Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.R AD·R E. O AC ..AHRMA/BEARS World series · Round 1: Daytona International Speedway By Henny Ray Abrams DAnONA, FL, MAR 7 h e la st race of the expanded two-da y American Historic Motorcycle Racing Association (AHRMA) progra~ turned out to be the be st one, even if th e rider who finished second thought the winner was making more of a race out of it than he had to. The British European American / Au stralasian Racers final. ru n fo r the first time at Daytona In t e rna ti o n a l Spee dway, went righ t d o wn to the checkered flag, with New Zea land er Andrew Stro ud narrowly p reva iling on the Britten VI0 00, after lookin g early on like it wo u ld be a ro m p . Instead, h e fended off the final pu sh by Ron McGill, o n th e H arl ey -D a vid son VRI 000, to score a close win. "I d on' t know if Andrew had a little trouble in the mid d le of the race or if he wai ted up for me to make a good show of it," McGill said . " I thi nk I wa nt to give him the gen tlema n award for playing with me. Once he let me by, he was s lowing an d lo okin g a t th e b ike and really faki ng me out .well. I thought I was clear." Stroud had jumped out to a lead of near ly eight seconds on th e fifth lap, turnin g laps in the lo w two-minute range. But as qu ickly as the lead grew, it shrank, and by the se venth lap McGill was in front of the Kiwi, drafting by off the West Banking for the run to the chica ne . Tha t wa s w he n it appear ed that Stroud slowe d, but if there was a problem, Stroud wasn 't admi tting it. "It's going really well," Stroud, who won the twi ns race here last year, sa id . "It's still miss ing a little bit like it was in the first race (the Battle of the Twins ), but it stayed there un til the end . Everything was good. No problems." In fron t again on the ninth lap, the pair swapped aga in on the 10th, Stroud wheelying past McGill out of the Interna tion al Ho rsesh oe on th e way to th e dogleg left, where McGill sneaked back into the lead . In the next comer, the West End Ho rseshoe, McGill took a high line, Stroud the low one and took the lead . . O n the b an k ing agai n S tro ud appeared to let McGill by, takin g the lead again on the 12th lap an d for the duration. McGill was hoping for a lastlap draft on the ru n to the flag, but the Britten pro ved too stro ng . "H one stly, in the beginning I didn't think I had a s h o t," McG ill sai d . " I thou ght the Britten would run away." With an Australasian bike - the Britten - and an Ameri can bike - the Harl ey - taking the top tw o spots, it was onl y app ropriate that a British bike wo uld fill out the winner's circle and racing journalist Alan Cathcart obliged by finishing third on the three-cylinder Saxon Tri umph900. "We have brought Triumph back to Daytona Speed way for the first time in 22 y e a rs an d w e 're back in Victory Lane," Cathcart said. "We have 30 percent mo re horsepower than we d id last year when we wo n three out of the five races we took part in, in Eu rope. So I think th is motorcycle can only get bet- T ter ." Thoug h th e fir s t th ree p laces we re estab lished ea rly on, it took most of the race for fourth to be decid ed . William White, aboard a Du ca t i 900, m oved through the field efficientl y to take over fifth on the 11th lap, dropping Japan's Yoshiyuki Suga i do wn a notch. Sugai's Sundance Day tona Weapon 1200 Evolution Harley wa s sounding off-ke y and he would soon reti re. Next up was Raceco's Pete Johnson, who White dispatched in the final stages for h is fo ur th- p lace finish . Iohnson stayed in fifth, with John Long sixth on a BMWll OORR. 1'N Day10na International Speedway Day10na Beach , Florida Results: Marc h 7, 1995 BEARS: 1. Andrew Stroud (8ri); 2 Ron McCilJ ( H~ 0 ); 3. Ala n Ca thc art (Tri); 4. William Whit e (Due); 5. Pe ter John son (M-C ); 6. John Lon g (Due); 7. Dev in Battl ey (BMW); 8. Geoff Mellinge r (Du c); 9. Ma tt hew Con norton (Due); 10. Jerry Wood (Due). AHRMA Battle of the TwinsSeries: R 1 ound I II I pS11 By