Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

lifi c Am ateur - b y far . Th e Do n ne lls Motorcy cle 's Suzuki rider, in h is first year of racing, arrived at Day tona with very little experience. He had only road raced abou t half a d ozen times before he came in and wo n the very first of the 24 CCS races - Th ursday' s Ama teur GT-l. On Sa tu rday, th e Blue Sp ri ngs, Misso u ri , rid e r wo uld tak e the Amateur H eav yweigh t Sport Bike contest, again on the Suz u ki GSX-R750 - the same bike h e wo ul d ride to wi n th e Ama teur Heavyweight Su perbike race later in the day. In between, he wou ld take a third in the Amat eu r Mid dleweig h t Sport Bike con tes t, and he'd alread y ta ken a fifth in Frid ay's Amateur Mid dl eweigh t Superbike contest. The Amateur Heavyw eigh t Superbike' was his tou ghest figh t. It was a lastlap d raft-p ass that go t him his final win, an d he u sed a mov e he 'd lea rn ed on television. "I was definitely keepi ng my eye on wh a t was going on beh ind me, but I was kee ping my eye on ,(seco nd- p lace finisher Brandon Bashore), also ," Shiflett said . " He w a s ge tt ing th rou gh the in fi eld road cou rse prett y good . I' ve watched on televi si on ho w that draftin g s tu ff works, and I was able to get him a t the end." Charles Gainey Jr. was ano ther rider who won a few and came close a few m ore time s . Ra cin g h is Fen d e r Mend er /L ee ' s Pe r fo rma nc e Cent e r Honda CBR-600, the Sou th Caroli nian won the Ama teu r GT-2 and the Amateur Middleweigh t Su perbike, and took the nar row est of second s - .0lD of a secon d - in th e A ma te u r Mid d lew e ight Gran d Prix. He also took a fou rth in the Ama teur Middlew eight Superbi ke. The on ly other ri d er to ta ke m ore th an one w in w as Excel Mot orsports' . Jason Clay. Clay won Thursday' s Am ateur GT-3 aboard his Yamah a 560 and came back to wi n Saturday' s Amateur Lightweight Superbike race. The wi ldfi res that spread acros s central Flo rida thi s p ast June forced th e postpone ment of NASC AR's Pep si 4Do fro m its trad itional Fourth of Ju ly date un til the w eekend prior to the au tu m n Race of Cha mpions. Because of the time it wo uld take to get the track ready for th e motorcycles, the RoC w as moved back a week to this weekend - separat) ng it from Biketoberfest by a week , and also putting it a week furt her away from the late-October WERA Gra nd Nati on al Finals at Road Atla nta. Tha t didn' t seem to d iminis h the field mu ch: There we re arou nd 700 riders and more than 1400 ent ries . It also didn't see m to hurt that the m ain race w eek end d idn' t feat u re Form ula USA racing . Wh a t a lso di st in gu ish ed thi s w eek end from last yea r's race was the weath er. Rain plagued mu ch of last year's racing , while. this yea r th e w ea the r w a s idea l: wa rm a n d s u n ny wi th a li gh t br eeze for all four days of racing. O n Thu rsda y there were five ra ces (w ith six classes) , fo llowed b y eig ht races (with 11 classes) on Friday, and 13 races (with 16 classes) - incl uding o ne leg of the Har ley- Dav id son Wo rl d Fina ls - on Satu rd ay. ' Thu rsday's final race was the Expert GT-2, and that was where Kahle would first st ri ke go ld - and strike it bi g. He rod e his Kawasaki ZX-6 to victory in the 14-lap; 50-m ile race by 10.568 seconds, avera gi ng 106.841 m ph. H is Ch icago Pe rfo rmance teammate Rand all Me nnenga was secon d , w ith Cycles of Palm Beach's Mike Luke third . O n Fr iday , Ka h le b r iefl y led t h e Expert Midd lewei gh t Su p erbike ra ce before Wood took over, leadi ng onto the wes t bankin g . Fro m th e r e it was all Wood, the Massachu setts rider tak ing the win by 5.597 seconds, averaging 107.265 . mph for the seve n-lap, 25-mile race. Manny Manusuthakis ro de the fina l Kawasa ki into th e winner' s ci rcle , his backed by Cycles of Palm Beach . Wood's race was not withou t d ram a . On th e fi rst la p , h is Kawa saki began smoking and it caug ht Kahle's eye . "I saw a littl e bit of smoke," Kah le sa id . "I ju st wa s n' t ab le to s tick with him ." "I came acros s the finish line after the . first lap and therewas sm oke all in my fa ce," Wood sai d . "I th ou ght, 'W ha t's going on here ?' So I so rt o f tipto ed around the next lap and I didn' t feel any oil anywhere. So I said , 'Maybe the fron t ti re is rubb ing ag ai nst th e fe n der o r so me thing: so I just put my head d ow n and