Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Rounds 1-2: Daytona InternationalSpeedway I • (Left) Colin Edwards II (45) leads Scott Russell (4) in . the first of two North American Super Bike rounds at Daytona. Russell won both races with Edwards carding a second and third. (Below) Dave Sadowski (25) leads Yasutomo Nagai (101). By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR 5 fte r a win ter o f d iscontent, bickering, and uncertainty, professional road racing of a sort returned to the U.S. But, in the en d, m ore qu esti on s w ere raised th an ans wer ed ana rm;ta te o f th e fl ed glin g N orth American Super Bik e Ch ampionship series, as well as at least a few riders' chances in the upcoming Daytona 200, were left up in the air. A quick scan of the results would tell you that - to ab solutel y no one's su rpri se - Mu zzy Kaw asaki's Scott Russell was th e d ominator of b oth in au gu ral rounds of the NASB series. But though he won, and won handily, he ended the da y with a cautionary note ab out tire wear. . " We te sted in D ecember a n d w e never got down to where we thought we should be," Rus sell said. "The tir e th at we tested in December with, that tire, we're about four lap s away from a s ch ed u led pit stop. If push comes to shove I could make that tire go that far. We're not wher e we want to be (Russell turned tim es in the low 1:52s with the occasional 1:51). Still, tod ay, we'll tak e it." . Yamaha Race Team's Colin Edwards II w ould ha ve been h appy to take it. Instead , the Texan had to pit in the first leg after blistering a tire as he was going th rough th e fast left -h and d ogleg. He switched to a harde r-com po und Dunlop in the second leg, tested a diffe rent pip e an d a few other things, and wasn 't able to keep up with Russell, tho ug h he was an unchallenged seco nd in front of his Worl d Su perbi ke Cha m pio ns hip teammate Yasutomo Nagai. Nagai had finished a distant second to Russell in the first leg. . "This weekend we' re just out here h a v in g fun and ge tting some testing do ne, findi ng out which tires work and which tires absolu tely do not work," Edward s sai d . "We've still g ot some work to do." Fourth in the first leg was Valv oline Su zuk i' s Chu ck Gra ve s, a r es u lt he couldn't b ack up in the se con d le g . Instead, he crashed whil e running fifth on the fourth lap wh en he encountered front bra ke proble ms in the chicane. Zlock Racing' s Keith Pinks ta ff was fifth in the first leg with LDM Technologies' Dami an Web er s ix th on the exTroy Corser Ferracci Ducati 955, despite encounteri ng front br ake woes. He fixed them for the second race, but was tent ative at the start and finished seventh. At th e end of .th e d ay, We be r was . tied on p oints with RB Engi neering's Eric Moe, who fin ished se ve n th and sixth aboa rd his 1993 Muzzy Kawasaki. In the first race Moe went for the recommend ed hard tir e, th en switch ed to a sligh tly softer one for the second. Russell earn ed $2000 per win, from the $15,000 per race purse, netting him $4000 for his afternoon's work. Edwards and Nagai each earned second- ($1500) and third- ($1000) pl ace money which added up to $2500. The NASB point stan d ings are headed by Russell with 70, eight better than Edwards and Na gai. Mo e and Weber, the first rid ers wh o mi ght contes t an y future NASB races, are tied w it h 49, while Erion Racin g's Mich ael Barnes is sixth with 45. The futu re of NASB, as it existed at Daytona, is uncertain . An NAS B statement released Su nday morning said that "At this time it wou ld appea r likely that the program anno unced in December (a six-race sc he d ule) m a y no longe r .be viab le." The release said that "a defin itive program will be released by the end of this month," one that will be differe nt than origi na lly envisioned. It also said that points earned at Daytona "will definitely co unt toward the 1995 series championshi p and the series poi nt fun d ." Asked if there was a name change in NASB 's futu re , NASH's Pat Mu rphy said it wa s "possi ble." He said that their sched ule will onl y be finalized after seeing the revised AMA ro ad race schedul e . "T he last thing we need to do is sche d u le ou r ra ces agains t an exis ting se ries ." Acco rdi ng to Murphy, there is not a probl em ge tting d at es. "G etting con trac ts for ve nues is the least of our probl ems." What w as a problem tod ay, at least, was th e qu a lity of competition . Both races were mostl y processi on al w ith only a few of the best ride rs showing up on the g rid an d even fewer finishi ng. Tea m Desm o' s Dave Sadowski, whose name always surfaced ,in discussions of who would com pe te in the NASB races, didn't finish the first race due to a freak th rottl e-sticking inciden t. In the second race he pi tted when he thought h e' d chu nked a tire, quickly rejoining the race when h is crew assured h im it wasn't so. RACE ONE The best of .the NASB races would be the first of the five-lap elimina tion heats on Satu rday. It was Edwa rds vs . Russell fro m flag to flag , wi th only a w heelwi d th separating them at the end of the day, the nod going to Russell. "I think it was a dead heat between myself and Colin (Ed wards)," Russell said . "We did n't get do ne w ha t we n e e d e d to do in th at race . It shows we've still go t a lo t to do. We ran 52s (one-minute, 52-seco nd laps) and that's two seconds off where we shou ld be." "He just drafted by," Edwards said of Russell's draft pass at the line. "He was out braking me into the first horseshoe, but the bikes are p retty even: I think it will probably p lay out t h e same in tomorrow's races, excep t I'll be in fron t." The second, and considerably slower, of the tw o h ea ts, was won by Nagai over Moe and Graves. The firs t NASB r a ce was g ree nflagged on a warm and br eezy Florida' afternoon w it h Edwards getti ng th e jum p on the 54-rider field - Russell was right be hind him, followe d by Nagai and Graves. . Russell was out fro nt in the infield, but Edwards moved aro und him on the ba ck straigh t an d the two began to leave the res t behind. By the second lap, Russell was back in fro nt wi th Ed w ard s secon d , a n d Nagai and Graves were stretching out their margins, nei ther to be challenged. "I felt like the Suz uki did a real good job," said Graves, who was about 25 seconds behind Nagai at the finish. "I don't think there 's been any other fa ct ory Suzu ki Superbike teams that have fin ished up in the top four in any other Nati on al race her e at Da ytona in yea rs, so I'm rea lly happy abou t that." Russell and Edward s went back and forth; Russell' s Kawasak i seeme d better off the corners and the bikes eve n on top end. Then, on the fifth lap, Edwards was s u dde nly off the pace and Russell drew away. The probl em was a blistered rear tire . "I kind of felt it going into turn one. Then I flicked it into the kink (the infie ld d ogleg ) arid, b efore the apex, it went completely sideways," Edwards said . "I said 'Screw this' and I came in. After the second horsesh oe I looked back and it had a big old welt on it." Edwards pitted, los ing hal f a lap to cha nge a tire, then went back ou t to fin ish th ird.

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