Henny Ray Abra ms DAnONABEACH, FL, MAR 7 h e AHRMA Battle of the Twi ns class m ay h av e bee n o pe n to a ll manner of exotic motorcycles, but it wa s a 1994 Ducat; 888 that Pabl o Real used to win the Battle of the Twins Open class on the second da y of American Historic Racing Motorcycle Associa tion actio n a t Dayton a International Speedway. Re a l sa id h e only de cided two months ago to go racing, but he looked every bit read y tod ay. Lead ing from the start, the Miamian did n't falter and won the lO-lap race by about seven seconds . "I had a lot of fun and never looked back," Real sai d . "I mad e my plan like two m on ths ago and I ch an ged my whole attitude of lookin g at racing. I just pu t my head down and went." The battle for second was between a pair of Britten Vl000s; a 1993 model rid- T d en fo r Joh n Britten by fe llow New Zea lander Andrew Stroud and a priv ate 1994 model ridden by Spo rt Rider magazine ed itor Nick len atsch. Stroud go t the nod when he pulled away fro m lenatsch late in the race. • Second to Real off the sta rt, Stro ud ied lenatsch for the first lap, only to see lenatsch go under him entering turn one on th e se con d lap. The pair sw ap p ed back an d forth, neither having much of a n e d ge until ab o u t th e sev en th lap wh en Strou d su d de n ly clea red off. It was something of an enigma to lenatsch, whose mo torcycle seemed to be running better. "I don't think And rew's cycle is runn ing very well," lenatsch sa id. "Mine was better on .the banking. He was simply outri ding me in the infield . I need to pick up the pace of the rid er and match the bike, then we can probably run with Andrew." Stroud confirm ed Ienatsch's hunch. "We still had a misfire problem and th at re all y slowed us down," Stroud sa id . "Other than that, I think we could have run up there no problem . I do n' t know, maybe we can try some thing else a n d tr y to get it so r te d out for th e BEARS race." Like th e battle for seco nd , the fight for fourth was a racelong affair, thou gh the ga ps seemed more elastic. Dr. Dav e Kieffer was aboard his Fast by Ferracci Ducat i 955 and in fourth off the sta rt, well clear of England's Neil Hodgson, a 500cc GP rider, on the Top Gun Ducati 955. The margin was over 35 seconds on the third lap, then Hodgson began chipping awa y, p robably after getti ng heat in hi s tires. By the fou rth lap, he was Britten rider Andrew Stro ud (1) came from beh ind to bare ly beat Harley-Davidson VR100D-mounted Ron McGill (89) In the inaugural BEARS road race. clea rly closi ng a nd a t the en d o f th e 'fifth, the Eng lishma n was up to fou rth, w here h e would fi n is h . Kie ffer h eld fift h, never in d anger of being caug ht from behind . Pe te Johnson wa s th e n ext rider to finish, the first of the Moto Gu zzi 12005 and th e first in the BoT Formula Two class, but he wou ld be di squalified, as w ould Jo h n Lon g, secon d in th e F-2 class, and fou rth-placed F-2 rider John Aksel. All thr ee were accused of having ille gal ex ha ust syste ms , according to AHRMA official s. Th e rul es sti p u la te th at th e motorcycle s ha ve b affl e d e xha usts, and all three had open exhausts . But Long and Aksel were reinstated, g iving Lon g the cla ss win, Mat thew Conorton second in class, and Aksel th ird. It also mo ved Ducati 888mounted Kurt Liebmann up to sixth in class, and overall. Th e Ba tt le of th e Twi ns, Form ula One, Fo rm u la Th ree, and Two-Stroke classes ran together in a se parate race with Jerry Wood the un su rprising overall winner - unsurprising because he w as on a 1995 Ducati 916. Wood cleared out early in the lO-lap race, h old ing almost a nine-second margin at the halfway mark. The rest of the race was a day at the beach. "That was a little easy," Wood admitted . "Usually when we do one this long we like to have a few of our friends out there to mix it up with us. This motorcycle is all stock, just the wa y you bu y it fro m Du cat i. You see, a 48-yea r-ol d

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