Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE AMAlCCS Raceof Champ_ _s ion ~ Many· not few ·champio sc n rowned a tDaytona C1") 0\ 0\ of tum four to take the win by .00000f-asecond; bo th rode Ho nda CBR900s. Hopperstad called his w in "probably the best race I've had in th ree or fou r years ." Racing into darkness on Friday afternoon, Hopperstad diced back and forth throughout the 14-1ap Expert Solo GTO with fellow Co lora dan Donnie Hough before taking the run to the line by .004-of-a-second aboa rd a Gold Hill Racing Yamaha FZR1000. Ho ugh had a simil ar moun t, ba ck ed by Mile H i Motorsports. Though neith er won mor e than one race, Jona tha n Bolton and Da vid Olin ~ a ... ~ H (l) ~ (l) > o Z (Left) Pablo Real was one of a few multipl e race wi nners at Daytona; the Floridian won the Expert Heavyweight SuperTwins and the Unlimited GP classes. (Below) Japan's Hikaru Miyagi (12) also won two classes, Expert Solo GTU and Expert Middleweight Superbike. By Henny Ra y Abrams Pho tos by Ab rams and Daytona Inte rna tio n a l Speedway DAYIONA BEACH, FL, OCT 22-24 a in dampened the track, but co uld n' t d im in ish th e comp eti tiv e spirit of th e over 1800 en tr ies for the fall running of the AMA /CCS Race of Champions on the high banks of Daytona In terna tional Speedway. Th e raci ng b e gan o n Fri day a n d end ed jus t after 6:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. In between, there were intermittent ra in showers, 28 sprint races, a handful of multiple winners, and th e fin al th re e-hour endurance race to be run under the auspices of the AMA . The record of six cla ss w ins, set by Todd Harrington at last year's AMA /CCS Race of Champions, was in no danger this weekend. The most any single rider could muster was two wins and several rid ers did that, three of them Floridians, In the Exp e r t class, it was Miami Beach 's Pablo Real taking wins in two of the seven -lap sp rints aboard his Du cati 888. Th e first came in Fr iday's Expert Heavyweight SuperTwins race, and it was a ro m p with Real w inning by over a minute. On Saturday he came back to win the Unlimi ted GP on a wet track aga inst some stiff competition. This lime the margin of victory was a scant .00000f-a-second, with Fastline's Michael Barnes second. Japan's Hikaru Miyagi was another of the professionals who won more than one cla ss; the Two Bro th e rs Racingbacked rider taking a win in Friday's 14lap Expert So lo GTU and Sunday'S Expert Middleweigh t Superbike on a Honda CBR600 . In both races Mi ya gi had to overcome poor grid positions, s tarting in the second wave from the 15th row in Sunday's race. In the Amateur class, O rlando's Eric Moucatel took a pair of victories, riding his Mikmar Motors Du ca ti to a victory in Friday 's seve n -lap Amateur Heavyw e ight SuperTwins and Saturda y' S Amateur Lightweight SuperTw ins, where he won by close to 40 seconds. Both of Gainesville's John Blessed's wins came on Friday, the first in th e Amateur Middleweight Superb ike R 6 w h e re h e topp ed felIow Flori dia n William Brandvold by .349-of-a-seco nd. His second, later in the afternoon, was in the 14-lap Amateur Solo GTU wh ere he bea t Virginia 's Mich ael Lane. Both w ins came aboard th e Sanders o ns Cycle's Honda CBR600. Blessed al so took a third in the A m ateur Middleweight GP, fin is h in g two s p o ts behind Brandvold w ho' d won th e seven-lap race by .024-0f-a-second. There were a numb er of o the r notable winners, among them dirt-tracker Larry Pegram and the recently unretired John Hopperstad who won their re spective races by id en tical ma rgi ns . Despi te a lack of road racing experience, Pegram rode like a seasoned vetera n to take th e seven -la p Unlim it ed Su p e rSport from Vance & Hines' Jamie Bowman . KK Motorcycle Su p p ly-ba ck ed Pegram took the lead from Bowman off provided so me of the best racing of the weekend. The first lime they went headto -head, in th e 14-lap Amateur Solo GTO race, Bolton came out on top, thou gh not by much. Racing the Fas t Boyz Toyz Suzuki GSXR75O, Bolton was .220- o f-a -se co