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/128178
Formula USAIPro Honda Oils Sportbike Series Final Round: Daytona International Speedway MO'S EL'S , Jason DiSalvo made his Yamaha debut a goad one, hut CanneD is the champ Jason DiSalvo {401 made his Yamaha STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS at Daytona In the Honda Pro Oils Sport Bike Series. The youngster from New yort< took the victory. Craig Connell {51. however. was crowned .s the series champion. DAYTONA BEACH, FL, OCT 20 C raig Connell took the drama out of the Honda Pro Oils Sportbike final a day early. The Arclight Suzuki rider clinched the season title by taking the pole position, and the point that goes with it, on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. His lead was insurmountable, the title was his, but he still wanted to win. Jason DiSalvo thought otherwise. The newest recruit to the Yamaha stable, DiSalvo was aboard an exDamon Buckmaster Yamaha R6 for his Formula USA National Road Race Series professional debut in Yamaha colors. He'd gone well in qualifying fifth fastest, good enough for the second row - but there was no way of seeing how he'd dominate the race. After the first two starts were redflagged by crashes, the 12-lap main event finally got going, with DiSalvo into the lead on the second lap and every lap thereafter. His lead would grow, then shrink, then grow again, his confidence gaining with each lap to the point that he didn't fear leading out of the chicane on the final lap, normally a suicidal impulse. But the young New Yorker knew he had the motor and he rode hard through the final chicane and to his first professional victory for Yamaha. "For the most part, it was a pretty ideal race in my eyes," DiSalvo said. "I got out in front early and didn't see much of the guys behind me for the rest of it. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. We came here having not ridden it at all and went and won, and that just shows how good it is." Arclight Suzuki's Connell was second, just .534 of a second behind at the line, with Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki's Larry Pegram a disconsolate third. Pegram was one of two riders in the hunt for the Formula USA Grand National Championship. The other was Kneedraggers.com/Sportbike Zone's Matt Wait, who had a turbulent fined $500 for passing under a red flag. "I don't even want to talk about it," Pegram said of the Sportbike race. "I mean, I needed to finish second if Matt [Wait] got seventh, and I went to second and Craig [Connell] drafted me back at the line. He just caught a draft off of me and second would have won it. 1 don't know what he was doing. I mean, he's my Suzuki teammate. He said he didn't see the pitboard. It doesn't matter. I'm just happy to be away from these idiots, this series." Pegram will racing a Ducati Superbike in the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship in 2003. Connell finished the season with 136 points to Pegram's 130, with Barnes third at 100. The subplots didn't interest DiSalvo. He just wanted to win and didn't know what to expect. "I wasn't sure if they were just messing around not passing me or what, and then I took a peek back coming onto the banking one lap and saw I had a pretty sizeable gap, and I thought. 'Man, if could put my head down and pull away, that'd be pretty good.' And I put my head down and did exactly that. They closed up a little bit. I made a mistake on one tum and ran a little wide and came up and got held up by a lapper rider for a little bit [but not muchl." Connell and Pegram fought over second most of the way, the pair part of a lead pack of six that ran the first half of the race strung together, then came apart in the second half, splitting into a pair of trios. Pegram and Connell swapped second back and forth, Connell leading onto the banking on the final lap and taking the spot, but not the one he wanted. "I wanted to win it," Connell said. Formed up behind the lead three were Arclight Suzuki's Lee Acree, Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki's Michael Barnes, and Penguin Roadracing School's Jeff Wood. Barnes discovered he'd made a bad choice on gearing and it kept him from keeping up with the front-runners, and didn't help Acree either. "I was undergeared," Barnes said, weekend. First, he was sent to the back of the 34-rider grid for a rules infraction in qualifying, then his motor blew up on Sunday morning. He borrowed a back-up motor from Toomer Levy for his Yamaha R6 and went racing, knowing where he had to finish to take the $20,000 top prize. If Pegram was third, Wait had to be seventh, a spot he moved into on the sixth of 12 laps and held it steady to the end. "It all turned out good," Wait said. "It was a lot of hard work and it paid off in the end. It would have been pretty easy just to give up. My motor blew this morning and I didn't even know if I was going to be able to ride." Pegram had had a rough weekend dealing with FUSA officials, and it got worse on Sunday afternoon when he and teammate Michael Barnes were DiSalvo, Connell, Pegram, Bames, Lee Acree and Jeff Wood exit the chicane. cue I e n e _ so • OCTOBER 30, 2002 25