Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 1: Daytona International Speedway MAZDA 250cc GRAND PRIX SERIES (Above) Race winner luis lavado (146) leads AI Salaverria (22), whose bike blew up while he was running in second place. Greg Esser (3) finished third. (left) Chuck Sorensen finished fourth, and he really had to work for it. A heatrace crash relegated him to a secondwave start from the 11th row. By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTO ABEACH, FL, MAR 7 fter coming to Daytona for a A dozen years, Venezuelan Luis Lavado finaUy tasted victory, winning the Mazda 250cc Grand Prix class late on a warm and sunny morning in central Florida. The CCS Racing-backed Yamaha rider had his hands full for most of the day with Al Salaverria fighting him aU the way on his 1997 Aprilia. Unfortunately, the 2-year-old machine let SaJaverria down, seizing yet again, this time in twn one three laps from the end while he was running second, but losing grQund as the Tech Star Industries' bike gradually lost power. Once "AI Sal" was out, Lavado cruised to the win, taking his first AMA victory by 6.312 seconds. Lavado completed the 18-lap, 64.08mile race in 35 minutes, 48.480 seconds at an average speed of 107.373 mph, weU over Rich Oliver's 1997 race record. The winner earned $6000, with Briton John McGuiness, who finished second on the Team Vimto Honda, pocketing $3700, and veteran Floridian Greg Esser, who was third on the Fabweld Honda, earning $2750. "It sure feels good," Esser said. "I don't know what to say, really. I'm just kind of tunned by the whole thing, really. I figured those days were over because I'm not exactly a young guy, I'm 39. And I've been doing it a while. I thought those days were over - I guess not. When you, see (Randy) Renfrow, as long as he's been doing it, there's still hope for me, I & guess." ~ 26 Renfrow was a nonstarter after a practice crash left him with a broken wrist. The steering damper on his Honda seized up as he entered the chicane and he was thrown to the ground. (See "Briefly...") Another nonstarter was class champion Roland Sands. The Performance Machine Yamaha rider crashed in both his 250cc GP heat and the Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport final. Both crashes came Friday, with the second tumble breaking his wrist. (See "Briefly...") Chuck Sorensen, riding the World Sports Imports' Honda RS250, came through from an 11th-row, second-wave start to finish fourth. By the time he moved into fourth, the leaders were teo far gone for him to make a run at the podium. Even so, he comes out of Daytona in good shape in the championship. either Lavado nor McGuiness are going to do the full AMA Championship, and Sorensen has consistently beaten Esser in the past. With Sands injured, Sorensen should be able to take over the championship lead at the series' next round in Phoenix in two weeks. As it is, Lavado leads McGuiness 37 to 32, with Esser third at 29 and Sorensen fourth at 27. McGuinness got the holeshot, but it was short-lived, as Salaverria came by, with Lavado then leading across the stripe to end the lap. Lavado would lead across the stripe every lap except the seventh, when Salaverria retook the lead. At that point, the top three were running together, Salaverria in front of Lavado and McGuiness, with Esser watching it from not far back. By then, Sorensen was already in fifth, but well back from the leaders. Lavado took over the spot on the eighth lap and the top three ran together, with the Venezuelan inching away. On the 12th lap,. he had about 2.5 seconds in hand and had broken the draft. From there he kept the heat on and, when Salaverria went out on the 15th lap, Lavado had more than three seconds, a lead he would extend to better than five seconds during the next lap as he rode to eventual victory. For Sala verria to fail so close to the flag was a bitter disappointment. "It squeaked in one," Salaverria said. '1t alniost got me. 1 knew 1 could outride those guys. 1 caught Lavado and I knew he had a faster bike. I could barely stay in his draft. They were both braking way too early into the chicane and the drives they got out were not good at all. My bike started slowing down. It got slower and slower before it tied up." The San Franciscan said he wasn't sure if he would continue in the series, since the team has run out of parts. Lavado had finished on the podium in both 1993 and 1996, but never at the top. Today was his day. "It feels reaUy great," the 35-year-old said through an interpreter, adding that he found that this was the year t11at it was going to be hardest to win the race because the motorcycle was not working well all the week long, bu t he finally put it in shape on Friday and he's here. "The thing was that on the first three or four laps, 1 had a new tire on the rear and I didn't put too much pressure just to warm up the tire," said Lavado. NOnce 1 had the tire working good, I started to push more and more and I knew that my bike was working very good compared with Salaverria's." McGuiness had been here last year, but with less success. Still, it let him know what to expect this year. '1 came here with high hopes and a good bike and I felt real good," the Englishman said. '11's such a unique circuit. We have no tracks like this in Europe or England, nothing like it. Big drafting effects and things, getting the gearing right, and the wind changed direction every five minutes. It seems to. '1 had a crash in practice," he added. "(It was) this trick fuel we use. We use much lower-octane fuel. We seized here and crashed. It all just came together in the race in the end. Last time I came, we had a seizure in qualifying, which put me on the back of the second wave. But this time 1 had a good heat race and things were being reversed. If it was up to me,

• Cover