Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

was working real good. He obviously did a good job of telling his mechani cs how to set up the bike for him. When I came from the second row and caught him, it tells me he made a big mistake in Tum One. There was an oil flag or something like that. When Hale went into Tum One he really slowed down, and that 's when I caught him." Hale's last piece of business was in the final race of the weekend, the Expert Middleweight Supersport. Despite starting from the ninth row, Hale carved his way through the 80-rider field to mo ve into fourth on the first lap. He w as up to second a lap later and d ra fted past early leader Mike Murphy of American Flyers coming off the West Banking. At th e halfway mark, Hale held a lead of better than six seconds and the race was over. "I just got out front there and put my head down," Hale said. "Running by yourself it's kind of hard to judge your speed out there . I'm real happy winning three out of three." Murphy was a comfortable second with Jamie Bowman getting the best of a five-rider scrap for third, taking the spot . on the final lap . The Unlimited GP, a race with all the factory names entered, was shaping up to be the best of the weekend when it was red-flagged on the fifth lap due to a crash on the exit of turn one. When the red flag came out, Lucky Strike Suzuki's Thomas Stevens was leading Ducati 's Troy Corser, who was clearly the fastest rider on the track. Jetting off from the first row of the second wave, Corser was up to fourth by the end of the second lap, then into the lead trio a lap later. When Stevens went wide going up the banking on the fourth lap DuHamel took the lead, but Stevens used his motor to gather them back up and lead Corser and DuHamel across the stripe. With the crash starting the fifth lap, the race results were posted after the fourth, Stevens being the winner. "We were out there to test and were going to pull in to let the guys - the amateurs who were out there - win the thing," Stevens said. "They really deserve to win the money, but they red-flagged it on me when I was leading and got the win." In the Expert Heavyweight Superbike race, another class loaded with facto ry machinery, privateer Damian Weber shot into the lead only to cras h exi tin g th e West End Horseshoe, taking Rick Shaw with him - both were unhurt. The lead wen t to Qua rte rley, with DuHamel second, Mark Walsh third, and Kevin Graham four th. At the h alfw ay point, Quarterley still had a tenuous lead and DuHamel was right with him . Corser was lying in third, with Graham fourth ahead of Donald Jacks. Corser took over the lead on the fifth lap entering turn one, dropping DuHamel to second ahead of Quarterley and Jacks. Corser immediately split from Quarterley and DuHamel, who were having a battle of their own. Quarterley would win it when DuHamel slowed coming out of the chicane, suffering a clutch failure on the sixth lap, and wh en Corser pulled into the pits on the final lap. "I planned to run the w h ole race," Quarterley said. "Like everybody else we came down here to get our act together. Friday we had a problem with the engine, which wasn't running right. We took yesterday to take it apart and I rebuilt it." Quarterly was running his 1993 Kawasaki because he didn't have all of the parts for his 1994 machine, though he expected to have them on Monday. "The new bike came without suspension on it, just a pipe for a rear shock to hold the motorcycle up. We're waiting for the other stuff, which should be in tomorrow." Shane Prieto was the top Novice, winning three races at Daytona International Speedway. The Expert U .S. Tw inS p o rts class .always takes a lap or two to sort itself out, bu t if you 're in the front pack then you can expect to be there at the end . Bartel's H-D's Shawn Higbee led from the start, and Aaron Yates second with three-time d efending H-D Tw inSports champion Scott Zamp a ch thi rd . The tr io s tuck together until the third lap when Yates nearly highsided in turn one, letting Higbee and Zam pach get away. Higbee and Zampach diced back and forth for much of the ra ce, both knowin g where th ey needed to b e fo r the run to the fla g . Unfortunately for Higbee, Zampach was in the better spot. "I knew I had to be behind him coming off NASCAR Turn Four," Hi gbee said . "Going into the chicane I did everything but stop, get off, and walk. But he's just too wise to pass me." Zampach drafted by, the ma rgin .020of-a-second after seven laps of racing. "It was a great way to start off the season," Zampach said . "We're the National Champions and we're going to sho w them how it's d one. Yeah, it was a little bit of a waiting game. He wa s slowing down waiting for me to p ass. I wasn't going to pass. Tha t strategy won't always work, but it worked for me toda y." Yates got the better of Bart el's H-D's Jay Springsteen in the battle for third. Knowing how stiff the competitio n would be in the AMA 250cc GP class this year, McBride Cycles' Jon Cornw ell came out to make sure his updated, two-y earold Yamaha was up to snuff. Th e AMC /CCS weekend wou ld also be the first AMA race at which he'd be working with his new mechanic, Dave Ray. Alex Mayes, Cornwell's longtime tun er, passed away unexpectedly over the win ter. It took Corn well bett er than two laps before he could ta ke th e lead in th e Expert Middlew eight GP ra ce. By th e halfway point he had better than a twosecond lead, with Zero Gravity's Chris Taylor in pursu it. Tayl or cou ldn't pu t a dent in Cornw ell's lead , th e Can adi an turning lap tim es in the mid 1:58s as he sped to victory . Taylor was second , fending off the atta cks of Andrew Trevitt. "We we re jus t trying some things," Cornwe ll sa id. "We were working all week long. I ha ve a new man wo rki ng with me - Dave Ray. I' m really ha ppy. I'm just sorry th a t my oid tu ner, Alex Mayes, who passed aw ay, couldn't be here. This year, we're kind of dedicating the season to him because he just loved racing and all the peo ple he met." AMATEUR Shane Prieto decided that his first race bike should be a 750 since he'd be moving up to one eventually anyway. He put the New Tech Racing machine to good use in his first race, the Amateur Solo GTO, winning handily on his second trip to Daytona. " I rea lly d id rid e the wh eels off it," Prieto said. " I d idn't know tha t Ron Howard had gone off the track. I turned around and looked back and d id n't see him anywhere." Fast Boyz To yz' Timothy Ha mmitt was second with Cadman Jewelers Jay Dickenson third. Michael Debrabant got the holeshot in . the Amateur Heavyweight Supersport, but Sylvain Lemieux took it away from him on the first lap. It was the fourth lap before Pr ieto was w ithin striking d istance, moving to the front w ith a lat e braking move into the chicane. A lap later and there were nearly 2.6 seconds of breathing room, whi ch stretched slightly to the end w ith Prieto beating Lemieux and Andrew Peaslee. Win number three would come in the Amateur Hea vy Superbike and again it was Lemieux and Peaslee in pursui t. Prieto had 3.5 seconds at the halfway mark leaving Peaslee to battle Lemieux. On the final lap, Peaslee pushed the front end in the infield kink, giving Lemi ux seco nd a nd moving Charles Todd Bran k to a close third ahead of Jim Dickenson. Sean Goff won one race, the Amateur Midd leweig ht GP, by the n arrow est of marg ins, .0lD-of-a-se con d , and nearly w on the Amateur Solo GTU before settling for second . The Amateu r Middleweight GP was too close to call, with Goff chasing team- Lawson returns F mate Jon Schrocht, both aboard Honda 600s backed by Area Typewriter and TBR Racing, from the second lap on. On the sixth lap Goff was righ t on Schrocht, setting h im up for the run to th e flag . Schrocht went low on the East Banking, Goff went high, and at the line they were side by side, with Goff getting the trophy. "I tried to run him down and planned it out to the end ," Goff said . " I m ight have made my move too son. That's why I came down to the inside of the track." "Oh, ma n! I thought I had him, to tell you the truth," Schrocht said . "On the last lap I saw Sean cornin' up and goin' into tum one. I thought if I couId run a nice, tight lap and not let him get around me I'd be all right. I got in behind him and I think he got me by about a bike wheel." our-tim e World Champ ion Edd ie Lawson (right), last ye a r's Daytona 200 wi n n er, made his official retu rn to Daytona International Speedway d uring the AMA/CCS sprint ra ce weekend on March 5-6. The Californian , w ho now spends mos t of his time in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, u sed some of the races to test the 1994 Yamaha YZF750 he'll racein the 200. He re' s w ha t Lawson had to say, heading into Ca mel Moto rcycle Week. On returning to Day tona: "I knew the bike w as go ing to be good from knowing w ha t we had last year. I think, if anything, the y've foun d a little more power. I know everybody has stepped up. The Suzuki team seems to be running good, the Honda's are ru nn ing good and we haven 't seen the Kawasakis yet. If anything, ma ybe we have an ad va nta ge. We won 't really kn ow until next Sunday." On last yea r vers us this year: "Last yea r this was all an unknown, like, hey, am I going to be able to do this, to do good? But the bike wa s good and I guess I'm not too old to race with them out there. "Our lap times aren't great right now. Everybody is being careful out there. We , j ust now (Saturday a.m. practice) got into the 54s. ItINill come down as the week goes on. Last year, at this time, we were running slower. We're getting there, Going fast isn't something you just do right away; you ha ve to work into the speed." On racing for the World Championship versus being semi-retired: "I thirik I get mo re.up for the races I do now. When you're looking at a full season of racing, you kn ow it' s going to be a grind, especially after you've done it for 10 seasons or so . . You know that next week you've got to be in another country for a race and then the same thing the wee k after, and so on. . "This is great. I get to be home; to train and to play. It's much more relaxed. You can really get up for these one-off races. Daytona is really special because it's the biggie. If you' re going to win a race, you want it to be the Daytona 200." On the excitement level this year: "I think we had this type of excitement in the early 80's in Superbike. When Freddie (Spencer) and I and Wes Cooley were going at it; when we had Suzuki and Honda and Kawasaki heavily involved and the factories wanted the championship and .winning Daytona;! th ink it's come around to , ' •.. wi' .'. " . tl).at type of excitement again." On the 53rd Daytona 200: "It'll be very, very difficult and very tough to win this · year.'Everyone wants revenge. As long as you go into the race knowing that, then you keep everything in check. At the same time, I know I'll have to ride harder than I did last year, but at the same time, I think everyone will still have to race with me. I'm not saying I'm going to go out there and kick butt, but I am saying I think they'll know they've been in a race when it's over."

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