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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127985
(Left) Rockville Cycle's Devin Battley waves after riding his 1998 Ducat; 916 to victory in
the Battle of the Twins Open class.
(Above) Dutchman Lex van Dijk won the Sound of Thunder class on the 1998 Britten 905.
lead that would stretch to over 19 seconds at the end of the eight laps.
'This is, like, way out," Battley said.
Paul Vitale was second after sorting
out oil problems on a 1998 Ducati 800.
"We picked up a new oil sponsor in
Motorex and good things are happening," Vitale said:
The Sound of Thunder race was a
contest for a few laps. It took Lex Van
Dijk that long to get the Britten up to
speed. After that, the contest was over.
Van Dijk pas ed Dave Kieffer on the
third lap and took off, ending the lO-la p
race more than 18 seconds in front.
From the way he rode, you wouldn't
have known that he'd ruined a motor
earlier in the weekend.
''We leaned it up a little bit too lean:'
Van Dijk said, "and we ruined the
engine. We worked until four in the
morning."
'The Britten had motor on me:' Kieffer said. "I passed him in the infield on
the first lap. I could match him in the
infield, but he would motor me in the
top three gears on the banking. He just
kept pulling away from me. But all tribute to the bike I rode. This is a Ferracci
team bike from 1994. It's a vintage bike.
It hasn't even been fired up in three
years."
Battley said that a pair of talented
riders on the very powerful Britten and
Ducati overpowered him.
"This is a horsepower track, and' they
had the horsepower:' Battley said.
It was horsepower of a different sort
that took Jim Struke to victory in the
Sound of Singles Two-Stroke class.
Struke jumped to an early lead ahead of
David Podolsky in a battle of Honda
RS125s, the pair swapping back and
forth, with the race going to the final
lap. The run to the flag had Struke in
front with enough power to prevent a
draft-pass.
"[ got in his draft but realized he
really had enough motor on me that I
couldn't make it by," Podolsky said. "I
thought I'd have to make a pass somewhere in the infield, and 1 made it into
that last horseshoe and got by him, but
this bike is new to me. I 'Was in the
wrong gear corning out of the turn. The
bike fell flat on its face, and all I could
do was sit on his draft in the last lap and
watch him win. I couldn't have been in
a better place on the final lap, but
my bike just didn't have enough legs to
do it."
Struke went out in the next race and
finished second in the 750cc Sportsman
race on his 1972 orton Commando.
"Those back-ta-back races really took
it out of me a little bit:' he said. "My
houlders were getting really sore, and
that was hurting me on hard-braking
sections like turn one and the chicane."
In his first trip to Daytona, Englishman John Barton didn't need a lot of
time to put his stamp 'on the Super
Mono cJas , but it took him a while to
put it away.
Halfway into the eight-lap race, he
had a three-second lead on Jeff Nash,
who would later drop out. At the end,
Barton was home free, miles in front of
second-place finisher Richard Inman.
"It feels really good:' Barton said of
his win. ''It's my first time corning here.
I thought I was going to have more of a
problem from Nash, but I took him in
the horseshoe on the first lap and didn't
see him again. I'm really, really pleased.
People back at home are dealing with
near-freezing conditions, so why not
come here and have a bit of a holiday
and race?"
The Super Mono 2 class was won in a
runaway by Craig Wright on a 1999
BBM 500, a 500cc Honda engine in a
Yamaha TZ250 frame~
German Walter Hoffman won the
Battle of the Twins Two-Stroke class on
his 1990 Yamaha TZ250.
CIII
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Florida
Results: March 2, 1999
BQTT F-l: 1. Devin Battley (Due); 2. David
Podolsky (Duc); 3. Jonathan Glae£ke (Suz); 4. Bill StJohn (Dud; 5. David Kieffer (Sue),
BOTT F-2: 1. Tommy Wagner (Duc); 2. David
Fulkerson (M-G); 3. Guenther Weickert (Due); 4. Fritz
A ugustin (Due); 5. Chester Hamblin (Due).
BOlT OPEN: 1. Devin Battley (Due); 2. raul Vimle
(Due); 3. Jonathan Glaefke (Suz); 4. Scott Richardson; 5.
Keith Sanderson (Due).
SOS 2-STRK: 1. Jim Struke (Hon); 2. David
Podolsky