Daytona's Other Races

DAYTONA'S OTHER RACES

RACE WATCH

The best racing at Daytona gets even better.

RON LAWSON

THERE WAS NO DOUBT ABOUT it. All you had to do was look around the stands, walk through the infield or try to escape the traffic jams; this year's Daytona Cycle Week drew crowds that were as large and enthusiastic as ever, even despite truly terrible weather. And, even better, the crowd got its money's worth—not only on Sunday for the 200, but on virtually every day that there was racing at the speedway.

lt wasn't~ like th~at just a few years ago. Spectator enthusiasm was reach ing an all-time low for roadracing in America. But now, the crowds are back and they're cheering, and it isn't because the spectators have changed. The sport has. Racing in virtually all classes is closer and more exciting than it was in recent years.

The reason for the turnabout is, in the opinion of the AMA's Bill Boyce. due to a redirection: there are new classes, new rules and new philoso phies about what the racing fan really wants to see. "When we first came up with the Superbike class 10 years ago, it was viewed as a stock class to sup port the Formula One race." Boyce explains. But all that's changed since then. "When Formula One died or rather, killed itself, we had to re think all the classes."

Now Superbikes traction. "Not only late more readily appearing bikes,' practically every are the main at can spectators re to the more stock says Boyce, "but motorcycle dealer in the United States has the basis for a Superbike racer right on his showroom. Before, maybe 20 dealers in the U.S. sold Formula One bikes.”

With Superbike racing as the premier class, a reshuffling has taken place in the positions of the other classes. For one, the Supersport class has taken the place of the original Superbike class—it’s the new “stock” class, a natural outgrowth of the popularity that box-stock racing is having at the club level. The bikes are limited to 600cc in the case of Fours, 700cc for Triples, 750cc for Twins and lOOOcc for pushrod Twins. The bikes must be basically stock, aside from the exhaust, clutch and gearing. That makes racing open to just about anyone; you don’t need much more than a $4000 bike and a little skill to go racing. And with EBC brakes and the major manufacturers putting up contingency money, the class was guaranteed to have some of the closest racing of the week.

Another of the new classes, the 250 GP class, actually isn't all that new. Since there no longer is an F-l class, it doesn’t make any sense to have an F-2 class. Hence, 250 GP replaces Formula Two. It’s a name change as much as anything, but what makes it closer now than ever before is the way the manufacturers approach the class. Both Honda and Yamaha imported a number of 250 GP bikes this year and made them available to the public in limited quantity. But neither company got directly involved in the racing. As a result, the 250 GP class is a battlefield reserved for the privateer. The prize is a year-end point fund put up by Castrol, with $40,000 awaiting the top 1 5 riders.

The bottom line is that racing is better than ever in the support classes. At Daytona, Doug Polen made a charge through the Supersport pack that had onlookers shouting and standing for much of the race. And the 250 race had the entire crowd not breathing on the last lap as Kork Ballington and Randy Renfrow attacked the track within feet of one another. The crowd collectively inhaled when Ballington fell with less than a half-lap to go, giving Renfrow the lead for just a moment. The last seconds of the race were a confusing medley of events, as Ballington remounted and Renfrow ran out of gas.

Without knowing he had passed the dry-tanked Renfrow, Ballington crossed the finish line and was sur prised he had won. The crowd ex haled. Now, 1/ia! was a race.

And there's going to be a whole season of it to follow.