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/128205
Genuine Suzuki Accessories Superstock Round 1 : Daytona International Speedway of 13 laps. Then the Formula Xtreme Champion ran wide in turn one, dropping back to finish 35th. Acree took the lead from Pridmore, the pack behind him closed in, with Hayden back in fifth starting the finift~lap. Hi!)'den worked hard to get 'nto t!:le lead early on the final lap, passing Acree to front the pack as they swept into the International HOfSeshoe. :fhe infield hadn't been a problem the entire race - that was where the time was to be made. So he did, whistling through the few corners were e cou m e time and leading out of turn six aQd onto the West Banking. "I definitely knew I wa ed to lead," --I--uO:a"""ye"'n"'""'s""'a'ra. "TWas JUs battling every lap just to stay ahead of guys. I didn't eall ave..much of a strategy other than just try to get as close as I could to the front because I definitely wasn't going to be drafting by three or four gU}lS Eyeg,.hefore the race I knew for sure I could run the pace, and I was in the hunt, but I found out that beating h-e 75. amelimes was a little tougher than just goi g fast. I knew it was gOing to e c ose." Hayden said he knew his only chance was leading out of the infield. "As soon as I got into second there off turn one, the only chance I had was to get some kind of break there in the infield," he said. "1 knew I had a chance, but I kind of felt it was a long chance," Hayden said. "But I just kept my head down the whole time and got in the right spot. Sometimes this place is a little more luck involved than a lot of other places, and today I had it on my side a little bit." Acree said he didn't get a good drive out of the infield on the final lap. "The last lap, I didn't mind bein.g behind 0 = ~Hay-den] when he c-ame by through the infield," he said. "I figured if I d n't tow someo y ese, I'm,going to g,e1 02.Le and somebody's going to slingshot by me. It's the typical deal. Nobody wants to lead unless they absolutely have to here. I didn't get backed off. I didn't know if I'd thrown the kind of drive I wanted out of the a chain or what, and I just missed infield. I think I was just being a little turning where the pavement splits off bit too careful on it. A tire that had 15 into turn one. I turned and went hard laps on it, [and I was] not wanting through that lake on the outside of to be too aggressive with it. I paid the turn one. Dude, it's deep. When I price a little bit for that. Fourth wasn't went through there, I swear there was exactly what I had in mind going into water coming tank high on both sides the chicane on the last lap, but luckily of the bike." I was able to get out of there pretty Wood led the first three laps, then good and get a good tow." Attack Suzuki's Jason Pridmore came Rapp, Wood, and Hooters Suzuki's by. Less than an hour earlier, Pridmore Mike Ciccotto helped Acree with the had finished ninth in the Daytona 200. draft that allowed him to run up on Pridmore was out front again in the Hayden. late going, taking the lead on the 12th Hayden's .Miracle Finish Suzuki's Steve Rapp, the top four covered by 0.209 of a second. Not only was the win improbable, it was a record. Hayden completed the 15-lap, 50-mile race in 28 minutes, 34.928 seconds at an average speed of 112.1 mph. The previous mark was set by Jimmy Moore last year at 111.467 mph. Hayden's win on the Kawasaki ZX-6R gives him the Genuine Suzuki Accessories Superstock Champion-ship points lead after the first of 11 rounds. Hayden leaves for Fontana with 36 points, four more than Acree, with Wood at 29. Rain had pushed the Superstock race to Monday from Sunday, the 15-lapper coming after the Daytona 200. On Sunday, Hayden finished a dispirited 13th in the Supersport race. Though he'd qualified third-fastest in Superstock, Hayden admitted that he could run with the 750s but didn't have the power to pull out and pass them. He wasn't exactly looking forward to the race. From the very start, Hayden was part of the lead pack, a group whose number eventually dwindled to four but was as high as a dozen in the early going. One of the early casual- By HENNY RAY ABRAMS PHOTOS BY KINNEY JONES DAYTONA BEACH, Fl, MARCH 10 K awasaki's Tommy Hayden brought the extended Daytona Bike Week to a thrilling end with an improbable victory in the most exciting finish of this week, the Kentuckian riding the undersized Kawasaki 636 to the narrowest of wins ahead of a horde of Suzuki GSX-R750s in the Genuine Suzuki Accessories Superstock race at Daytona International Speedway. Hayden had the audacity to lead the final lap from the first horseshoe to the finish, including the critical run from the chicane to the checkered flag. Lee Acree, in a one-off guest ride on the Arclight Suzuki GSXR750, played the game perfectly, only to come up .009 of a second short at the finish stripe. "I put my head down, and that was my only hope," Hayden said after giving Kawasaki its first Superstock win since Mike Harth won in 1992. "I must have just got enough gap to just hold it off because they were coming by the finish line fast. Definitely feels good to start off the season with a win." After coming up inches short, Acree said: "I thought I had squeaked by, but unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case." Behind Acree came Barden Precision Bearing/Woodcraft/Bettencourt's Eric Wood and Valvoline EMGO 34 MARCH 19, 2003ยท cue I e neVIl's