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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127865
ra in a n d darknes s, a nd the track was
still wet o n both Saturday and Su nday
morning.
Whe n the g reen flag d ro pped on the
first of tw o t-t- lap, 50-mile races, Sadowski go t the jump o n the Labe lle Rapto r, wi th Barnes second o n th e Du tchman Yama monster, th e n Kling o n the
other Dut ch man bike, followed by Eric
Wood, Hale, a nd his new Fas t Bv Fer~
racci teammate Tom Kip p.
Go ing o nto the ban king the first time,
th ere was a six- ri der b rea kaway, with
Hal e up to third by the chica ne, th en
second, and into th e lead wh en he d ived
und er Ba rnes en te ri ng th e We st End
Horses hoe. But Barnes too k it righ t back
and led the pack onto the ban king, only
to get gobbled up in sho rt order by the
Du cati,
Hale co ntinued to lead for th e next
few laps, with Klin g moving Barnes
back a spo t as Kipp lurked just behind.
Polen, meanwhile, was slas hing through
the field after qua lifying in ninth place.
"W e were trying d iffer ent stuff a nd it
just wa sn 't working good: ' Polen said.
It didn't s to p him fro m clo si ng o n
Kipp on the fifth lap and taking fou rth a
lap la ter. Kipp w ould end up in fift h,
well in front of the battl e for sixth. Era ld o Ferrucci said th at Kipp was getting
u sed to the s w itch fro m the Du nlo pshod Yamaha in-line four to the Michelin-shod Du cati V-twin. "It's pretty hard
to dri ve (the firs t time you ' re o n it ).
We ' ll cha nge it to m a ke him mo re com forta ble:' Ferracci sa id .
Mean whil e, Hale wa s just starting to
pull away at the halfway mark, hold ing
over four seconds on Ba rn es, w ho now
had Polen to deal wi th. The Texa n had
go ne by Barnes at the end of the seventh
lap and was still moving forward.
But he wouldn't ca tch Hale, w hose
wi n was secu re.
"It feels pr etty good to come back to
Dayto na, wh ich is o ne of my favo rite
trac ks in the Slates:' Hale said . "It feels
really good to be back o n home turf.
We're down here tryin g to find a good
. co m b inatio n w ith the tires. I think w e
lea rned som ething and it shou ld be better for the second ra ce."
Second was decided on the 12th lap ,
when Po len m ad e h is wa y by Kli ng ,
tho ugh the Michigander never gave up
and kept up the heat to the end .
" I thou ght it was going to be a long
d ay: ' Polen said . "These guy s ar e fas t,
and I saw abou t 10 of them in fro nt of
m e. I kn ew I had my work cu t ou t for
m e. At the end, we w ere d oing I :52s
(sig nificantly better than the 1:58 he did
in q ualifying) . Ir s pretty much as qu ick
as it' s gone for the F-USA ru les. At least I
get a little better starting spo t this time."
Aft er Klin g ca me Ba rn es, abo u t 3.5
seco nds back; th en there w as a no the r
th re e to Kipp, who ha d nearl y 17 seconds on sixth p lace.
Th at was Zlock Racing's Eric Wood,
the Kawasaki rider holding off Label le's
Sad owski in a battle the tw o contested
th e enti re race. Sadowski said th at the
tea m was looking at the big pictu re and
not taking cha nces .
'W e ran a co nservative ap proach on
the m oto r," Sad owski sa id. "May be
we'll ha ve a little more for th e second
race. There's $10,000 on the line. I can' t
feel any pain in my foo t."
Sadowsk i's Labell e tea mm ate Jason
Frase r, wh o rid es a Ho nd a CBR900, was
eig hth.
Rick Kirk and Zlock Racing' s Andy
Deat herage filled out th e top 10.
RACE TWO
Barnes got th e jump o n the field in
the seco nd race, taki ng Hale with him
and .th en Sadowski, w ho had a fresher
mo tor in hi s Rap to r. Kling and Kip p
wer e close be hi nd , with Pol en next up.
It wa s the fou rth lap before Hale took
th e le ad thi s time , ge tt ing i t o n the
b rakes in tu rn one, with Ba rnes ju s t
behind a nd Polen , Klin g and Kip p follo w in g . Sadowski a nd Wood re newed
their rivalry from the ea rlier race.
