Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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toward Davis, but the two riders were going about the same speed by then, and making any headway proved to be impossible. Still, knowing how difficult it can be to get out of Daytona with a decent amount of points to establish a championship drive, Kopp was pleased with his runner-up finish. "I'm real happy: Kopp said. "We were second here last year, and we're second again this year; one of these years we're going to pick off that top spot, but second place is exactly what I wanted - to stay on the podium - and it's a good start toward the championship. The guy that beat me is not the guy that I wanted to beat me, but I guess we'll just have to take it to him in the next race. Will is going to be tough all year long, and we're going to be right with him, making fires the whole time. Next time we'll be on top." After Kopp got past Varnes, it was up to the Pennsylvanian to guard the last spot on the podium. He elected to stay as high as he could, though he said he had known from the outset that it would make him vulnerable to the other pole-putt artists in the field, such as Chris Carr and Brett Landes. Anytime that he tried to drop low, it was evident that his motorcycle was not set up for that, and it would respond by bucking like a bronco. Ultimately, Varnes was aided by the fact that former Daytona Short Track winner Brett Landes was caught up in a titanic struggle with Continental Tires' Greg Tysor for most of the 25lap final. While they battled back and forth - sometimes three-wide - Varnes was able to maintain his margin of just under a half of a straightaway. "( got my good start," Varnes said. "I got out front again, and I tried to run my own race. The first couple laps in, the track was really slick. We hang with him, but he just kept slipping away and slipping away. I just started worrying about myself and not him. I was actually just trying to stay up. Then Joe came in there and got under me and passed me. He started to pull away a little bit, but then I started catching him there at the end. It looked like he was fighting his bike there just a little bit. This was an awesome track tonight." While Davis basked in the glow of victory, another former winner, '95 Daytona Short Track champion Brett Landes, saw the end of a personal streak that has been going on since 1997. In that time, Landes had never failed to make the Daytona podium. All good things must come to an end, however, and Landes could hardly complain about the way that his incredible string was broken. After handily winning the rain-shortened opener, the Audiovox/Quaker State rider was forced to ride an unfamiliar motorcycle in this main event (see Briefly), and the combination of that and a tight battle with Tysor for much of the race conspired to hold Landes' bid to a fourth-place finish. But, if in every adversity there is an equivalent benefit if you look for it, Landes can now lay claim to a string of top-five finishes that stems all the way back to 1994, the year before he scored were running that outside line, and that was the only way to get traction. You'd run it in there as hard as you could and hit the cushion, and that was the only thing that would stop you. Will just looked like he was hooked up better than me. I tried to cue' e (Below) Kevin Vames (89) led the first of the main event, only to be passed by Davis (partially hidden). Vames held off the rest of the pack for third place. n e "" S • MARCH 21. 2001 27