Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE .: Round 1: Daytona International Speedway . AMA 750cc Slipersport Series at the one and a quarter (ma rker). I had s om eo ne on e ith er si de o f me an d in front, and we were all tuc ke d fu ll-on . After that, I closed my eyes." The race began aga in with Merkel leading the huge throng of riders into tum one for the first time . That lead was s h ort-li ve d, th o u gh , as Team Suzu ki Spo rt's Aaron Yates shot through on the ins ide on th e run to th e International Horseshoe. Merkel was back in front at the end of the open ing lap, with Kipp takin g ove r seco n d fro m Ya te s . McDaniel wa s fourth, holding off Ran d olph and Jacks . Merkel led one more lap befo re Yates took over at the fro nt, w it h the trio Yates, Merke l and Kip p - running three (Left) Fred Merkel rode his new Yoshimura Suzuki to vi ct ory in the 750Cc Supers port race, but it wasn't easy , as he battled defendi ng champ Tom Kipp th e whole way. (Below) Aft er a restart, Kipp (1) leads Merkel (27), Mark McDaniel (10) and Aaron Yates (9) el! rly in the race. By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams DA¥rONA BEACH, FL,MAR10 L as t yea r Fred Merkel wa s glad to look in his rearview mirror of his motorh ome and see Daytona Inter nati onal Sp ee d w ay g ro w ing sma ller beh ind him. He'd finish ed fourt h in the 750cc Supersport class, claiming that his Kawa saki was down on top speed and th at things would ge t better when the tr a ck s go t ti gh ter a n d ri ding w as a t mor e o f a premium th an brute horse power. Af ter swi tching fr om th e Muzzy Kawasaki team to the Yoshimura Suzuki squad for 1995, Mer kel says the shoe is now on the other foot. Armed with the top spee d a n d li ght weight o f th e GSXR750, Dayton asuddenl y becam e a nice pl ace to visit for the former tw otime World Ch ampion - and he punctuated his one-week stay with a victory in the 750cc Super sp ort Series opener. "Irn w ell pleased - it 's sweet revenge," Merkel said after winning his first race since the Brainerd 750cc Supersport final last Jul y. "After riding th e green monster last yea r, we 've finally eq ualed th in g s out. Last year the Kawasakis were so hea vy an d so slow and these blue bikes (Suzukis) were so light and so fast. It wa s a big difference this year. In practice it was like 'Ooop, there's a gree n bike - Ooop, there goes a green bike: 1 cou ldn' t help bu t chuckle when I wen t by them. All I ever wanted was for the bikes to be evenly ma tched. I'm not saying I'll win every race, bu t I'll be there in every race:' When a sked if h e had star ted to doubt his own abilities last year, Merkel responded with: "Hey, if you can win a Supersport race on a Kawasaki, you' re rid ing pretty good. I've got a lot of flame left in me - a lot of flame : ' Merkel d idn't ha ve things all his way in the final and the race result was in d oubt until the very end . Merkel and Vance & Hines Yamaha's Tom Kipp, the d efend ing class champi on , fou ght throughout the IS-lap ra ce, with Kip p getting balk ed by a slower rider in the chicane on the final lap. That proved to be the differ ence as Merkel was able to get the ne cessary break th at all owed him to cross the finish-line stri pe .461of-a-second ahead of Kipp. Third place wen t to Merkel's Yoshimura Suz u ki teammate Donald Jack s, the Florid ian well clear of American Su zuki Sport's Jim Leslie, Kinko's Kawa saki teammate s Th omas Wil son and Jam es Randolph, . Shane Turpin and Gerald Rothman Jr. Norway's Thorvald Saeb y rounded out the top 10 fini shers o n hi s Mot otu ne Kawasaki. The first -round victory gives Merkel a leg up on Kipp in the cha m pionshi p point stand ings, 35-32, but Kipp's first ou ting on the Yamaha YZF750 was still an impressive one. The race starte d twi ce, wi th the first attempt being red -flagged on the. openin g la p when Owen Wei ch el , Mike Lu ke, Lance Holst and Anthony Lupo we nt down in a pile of flying riders and mot orcycles in the chicane. "Bas ically, I was draftin g someone else down the back," Weichel explained. " W he n h e pulled ou t, s o meo ne wa s alrea dy on the brakes. 1 tried to move ou t of the way and just gra zed him on the right side. That was it. I braked as hard as I could, but this guy had already been stopped for quite so me time. Th e guy in front of me pulled out of the wa y and I had point-millimeters-of-a-second to do anything, and I couldn't. The gu y I talked to, and I don't even kn ow wh o it was, sai d he braked at the "2" marker . With the headwind, I had been br aking abreast into tum one. Kipp took a tum at the fron t half a lap later, but Yates led again into the first of tw o horseshoes on th e fourth lap. By this time th e lead g rou p had b e en narro w ed d o wn to three, with a gap back to McDaniel and Jacks , more space to Leslie and Wilson and another gap back to Rothman Jr. On th e eighth lap, th e race for the lead dwind led from thr ee to tw o wh en .Yates collided with a lapped rid er in the second horsesh oe and crashed: "Aaron was trying to go out and ru n a rabbit 's race," Merkel said . "I wa s trying to save the tires because 15 laps is rea lly qui te long on a Supersport bike. I could see Tom (Kipp) was doi ng the sa me thing. He (Yates) wasn't going to go an ywhere. We could see he w as slid ing a lot. He was a little bit too aggr essive and it bit him:' The Kipp I Merkel struggle lasted to the finish, with e ach taking turns at

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