Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 7, 2014 P115 form since Erik Buell built his first prototype in 1983. The original Buell RW750 two-stroke AMA Formula 1 racer never scored a national point. That honor would have to wait until 1987 when Harley-Davidson engineer/racer Steve Went- worth made history by finishing seventh at Road America on a Buell RR1000 in the Pro Twins (for- merly Battle of the Twins) final giving the company its first National points-paying finish. Seven years later Buell made a brief foray into AMA 750 Su- persport racing with Scott Zampach riding the S2 Thunderbolt to a 25th-place finish at the 1994 Sears Point event. With the Pro Thunder Series the company jumped in with both feet, putting solid backing behind Don Tilley's squad. Buell's COO Jon Flick- inger was even in attendance for the debut of the series. With the crazy mix of bikes Higbee said he had no idea what to expect. "That was one of the few times in a professional racing series where I don't think anyone had any idea where they stood," Higbee recalls. "It was unique in that there were a variety of unusual mo- torcycles, you even wondered about the different lines people would be taking. I don't have a clear memory if it, but I'm sure those first few laps of practice were interesting to say the least." Higbee was happy to qualify on the pole, but was still apprehensive about the race. "The bike was quite complex," he said of the Buell 1200. "It had dual carburetors, custom cyl- inder heads and custom body work. It allowed the mechanics a lot of freedom to go in and design things. That might have been the one drawback with the bike in that it was so highly modified that there were potential issues with reliability." The morning of race day brought yet another unexpected challenge. Higbee got ill with a sus- pected bout of food poisoning. He slept most of the day. Fortunately he felt better by the time he gridded for the 25-lap final and when the green flag flew his focus snapped to racing and he'd pretty much forgotten about being sick. In the race Higbee got out front early ahead of the 21-rider field and built a strong lead. He was up by four seconds at the halfway flags. The biggest concern mid-race was a few raindrops that began to fall here and there on the treacher- ous Phoenix circuit. Higbee remembers hoping the bike wouldn't slow down late in the race and allow the Triumph of Paul Harrell to catch him. He backed off just a tick to preserve the bike. It stayed together and Higbee was first to the checkered flag, crossing the finish line with a 3.670-second margin of victory. Harrell took second on a Triumph (filling in for Curtis Adams who couldn't make the race) and Mark Miller rounded out the podium on another Buell. Harrell thought his Triumph might have a pow- er advantage on Higbee's Buell, but he suffered a bad start and found Higbee going incredibly fast through the all-important PIR esses. "He had just enough of an edge that I couldn't get him," Harrell recalled. "Every time I thought I closed the gap I'd make a little mistake. I was just trying too hard. Halfway through the race I knew there wasn't much I could do." The victory, Buell's first, has taken on more importance over the years. "At the time it was great to get the win, but it felt like just another race," Higbee explains. "Now looking back I realize that it was a pretty important milestone. Big for me, but even big- ger for Buell. It's one of the accomplishments in racing that I'm definitely most proud of." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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