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/128238
F o r mu la U S A T h u n d e rbik e S e r ie s F in a l Roun d : D a ytona Inter n a ti o n al Speedway At that point B arn es had close to 12 seconds on Bil ansk y , who 'd settle into a sec ure secon d ahead of a bat tl e for the fina l podium spot. Barn es slo we d on the final lap to do a few wheeli es but st ill h ad well over 20 second s in hand. "I just cam e out here to have fun , an d w e h ad a b last , " h e sai d . "I t wasn't the p ressur e of th e AMA sea son ." B il an sk y had about fou r sec onds on the battl e for thi rd, whi ch went to 200 3 cl ass ch am pio n J ef f Joh nson over Perform ance Cyc le's Ray Bow m an. John son had m oved to third about the ha lfway po int, Bowm an on h im th e whole way. "I was questioning like three laps, I wa s qu estioning if I sh ou ld l et him t hro u g h an d follow him a n d d r aft him ," J ohnson said. "I kn ew he was there. I th ought I must ha v e th e horsepower if I w as staying in front of him so I fi gured I sho uld just use the pow er. We have a really good m ot or co m bi n ati on thanks to Hob an Br os. and Mill enn ium Technologie s." Bowma n came fourth , th en a gap to Joseph Rozynski who dropped Ed Key after passing him a lap earl ier. eN to Daytona and beat th e Buell s." Barnes qua lified the old F2 on th e pol e, but th e twi ns w ere cl ose. That wou ld n't be the ca se in the race. By the time Ba rn es go t to the east banking on the fi rst lap , he had 1.6 5 se c o n ds on Richi e M orri s . O n th e wes t ba nking , less th an a lap lat er , the lead had doubled. An d so it would go. His best lap , a 2:00. 148 , cam e on l ap tw o and wou l d b e 1.6 seco n d s bette r than the seco nd -b est T hu nde rbike. L ap fo ur an d t he l ea d was over n in e seco n d s o n Hard i n g Ha rl e y Da v i d son' s B ry an B em isd er fer , the .Bu ell ri der's day soo n to come t o an end. En tering tu rn one on th e fi fth lap, Bem i sd erfer lo w sid ed , handing second to Hal' s Perfo rman ce Advan tage Racing's Da n Bilansky . " It just loo ked like yo u get in there deep , and he knew I w as right behind him ," B ilansky said of Bemisderfer. "He started a little slow in th e beginning, and he had to co me fro m wa y in the back , and I had [J eff] J ohnson and Ed Key on m e. I was just feeling th em all out , and we wer e pl aying th e d raft gam e. Bem isd erfer c ame up , and I j ust ki nd of moved through traffic with him. Look ed li k e just the fron t end let loose ." M ichael Barnes wheelies to victory on the 1992 Honda F2 that he rode in the Thunderbike final. Daytona Internatio Speedway nal Daytona Beach, Florida Results: O ctober 19, 2003 IFinal Round) THUNDERB IK E: 1. Michael Barn es ( Hon) ; 2 . Daniel Bilansky (S ue); 3. Jeff Johnson (Sue); 4 . Ray Bowma n (Hon); 5 . Joseph Rozynski (Sue) ; 6 . Ed Key (Sua): 7 . Jeff Harding (Sue); 8 . Randy Rega (S ue): 9. Na t han Kern (BMW); 10. Bob Shy ( Yam ) ; I I . Cha rles Sip p ( Sue); 12 . Jerry Wood ( D uc) ; 13 . Michael Mills (Suz); 14. Andrew Hamblin ( Sue); 15. Dave Ellis Maney (Due): 16 . Alvaro O rozco (Suz); 17 . Bryan Bem lsd erf e r ( Bue ) ; 18. Brian Bod ine (S ue); 19 . Rich ie Mo rris (Sue); 20 . Derek Keyes (Suz) ; 2 1. Alex Ferreira (Suz). THONDERBIKE FINAL POINTS STANDINGS , I. Dave Estok ( 1 18); 2. Daniel Bilansky (92); 3 . Joseph Rozynski (64); 4 . Bryan Bem isderfer (6 1); 5 . Ray Bowm an ( 56) ; 6 . Je ff J ohn son ( 43) ; 7 . A rt hur Wagner J r. (3 9) ; 8 . Ed Key (37 ): 9 . (TI E) Derek K ey es/Charl es S ipp (3 1) : I I . ( T IE) Mi chae l Bernes/De rren James (26) ; 13. Jerry Wood (2 4) ; 14. (TIE) Rick Doucette/ Michael Ciccotto (20); 16. (TIE) Bria n Lecy/ Rlc h le Morris (1 8); 18 . (T IE) Ed ward Keokee/ Steve Keener (16) ; 