Formula USA Sportbike Series
Round 1 : Daytona International Speedway
The F.r.ula USA seas.n gds started at Dayt.na
be calm and just rode my own race,
really," Wait said. "I was looking at
my lap board and just trying to get
consistent and pretty much had the
same lap time the whole race."
Wait cleared away from Ciccotto
by the sixth of 18 laps and continued
to build his margin. At the end of the
64.08-mile race, Wait had an 18.275second cushion. He averaged
108.567 mph.
Bettencourts' Jeff Wood and his
Suzuki took second from Hal's
H-D/Buell's Mike Ciccotto on the
15th lap, with Ciccotto running out of
gas on the final lap and losing third to
Wood's teammate Scott Greenwood.
"I was trying to figure what they
had to offer as far as the competition," Wait said. "I knew I had to step
it up right away because the pace I
was running at the beginning wasn't
going to cut it. So I stepped it up a little bit and just kept that pace. 1 didn't
overpush it because I didn't need to,
according to my pit board. So I just
played a safe race and came home
and had a good finish."
Wait said he was hoping to go a
little faster.
"'t's not a real fast pace for AMA.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
HENNY RAY ABRAMS
DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 2
bout a minute before the start of
the Formula USA Sportbike final
at Daytona International Speedway,
Matt Wait made a decision that would
decide the race. With the track still
drying from a morning shower and the
sky somewhat noncommittal, Wait
decided to go with DOTs instead of
the softer rain tires. The track was
green and offered little traction but
was good enough that Wait knew early
on that he'd made the right decision.
"The rain started to go right away,"
Wait said. "Basically, the skies were
looking really clear at the start, so a
minute before we said, 'Let's do
DOTs all the way around.'''
Wait owned the start and stayed
near the front, losing the spot to Hals'
H-D/Buell's Mike Ciccotto for a very
brief period. It was clear that Ciccotto's Buell XB-9 didn't have the acceleration or top speed of Wait's Kneedragger.com Yamaha R-6, and
Ciccotto was braking hard to keep up.
"I put my head down at the start
and just tried to crank out there and
1/
22 MARCH 12, 2003' e y e I e
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