Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127865
--------~-,
On the second. try, Bos trom jumped
o u t fro n t, lead in g a fi ve- rider br ea kawa y from which it was certain the winner wo u ld e merge. Goi ng a lo ng w it h
Bostro m were Graef, H igbee, Ciccotto,
and Roed er.
Graef took the lead wi th a bold move
in the d ogleg on the second lap, bu t
co u ldn't break away. As th ey headed
down the stra ight to end the second lap,
Bostrom and G raef were side by side,
w i t h C iccotto, Bostrom and Higbee
three-wide for second.
Bostrom an d Graef co ntinued · to
s w a p the front spot, while th e other
three watched closely, wit h Ciccotto the
first to make a move.
It ca me on th e fou rth lap, en tering
the chica ne, but it proved to be premature. He lost two spots on the finish of
that lap, wit h Graef and Bostrom going .
by , and Ciccottn dropped back to third,
but moved up to second us ing the draft
soon after.
.
On th e fift h of seven laps, the top
th r ee p u ll ed away from Roede r a nd
Higbee, who ha d abou t th ree seco nds
o n sixth place, now held by McNology
Raci ng:s Dave Estok, the Florida rid er
w ho wa s ma kin g u p for an off-speed
q ua lifying performance.
Starting th e six th lap, Bostro m took
th e lead go ing into tom one in front of
C iccot to a nd Graef, wi th Ciccotto go ing
i n fr ont o ut of- th e chica ne . It n o w
lo oked like a t w o-rid er r a ce , e ve n
thou gh Grae f wasn' t losing gro und .
Cicco tto led Bostrom past the whi te
flag; Grae f was in thi rd , wi th Higbee in
front of Roed er . Estok was alone, wit h
Ba r te ls ' jake Zemke sevent h . T he n
Bos tro m too k th e lead i n to t u r n o ne ,
Ciccotto trying him in the In ter nati onal
H orseshoe, only to be rebuffed . Bostrom
held th e point going in to the chicane
a n d o u t of it , h old in g abou t 10 bike
lengths as they starte d their run to the
flag . Then Ciccotto picked up the d raft,
p u lli ng eve n w it h Bos trom as th e tri ova l flattened out, then squeaking by to
take the wi n - only to have it taken away
la ter.
Graef w as th ird, with Roed er half a
bike length in fro nt of Hig bee for fourth.
Es to k was si xt h, Ze mke seventh, and
Brian Bodine eighth.
Both the second- and third-p lace riders th ought Ci ccotto ' s m oto r w a s to o
stro ng, a nd they'd be p rov en ri ght,
t hough G raef was also to be fo u nd
gu ilty.
"I kind of had it worked out that if I
was third coming off of NASCAR Four,
1 could draft by for the lead ," Graef said.
"M ike had a litt le m or e on me,"
"In the end, when I hit the chicane, I
ha d a really good 30-bike-Ieng th lead,"
Bostrom said . "I might have been outm ot o red, because 1 th ou gh t I co ul d 've
won it."
"Eric (Bostro m) let me stay ou t back
to the last corner," Ciccotto said. "I h it
the d raf t and got on by."
Sunday's race formed up wit h a fiverider pack making a break from the 32rider field . No bles got the jum p, bu t Ciccotto was ab le to draft by and take the
lea d going into the chicane, wi th Higbee, Bostrom, Nob les and Graef spread
a ut behi nd him .
T he to p fo u r lo o ked to be losi n g
G raef on the second lap, but he fought
hack a nd stuck to th e rear of the p ack as
Bos trom went for the lead from fou rth
ou t of the chica ne on the second lap .
Ciccotto used his horsepower ad vantage we ll: He was in front on the third
lap, th en ju st be hind Bostro m o n the
fourth as the lead ers co nti nued to pu ll
away from the field .
The top four were a flu id bunch, wi th
on ly G ra ef so lid in his fifth, wa tching
and wa itin g for the end .
O n the final lap, Bostrom led th e
pack into tom on e, passin g bo th Higbee
and Ciccotto temporaril y. Wh en they hit
the back straight, Ciccotto too k the lead
and held it out of the chica ne . Lead ing
ou t of the chica ne is us ua lly the kiss of
dea th, es pecially with four riders able to
use each ot her to sling shot to the front,
but Ciccotto was able to beat the odds
(because of a n illegal m o tor it would
to rn out) and cross the line first. Greaf
was next across, followed by Higbee,
Bostro m and Nobles.
" I wa s kind of s it t in g ba ck a nd
watching these guys play," G raef sai d .
"I just wa nted to save my m o tor and
have as much horsepo wer as possible a t
the end. The d raft works so well here at
Daytona . I' ve raced here many tim es
an d I think I've figured it out ."
"I do n't know if I want to be on th e
bi k e o r spectating," Higbee said .
"Un like m ost races he re a t Dayto na ,
nob od y backed off go ing into the chicane. I was just tryin g to stay with Cicco tto . I'm jus t th an kfu l every thing
tu rned out an d we we re abl e to pu t it on
the box."
Ciccotto said his bike was "a roc ketship tod ay" - and for good reason. He
sa id t he crew h ad safe ty-w i red th e
throttle to make sure that would n' t disqu alify him aga in. Unfortu nately, the
e ngi ne didn' t make it. " I ju st we nt
ahead an d pulled a Bostrom move and
pinned it and led around the tra ck," he
added.
Chris Bliss took fifth in fron t of a
string fighting fo r sixth. Bartels ' H-D's
Sha un Russell wo uld take the spot from
fa st q ua lif ier jess Roed er on the Las
Vegas H-D m ou nt. Then came Bartels'
Zemke , Valley Racing's Brian Co nley,
, >;
and Rue Racing's john Ashmead.
Daytona International Speed way
Dayto na Beach, Florida
Res ults: November 2, 1997
HA RL E Y ~ D A VI D S O N TW INSPOR TS R A C E
tu
O NE: 1. Eric Bostrorn; 2. Shawn Hig~; 3. David &o k;
4. Sha un Russell, 5. J