" I was able to ha ng on at the beginn in g ," Barnes sa id . " It was t h e sa me
th ing after five la ps. He' s on a su perbike. I wasn't trying to be too aggressive
this weeke nd. I wan ted to finish th e
w eekend hea lt hy . Th at wa s my m ain
goal. I don't need to beat Mike Hale on a
factory Ducat i. If I beat the F-USA regulars, that's good enou gh ."
Again, it was near the halfway mar k
when Hal e put his stamp on th e race,
lea ving Barnes to fend off Po len, wi th
Kling all by him self - the same for Kipp,
though Wood was making a run at him
a fter lo sing Sadowski. Hal e turn ed an
unofficial 1:51.9 on the sixth lap and had
nearly thr ee seconds at th e midpoint of
the race. The next lap was nearly identical. and he stayed in th at range for the
next several laps as he pulled away.
Kipp 's day wa s over on the ninth lap
w hen he pulled in after gelling sp rayed
w ith wa ter when an overflow bottle just
in sid e th e fa irin g cra cked . H e was in
fifth at the time .
. Then came the surp rise. On the 13th
lap, Ha le was on pit road , the victim of
an empty gas tan k. Ferracci said that he
uses one liler of gas for each lap at Daytona,' th e n adds several lite rs as a cushion . He sa id the tea m forgot to put the
ext ra gas in , se ndi ng Hale o ut wi th 14
liters.
" W hen I saw Ha le pull off, tha t' s
when I loo ked back to see what's up: '
Barnes sa id .
What was up was his first win of the
yea r - bu t it d idn't come wi thou t some
problems . Barn es revealed tha t the zipper on his lea thers broke abou t the m idpoint of the race go ing in to the chica ne.
"You can't believe what a sail does to
you going into the chica ne," he said. " I
kind of just stayed tucked in on brak ing
into t ur n o ne. Go i ng into th e horseshoes, yo u really sit up. Tha t's where I
was expos ing my chest to the wor ld ."
He'd expose it aga in in the wi nner' s
circle, wh ere h e w as a w in n er for the
first time in a yea r. (His last win came in
th e AM A 750cc Su pers po rt ra ce at the
1996 Las Vegas AMA N atlo nel.)
" I' rn rea lly ki nd o f ju st overwhe lmed:' Barnes said. " I just go t the
call to rid e this bike las t week. I d idn't
eve n ha ve a rid e. To sho w up her e wi th
su ch a n a weso me bik e a nd a co m petitive team - this is a grea t fe ling."
e
Pol e n ' s s e co n d was se c u re w he n
Kli ng pit ted a fte r the 11th lap w ith a
sus pected ignition probl em .
"It ju st wou ldn' t come off of the co rners:' Kling said . " I didn't know wha t
was wrong. On the fourth or ruth lap , it
started cu tting out. I thou gh t the m otor
was abou t to go. I was on pit la ne fo r
abou t two seconds." It woul d be enough
to d rop him to 13th.
" I w as able to run low 52s at the
begin nin g of th e r a ce ," Pole n sai d .
"Abo ut the halfway poi nt, the rea r wen t
awa y a nd I ba ck ed off. I had a mile
behind me."
Wood too k over th ir d a fter Kling
w e n t o u t, about 24 seco nds behi n d
Polen, with Batey ano the r 10 se co nd s
back.
"T h is fee ls g re at," Wood sai d .
"We' ve been work ing so ha rd so long,
but we've just had silly things go wron g
all year. We found the fix and my guys
worked har d all week and it pai d off."
(Above) Eric Wood (10) tries to hold off Dave Sadowski (25) in the first race. Sadowski took
th ings easy at Daytona and secured his second F·USA Championsh ip.
(Be.low, fr om left to right) Eric Wood, Michael Barnes and Doug Polen celebrate their 3-1-2
fin ishes In th e second leg of F-USA action. Hale was lead ing the second race until running
out of gas on the fi nal lap.
Sadows ki e n ded up fift h w it h a
vibrating rear wheel th at was caused by
a tir e that was out of balan ce.
"The re w as so me thing up wit h . the
fro nt or rea r ~ main ly the rear ," Sadow ski sa id. " I rod e like a girl in the second
half. I sa w tha t I had p lus 10. Plu s 10
b ecam e p l u s ze ro pretty fa s t (w h e n
Batey closed in, and pa ssed him on the
12th lap)."
