Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AHRMA Historic Cup Series Round 2: Daytona International Speedway me on the horsepower," UllingstonPrice said. "Definitely in the infield I could have caught him up, but I had a slight misfire above 8000 rpm, and I was trying, but I couldn't get the pull out of the corners." On the fifth lap Lawes tripled his lead on the back straight', and the order of finish was set. "As I came out of the horseshoe and stood it up, it made loads of power," Lawes, who'd just rebuilt the engine, said. ") broke a rocker arm on Thursday and crashed this morning. I taped it all together and got a good result." Lawes said that Lillingston-Price had allowed him to ride the big Suzuki the previous year, and he'd won the British and European championships, "And he said, 'Come on, we'll go to Daytona for some sun.' We had a few problems up to the race. Through (the infield) I knew he'd be right on me, but as soon as I got on the banking, I pulled away." real slippery, especially in the chicane. I think it was a little deceiving. The conditions started to get better halfway through the race; we got a couple of dry lines through a couple of the corners, and it made you get a little more confident than you should be. Then all of sudden out in the chicane, there were a couple of big puddles that made things interesting." Chris Hurst finished second on a 1980 Yamaha TZ-250, with David Hedison third on a similar machine. The SOS Two-Stroke leader Jim Struke had just enough power on his 1997 Honda RS-125 to keep him in front of Dale Greenwood (Honda RS125), who finished the race with his cheap yellow rainsuit shredded and flapping in the wind. "I looked back a couple of times through the infield and saw he (Greenwood) was there, but I felt I had good motor on him, so I wasn't real concerned, as long as I could get out on the banking in front of him," Struke said. "I tried working pretty hard through the infield, but it was pretty slippery coming out of the chicane over there." Only four of 12 riders chose to start in the Super Mono class, but what the class lacked in depth was made up in intensity. Two Englishmen fought over the lead: Chris Lillingston-Price, aboard his 1993 Ducati Super Mono, and Mark Lawes, on an 800cc singlecylinder Gallina Suzuki owned by Lillingston -Price. It took Lawes a few laps to learn the track; Lilllingston-Price was able to outride him in the infield, only to be pushed back to second by Lawes' power advantage on the tri-oval. On the third lap Lawes blew by on the back straight. Lillingston-Price was able to close up on the infield, but now Lawes was in the lead for good. Coincidentally, Lillingston-Price began to have mechanical problems. "I think the handling is a bit better on this bike, but he's definitely got 54 MARCH 19. 2003' eye I TUESDAY Despite that the usual line-up of high-powered machinery from teams such as Team Obosolete and Barber's Dairy, they were not on hand at Daytona this year - nor was plucky Canadian Yvonne DuHamel - the sixlap Formula Vintage feature was not totally devoid of "star power." In a race billed as "The Battle of the Nines," three-time AMA Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen (1976, '77, '78), aboard a Carl Patrick-tuned, Hourglass Racing Harley-Davidson XR750, squared off against two-time AMA Grand National Champion Gary Nixon (1967, '68), the latter also the 1967 Daytona 200 winner, who was aboard an M3 Racing Honda CR750. Springsteen left the rainy grid second, behind polesitter Chuck Quenzler, and waited until the backstretch to unleash the big Harley and blow past the Yamaha RD400mounted Quenzler. Springsteen's Hourglass Racing teammate Tim e n e _ s Joyce, also Harley-mounted, then took the lead heading into the chicane. Joyce held that lead, running about 1.2 seconds ahead of Nixon, who cut under Springsteen in the West Horseshoe to take second place for two laps. But on lap three, Joyce got loose and threw it away in the chicane, leaving Springsteen and Nixon to do the bidding for the race win. Nixon crossed the stripe first on lap three, but Springsteen charged past him via a hairy, late-braking maneuver around the outside of Nixon in turn one at the start of lap four. Then Nixon's machine began to miss a beat as it succumbed to the moisture. Springsteen went on to win by 22 seconds after Nixon's machine was fouled by moisture. "The pigs flew!" the 45-year-old Springsteen said in Victory Lane. "[Hourglass owner] Keith Campbell did a great job with this bike. This is the best Harley I've ever ridden, except for my dirt trackers. I felt like I was dirt-trackin' out there, though. I put my foot down a couple times." Nixon came across the line second but was actually dropped to third place after AHRMA officials ruled that he had jumped the start. "Aw, I know that Springer is better than me, but it was still nice to go out there and show people what we could do," Nixon said, hinting that a rematch is in order. "It would have been a little different in the dry, because this M3 Honda is really fast, but it was raining. The bike dropped down onto three cylinders, then down to two, and I think that was God's way of taking care of me out there so that I didn't bust my ass." After being disappointed with his runner-up finish in Monday's 500cc Premier event, Heyser Cycles' Josef Brenner came back strong in the Jim Struke (791) leads fourth place finisher Jon Revilla (776) and second place Ken Nemoto (285) in the Formula 750 race. Classic '60s event, which was the lead-off race of the day. Astride another one of his trick BSAs, Brenner chased down Norton rider Alex McLean on the opening lap, making the the pass in the West Horseshoe. The gap between them then stretched on lap four, when McLean got caught in traffic. Brenner's margin of victory was 3.07 seconds at the finish. John Cooper, on another BSA, finished third. "That was about as fast as I could go," Brenner, 29, said. "I had the thing in really deep on the brakes in the horseshoes and just about everywhere else, really. I knew that I had Alex covered on the infield, but I knew that he had a little more topend grunt than me, so I knew my only chance was to beat him in the infield and try and get a big enough gap, which I did. I was also fortunate to have lapped riders in front of me. I was able to get a good tow off of them." Although only five riders were on the grid, the eight-lap International Classic GP hosted the best battle for the lead during both days of AHRMA competition. Yamaha TZ350-mounted riders John Weeden and Chris Hurst swapped the lead through the infield on the long straightaways and through the chicane for the entire race, with Weeden and his Weeden Classic Restorations-backed '77 model TZ prevailing over Hurst and his '80 model by less than a bikelength. "That was good fun," the 52-yearold Weeden said. "I nearly got off on the banking out there yesterday, but today it was much better. I knew that

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