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/128637
F o r m u la U S AlWr e n c h e a d . com National Road Race Series F inal Round : D a yto n a International Speedwa y Hopkins W i n s , Lope .,C r o w n e d ft 1;. t=mI:a::::a."..-~,..----, ~~ ~ before being sl o wed by a bl istering rear t ir e. In the seco nd leg , Pegram agai n led , and ag ain blistered his rear t ire . But he rod e through it until an e lect ric al probl em stopped h im on th e ninth of 12 lap s. "T his is one of the worst weekends I' v e ever had as far a s lu ck 's co nce rned ," Pegram said . " W e c o uld n ' t buy a br eak all weekend . We blew up tw o m otors, but this last one was n't a moto r. " Zlock Racing 's M ichael Barnes and his Kawa saki took the close third in th e se c ond leg , with Mo ore fou rth, and H op kins ' t ea mmate Be n Spies fifth . The fin al po ints tally sh ow s Lopez with 2 2 8 , Hopkins wi t h 2 15, a n d Acree with 175. In ad dition t o th e seri e s bonu s , Lopez earne d $ 70 0 0 in ra c e w in n ing s. Hopk ins secon d- p lace series payout was $25 ,0 00, pl us he earned $ 10 ,000 in purse m on ey . R A C E O NE By A lthough he didn't w in either o f t he two Unlimited Superb ik e ra ces at Daytona Int ernatio nal Spee dway , Grant Lopez had plenty to celeb ra t e . The Texan wrapped up the 200 1 Wrenchead.com Unlimited Superb ik e Championship w ith two second-place finishes at Daytona. H EN N Y R AY A BRAMS DAYTONA BEACH, FL, OCT. 22 o h n Hopkins and Grant Lop ez domin ated the fin al round of th e W re nchea d .com Natio nal Road Race Series Unlim it ed Superbik e c lass at Daytona International Sp eedw ay , just as the y had all seas on . Hopk in s won both 12 -l ap rac es with thril ling last lap draft passe s o ve r hi s Valv olin e EMGO Suzu k i teammate Lopez - but it was L op ez ' p a ir of sec o nd s that c l i nc he d t h e c lass t itle a n d th e $50 ,000 series bonus . "It w as th e m o st excitin g rac e all se aso n," sai d Hopk in s , w ho, al on g with Lopez, won nine of th e 12 rac es in th e six -rou nd series. "I k new I had to pu sh hard and I ende d up ru nni ng the fast est lap of th e whole wee ke nd o n th at l ast la p . Th e key here is to han g o ut in t he lea d pack, get a nice d r aft c o mi ng o ff th at c hica ne , a nd you ca n win it. " Lo pez came in to the rac e w ith a 23 -po int c us hion on Ho pk ins and 34 ahead of Arclig ht Raci ng 's Lee Acree. It was co mfo rta b le , bu t n o t ove r - J 6 NOVEM B ER 1, 2000' cue wh elming , and he had to finish both ra ces to t ak e th e crown . "T he st rategy was just to rac e li k e in an y other race," Lop ez sai d . "You can' t t ell yo urse lf to be co nservative. bec au se if yo u tell yourself tobe co nserva t ive yo u ' ll ge t p assed , so yo u c an't tell yo urself to go all ou t some ti me s you land o n yo ur hea d ." Inste ad , Lop ez ra n in th e multi ride r pack at the fro nt of both races , and fi nis hed a sha dow seco nd i n both . Th e m argin behind Ho pk ins in th e fir st rac e was .0 6 3 of a second an d in the second one .060 of a sec ond . Ricci Moto rspo r ts J immy Mo ore was third in t he first ra ce with Com pet it io n Accessories. c om's Lar ry Pegram fo urt h . Peg ram led t he fi rst 10 laps by as much as fo ur seconds e n e vv So Even before the race started there was controversy . Pegra m was on th e pole with a time of 1:53 .25 I , but his Du ca ti didn 't complete t he mandatory d yn o run . While o n t he d yno it m ade o m in o u s noises on t he f irs t p a ss , along with only 92 horsep ow er, an d th e o pe r at o r shu t it down to av o i d p erso nal harm, acco rdi ng to seri es spokesm an Pat M ur ph y. "The dyno o perator was co ncerne d that the eng in e m ig ht g iv e up a nd c ause physica l harm ," Murph y sai d . "It wasn't t ha t t he b ik e was n' t c apable of com pleting th e run . The opera tor wa s