O hls te in Mot orsports' Se th H a hn
was s ix th i n fro n t of a t hree-rid e r
fight to th e li ne . It w e n t to Lo p e z ,
wit h Jaso n Frase r a nd A ndy
Dea the rage jus t be h ind . Joe Pittman
fin is he d 10th.
, .~
Daytona International Speed way
Daytona Beach , Florida
Results: November 2, 1997 (Round 8 of 8)
SU NOCO RA C E FUE LS FO R MULA US A
QUAu m NC: 1. Mile Hal e 0:52.620); 2. Fritz Kling
O :S4 .bQ I); .3. Dav id S.aJow",l i 0 :54.%7); 4 , \t ich dt"l
&tmt""o (1;55.3X ; 5. Tl>m Kipp (156.958); 6. Tr.ay B.t t"Y
IH
t
( 1:57 .3 16); 7. J".... m Fr aser (1;57 .593); 8. Eri c W ood
0 :57.804) ; 9. Doug Pol~ n 0 :58.(60); 10. Quenni King
(1:.-=>8.4%); 11. And y Dt..'lh..-rage (1:58..502) 12. Rick Kir k
·
;
0:58.701); 13. G ra nd lope z 0 :59 .04 4 1; 14 . Mi ch ael
Filz pd lr id. (1.:59.493); 15. Lee Shierh 0:59.5(4); lb.
Michad luke' 0:59.9-12 17. seeve Gri gg 0 :00.054 ); 18.
);
Sh., 1lCPn ceo (2:00.153 ); 19. Calvi n Rayborn III (2-00.224 );
20. Joe Pt tt rna n (2.-00.271); 2 1. Ron Howard (2-00...-47) ;
22. G reg Fryer (2-00.729); 23. Owen Weiclll.'1 (2-00.985) ;
24. Rick Na ro p (2'01.0 22); 25. Roger Bell (2:01.314); ze .
Tod d Harrington (2:01.557); 27. Richard Alexander Jr .
(2 :01.798 ); 28 . Seth H a hn (2:01.834); 29 . Mik Walsh
(2:02.09 8); 30 . Jeff Willi ams (2:02 .625); 31. Pablo Real
(2:0 2.839); 32 . John As h me...d ( 2:03. 879 ); 33 . Scott
Ca 'P-'n tt1' (2:04.311); 34. RoKt1' Hendricks (2:05.204); 35.
C h ris Bli..s (2:05 .659 ); 36 . Jon Sch roht (2:05.951); 37.
Marco M...rrinez (2:O5.9!'\ ); 38. JOt' Ca picotti (2:06 _720 ;
9
39. Rid. Shaw (2:07.136); .w. Greg H 'l.ID'\On (2:07 .229);
oi l. Tom Fournier (2:M .K4 42. Bub Robbins (2:09.310);
7);
4,3. Devin Bdttlt"y (2:U
9.n. 44, Jim Albri tton (2:10.566);
1);
45. Sedn GlIff (2:12.373 1 46. J<1mt"!l Whi te (2:13591:1): 47.
;
Rodney Burr (2:13.784) : 4~. Kris Wilson (2:13.876); 49.
Andrew Wri~ht (2:15. 1-15).
RAC E ON E: I . Mike H ale (Due) : 2. Doug Pol en
(Suz); 3. Fritz Kling (Yam); 4. Mike Barnes (Ya m); 5. To m
Ki pp (Due); e . Er ic Wood (Kaw): 7. Da ve Sadowski
(K...w) ; 8. J... son l'r asN O-Ion ); 9. Ric k Kirk ( Ka w ): 10.
And y Deat herage (Ka w ); 11. Set h Hahn ( Ka w]: 12. J OlO
Pitt m a n (Kaw); 13. RO~t"r Bell (S uz); 14. Ron How ard
(Kaw): 15. Riel Na ru p (K.t w ); 16. Mil e w elsh (Yilm); 17.
Michael Fil1pa tric k (Kil. w); 11'- Q u..nn i Ki ng (5uz ); 19.
Sent! Car pt·nt.. r (Yilm ); 20. Mar co Martinez (Kaw); 2 1.
Chris Bliss (l Ion ); 22. Gn.-g Fryer (y