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Amateur GT2, Amateur Middleweight
Grand Prix and Amateur Middleweight
Superbike. Hi win in the GT2 was the
most thrilling, nipping Honda West's
Woody Gephart at the line by .0lD of a
second at the end of the seven-lap, 25mile race.
The only other Amateur multiple winner was yet another Floridian, Tampa's
Aubrey Earnest. The Moto-Jets Sportssponsored rider won the Amateur GTl
and Amateur Heavyweight Superbike.
Krebs made it to Victory Lane for the
first time with his most decisive win, the
Unlimited Sport Bike. Starting from the
third row, Krebs took over the lead on
the straightaway run-up to the left-hand
. kink, passing Jerry Lawson. Lapping
nearly two seconds a lap faster than anyone else, Krebs put his stamp on this one
early on, and ended up winning by 9.450
seconds at the end of the five-lap, 17.80mile race. It was his slowest win of the
day, but his easiest.
"1 finally had a decent grid position,
SO I pushed it, got out front and tried to
hold it," Krebs said. "Running twominute laps (he averaged 2:01.390)
wasn't bad, I guess."
ProTek/Parkway Cycles' Seth Hahn
put his Suzuki GSXR1100 into second on
the second lap and held it to the end, all
alone and well away from the battle for
third which went to Z-man Screen's
Jimmy Shelton aboard a Suzuki
GSXR75O.
ext up for Krebs was the Expert
Heavyweight Sport Bike. This time he
started from the fifth row and had to
work a little harder to get out front. Still,
he was there by the second la p and to get
there he had to pass HyperCycle Suzu!d's Jason Pridmore.
At the halfway mark he had better
than two seconds on Pridmore, who was
getting pressured by Hudson Valley Racing's Richard Alexander Jr. Alexander
moved into second on the third lap,
using an inside move in the International
Horseshoe, then tried to go after Krebs.
Instead he found himself under attack
by Pridmore and Bell's Suzuki's John
Robert Jacobi.
Krebs would win, this time by 1.975
seconds, with Alexander taking second
and Pridmore, who'd been dropped to
fourth, using the draft to recover to third.
Kre.bs barely had time to get a drink
of water before he had to re-grid for the
following race, the Unlimited Superbike.
Jetting away from the third rew, Krebs
was into the lead on tche first lap, though
he came under early attack from Steve
Grigg, but not for long. Grigg pulled
down pit road on the third lap and Krebs
was able to ease away, winning the fivelap race by 3.434 seconds. This one was
his fastest, averaging 106.856 mph with
an average lap time of 1:59.937.
Shane Prieto took over second when
Grigg retired and went unchallenged to
the end. Third went to Marco Martinez,
the Fort Lauderdale rider coming out the
best of a three-rider feud.
Krebs' final win, in the Unlimited
Grand Prix, was his toughest. Krebs and
a few others got away cleanly out front,
ahead of a first-rum crash that stalled
nearly the entire field.
Though he took the early lead it was
tenuous, Moto Liberty's Randy Renfrow
pushing him on his Honda RS250. The
lead pair split and Renfrow made his
move on the second lap, but was held off
and Krebs was briefly able to shake the
Virginian from his draft. But the veteran
Renfrow caught his wind running down
the back stretch on the iourth lap and
briefly nosed his way to the lead on the
East Banking, only to see Krebs outpower him down the tri-oval.
On the final lap, Renfrow stayed
behind Krebs for most of the go-around,
including going into and through the
chicane. It looked like the perfect plan.
He was three bike lengths back coming
off of NASCAR Four and he made his
move.on the high side, coming up about
a bike length short. Officially Krebs won
by .015 of a second with Renfrow second, then - about 14 seconds later Marco Martinez on his Kawasald ZX-7R.
Renfrow's lone win came in the
Expert Lightweight Grand Prix where he
convincingly beat Englishman John
McGuiness on the John Bird Motorsports .
Aprilia by 7.823 seconds.
