Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

,§ ROAD .RACE Daytona International Speedway · Championship Cup Series, i', Roland Sands (10) leads M arcello de l Giudice (99) in the International GP race; del Guidice took the win. (Right) David Estok eas ily won the Buell Lightn ing Championsh ip round at Daytona. ed by three others and those four provided the bes t racing of the class. Lap after lap they'd hurtle into turn one, two and three wi de, the specter of calamity imminent, but never rea lized . It w as Lewis, Fitz patrick, Kirk , and Bonfiglio rig h t to the end . Th ere wasn 't m u ch betw een them, tho ugh Lew is appeared to have a sligh t pow er edge. With four riders ru nni ng in suc h close formation, it was a p parent that it wou ld co me down to a last-lap draft-pass battl e, and th a t' s wh at it came dow n to, th oug h with unexpec ted results. Lewis led Fitzpatric k ou t of the chicane the final time - n ot the opti mu m pl ace to be unl ess you have p ower to burn , and Lewis did. Desp ite being rig ht u p o n hi m as t h ey spe d t hro u gh NASCAR Th ree and Four, Fitzpat rick coul dn' t pull ou t to pass and had to settle for third . "On the last lap I knew I di dn' t have the horsepower to pass the rid er ahead of me (Lew is ) on the banking . I jus t waited until th e last minu te in the chicane, backed off a bit to get a ru n on him and tried to get past at the line. I di d n't ha ve it," Fitzpatrick lamented . "On the last lap Mike Fitzpa trick was a b it q u icker than m eth r ou gh th e infield, so I was struggling to find a line since I only had about 10 laps practice this morning," Lew is said. "Bu t my bike was faster than his on the ban kin g, so I knew I could ma ke a pass in the draft." Ki rk hel d off Bon figli o for fo u rth, those tw o about a second in fron t of sixth-placed William White, Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beac h, Florida Results: March 3, 1996 MO BIL ' 1 TR IUM P H SPEED TR IPLE CHAL LEN GE : 1. Sco tt Zam pa clu 2. Ad am Le wis ; 3. Michael Fitzpat rick; 4. Rick Kirk; 5. Pat rick Bonfiglio; 6. William White; 7. James Hanra ha n; 8. John Scheehser ; 9. Thomas Murr a y; 10. Ty Howard: 11. Thomas Fournier; ~ 1 2 . Da vid Hu ll; 13. David Hull; 14. Rick Shaw ; 15. jim . Branno n; 16. Sh a w n Co nr ad ; 17. Ben jam in Welch; 18. Thoma s Philip pe; 19. Dav id McG rat h. T ime : 29 min., 55.32 1 se c. Dis tance: 14 laps, 50 miles. Average spee d: 99.940 m ph. Margin of victory: 16.260 sec . MO BIL 1 T RIUM PH S PE ED TR I P C H A LLEN G E CH AMP IONSHIP PO INT STANDINGS (Af te, tw o of ni ne ro u nds); 1. Scott Zampach (70/2 wins); 2. Jam es Han rah a n (52); 3. Michael Fitz patric k (51); 4. Rick Kirk (SO); S. W ill iam Whit e (48); 6. (T IE) Jo hn Schee hser/ David McGra th (42); 8. Benjamin Welch (40); 9 . ~Shaw n Conrad (35); 10. Dev in Bartley (33); 11. (TIE) Tripp Nobles / Ada m Lew is (32); 13. Pat rick Bon figlio (26); 14. Lan ce Holst (25); 15. Kev in Joh nso n (24); 16. Tho mas Mu rray (22); 17. Ty Ho wa rd (21); 18. Thoma s Fo urnier (20 ); 19 . David Hu ll (19 ); 20 . (T IE) Rick Shaw / Micha el Gage (18). Upcoming 'rounds: Round 3 - Braselton, Georgia, March 31 ay Round 4 - Brainerd, Minnesota, M 19 In tiona GP byIdemitsua terna l ndHRC Round 2: Daytona In rnational Speedw y te a Del Giudice off ice By Henny Ray Abrams DATIONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 3 hou gh Masa hiro Iizuka 'o f Japan was far an d awa y the fastest rid er in the 125cc Internationa l GP by Idem itsu and HR C at Da ytona, h e ignored the first rul e of racing: In order to win, you have to finish . Aft er building up bett er th an a 14seco nd lead on the third of seven la ps , Iizuka crashed in turn five on the thi rd lap, and that's w he n the rea l race began between maverick Marcello del Giudice , Rolan d Sands, and Bobby Keith . Yama ha-equipped Keith was the first to d rop back, the tw o Honda-mounted lea ders leaving him on the fourth la p an d swapping the lead back