Deycona Beach. FL . March 10, 2CCO
AMA,lLockharc-Phillips USA 7SOcc Supersporc
Round 1 : Daytona International Speedway
By
HENNY RAY ABRAMS
ohn Hopkins became the youngest
rider to ever win a 750cc Supersport race by acting like a much older
rider. The 16-year-old Valvoline
EMGO Suzuki rider put his limited
Daytona experience to very good
effect when he used a classic draft
slingshot to shade Ricci Motorsports
Jimmy Moore at the finish line on a
sunny and humid Saturday afternoon
at Daytona International Speedway.
"John [Hopkins] did the right
thing," Moore began, after coming up
just .096 of a second short. "He followed me and used the draft and his
bike to get around. That's just what
happens. You gamble and sometimes
you win, sometimes you lose. I did
the best I could."
It'd been a war the whole time and
Moore was hoping he could escape
from the fray. He gave it his best, but
he knew Hopkins was coming and he
knew there was nothing he could do and Hopkins knew it too. Moore's
best chance to break away had vanished when he overshot the West End
Horseshoe while leading in the final
stages - and now he was a very highspeed sitting duck.
j
(Above) Hooters' Mike Clccotto (13)
crashes after getting hit by Lee
Acree (87) In the chicane on the
ninth lap of the 750cc Supersport
race.
(Below) Second-place finisher
Jimmy Moore (86) leads winner
John Hopkins (21) and third-place
finisher Lee Acree in the chicane
on the last lap.
And so it became a classic Daytona finish, with Moore running as
hard as he could to get away, Hopkins patiently drawing him in for his
first-ever victory in AMA competition
in only his fourth AMA race.
"I was thinking about the last lap
and what it was going to come down
to," Hopkins said. "I saw that we had
a little gap over third place - Lee
Acree~ I knew that it was just going to
be between Jimmy and me. So, I
mean, I knew if I came out of the chicane first that I'd probably get drafted. So I tried the best I could. I stayed
behind Jimmy and coming out of the
chicane I got a great drive."
The Ramona, California, teenager
completed the 15-lap, 53.4-mile race
in a time of 28 minutes, 54.359 seconds at an average speed of 110.843
mph, well off the race record of
111.362 mph set by Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates in 1996.
26
MARCH 22, 2000'
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