Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

laps later. Lopez said he had a frontrow seat for the crash. "It didn't look too pretty, but I hear he's alright: Lopez said after the win. "We'll come back and have a better race in the second one, or should I say, as good of a race." More importantly, it taught Lopez that he wouldn't have to conserve his tires for the second race, something everyone seemed concerned with. The team was using the newest Michelin Supersport tires and had the benefit of Michelin's top World Superbike man, Jean Herrisse. Behind Lopez came the battling trio of Wood, Parriott and Acree, with Carr closing. Any of the first three could have gotten second, but it was Wood taking the spot, moving from fourth to second going into the chicane on the final lap. "The last lap it was Lee then me then Brian and Lee," Wood said. "So I said I'll just put my head down and I went through the chicane as fast as I could and tried to gap them and get away. I figured from where he [Acree] was he wasn't going to get a good drive and if I stayed behind him, [Brian] Parriott would probably get both of us. I put my head down and went and luckily we had the motor to hold them off. I probably gapped them 10 bikes, that was enough to hold them off." Wood said the difference in the race was the work of GMD Computrack. "It made a huge difference from a struggle on Thursday and Friday in the 56s to where we can do 54s comfortably the whole time. We actually got down to 53s [in the race]: Wood said. Parriott said that he was happy with his result, Daytona not being one of his favorite places. Second through fourth were covered by .251 of a second, with Carr coming fifth just over half a second back. "With all the sustained braking that you have here, you stand on the brakes, then you've got to have throttle control, you're working that thing as best you can," Carr said. "I was pretty much out of gas in the right arm only. I had plenty of wind. I hadn't used the front brake except for Peoria all year except for when we were here in the spring. It took its beating on me." The Grand National Champion had moved past Barnes on the seventh lap as he was encountering machine woes. Barnes's Suzuki GSX-R750 lost power when the exhaust split, and he found he used his rear tire up too early in the race. "I get good drives here at Daytona, but that's pretty much something you have to sacrifice for the drives is your tire," Barnes said. Parriott (46) leads his teammate Lee Acree (84) and Eric Wood in the second race. Parriott ended up with a 4-7 tally; Acree finished third and fifth, narrowly losing the title to Higbee. "Then I had my exhaust break and my tires go away at the same time. I saw [Chris] Carr coming and he come by and [Michael] Himmelsbach. There was nothing I could do. I was sliding around all over the place and I had a considerable loss of power." Barnes finished just .020 of a second behind Carr's Blackman Cycles teammate Michael Himmelsbach. RACE TWO Scattered showers had been forecast for late in the day and the skies south and east of the Speedway were dark and foreboding. F-USA officials had done a good job running an efficient race program, but whether they'd get the second leg in was a huge question mark. Higbee knew his title chances rested on finishing at the front and in front of Acree. From the last row of the grid, Higbee got to work, scything through the 27 -rider field to take over the lead entering tum one on the third of 12 laps. "I was really, really amazed that we were able to come up through the pack like that: he said. "It was only a few laps and I was seeing the leaders and up there battling with them." Joining him at the front were Lopez, Acree, Carr and Mike Ciccotto, with Parriott not far behind. Higbee said he was hoping to make a break, but Lopez was having none of it, taking the lead on lap four going into the chicane. What concerned Higbee at that point was his rear tire. "We were able to run probably into the 52s on occasion so it was probably a gamble between stressing the tires and trying to break away: he was just horrific coming through there the next lap." Entering the banking on the final lap, Lopez was again in front, now chased by Higbee, Barnes, Acree, Ciccotto, and Wood. Wood had the best view of the front-runners from sixth and didn't like what he saw. "We went into the chicane and it was literally like six people wide in there and you couldn't see further than a couple of people ahead of you," he said. "I closed up on the group - I think I was in sixth at this point - all of us nose to tail, one after another. At the exit of the chicane, we hit this big puddle, every one of us going sideways. I was off throttle, upright and went sideways." As is often the case at Daytona, the race would be decided by the chicane, but not in the usual fashion. The rider with the most nerves would win and that rider was Barnes. "I seized the moment is what it was," Barnes said. "Those guys backed off going in there. I backed off, just not as much. I've been in the chicane in the wet a bunch of times and that's about the speed I usually go in there in the wet. Those guys were going much slower. I slid a little bit and was glad I made it through. Then I was worried about the grip on the banking coming to the line." Barnes had enough that he wasn't challenged for the win. The fight for second was between Higbee and Ciccotto, with Higbee getting the nod when Ciccotto lowered his level of aggression. "Came out of the chicane, got a little sideways, but was able to collect it and make a run at Shawn," Ciccotto said. "I come up the outside of Shawn because I didn't want to go to the inside and fall down and take him out, came up a wheel short on the outside." Higbee said that past experience had taught him that the most dangerous stretch of track in the wet is entering the banking, the off-camber section. "So I was off the gas there and coasting through that section," he said. "As soon as I hit the banking I knew I had the grip so I just got on the gas and spun it up toward the wall a little bit and off to the checkered. It wasn't too bad once I got through the chicane." Higbee's title would depend on Acree's finish, and Acree was two spots back, enough to give Higbee the number one plate. "The last lap, when it started I'm just like, I'm ready to give up: Higbee said. "I can't believe we're out thete in those conditions and trying to race and win the championship in those conditions. "It was really rewarding to come down here: he continued. "The activ- said. "And there's all these things going through my mind, whether I should try to break away and trust the tire or play it a little conservative and go for a last lap draft." As it was, none of that mattered. Higbee and Lopez swapped the lead, then Acree's teammate Parriott came by on the fifth lap entering the International Horseshoe. Higbee knew he had to finish in front of Acree, but wasn't keeping track of his progress. "I was so focused on the race that I didn't even look at my pit board: he said. "I never turned around. I ran my own race. 1 figured keep my head down, keep looking forward, try to stay out front. Wherever he finished he finished. All we could do was try to win." Strong into turn one, Higbee took the lead on lap six, Lopez doing the same on the next lap, Higbee in front on lap eight, the lead pair now joined by Barnes with a slight edge on the rest. It looked like the winner would come out of this trio as they edged away. The clouds were moving in and there was a sense of urgency. Barnes took the lead in the chicane on the ninth lap, with Higbee in front a lap later. Then came the rain and the field bunched back up. It began in the chicane on the penultimate lap and everyone was caught out, most notably Ciccotto, in fifth at the time. "I tried turning the gas on very easy and the thing went full sideways tankslap all the way up the wall: Ciccotto said. "I collected it right as I hit the airbag on the outside wall. I hit the airbag, kind of bermed off of it, jumped, landed, hit the wall, and came back down the track. Stayed in the gas coming around and thought for sure that we were going to go across the finish line, wherever we were, that it would be over. But they let us go back there again and man it CUD I • n e _ S • OCTOBER 31, 2001 13

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