and forth. "I was expecting a great dice for the lead a t the end," Keith said. "The rear end step ped ou t once in the chicane an d I lost th e draft of those guys up front. They continued to w ork the d raft with each o the r and inc hi n g a w ay . There wasn' t an yt hing I could do , but I don't think those guys had anything on me on top-end speed," Sands was ou t front on lap five, d el Giudice in front the next lap, back and forth to the final lap when Sands we nt in fro nt in tu rn one. Th e Perform ance Mac hi ne / HQ Racing /Elf-backed Californian s tayed in front a ll th e wa y th ro ugh the ch icane. But d el Giu d ice, despit e no t racing for 18 months, hadn't forgo tten his racecraft, and he used the draft and a little more to just pip Sands at the line by a scant 0,040 second s. "I wo n Daytona - Yes!" d el Giudice s hou ted in th e w inn er' s circle, " I' v e been in Antarctica for 14 months (wor k-ing on snowmobiles ) and haven 't bee n on a bike in 18 months. I made the decision Wednesday (February 28) to come and race after a lo t of phon e conve rsation s with the folks at Moto Libert y." "It was a good rid e, and we battled right to the end ," run ner-u p Sands said . "He (del Giudice) got by me with a little hand pus h th ere a t th e end , I d on 't know if an ybody no ticed that." Team World Sports Im po rts Bobby Keith was a lone third , about seven seconds back , with 18 seconds in hand on fou rth -p la ced Tod d Bowma n. Vicky Jack son -Bell was fifth , rou ghly 14 seconds back. Iiuzuka remount ed and finished sixth, about half a minute later. Del Giu dice completed the seven-lap , T 25-mile race in 15 mi nu tes, 39.331 seco nds, a t a n average s peed of 95.5 06 mph. Despite givi ng up the victory, Iizuka leads the In terna tiona l GP Series af ter tw o of nine rounds w ith 57 poin ts, three better than Vicky Jackson-Bell. Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida Resu lts : March 3, 1996 INTERNATIONAL GP by JDEM ITSU and HRC: 1. Mar cello del Giu dice (He n): 2. Roland Sand s (Ha n); 3. Bobby Keith (Yam) : 4. Todd Bowman (Ha n); 5. Vicky Jackson -Bell (Ho n): 6. Masahiro lizu ka (Ha n); 7. Chris Ulrich (Yam ); 8. Mobi lso (Hen): 9. Clay ton Kwitowskl (He n): 10. Frank Pa te (Han); 11. Mar k Bro wn (Ha n); 12. Da vid Jor da n (He n): 13. Lan ce Yeage r (He n): 14. Tod d Nordby (Han); 15. Ste phe n Rez mer (Han); 16. Cha rles Actor (Han); 17. Jeffre y Young (Han) . Tim e: 15 min., 39.331 ~'C. Distance : Seve n laps, 25 miles . Av erage speed: 95.506 mph. Margin of victory: 0.040 sec. INTERNATIONAL G RAND PRI X P O I NT STAND INGS (Afte r tw o o f n in e ra ces): 1. Ma sahiro lizuka (57); 2. Vicky Jackson-Bell (54); 3. Chris Ulric h (49); 4. Roland Sa nds (48); 5. Frank Pate (43); 6. Ncb! [so (41); 7. mE) Marcello Del Giudic e / Kevin Murra y (35/1 w in ); 9. Bobby Keith (30); 10. Wesley To tsu bc (30); 11. Tod d Bowman (28); 12. Joji Toku mo tc (26); 13. Rolando Qu intero (24); 14. C a r los N e ves (23) ; 15 . Clay to n Kwit owski (22); 16, Mark Brown (20); 17. David Jordan (19); 18. La nce Yeager (18); 19. Todd No rd by (17); 20. Step he n Rezm er (16). Upcoming rounds: Round 3 - Braselton, Georgia, March 31 Round 4 - Brainerd, Minnesota, May 19 Buell LightningC hampionship: R 1: D ound aytonaIn ternational Speedway Estok is faB ueIIous By Henny Ray Abrams DATIONABEACH. FL, MAR. 3 n the penultimate lap of the ina ugu ral Buell Lighnin g Series race, foot-l ong spa rks w ere shoo ting ou t of the stubby exha us t pipe of leader David Estok's Buell 1200 5-1. Considering that a cou ple of his challengers had dropped ou t w ith mechani cal probl em s, and th at it seemed lik e an ino rd ina te number we re smo ki ng like bu rnin g garbage dumps , it appea red to be a bad omen. But the sparks w en t away, Bartel' s Harley-David son' s Estok ke pt the gas on, and he spe d to the winner's circle by a da unting margin, 19,89 seconds after seven laps (25 miles) of raci ng on the hig h banks of Daytona. " It was a great