Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 1: Daytona International Speedway tail as well ," Bennett sai d . "I realized that the bike in front of me was the bike that was leading. Once I caught on to that fact, I tried h arder." He would close down the gap to 1.4 secon ds with a few lap s to go, but, becaus e he was racing a 750 against a 1000, couldn't ge t an y closer. "The th ing wa s comin g aro u n d on me a couple of times so I thought, well, a second- place fini sh is better th an a visit to the hospital," Bennett said . Third place, abo u t 17 seconds back, w as the Cy cle Motion Racing team of Mark McDani el and David Deveau . The pair was a steady third most of the race, never in a position to challen ge, but well in front of the battle for fourth. That one went until the later stages of the race befor e Ma rio DuHamel, ridi ng the Keyston e I Northstar Racing Yam aha FZR1000 afte r Dan Tu rne r, we nt to the front of a four-rider pack sho rtly int o his shift. Fifth was some thi ng of an accompli sh ment for the Rayce Team of Yves Brigue t and Ch ristian Zwed orn, the pair rid ing a Honda CBR600 aga inst the bigger bikes and finishing on the same lap as the winners. The Dutchman team completed 29 la p s of th e 3 .56 -mile Da yton a roa d course at an average sp eed of 104.829 m ph. In all, ther e we re 21 finis hers, thou gh d e fending n ational ch ampi ons Eri on Racing finished a lap do wn after recovering fro m a secon d -la p cras h . Larry Peg ram, the lead rider, high -sided in the International Horseshoe on a cold, h ard The tea ms lined up on both sides of th e pit lane for a planned 10:30 a.m. start, lead ride rs on the track side, their teammates h olding up their bikes on the p it si de . At the wave of the gree n the rid ers ra n across pit lane, h opped on their machines, and wer e push -st arted to life. Ienatsch and Pegram got good starts , w ith lenatsch tak ing the lead followed closely by Mark McDaniel on the Cycle Motion Racing b ike, Rayborn, and Pegram. " Th e bik e is s o s t r on g it d oesn't notice a h eadwind," Ienat sch noticed ea rly on. But he said th e w ind w as so bad th a t it w a s "tough to get off th e ba ck ba nking (tu rn four). The ha ndlebars want to turn underneath you . You . hit a bump and it unloads the fron t. I w as h oldin g on w ith my knees so I didn't fall down, which I've never d one on a mo tor cycle before." The second lap en ded without Rayborn or Pegram, and on the third lap the order of the top thr ee was settle d until the gas stops . lenatsch was lead ing, lapp ing in th e h igh 1:56s an d low 1:57s, th en cam e McDa niel, an d Stern on the Fastline bike. lenatsch was gaining better than 1.5 se co n ds a lap an d , a fte r building up better than 15 seconds, was given a slowdown signa l by Dale Qu arterley, who wa s working the signal pits. "I got a slowdo wn signa l which kind of embarrassed me, becau se maybe they th ought I w as riding over m y hea d," Ienatsch said, ad di ng that Quart erley gave the slowdown sign after seeing an oil flag whi ch w as qu ickly rem oved . "I slowed d own to 58s and 59s and fully expe cted a couple of gu ys to come up." The onl y rider that could have made a cha llenge was McDaniel an d he was lo oking for consistency, n ot blazing sp eed. And, like Ienatsch and the rest of the field, McDaniel spent the ear ly part of the race adjus ting for the wind . " It w as pretty sketchy for th e firs t tire. The team chose a hard rea r to go th e d ist a n ce w ith out cha ngi ng a nd Peg ra m spilled in th ird place w hen he tried to up the pace after wa tching the others b egin t o pull away . Mi ch a el Barnes rode th e se co n d sh ift fo r th e team. Ano ther team th at had an off d ay was Lee's Killer Bees, Cal Rayb orn Jr. an d Dave Aldana. Rayborn crashed the team's Suzu ki GSXRll00 in turn one on the second lap and thei r day was done . The win gives Dutchman Racing the lead in the Su perTeams Ch ampionship wit h 35 points. Fastline Racing is second with 32, while Cycle Mo tion Racing has 30. couple of laps. I di dn't rea lly h ave to change my lines , but I swore m y front , tire was co mi ng off th e grou n d ju st befor e th e track goes flat , off the West Banking," McDanie l said. " I could see h im for a w hile, " McDan iel sai d of len atsch, "then there were so many backmarker s I cou ld n' t pick hi m out. I was trying to be rea l con se rvative be cau s e we' d ha d some teethin g p robl ems. I ro de it last weekend and we had some minor oil leaks, nothing major." Jeff Stern, who'd spen t the past few years wor king on t he te am an d th e machi ne ry, d ecid ed to get so me sea t time this yea r and m ade his d ebut at man By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEArn, FL, MAR9 he' one-hour Daytona SuperTeams race got off to an exciting beginning, early action provided by the first Le Ma ns-sty le . start e v e r in AMA e nd urance history . Then ca m e the "intermission," during the middle of the race wit h the top places spread ou t an d not sh uffling p laces u nti l the first ga s sto p. Act II fina lly began when Fastline racing nearly ran down Dut chman Rae·ing wi th an aggressive charge at the end of the 29-lap race, held on a co ld and blustery day at Daytona International Speedway. In the en d it was Du tchma n Racing's Fritz Kling, the former Harley-Davidson factory Superbik e rid er, usin g the unassailable pow er of the Yama ha YZR1000 to outrun Scotland's Roger Bennett , subs tit u te ri d ing for th e in jured T ri pp Nobles on the Fastline Racing Kaw asaki ZX-7R. Kling held a na rrow lead on the final lap, but kn ew he had the motor to take the win. "I pretty much knew that if I held it open ou t of the chicane no body can pass us," Kling sai d after beat ing Bennett to the line by 1.627 seconds. No t long into his stint Kling h ad felt a probl em w ith the rear tire and pitted, overshooting his pit in the process. But af te r a quick ins pection , in w h ich h e reass ured hims elf it w a s fi ne, he rejoine d the race for the run to the flag . T (Above) Dutchman Racing, with Fritz Kling at the controls, scored a narrow win over Fastline Racing Kawasaki's Roger Bennett to win the one-hour Daytona SuperTeams race . (Right) For the first time ever in AMA endurance history, a Le Mans-style start was used. "Daytona is wo n pre tty mu ch by bike bu ilders an d pit crew s," Kling's tea mmat e N ick Ienat sch, lat e of th e Erion Racing cham pio ns hi p -wi nn ing te am, sa id . "Fri tz Kling and I just pulled the trigger. It was an awfully big trigger on this thing; 172 hor sepower. It just storms down the stra igh taway. It p retty much d idn't m atter h ow I go t th rou gh th e infield , I'd just pull it up on the bank ing and let her rip." "They (Fastline) m ade us ride a little hard er," Kling said after his first trip to the wi nner's circle in ov er a year. " I looked back with two laps to go and put my head down." "I thou ght I ha d someone on my ow n

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