Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Lockhart-Phillips USA Unlimited Superbike Final Round: Daytona In1terflational Speedway Michael Bames (34) leads Grant Lopez (i), Brtan Parriott (hidden), Lee Ac.... (84) and the rest of the Fonnula USA Unlimited Superbike field into tum one at Daytona Intematlonal Speedway. test the waters, but I wasn't going to let anyone get away. The position I was in I couldn't afford to back off. I had to go for it. I was lucky that it worked out." Higbee didn't win the race, but he won the title. The second-leg winner was the fearless and experienced Michael Barnes, who didn't let the rain in the chicane bother him or his Hooters Suzuki. Higbee came second, just .001 of a second in front of Barnes' teammate Mike Ciccotto. More importantly, Arclight Suzuki's Lee Acree, who'd taken over the points lead heading into the final round, was a philosophical fifth. "I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason and what's meant to happen will be, and it was Shawn's day today," Acree said after losing out on the title 159 points to 155. "Shawn's really good here at Daytona. I don't have the place quite figured out like he does. He comes down here and sets the place on fire every time we show up." The first race had gone to Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Grant Lopez. Lopez and newly signed teammate Josh Hayes, in his first race back with the team he left two years ago, set a blistering, untouchable pace. Too hot, in fact, for Hayes, who tucked the front in the dogleg leg and cartwheeled across the grass, destroying his Suzuki GSX-R750 but not hurting STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS DAYTONA BEACH, FL, OCT. 21 hawn Higbee was not haVing a great weekend at Daytona International Speedway. Yes, the Formula USA Unlimited Superbike Championship leader had earned the pole position for Sunday's race, but minutes later he was told his motor made too much power and he was disqualified, banished to the back row. In the first leg he made short work of the field, swiftly moving forward, only to have an oil seal let go and force him to a smoking, heartbreaking stop on the third of 12 laps. The II-point lead he'd brought into the final round had vanished, replaced by a fivepoint deficit heading into the second leg. From the back row he was at the front of the second leg by the third lap, only to see the landscape change dramatically at the end. Rain began to fall in the final two laps of the race, Higbee and the rest suddenly having to negotiate a slick track on wellused DOT tires. Higbee was in a position to win the race, and the championship, and the decision he made was an easy one. "Going into the chicane the last lap I was kind of prepared to throw it down or win," he said. "I was only going to back off as much as I needed to. I was going to let someone else S 12 OCTOBER 31,2001 • cue I e n e _ s himself. Lopez was free and clear after that, winning by 11.102 seconds. Second was a three-rider fight, 14K the Movie's Eric Wood emerging second with Arclight Suzuki's Acree third and Brian Parriott fourth. Blackmans Cycles' Chris Carr, in his second road race appearance of the year, was fifth after his throttle arm pumped up late in the race. Carr rode the Aprilia Mille to eighth in the second race. RACE ONE The first race began with Hayes leading Acree, then Lopez and Wood, with the top nine stringing out togeth- er. Higbee was on the move, slicing through the field, only to see it all go bad on the second lap. Higbee explained that it was the countershaft-sprocket seal that popped out. There'd been only a slight warning that something was wrong, "then all of a sudden my foot was slipping around on the peg, and right before that, I saw the black flag, so I pulled it in and had the crew look it over. That was really heartbreaking," Higbee said. Hayes and Lopez were fast away on the fourth lap, the field unable to match their pace and the pair fighting like they weren't teammates. Hayes nearly ran into the back of Lopez entering the West End Horseshoe on the fifth lap, the pair swapping the lead constantly. Hayes was in front on the ninth lap when he went into the dogleg too hard. The front tucked, the rear came around, and Hayes was off on a wild ride. "I knew the bike wasn't close to me and I just kind of slid to a stop," Hayes said. "Whenever I got up I turned around to see the bike do one more little flip and then I saw it stand up on its own and I said, 'Well that's not too good that's usually a bad sign,' and I walked up to it and it just kind of teetered over a little bit and I said, 'Well, it's pretty tore up,' and I turned around and said I've got to get my 600 for the 600 race." At that point, Lopez had an eightsecond lead that he stretched to over 11 when the race ended about four Shawn Higbee's Suzuki started smoking on the second lap of the first leg and he was out a lap late•. Remarkably, Higbee came back to clinch the Unlimited Superbike title with a second-place finish In the second of two races.

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