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/128095
Formula USA National Road Race Series ing's John Ashmead moved into second in the West End, Cobb taking it right back. The two continued to battle each other, but they couldn't catch up to Denning, who won by .430 of a second. "I got a little horsepower on the 750," Denning said of his R-l 's advantage over Ashmead's GSXR750. "Maybe another lap," Ashmead said. "A lapped rider got on my way in NASCAR Four, but he had quite a lead on me." Seven minutes into the 30-minute Amateur GTU race the red flag came out because of a crash in the chicane. At the time, Giovanni Rojas has his Suzuki GSX-R750 in the lead and only a few riders could stick with him. The clock continued to run and by the time the race was restarted there were only a few laps left. Rojas made the most of them, braking hard to take the lead going into tum one on the fourth and final lap, then holding off Steve Craft by .490 of a second, despite hitting gearbox problems in the chicane on the final lap. Rojas had been to Daytona once before back in 1992. But he'd crashed on the warm-up lap of his first race and was done for the weekend. The high cost of racing kept him out of the sport until this year. In the intervening years he's built up his hardwood flooring company in his hometown of Dacula, Georgia. He could finally afford to return to racing, but would still like to find sponsorship. Six weeks before the CCS weekend he returned to racing at TaJJadega Motor Speedway. Of the seven races he entered, he won six. At Daytona, he was trying to match those numbers. In Rojas's second chance, the five lap Amateur Middleweight Supersport, he had a fight on his hands the whole way and again it was with Craft. The first attempt at the race was red-flagged, but you could already tell they were the class of the field and they proved it on the restart. The pair took turns leading with Rojas leading after two, then Craft, then Rojas for laps three and four, with Craft taking the lead and the win on the fifth lap, the margin of victory .260 of a second, according to CCS scorers. However, Rojas was adamant that he'd won, and in a photo taken just before the finish line, it appeared that he had. Even if he hadn't, it's inconceivable that the margin of victory was correct. The most convincing of Rojas' victories came in the Amateur Middleweight Superbike. Jetting away from the front row of the grid, Rojas had over seven seconds halfway in and continued to pour it on, beating Bill Sheridan (Yam) by 13.870 seconds. Sheridan left a battle for third that went to Christopher Beck (Suz), with Paul Bastarache close behind. "I'm breathless here," the winded Rojas said. "Yesterday was a struggle out there. I was making a lot of mistakes. I won a couple of races yesterday. They took one back that I won. That's racing." Following qualifying for Sunday's F-USA SportBike race, Rojas brought his GSX-R600 back to the line to face 750cc four-cylinder and 1000 twins in the five-lap Amateur Heavyweight Superbike. The result was another (Left) Donald Unger (89) and Matt Blashfield (hidden) tangle In the Middleweight Sportsman class. Blashfield crashed in the incident. 20 MARCH 14,2001 • cue •• n __ s Eric Wood ftewto victory In the Expert Heavyweight Supersport class. convincing win, the displacement deficiency not a factor. Off the start, Rojas was away in the lead, adding' almost two seconds a lap to win by 9.610 seconds. Second went to Robert Kruger on a Suzuki GSX-R750 with Steve Fontanez third. "I was running against 750s," Rojas said. "They've got a lot of power. When I was on the banking, I was afraid they'd get to me. I almost lost it going onto the banking." The 600 proved to be a liability in the Amateur Unlimited Supersport race. Darren Wilbur rode his Yamaha R-l to victory, John Stapleton was second on a Suzuki GSX-Rl000, and Chris Murray-Audain took his R-l to third. Rojas came fourth. Rojas rebounded in his final race on Saturday, the Amateur Heavyweight Supersport. Robert Kruger got the jump and held the point for a lap and a half, Rojas out front by the time the lead pair hit the banking on the second lap. From there it was smooth sailing, Rojas riding the 600 again as Kroger tried unsuccessfully to play catch up. Geoffrey Allen was third. Rojas explained that he continued to race his GSX-R600 because the GSX-R750 had clogged fuel injectors. "It's been sick since I brought it here," Rojas said. "I rode the 600. It's running great." Two weeks after last year's Daytona races Eric Wood got hurt and had to sit out for all of the 2000 season. All Wood could do was watch as Vincent Haskovec rode his Kawasakis. That's what he got to do on Friday as his brother, Jeffrey, rode his Penguin Racing School to victory in two races, the first coming in the Expert Lightweight Supersport class. Wood held off Cad Racing's David Yaakov for the win by .370 of a second. The top five finishers were all Suzuki-mounted. Two races later Jeffrey Wood was back for his second win, this one coming in the 30-minute Expert GT Lights class and this one a little easier. After completing 14 laps, Wood had 3.56 seconds on Todd Keesee with Robert Fisher third. Again, the top five were on Suzuki SV-650's. Wood tried again in Saturday's Expert Lightweight Grand Prix race, running in the front pack before finishing fourth on his Yamaha TZ250 in a race won by Randy Renfrow, the Virginian veteran popping out of the draft of Performance Machines' Roland Sands to take the win. Jeffrey Wood's final win came in the rain on Sunday. Aboard the Penguin Racing School Yamaha TX-250, Wood made short work of the Expert Middleweight GP field, winning the five-lap race by 11.230 seconds. Scott David Morrison, a 16-yearold dirt tracker, was second on his Kawasaki ZX-6 after he lost Bobby Ludlum (Hon). Eric Wood looked like he'd never been gone. On the first lap of the Expert Heavyweight Supersport race he closed on the leader and took the lead coming on to the front straight. Ted Cobb ran an early second before blowing thE: lead entering the chicane on the second lap. That allowed Ashmead to fall into second behind Wood, about a second back, with Covered Bridge Racing's Rich Conicelli third. Ashmead never closed on Wood, and the Massachusetts rider had his first win in his first race back. "It's great to be back in over a year of racing and it's beautiful to be on top," Wood said of his 1.610-second win. For the 2001 season, Wood has switched to Suzukis with backing from KeyStone Learning Systems, a Utah company which develops teaching systems for computer programs. Eric and Jeffrey's father, Jerry, had his best race in the Heavyweight Sportsman class. Moto-Connection's John Long took the early lead with Wood into second on the second lap, the pair going back and forth with Long in front when the red flag came out on the fourth lap. A crash in the chicane put an end to the proceedings and Long was the winner, having led across the stripe ending the third lap, the last one the whole field completed.