race," Daytona's own Estok said in Victory Lane . "We had a lo t o f fu n o u t ther e . I hate d to see (Randy) Texter (who' d led much of the race and was challengi n g Estok on the sixth lap ) have trouble. I guess his bike blew up." In fact it was a broken throttle ca b le , but th e effect was the same, "After I saw that he was gone ·1 knew I O had a big gap, so I just took it easy from there." When Texter rolled off the track and onto an access road just past turn two on the sixth lap, Estok was about 18 seconds in front of Der ek Leslie, the Nort h Carolinian ha vin g his hands full with American H-D' s Roy N ich olso n , Lik e m uch of the field , Leslie was on a bike that was s moking h ea vily , though it held togeth er long eno ug h to net him a . seco nd place, wit h Nicho lson third. About 14 seconds later came Illinois H-D's Michael Friberg, not long before Hal's Harley-D avid son' s Todd Evans. Est ok comp leted the seven-la p, 25-mile race in 15 minutes, 13.267 seconds, at an average speed of 98.232 mph, Lancast er H -D's Randy Texter was firs t int o turn one and he -led on to th e b ack strai gh t, hi s Buell S-l s howi ng lon g leg s that allowed him to keep the po in t for th e firs t fo u r lap s . A t i ts h eight , th e lead was ju st over tw o seconds before Estok reeled him in, Trying to catch up to him, Don Tilley' s H-D' s Tri pp No bles d ropped ou t in turn five o n th e s eco nd lap w h ile in th ird, h is bike smo king so heavily on the firs t two laps that a corner marshal had to check . the track after each lap to see if it wa s d ropping oil. Th e Bue ll of Bill Willems beca me ano ther heavy smoker on the thir d lap , an d it wou ld die on the final lap while runnin g sixth. O n the fou rth lap, Est ok took th e lea d for the firs t time , u sin g an inside m o ve in the West En d Ho rseshoe to briefly take the p oint. Text er ou tmotored him on the ba ck s tra ig h t, Estok drop ping d own low in NASCA R Tu rn Th ree to retake th e lead u n til Text er u sed the slingsho t and heav y brakes to lea d in o ne . Es tok ca me b a ck in th e Inte rnationa l Ho rses hoe, Texter leavi ng an opening on the insid e, Estok takin g th e bait. But, again on the back straig ht, Texter used a horsep ow er ad vantage to go by. Out of the chicane on the next lap it was Estok in the lead, Texter following until turn tw o, where he pulled off and ended his day. Fro m there it was a timekilling exercise, w it h Estok running alone to the checker ed flag . Leslie and Nicho lson made a race of their ow n early on, and it wo uld eventually be for second place as attrition took its toll . On th e second lap th ey were fourth and fifth, they swapped spots on the fou rth lap, then mo ved up to second a nd thi rd w hen both David McG ra th and Texter dropped out on the sixt h lap . We ll back, there was a tw o-m an fight tha t we nt in favor of Leslie at the end . A similar scra p developed for fourth and fifth, with Michael Friberg catching Tod d Evans on the fourth lap and following him for one more before passin g him on the sixth for fou rth place. Scott Moon was abou t four se co n ds b ac k, th en came New Castl e Harley-David son's Brian Bod ine, Delan o Sport Cen ter's Roger Hen dri cks, and Todd Eagan. Of the 17 riders, 12 were running at n the end . Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida Res ults : March 3, 1996 BU ELL LI GHT N IN G SER IES : I. Da ve Esto k: 2. Der ek Leslie; 3. Roy Nicho lso n; 4. Mich ael Fribe rg ; 5. Todd Eva ns ; 6. Scott Moon; 7. Brian Bodi ne ; 8. Roger He ndricks; 9. Todd Eagan; 10. Jess Roeder; 11. Devin Bartley, 12. Thomas Dra go; 13. Bill Willems; 14. Rand y Texte r; 15. Davi d McGra th; 16. Tri pp Nobles; 17. Dervi n Lloyd . Ti me : 15 min ., 13.267 sec . D istance: Seven laps, 25 miles. Ave rag e spee d: 98.232 mph. Margin of victory: 19.890 sec. Upcoming rounds: Round 2 -Braselton, Georgia, March 31 Round 3 -Brainerd, Minnesota, May 19

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