cycle for building the motor:' Cornwell said. "Last year we didn't have enough steam. n.ey built a motor and that's the difference." The third place finishers, Gators Havlin Danny Roberts and David Estok, had steadily worked their way up and Roberts said, "At one point, I think we were actually in the lead." Considering how quickly the team was assembled, their third place finish, the final team to finish on the same lap as the winners, was something of a surprise._ Semoff Brothers Racing was a lap down in fourth, with AGV Sport Group another lap down in fifth. (N Results GTO: 1. FastJine/MCM Racing (Suz); 2. Two Brothers Racing (Hon); 3. Team Amerla (Hon); 4. N2 Racing (Kaw); 5. Team Yamaha Endurance (Yam); 6. Team Suzuki Endurance (5uz); 7. K.W.s. Motorsports (Hon); 8. Blackhawk Racing (Yam); 9. Full Tilt Motoropo.... (Suz); 10. 8CP Racing (Kaw); II. Addicted Radng (Suz); 12. Fast Boyz Toyz (Suz); 13. D a. D R.cing D (Suz); 14. Dutchman R.cing (Suz); 15. 2 B', (Yam); 16. Team Miroge (Kaw); 17. KBS-Kuhnert (Kaw); 18. TC Radng (Yam); 19. Vance a. Hines n (Yam); 20. Team Grand Prix (Kaw); 21. FuU Spectrum Racing (Suz); 22. Marie"" Motorspo.... (Hon); iJ. Team Ma~c (Yam); 24. Vance a. Hines I (Yam); 25. Keystone Raang (Suz); 26. Graphic R.cing (Kaw); '17. Moriwaki Racing (Han); 28. Lord Racing (Suz); 29. Northstar Racing (Yam); 30. Sparks Endurance (Suz). nme 3 hours. 1 min., 0.061 sec. Averoge speed: 1110.309 mph. Mugin of Victory: 1 min.. 5.340 sec. CTU: 1. Hornblower Racing (Hon); 2. American Ay.... (Han); 3. Gato.. Havlin (Hon); 4. Semoff Brothers (Hon); 5. AGV Sport Group (Hon); 6. Motorcycles Unlimited (Han); 7. Polizzi Racing (Han); 8. Island Boys (Hon); 9. Apache Racing Team (Hon); 10. Team Norway (Kaw); 11. Honda-Suzuki World Racing (Hon); 12. Plano Honda Racing (Hon); 13. Moto Uberty/Suzuki (5uz); 14. Team Pearls Suzuki (Suz); 15. AGV Sport Group 11 (Han); 16. Haiti.. n Sensation (5uz); 17. Keystone Racing n (Suz); 18. ReIenUess Racing (Han); 19. Honda of Prestonburg (Hon); 20. Progressive Fire Power (Hon); 21. Team Bikework (Hon); 22. Moto Liberty/Nankai II (Hon); 23. Weekend Warrior Endurance (Due); 24. Maximum Velocity (Yam); 25. D k D Racing (Han); 26. New York Motorcycle Racing (Yam); 27. Southwest Motorsports (Yam); 28. WeB Racing (Han); 29. Team N.OS. (Han); 30. Northwest Radng (Han); 31. Team Hansen (Yam); 32. Team Pearls Suzuki Also (Suz); 33. Can't Stop Racing (Hon); 34. Team Techno (Yam); 35. Team Dog (Hon); 36. D.C. Racing (Yam); 37. Yamaha of Leesburg Racing (Kaw); 38. Leesburg Racing Yamaha (Yam); 39. Raceco (MG); 40. Competition Motorsports South (Yam); 41. Team All Spo.... (Yam). GTO C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS, 1. Two Brothers Racing (67/1 win); 2. Fastline/MCM Racing (65/1 win); 3. Team America (55); 4. (TIE) Blackhawk Racing/Dutchman Racing (49); 6. N2 Radng (48); 7. Team Magic (36); 8. Team Yamaha Endurance (26); 9. Team Suzuki Endurance (26); 10. (TIE) K.W.S. Motorsports/Team Racelaw (24). GTU C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Hornblower Racing (67/1 win); 2. Americ"" Aye.. (58); 3. AGV Sport (411); 4. Southwest Moto..po.... (39/1 win); 5. Keystone Racing II (38); 6. Moto Liberty/Nankai II (33); 7. Northwest Racing (31); 8. Gato..haulin (30); 9. (TIE) Semoff Brothers Racing/Xtreem 'Peformance (28). 13

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