n d better, averag ing 101.096 mp h for the 29-m inute, 34.790second race . Od aguss Racing 's Olin was second with Bolton's Fast Boyz Toyz team mate , Timothy Hammitt, third . Like the winner, second and third were Suz uki- mo un ted . In the seven-lap Amateur Heavyweight Superbike, Olin used the slingsho t to squeeze past Bolton coming off of NASCAR Four, holding on to win by .021-of-a-second . The first of Real's wins was the mo st impressive of the weekend . In o nl y seven laps on the high banks, the Miami Beach residen t tallied up a one-minute, 18 42G-second margin of victory in win- _ ning the Exp ert Heavyw e igh t SuperTwins class. "It's a little bit of revenge fro m the AM A Nationa ls, I g uess," th e Duc ati 888-mo unted Real said on Frid ay afternoon . Rea l co mplete d th e race in 14mi n utes, 7.353 se co nds at an average speed of 105.873 mph. Fi n ishing be tter th an h a lf a lap behind was Kiyo Watanabe aboard a Ho nda 750. Because he hadn't contested the AM A / CCS se ries a ll year, Hollywood Motorcycle Machi ne/Na nkai buhin -T akam a ysu -b a cke d Wa tanabe was pl aced at the back of the grid arid sp ent m uc h of th e ra ce ge tting to the front of the 32-rider field. By the time he go t there, Real was lon g go ne . Chafong Racin g's Douglas Gross was third. Real's second win, in the Un lim ited GP class, came on a wet trac k on Saturday afternoon. Co lo rada n Hough got the ju mp on the field aboar d his Mile H i Motorsport s Yamaha FZRI000, Cycle World's Kev in Gra ham a close second, with Honda of Bountiful' s Shane Turpin an ea rly third ahead of Real. Graham put his Kawasaki ZX-7R in to the lead in the infield , but Hough used his power advantage to blow by on the back straigh t. The scene played itself out a ga in o n th e secon d la p, and by th e third Hough was in the lead with Real up to second in front of Graha m. On e lap late r an d Real moved to the fron t in the infield, Hough second, with Gold Hill Racing's John H oppersta d d ropping Graham fro m thi rd w ith a pass on the west end banking. On the fifth lap, Fastline's Michael Barnes moved up to join the lead ing trio wit h Ho pperstad soo n at the fron t of the quartet as the sun peeked thro ugh and ominous clouds covered the east end of the speedway. The rain intensified as the rid ers took th e w h ite flag la p w ith Barnes u p to third as Hou gh sl owed d ramatically. Hopperstad s till led Real. Barnes too k the lead on the next lap, w it h Real seco nd in front of Hopperstad, setting up a run to the flag. Barnes led out of the ch icane - a move he woul d no doubt regret - and Real, u sin g the banking and draft to run him down at the flag , took the win by half a wheel; officially O.05G-of-a-second. Hopperstad was a close third. Real averaged 103.158 mph in winning the seven-lap race in 14 minutes, 29.660 seconds. " It wa s a grea t experience to pass and re-pass people," Real sa id after his se cond win. "On the last lap I knew I di dn't have enough power to cope with the big bike s. I had a p lan for the last lap, bu t I d idn't ha ve enough en gine to lead. As you know, if yo u lead at Daytona off the final turn a nd yo u ha ve somebod y behind you, then you'll get passed before the finish. So I did it the other wa y around ." Kiyo Watanabe's lone win was in the Expert ligh tweight SuperTwins. Starting from the sev enth row, the Burbankbased rider was in the lead by the third lap never to be headed. He built up a 19second lead by the halfway point and crossed the line w it h a 39.17 seconds cushion after seven laps. Watanabe com pleted the 25-mile race in 15 minutes, 14.120 seconds at an average speed of 98.140 mph. "We did okay in yesterd ay 'S race (second in Expert Heavyweight SuperTwins)," he said. "Today I won because we got a good start - better than yesterda y." Michael Myers moved up to second on the fourth lap , a spot he would hold to the end w ith David Robertson moving up to third on the fifth lap . The first of Miyagi 's pair of wi ns came in Friday's 14-lap Expert Solo

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