co ncerne d for his safety ." Normally, th e bik es m ak e tw o o r three runs , M ur phy sa id, but "Peqrarn wa sn 't given t he o ppo rt unit y to c om pl ete the ru n." Had th ey continued to dyno th e bike, and it br oke , Peg ram would hav e been disqual ified. " D uring that q uali fy ing sessi on , I only m ade fiv e laps and th e bottom end of the motor sta rted tying up so I shut it off," Peg ram said . "I felt it was abo u t to b l ow up w ithin seconds. Th ey brou gh t th e bik e in on th e truck. I k ne w i t wo u l d sti ll st a r t at d yn o , wh ich a c cording t o the way w e understood t he rules, all it has to do is to ma k e an attem pt on th e dyno . T hey put it on the dyno and m ad e 92 horsepower. It was maki ng a bun ch o f noi ses. The dyno opera tor said it was n 't ev en close and t ha t we didn 't need to run it aga in . We took it bac k and now we' re fixing th e motor. Had he not blown up , Pegram was convinc ed he cou ld have go ne mu ch fa ster. " W e w er e f ir s t , " Pegr am s a id . "We're on t he po le, but I di dn't ge t a ver y good lap in . I was kind of getting up t o speed , I c am e in the pits to put o n a new tire. What we do in qua lifying is put o n a new tire for the last five laps . When we went out was when the motor blew up ." The b igger con cern was tir es . Pegram was blistering his rear D un lops in less th an 10 laps, a sign they wouldn't go the 12 -lap race distan ce . The q uick fix was to t ak e some rubber off the t ires to red uce th e overheating. "We knew it wasn 't the compound because we 'd u s ed it t h er e b efore successfully , " Dunlop 's J i m Allen said. "We basically took some rubber off with files , measured beforehand and m easu red after. [Larry] Pegra m was the only guy who had trouble. It was th e only way t hat we, in the short term , co uld cure th e probl em ." Pegra m got the hol eshot , but the race was quickly red-flagged . On the second try Pegram got anoth er flyei off t he start and qui ck ly pi led o n to his lead , ending th e third la p w ith ov er 3.5 seconds in hand . The t imes we re good , too good , in fact , and the tires wouldn't ho ld up. The ti re ch unk ed abo ut ha lfway into the race wi th Pegram hold ing over fo ur seconds on a clus te r of riders head ed b y Lo pez, Barn es, an d Ho pk in s. " I just t ried to baby it an d t hey ended up catc hing m e righ t the re at t he end ," Pegram said . On lap seven, Pegram lost over a sec ond of his lead and it wa s cl ear he wa s soon to ge t go bb led up. B y la p n ine th e lead was un der a sec ond and Lopez wa s on his tail o n t he 10th lap, Lopez and Hopkins both drafting pa st Pegram o n th e back st raight. " I co ul d def in itel y see it ," Lop ez said of Pegram 's ti re pro blem s. "T he Mi chelins were work in g reall y go od throughou t both ra ces . N o pr oblems. I co uld tell I had an advantag e, pr ob abl y a ti re advantage , com ing up on th e banking and stuff, but probabl y a co nfi d e n c e a d v an t a g e in th e t ires thro ugh t he infield . I c o u l d t ell the oth er people were r ea lly tentativ e, th at 's why y ou probabl y sa w some really close rac ing, be cause it wasn 't all out with th e tires pa ced that way, it was a littl e m or e co n s e r v a tiv e pace ." Ho pk ins passed Pegram going in to turn on e o n lap 11 with J immy Moore soon to drop Pegram to fourth . Th e race was am ong t he Suzukis of Lopez, Hopkin s, and Moo re . Lopez led through th e infield and in to th e ch ica ne , with Hopk in s timing it per fectly to nip his teamm ate at th e lin e, M oore wa s a cl ose third . "T h is week end , I'v e been out th ere and co me aro und drafting people an d I' ve been hitting th e rev limiter a little bit on th e top righ t her e by th e startfin ish lin e," Lopez sa id. " So eve n if I get a bit beh ind so mebody and ge t a rea lly good draft , whe n I hit th e rev