Posted October 23, 2006   Email   Print

San Jose BMW wins inaugural 8 Hours At Daytona endurance race

The San Jose BMW team made history at Daytona International Speedway Saturday, winning a dramatic Inaugural 8 Hours At Daytona. The race was the first event in the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series.

Brian Parriott, Stephane Mertens and Nate Kern held on to take a 14.856-second victory on their No. 46 BMW R1200 over the No. 18 M4 EMGO Suzuki SV1000S of Michael Barnes, Geoff May and Chris Ulrich. In addition to claiming the overall win, the BMW team took the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins (SST) class.

The winning team completed 228 laps of the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course.

"Everything went smoothly," Parriott said. "The settings were perfect, tire wear was phenomenal. The times of our three riders were all within a second of each other, and I think that won the race for us."

The No. 32 Vallely Racing Suzuki SV1000S ridden by Chuck Ivey, Josh Day and Frank Trombino completed the podium overall and in the SST class, five laps behind the winners.

The San Jose BMW ran near the front from the start of the race and found itself in a commanding lead after the No. 83 BMW Cycles Daytona BMW R1200 of John Haner, Warwick Nowland and Mike Ciccoto ran out of fuel on track with just over three hours remaining in the race.

The M4 EMGO Suzuki entry fought its way back from outside the top 10 after suffering a gearshift problem on the team's second scheduled pit stop just over an hour into the race. But the team was back up into second place with an hour and a half remaining and put on a furious charge to catch the leading BMW.

The Suzuki, with May aboard, made its final pit stop for a splash of fuel with 22 minutes to go and trailing by just under 30 seconds. May then lapped over two seconds quicker than the leading BMW as the laps wound down, but was unable to erase the deficit.

"We knew the Suzuki had to refuel one more time, so we weren't too worried," said Mertens of the closing laps. "The crew was really fantastic. They made no mistakes."

The No. 83 BMW Cycles Daytona entry recovered to finish fourth overall and in SST and fifth place went to the No. 7 Team Zyvax Suzuki SV1000S ridden by JB Layman, Scott Layman and Steve Green.

Grand Sport Twins class

In BMW Grand Sport Twins (GST) action in the 8 Hours At Daytona, Matt McBride, Pat Barnes and Robert Trottier put together a dominating performance, riding the No. 96 DucatiToronto.com Ducati Multistrada to a 25-lap victory over the No. 70 James Gang Racing Buell XB12.

The No. 19 Ducati finished 14th overall, 21 laps behind the overall winner, and held the class lead for all but four laps. The team avoided major difficulty and McBride, one of the top riders in the Canadian Superbike series, rode the No. 19 across the stripe to take the victory.

Sport Twins class

In what turned out to be the tightest and most exciting class battle of the inaugural MOTO-ST Series 8 Hours At Daytona, a speedy late-race pit stop by Team HurtByAccident.com enabled rider Steven Breckenridge to cruise to victory on the No. 16 Jostens/Czaia & Gallagher, PA Suzuki SV650, alongside Nicole Hoffman and Mark Crozier.

Breckenridge rode the final stint of the race, dueling Robert Wilkey's No. 17 Kawasaki Team Green Kawasaki EX650 well into the seventh-hour of the eight-hour enduro. Wilkey, running second at the time, brought the No. 17 machine down pit road on lap 209 of the 228-lap event for a late splash of fuel, handing controls to teammate Derick Keys.

One lap later, Breckenridge brought his No. 16 bike down pit road for fuel, hurrying back to the track to maintain the lead. Unfortunately for Keys, he was forced back down pit road just one lap into his stint with apparent issues on the No. 17 bike, enabling Breckenridge to enjoy a 24.205-second cushion once the checkered flag flew. Keys finished second alongside co-riders Wilkey and Matt Lapham. In total, the ST class saw 30 lead changes among four bikes, a testament to the close competition on the track.

 © 2006, American Motorcyclist Association