Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1995 03 15

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Daytona'International Speedway DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 3-5 t isn' t unusual for a rising star to emerge from the Championship Cup Series races at Daytona In ter_ n ational Speedway the we ekend before the Daytona 200, but the star of this year's 23-race program was Muzzy Kawasaki 's Sco tt Ru ssell, the acknowledged fron t- runner for the March 12 running of the Daytona 200. What Russell proved over the course of the threeday race weekend is that in addition to the Daytona 200, he is also the man to beat in next week's AMA 600cc s upersp ort race. Russell w on only one race, an d tha t one was by mistake, but the results are misleading . The Georgian, who started from the back of the field in ea ch of the three races, was using the races as mini-test s and pulled off while holding handsome leads in two of th e ra ces . But he was granted a win in a third, when a red flag was thrown just after he'd pitted. " 1 pulled in and was sitting on pit wall watching David Estok he ad for the flag when they th rew the red flag," Russell sa id af ter in ad ve rten tl y wi nni ng Sunday's Exp ert Solo GTU race whe n a red flag caused scoring to revert to th e 12th of 14 laps. " It was practice, like yesterday, and I d idn't want to wi n . The bike is running good. We ran a 1:57.40 in p ractice this mo rning so we know it's fast." So fas t, th at Russell wa s able to comp letely dominate the other two races he entered , Expert Middleweight supersport and Expert Middleweight superbike, from the second wave, and amass hu ge margin s be fore pulli ng onto pit lan e on the final lap . "Basically I was out th ere to test the bike and get some laps on it," Russell sai d after handing the Ex per t Middleweight Su perbike win to Erion Racing's Micha el Barnes. "1 didn't want to take a tro ph y away from anybody. We learned a lot. I th ink th e other guys are in trouble come next Sunday ." Russell had be tter than 35 seconds in hand when he pulled down onto the pit lan e on the fina l lap. Kawasaki-moun ted Estok, w ho was in the lead on the track w hen the red flag fle w , was secon d , w it h Hon da Austria's Christian Zw edorn th ird on his CBR600F3. Mike Murp h y was fo u rt h wit h O tt a w a Va lley Mo torsport's Andrew Trevitt fifth on a Yam aha TZ250; Trevitt would later wi n the Expert Lightweight GP . Es to k had le d from the s tart w it h Russell movin g in to th e top l Oin the 83rider field by the end of the first lap . By the secon d lap , Ru ssell w as in th e top five and he took the lead on the fourth lap go ing up on to the bankin g. Fro m ther e he was a ghost, leaving th e others to fight for secon d. The pack never fully caught up to Estok . In Sa turday's Expert Middleweight Superbi ke, Ru ssell, sta rting fro m the front row of the second wave, was into 21st on the firs t run out of the infield. A lap later he was 10th at the same spot on the ra ce track and it was only a matter of time before he would lead . The next lap h e was third on the banking and h e ran down the leaders on the run to the stripe . Fro m th ere, th e only q uestion was how big his lead would be whe n he p ulled off. It w as better than six seconds after he eased " pace. the Barnes was well alone in second, getting the win due to Ru ssell' s benevolence. "It's pre tty q uick," Barnes said of Rus sell 's Mu z zy Kawasak i ZX -6 . "1 th ink he 's had a little more tim e to rid e his brand-new bike than I'v e had to ride m y brand-n ew bike (an Eri on Racing Honda F3), so I think by the time next w eekend comes around we 'll be really close ." After Russell pulled off in the Expert Midd leweight Superbike, Barnes beat fellow Honda CBR600F3 pil ot Ken Melville, of Airport Honda / Kawasaki, by 9.790 seconds. " 1 saw Russell com e by me a n d I tried to hang wi th him, bu t I'm on last yea r's. tire s so the r e was no w ay," Melville sa id . Eric Wood, Yves Briguet and Hikaru Miyagi rou nded ou t the top five . Russell also gave u p victory in the Expert Mid d leweig ht Su persport class as he again started from the first row of th e second wave. He was int o the top 10 on the seco nd lap and devoured everyone in fron t of him soo n after. The m ove into the lead was classic, wi th Ru ssell following Estok throu gh turn one, th en kicking the rear out "for a full-loCk slide ou t of turn one on the outside to m ove in fron t. A lap later he had close to eight . seconds and he ad ded su bstantia lly to th at lea d every lap before pulling in. American Flyers' Todd Harringto n had taken over second on the fifth lap with Estok back to thi rd in front of Bria n Parriott. Harrington would take the win when Russell pitted. Estok and P .arriott swappe d spots over the final few laps with Estok finally moving into secon d. "Thes e tir es are shot," Estok said . "1 was taking it easy; I wa s afraid to throw it away. I came real close even riding as easy as I was ." Harrington completed the seven-lap ra ce in 14 minutes, 27.640 seconds at an average speed of 103.398 m ph. His margin of victory was 3.67 seconds. In addition to the wi n that Russell gave "h im , Barnes earned one on h is own, topping the Expert Solo GTO class. The vi ct ory appeared effortl ess with Barnes taking the lead on the third of 14 laps and building up a 13-se cond cushion by the ha lfway mark. He relaxed his pace in th e s e co n d half o f the r ace, though h e s till s tre tch e d his lead to nearly 21 seconds at the end of the 50mile ra ce . It too k Barnes 27 minu tes, 34.240 seco nds to complete the race at an average speed of 10~ .463 mph. Th e only prob lem Barnes had was wi th hi s still-mend ing left wrist, which spe nt the be tter part of the fall an d winter in a cas t after his crash in the seasonend ing AMA National at Road Atla nta in October. The cast was only removed toward the end of February. "It wa s fun out there, but we ' re still a couple of seco nds fro m w here we wa nt to be: tha t would be a han ds-d own win, meaning times we've run here before in GTO," Barnes sai d . " I' m jus t h appy to b e b a ck on a b ike and 95- percen t healthy." Tea m Suzuki Spo rt's Ma rk McDaniel finished second af ter a racelong d ice with LD M Techno log ies ' D a m ia n Weber. We be r slowed o n th e fin al lap and dropped to 15th. Jim Leslie go t the bes t of a four-ri de r scra p for third with -Seth Hahn fourth and Valvo line Suzuki's David Stanton fifth . Though McDaniel wasn't able to nail down a wi n, at least in part beca use he was gridded to w ard th e b a ck of the field, sometimes in the seco nd wave, he was consistently at the top of th e results tabl es and came close to winning th e Expert Heavyweigh t Supersport. Startin g from the 13th row of the seco n d wave, McDaniel carved his way through the 64-rider field to move in to sixth by the hal fway mark and into second a lap Scott Russell won one race during CCS racing at Daytona Internati onal Speedway, but he co uld have easily won three races on his Muzzy-prepped ZX6. later. With a lap to go the m argin was almost three seconds and, although he co u ld n' t close it up entirely, he came close, finis hing .61Oof-a-se cond behind race winner Aaron Yates, also of Team Suzuki Sport. " D id you see how far ba ck on the grid I was?" McDaniel asked after finishi ng seco nd. "1 said 'Holy cow, this is going to be tough.' It's just confi dence in the bike . I thought w he n I crossed the finis h line, if I'd had one more lap I may h av e h ad h im . He (Yates) was g o ing good . I had an id ea: Just push, push, "push . It was a little bit horsepow er and a little outbraking them." ' '' 1 ran off th e track on th e start and into the grass," Yates ex plained . "1 go t back o n track and wan ted to pass as man y people as I cou ld . Before I kn ew it,) was in fro nt. I looked back a co u ple of times. I saw Mark McDa n iel ge tti ng close r and he came from way back, too." " Yat es com pleted the seven-la p, 25mile ra ce in 14 minutes, 18.2 seconds at an average speed of 104.535 m ph. Third w ent to Yamah a -mou nted A ntho ny Lupo; Da n ny Rob erts of Team Su zuki Sport was fou rth, an d Ken Melville w as fifth . . Robe rts ea rned h is sole wi n in th e Unlimited Supersport class , lead in g a Team Su z uki Sport sweep of th e top th ree . Taking the le ad fro m th e start, Robert s led Ho nda-Ya ma h a of Sta tesville 's Ge ne Ch urch and Ya tes, with McDaniel on the move fro m the sixth row. It was the fifth la p before the Su zuki GsXR1100s took the top th ree spots, bu t the Honda CBR900-equipped Ch u rch was right back in the thick of it lap later . The race would come d ow n to a ru n to the flag with the top fou r close a

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