20. Jeff Harding ( 15) . Formu la USA U n lim it e d E xpert GP Fina l R ound : Dayto n a International Speedway good ac tually , and I th ink will be really good whe n we co me back for th e March race." M ichelin 's J im Rhodes said Rap p was do ing development work on the fir st batc h of Dayt on a du al co mpound tires for th e Suzu ki GSX - R I 000 in Sup ersto ck trim. Th ey ran as DO Ts this wee ke nd but w ill be m ad e int o slicks for the Ma rc h Superst oc k race. Th e tires Rapp raced w ill be dev el ope d into a seco nd ge ne rati on tha t M ic h el in w ill tes t a t it s D a yt o n a Decem ber tire. t est. Mi ch el in pla ced so much i m p o r t a n ce o n t he ra c e weekend that it sent a DOT engi neer from Fra nce . "It was an incredib l e we ek en d , reall y good tem peratures and consistent performa nce, " Rhodes said . Rapp 's best lap was the fast est by over two seconds, a factor in a lead whi ch was seven sec o n ds on t he fourth lap and k ept growing . T he battle fo r sec ond was wa ge d am ong three rid er s, Ma rco Martinez, A rcl i g ht Su zuki ' s o u tg u n ne d D av e St ant on , and Rob ert J en sen . St ant on was on h is Suzu ki GSX -R600 against th e 1000s of Su zu k i -m ounted Mar - S T O RY AND P HO T O B Y H E N N Y R A Y A B RA M S DAYT ONA BEACH, FL, OCT 19 al v o l i n e EM GO Suz uki 's Steve Rap p ca me to Flori da m o stly to te st tires for Mi ch elin . A lo ng the way h e wo n a f ew C hampi on ship C up Series races , th en he adde d the Form ula USA Un limited GP Exp ert fina l on a cl oud y , warm Sun day afternoon at Daytona Internation al Spee dway . After a dominant performance t o ake the pole position - he was 1.4 . ' . ill:cunds clear of second fastest app took off from the. st art, dro pping his lap times fro m p ract ice, turnin g in his best laps of the weekend , and jetti ng off to a victory that was never in do ubt. "Low 51 s," Rapp said after clockin g a 1:51.435 on th e fifth lap of the n i n e- l a p r a c e , " t hat 's was p r ett y m u ch what I t hought w e c ou ld j ust from the weekend 's stuff we've been doi ng. I did n 't have t o d o a lo t o f work as far as bik e setup. " We were test ing the new DOTs all weekend , so we did that race on the 10 00 on th e DOT s, and it was rea ll y V 22 OCTO B ER 29 , 2003 ' cue • e n e _ :s: tin ez and Yamah a-mo un ted J en sen . Th ro ugh the in fi eld, St anton was sur gical, har d on th e brakes and quick throu gh th e dogl eg . On the banking, Martin ez had all the power, bl ow ing by St anton mos t laps an d J ens en when he had to. Starting the n int h and final lap , Stant on dove hard into turn one, sli c in g th rough traffi c t o take seco nd, Martinez and Jensen in tow. Jensen got M arti n ez before t h ey left t he infield , but Martinez took it back with a pow er run down the ba ckstraig ht and was into second into the chic ane, Stanton second then Je nsen . They ran to the flag in that orde r, Stanton ab le t o hold off J ensen for th e f in al p odium sp ot b ehin d M ar tinez . " T h at ' s th e best run all season, said M artin ez, w ho suffe red min o r injuries in a CCS race . "I didn 't know if I was going to be able to pull it off ." Stanton sai d he " ran out of gearing . Basically I was on the rev limiter before t he st art / fi ni sh. S o I knew I was go ing to have a problem th ere on th e l a st l ap , and I' m j u st h app y I m ade it t o th ir d place because those guys have reall y fast bikes , and ru nning out of gearing is not a good feeling on the last lap, especially at Day tona. " I was just trying t o j oc k ey for position and see what Marco had and where he was strong and where I was strong and j ust do wh at I did , bring it do wn to th e la st lap ." L ar r y Dennin g got th e better o f