Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The second race was red-flagged on the second lap. Coming onto the front straightaway, there was a pileup involving Advanced Motorsports' Craig Connell, Zlock Racing's Ty Howard, and EDR Performance's John Dugan. Connell ended up against the wall on the outside of the corner, well clear of the air-fence sections, which appeared to have been placed too far to the right. Two more sections were brought in after the crash to extend it to what was the impact area. Connell was trapped under his Ducati when it caught fire but was saved from more serious injuries when Synergy Racing Technologies' Marc Palazzo stopped and pulled him from the flaming wreckage. Initial reports indicated that Connell had reinjured the right shoulder and ribs he'd damaged at Pocono International Raceway two weeks earlier. Howard was briefly unconscious, then transported to the hospital, complaining of stomach pain. Dugan seemed to have emerged unscathed until his knee gave out on him later in the day. On the restart, it was Higbee out front early before giving way to Parriott, with Ciccotto taking the lead on the second lap. In time there was a four-rider pack; then Ciccotto broke away to win by 0.603 seconds. There turned out to be a reason he broke away. His Hooters Suzuki GSX-RI000 made 146.2 horsepower on the Dynojet dyno, well over the 145horsepower class limit. It was the second time on the weekend that Ciccotto had been penalized. His machine failed the postqualifying dyno test and he was put on the back of the grid for the first leg. The win went to Barnes, Parriott was again second, and Higbee was again third, now with an II-point lead in the championship. Going into the final race at Daytona International Speedway, Higbee leads Lee Acree 139 to 128. Parriott's third at 117. Acree was sixth in the second leg, behind fourth-placed Tray Batey and Grant Lopez. Himmelsbach, fourth in the first race, crashed in the final turn on the fourth lap of the second race. "We came back from an II-point deficit and now we're leading the championship," Higbee said. "We're looking good going into Daytona. We've been pretty strong down there." RACE ONE Race one began with Barnes, Higbee and Himmelsbach at the front, Parriott and Acree chasing, and then Batey. The spots behind Barnes shuffled, with Parriott moving up to second and passing Barnes at the end of the back straight. Three laps in, Barnes was back in front for good, though with little comfort. There was soon one less pursuer when Acree and teammate Parriott tangled, with Acree getting the worst of it. "Brian [Parriott] got a run on me, got inside of me," Acree said. "I should have just let him have it. When he got on line, got on his normal line and started to slow down, I just couldn't stop, bumped into him and got out of shape, and when I got to the grass, it was pitch it now or head for the wall. I tried to get it on the ground and do as much as I could to protect it at that kind of speed." "We had some contact into one and I feel really bad, but when we're battling that hard, I got into the corner really deep and the back end stepped out," Parriott said. "I think when it stepped out, it got in his way. Just very unfortunate that he ended up in the dirt." . That came on the 11 th lap, and the race was between Barnes and Parriott, Higbee and Himmelsbach in line behind them, but not in threatening positions. There was nothing in Barnes' lead with Parriott pressing, the race coming down to the end with Barnes holding on. "Michael [Barnes] won it on the last lap," Parriott said. "I had a little bit of a tire spin coming off of five and that just did it. That was my whole plan, to try that number, and I spun the rear. I gave it to him right there. It would have been a tough fight into seven." Higbee admitted that the championship took precedence over race glory. "We're in a difficult position because we're close in the championship now, we're close in points," Higbee said after the first race, though he was actually in the points lead. "Coming here, Lee [Acree] is the guy we need to beat. We knew it was going to be a tight race. So I was playing it a little bit cautious. I figured we'd just settle into the first race and Bames (34) holds off Lee Acree (46). who crashed after coming together with his teammate Brian Parriott. see where we finished and not really push the issue. Then I saw Acree got tangled up and fell down, and realized I had a very good opportunity to score some points and settled for third." Himmelsbach was fourth, by himself, with Lopez just in front of Batey after passing him on the 12th lap but disappointed that he wasn't farther up the field, and puzzled by the finishes. "I expected to be more competitive than I had been here," Lopez said. "My bike is fast. I know it's fast. When I got here, it had 144 horsepower and we put some pump gas in it to de-tune it." Batey said he made so many changes to his Aprilia over the course of the weekend that he tuned himself out of contention. After a fair start, he said he had to play pinball for a while. "I found a couple of openings and got up to where I was maybe around fifth by the third turn," Batey said. "After those three turns, my position was pretty much set. I didn't move up any more than that." Before the race was half over, his rear tire started getting greasy, giving Lopez the opening he needed. Ciccotto was next, but his seventh was taken away after he was disqualified from the second race. That gave the spot to Schmidt, with Ty Howard pulling away from KeyStone Learning Systems' Eric Wood and L&L Motorsports' Ken Chase late in the race. RACE TWO Leg two began with Higbee in front, for a lap, and then Parriott, who was leading at the red flag. On the restart, it was Ciccotto and Barnes out front, then Higbee and Par- Grant Lopez (1) carded a pair of fifths, beating Tray Batey (2) In the first leg but losing out to Batey in the second. cue I _ n __ S • SEPTEMBER 19, 2001 29

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