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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128238
Kawasaki ZX-6RR in the GTU and
Middleweig ht Supersport classes.
Meyers thanked his fam ily , incl uding h is m other an d moth er -in -law,
w ho served o n hi s pi t c re w . " T h ey
ga ve m e m y lap times and interva ls,"
he said. "It gave m e a chanc e to put
in good numbers and be smooth.'
Valvo line EM GO S uzuki's St ev e
Rapp used the CCS races to test new
Day tona -spec Miche lin tires. Along the
way he won the Exp ert GTO and Expert
Spo rtb ike ra c es, both from starting
positions at the ba ck of the fie ld
because he wasn't a CCS series regu lar.
Teammate Matt F urtek, in the
same g rid predi came nt , w on t h e
Expe rt Heavy weig ht Superb ik e rac e
and fin ished second to Greenwood in
Expert Heav y wei ght Supers port.
Mot orc ycl e Performance 's Ed Key
wo n a p air of races and was on h is
way to a third when hi s cl utch fa iled.
Both wins ca me on Frid ay , first ove r
Bryan Bemisderf er in the Expert GT
Lights, th en over 2wf.co m's A lex Ferreira in Expert Lightweight Sup ersp ort.
K ey w as in th e h u nt fo r the Expert
Lightweight Superbike when his cl utc h
fa il ed on th e fourth lap . J eff Hard in g
took the win from Al ex Ferr eira.
Oth er mu ltip l e Amateur w in n ers
included Jorge Rodri guez, of Miam i, who
rode to vict ory in the Ama teur Unlimited
Sup ersp ort and Amateur Heavy weigh t
Superb ik e races; Mo on Super Cycle's
Benjam in Thomton , who rode his Suzuki
to victory in the Amateur Sportbike and
Amateur Middleweight Superbike races;
Red Bull Duc at i 's Richard Ea nes, the
wi nner in Amateur SuperTwins and
Amateur Form ula 40 ; and Michae l Mill s,
to ps in A mateur GT Lights and Amateur
Li ght weigh t Superbike and sec ond to
Ro n B el i sl e in Ama teur Li g ht w ei g ht
Grand Prix.
In 200 3 , Greenwood c ha se d th e
Formula USA Sportbike title , but th at
took up only five weekends prio r to
D ayt ona. Much of th e rest of the season was spe nt at New Ha mps h i re
In t e rn ati o n a l Spe edway , wh e re h e
domi nated th e L o u d o n Road Race
Series. Th e fo ur class champions hips
Greenwo od won at Lo udon paid off in
Fl ori da. Instead of st arting at the ba ck
of the grid, where m ost of the F -USA
rider s who don 't race in the reg ional
series ended up, Gr eenw ood was o n
the po le fo r his fo ur rac es , lined up
next to othe r regi onal w inners.
F r o m th e po l e, G r eenw o od was
always away first and able to pu ll out
a gap befo re th e b ack row st a rt ers
made their way to the front. By th en ,
Greenwood was controllin g the pace .
Fr iday 's Expert GTU was planned as
a 30-minute race. but red flags m eant it
ended up being a five -lap spr int.
Gre enwood took th e lead from the
start and lost one of his ma in cha ll en g e s w he n t eammat e J eff Wood
highsi ded in the Int ern atio nal Horseshoe. It wa s a co rne r that cla imed
m o r e t ha n a few r i d ers , in cl u d in g
Green wood durin g F -USA Spo rtbik e
practic e.
" T rac tio n in th e horseshoe is a n
issue thi s week en d," Greenwood said .
Wi th Wo od o ut, A rc lig ht Suzuk i ' s
Scott Harwell w ent afte r Gree nwo od
but was three se conds b ehind with
two laps to go. At t he flag it was
G ree nwood , H arwell and Canadian
Chris Peris .
Jeff Wood wa s ba ck t o c ha lle nge
in the Expert Middlew e i gh t Su p er sport ra c e, m oving into second on the
second l ap , so on to be j o in e d by
T ria d Mot orsp orts' Lee A cree .
T he pa ir we re within two seconds
of Greenw ood on th e fourth lap w hen
Acree nearl y highsided aft er passing
Wood in th e Int ern ati onal Horsesh oe .
" I t hink th ey go t a little bit racing ,
and it he lp ed me do my o wn thing,"
Greenwood said . " T hey d idn't wo rk
together to get up to m e. They started raci ng each other. "
T hat gave Greenwood the room he
needed to jet to an unth reat ened w in .
"That was a m on ey race for me for
Yama ha co ntinge nc y; that's a $2000
wi n the re ," Greenwood said . " T hat' s
o ne I wan ted bad."
A cr ee m ad e his way pas t Wood on
the fourth lap ba ck st ret ch and he ld
on for second, despite lead ing o ut of
the chic ane on th e fin al lap.
In Saturday 's t h ir d ra c e , Expert
Heavyweight Super sp ort, Gr eenwood
got the j um p with Harwell up to challenge fr om his fo urth- ro w spot alm ost
im med i ate l y. This ti m e Greenwo o d
wa s o ve r po we re d, ra c in g hi s R6
agai nst a host of Suzuki GSX -R7 50 s.
It di dn 't matter.