Krebs barely had enough time to put
gas in his machine and get another drink
of water before he had to go right back
out for the Expert Heavyweight Superbike race. It took him until the fourth lap
before he moved into fourth - the first
non-Yoshimura Suzuld - and he broke
away from the pack fighting over that
spot to secure it at the end. He gained a
spot when Yates pulled in on the final
lap after Picotte and Pegram took first
and second. Picotte's average speed of
112.147 mph was the fastest of the CCS
weekend.
"Four firsts and a third. Not a bad
weekend at all," Krebs said. "1 didn't
have the horsepower to match the
Yoshimura bikes. I was a little down in
that department."
Finishing. behind Krebs in that race
were Michael Fitzpatrick and Wood.
Wood had beaten Yates and Picotte earlier, in the Expert Middleweight Sport
Bike race, but that was mostly a function
of grid position. Wood started from the
sixth of 20 rows, not great, but better
than Picotte's 18th-row, second-wave
position.
KWS Motorsports' Kris Clubb was
the one who got the jump with Wood
up to seventh by the time they hit the
banldng the first time. A lap later and
Wood was second and closing, right on
Clubb's tail and into the lead on the
banking. After that he was gone, winning by 5.199 seconds, and the fight
was for second with Clubb holding it
and a pack of seven coming after him
right to the stripe. In the end, Clubb
held it with Yates breaking out of the
pack to take third and bringing Picotte
with him.
'We've done allldnds of work on the
bike," Woods said. '1 hope we'll get the
lap times down even more by Sunday. I
was pretty happy with those laps. The
front tire has a lot of laps on it so I tried
to slow it down once I got out front."
Woods had taken his first win on Friday, coming off of the fifth row to chal-'
lenge for the lead by the second of five
laps. High on the East Banldng, Woods
took the lead on the third lap passing
Clubb and setting sail. He won by a comfortable 7.206 seconds with Clubb second
and the late-charging William Luke taking third on the last lap after starting
from the 10th row. The top three were all
Kawasald-mounted.
Clubb's lone win came after he got the
jump on the Expert Middleweight Grand
Prix field, with Luke second and Krebs
third. Clubb won by 4.2 seconds.
(Above) Kirk
Tulloch (711) leads
Myron Bell (137) en
route to victory in
Amateur
Middleweight
Superblke.
(Right) Eric
Bostrom (20) leads
Jake Zemke (94)
and Todd Evans in
the HarleyDavidson
. TwinSports finar.
'1've finally done it," Clubb said. "[
grew up rating motocross and jumping
the gate all the time. It's all in the timing."
The only victory that Kirk Tulloch
didn't have to fight hard for was Thursday's Amateur Middleweight Grand
Prix. The race was red-flagged and, after
the restart, Tulloch won by a casual 6.683
seconds over Stacey Young and Bobby
Ludlum.
Tulloch began Friday with the 30minute GT2 race. It was red-flagged after
13 minutes with Tulloch rt.I1!fiing in the
lead trio. The clock continued to run and
the race was restarted about five minutes
later.
On the restart, Tulloch trailed Brian
Stokes for a lap, then went inside him in
the International Horseshoe on the second and final lap. Honda West's Woody
Gephart moved into second later in the
lap and the pair were side by side on the
run to the flag, Tulloch winning by .0lD
of a second. Stokes ended up third, just
ahead of Gabriel Henning.
Tulloch and Stokes were also closely
involved in the outcome of the Amateur
Middleweight Superbike event. Tulloch
got off to the early lead but was visibly
down on power on the straightaways.
On the third lap he lost the lead to Bell's
Suzuld of Lexington's Myron Bell, then
took it back a lap later, Stokes making it a
three-rider fight for the lead.
It was a race that would go to the flag,
Tulloch prevailing by .199 of a second
over Stokes with Bell taking third.
a
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Aorida
Results: February 28-March 1, 1997
MIW GP: 1. Kirk Tulloch (Kaw); 2. Starey Voung
(!