pulled out. " Saturday would be better for Kahle. He m oved to th e fro nt o f the Exp ert Middl ew eig h t Gr and Pri x cl a ss a n d rod e away. Halfway in, he had a 2.5-seco nd lead , which he wo uld stretch to 4.944 seconds by the finish of the seven-lap race. "W e' ve bee n runnin g pretty good this weekend:' Kahl e said after his second wi n of the weekend . "I ju st had to ge t ou t there and ge t away from everybod y. O nce I got a little cus hio n, I was on cruise control." Mike Luke u sed a last-minut e draf tp as s to s na tch second fro m Randall Mann enga, who m he'd beenchasin g for the final thr ee laps. "I had a lot of wo rk cu t ou t for me on the last lap : ' Luke said. "I haven 't been 100 p ercen t th is w eekend . Th ese next couple of races migh t do me in . I'm glad every th ing we nt really well on that las t lap." "I thou ght I had Mike (Luke) covered on that last lap," Mennen ga said, "bu t he did a good move on me on the last lap. " Down Low Racing's Joseph Fletcher . too k fourth, wi th Jim Lester moving int o fifth on the final lap. (Above left) Shiflet1 was arguably the most impressive Amateur road racer ove r the course Of the CCS finals at Dayto na. (Above) Shawn Higbee leads Jess Roeder (94) and Randy Texter (65) en route to taking his HarleyDavidson victory . (Right) Shawn Higbee celebrates after winn ing the first of the weeke nd's three HarleyDavidson races. Sa tu rday's fina l race, run as the sun was qu ickly se tt ing o ve r th e g ran d s ta n ds, w as th e Exper t Mid d leweig ht Sport Bike contest, and Kahle was aga in in cont ro l. Fro m th e st a rt to th e finish, Ka hle was never headed an d not severely challenged , thou gh Wood was there if Kahle bobbled - wh ich he d id n't. Todd Harrin gt on of 4&6 Cycles took over thir d on the sixth lap of seven, w ith Mike Luke beating Mennenga to the line by abo u t a wheel. Grigg began his wi nning ways in Friday 's Unlimited Gra n d Pr ix, b u t i t wasn' t easy. After a not-gr eat st art, Grigg had to ru n down John Scheehser, which he did, wit h KWS Mo to rs po r ts ' McGra t h in tow . The trio was quickly away fro m the rest of the 24-rider field, with Grigg taking the lead on the ru n down the back straight on the fou rth lap, about halfway into the race. Fro m there, he was never head ed not tha t h e had a ny b re a th ing room . Ri ght to th e e n d , Sc h ee h s er a nd McGrath kept the heat on, the pair coming up .274 of a second short at the end . Mik e Lu ke too k fou rt h o n an other Yam a ha R; 1, w ith Rue Racing' s Jo hn Ash mead wheelyin g his wa y to fifth on a Kawasaki ZX-7. For McGrath, it was a mo ral victo ry, the Sou th Carolinia n floggin g his Suzuki GSX-R750 to third after chasing Gri gg' s Mu z z y Rapto r 840 a n d Sc hee hser's Yamaha R-l. "W e haven't rid d en th ese bikes all y ea r, so w e 're ju s t g e t ting us e d to them: ' Grigg said. "We' re wor kin g on our setup to get read y for Su nday. John (Scheehser) rod e really well. I just about ran into th e b ack of him a cou p le of times w hen I cau gh t u p to h im . I was su rp rised to see th at he was s till there w hen I fina lly got past him, so he must have really step ped it up a bit." Friday' s wi n was fas t, bu t Gri gg' s first win on Satu rda y wa s the fastest of the week end, thou gh it was still hard to come by. Scheehser got the jump on the field in Unlimited Superbike. Lee's Per formance Center' s Rich ard Pacella ran sec on d, with Grigg an early third. . Grigg d rafted his way into second on the second lap, then blew by Schee hser over the NASCA R tu rn -four tunnel. He s e e med to be p u ll ing awa y, b ut Scheehser ate him up on th e brakes in the infield , on ly to ge t ou tm us cled on the ban kin g. Th ere w asn' t m u ch be tw een th em right to the end, wi th Grigg leading out of the chica ne and han ging on to win by .034 of a second after averaging lD9.688 m ph . The reason it was tha t clo se, he said, was that he ran into transmission trou ble. "I did it b y t he b o o k t h a t ti m e ," Scheehse r said. "He' s got a li t tl~ mor e horsep ower than I d o." Pacella was all by him self in third, m ore th an 30 se cond s in fron t o f the fourth-placed bike of Devin Battl ey. Grigg's final win came with a draftpa ss of his friend David McGrath in the Expert Heavyweight Superbike race. A 8 '~ , ,..... ,..... l-< (l) .c E (l) :> o Z 7

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