By t he thi rd l a p Green w o o d h ad
n ea rl y six seco n ds on M att Furt e k
afte r M arc o M artin ez hi gh si de d o ut
the lead g roup on th e second lap .
Th e gaps did n't app recia b ly
c h a n g e , a nd G re enw ood took hi s
third w in , this ti me ove r Furt ek , w ith
Ha rw ell pull in g into th e pits o n t h e
fina l lap. Dave Eb ben was th ird .
Sa turday 's 14 th race wa s Gr een wood's fourth win , E x p er t M iddleweight GP. Aga in Gree nwood was
o ut fro nt , soon gapping Chri s Peri s
with J effrey Purk moving in to third on
the fina l lap .
"I was just try ing to get m ore laps
in for tomorrow ," Greenwood said of
Su nday 's ra ces.
The foc us of Gr eenw ood's tun ing
effo rt s was the mapping in h is Pow er
Co m m a nd e r , hoping t o f i n d mu ch
nee ded acceleration.
"My bike seem s a little slow ac ce lerating on the banking , but it has th e
right horsepower number ," he said.
" W e t r ie d a c o u pl e of di ffe re n t
maps. It 's a new m otor, and we had a
map m ade at home, and the number
was real lo w, so we were expecting to
t ry a di ff er ent m ap . W e m ad e a
change t o that map, and I to o k J eff's
[W ood I m ap o ut, whi ch th e motors
we re pretty c l o se. I tri ed h i s m ap ,
wh i ch l o ok s a lot d ifferent o n th e
co mputer, but it do es the same thing
on the dyn o . We're ju st loo king for a
little more acc eleration ."
Greenwood said he, Wait, Acree and
Wood were all do ing low 1:54s in mom ing pract ice and that he co uld do those
times in a pack but not by him self.
Will ia m Meyers didn 't begi n racin g
until June , 2002. "I' ve ridden m otorcycles on the streets , and I was tired
of ge tti ng costly tickets ," Me ye rs, a
m e m b er of t he Fl or i d a N a ti on al
Guard and a profi ci ent gol fer , said .
Meyers first rac ed at D ayton a dur ing last year 's f all rac es, progre ssin g
to the w inne r s' ci rcl e in t his sprin g' s
CCS races.
" When we c ame her e [last ] O c tober , I cam e here just to say, 'He y , I' ve
don e Dayton a,' and I had an okay
seaso n. Then we c am e back out here
in March and said , 'Hey , we 'r e going
to do this,' and we nt four -for-four."
Th e Pro cl a s s i s wh ere M eye rs
w ants to b e, a nd he was using t h is
w eek en d t o showcase h ims elf. Th e
aud it io n was a qualified success.
His fir st win c ame in the first CC S
ra c e of th e w e ek end , F r i d a y's 30 min ute Amateur GTO wh ere he ro de
hi s Suzuki GSX -R100 0 to vic to ry o ver
Jay Qu ick with Mark De la no third .
A few race s la t er Meyers wo n the
A c r o p ov i c GT U A ma t eu r ra ce , th is
time aboa rd his Kawasak i ZX-6RR and
over De la no with Greg Melk a third .
" When I came h ere in F e b ru a r y
and Ma rch, I t alk ed to all the facto ry
a nd sa te ll ite t e am s a nd th e y sa id
'Just go ou t and win,''' Mey ers said .
Working his way throu gh the Amateu r Speedsc reen Unlim it ed GP c lass,
Meyers made the pass fo r the win on
the final lap , getting aro und SMP Rac ing's Michae l Sha llc ross , again o n the
Suzuki GSX -R1000 .
" It builds your co nfidence," Meyers
sa i d . " Ev e r y t h in g is working r ig ht .
We 'v e got a c ou ple of issue s on th e
Suzuki 10 00 , but we'll get it dialed in
rig ht and get it going fast ."
Ra ce nine was A m a t eu r M id dlewe ight Supe rs po rt, Me lka second
th is t ime but no t a fa c t or aft er th e
second lap when Meyers, ag ain on hi s
Kawasak i, had nea rly th ree seco nd s
in hand . Benjamin Th ornton , another
Am ateur m ultiple race winner, came
third.
eN
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach. Florida
Resulls: October 11ยท18, 2003 [Final Round]
A M GTO: 1. Wil lia m Meyers (Suz); 2. Ja y Sco tt
Q u ick (S uz); 3. Ma rk Delan o (S UI): 4 . B ria n Shaw
(Suz): 5. M ich ael Shallc ro ss(Suz).
EX GT LIGH T S : I . Ed K ey ( Suz }: 2. B ryan
Bem isde rf er (B ue); 3. Derek Key es (S uz); 4 . A lex
Ferre ira (Suz): 5. Randy Rega (Bue ).
AM GT LIG HT S : 1. Mich ael Mill s (Suz); 2. Ron
Belisle (Suz); 3 . Bil l D av en port (S ua) : 4 . B rend en
Hafn er (Suz) : 5. Stephen Serv is ( Suz) .
EX GTO: 1. Steve Rapp (Su z) ; 2. Ma rco M art in ez
(Suz) ; 3. J ake Holde n (Suz); 4 . Dav e Stan ton (Suz) ;
5. Robert J en sen (Yam).
GT