Team M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Michael Barnes and Geoff May each won a race Sunday at the American Sportbike Roadracing Association (ASRA) season finale at Daytona International Speedway, but the star of the show was Hal’s Performance Advantage Buell’s Dan Bilansky.
Barnes pulled a disappearing act in the Superbike race, winning the red-flag-shortened race by over 24 seconds on his Pirelli-shod GSX-R600 while roadracingworld.com’s Ulrich charged from the back of the grid, finishing the first lap in 10th and steadily working his way forward to finish second.
Barnes was also leading the Factory Pro Sportbike race when his Supersport GSX-R600 suffered a mechanical problem, forcing him to retire. This left Barnes’ teammate May and Graves Yamaha’s Michael Beck to fight for the win. May used his experience advantage to beat 19-year-old Beck in a classic Daytona draft-pass run to the finish.
Arclight Suzuki’s Jeff Wood suffered mechanical difficulties in both races, finishing fifth in Superbike and DNFing in Sportbike, but he had already clinched his second consecutive ASRA Championship in each class prior to coming to Daytona.
The Thunderbike Championship was far from decided coming into Daytona, as Dave Estok and Bryan Bemisderfer led the point standings over Bilansky. Estok and Bemisderfer, however, both suffered mechanical DNFs in the final. Still, Bilansky had to win the race to win the Championship, and he did just that with a classic, last-lap draft pass on Main Line BMW’s Nate Kern. Bilansky won the Championship by a single point. Kern was later disqualified from second place for not reporting directly to the official dynamometer for post-race checks.
ASRA National Championship Series Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida October 22, 2006 Provisional Race Results:
SUPERBIKE: 1. Michael Barnes (Suz GSX-R600), 11 laps 2. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R600) 3. Scott Greenwood (Kaw ZX-6RR) 4. Michael Himmelsbach (Tri Daytona 675) 5. Jeff Wood (Suz GSX-R600) 6. Barrett Long (Yam YZF-R6) 7. Ryan Patterson (Yam YZF-R6) 8. Jason Farrell (Kaw ZX-6RR) 9. Shane Narbonne (Suz GSX-R600) 10. Walt Sipp (Buell XB-RR) 11. Rhiannon Lucente (Yam YZF-R6) 12. Mark Stiles (Yam TZ250) 13. Brian Frank (Kaw ZX-6) 14. James Chance (Suz GSX-R600), -8 laps, DNF 15. Johnny Rock Page (Yam YZF-R6), -8 laps, DNF 16. Greg Melka (Yam YZF-R6), -10 laps, DNF
FACTORY PRO SPORTBIKE: 1. Geoff May (Suz GSX-R600), 15 laps 2. Michael Beck (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Michael Himmelsbach (Tri Daytona 675) 4. Marcos Reichert (Yam YZF-R6) 5. Shane Narbonne (Suz GSX-R600) 6. Rhiannon Lucente (Yam YZF-R6) 7. Barrett Long (Yam YZF-R6) 8. John Spinelli (Suz GSX-R600) 9. Jason Farrell (Kaw ZX-6RR) 10. Michael Arwood (Suz GSX-R600), -1 lap 11. Patrick Johnson (Yam YZF-R6), -2 laps 12. Bob Michael (Suz GSX-R600), -2 laps 13. Michael Barnes (Suz GSX-R600), -5 laps, DNF, mechanical 14. Scott Greenwood (Kaw ZX-6RR), -8 laps, DNF, crash 15. Gustavo Laya (Kaw ZX-6RR), -8 laps, DNF 16. Greg Melka (Yam YZF-R6), -8 laps, DNF 17. Brian Frank (Kaw ZX-6), -9 laps, DNF 18. Jeff Wood (Suz GSX-R600), -10 laps, DNF, mechanical 19. Trey Yonce (Yam YZF-R6), -12 laps, DNF, mechanical 20. James Chance (Suz GSX-R600), -14 laps, DNF
THUNDERBIKE: 1. Dan Bilansky (Buell XB-12R), 10 laps 2. Christopher Boy (Bimota 900) 3. Tommy Eckfeldt (Duc 1000) 4. Jeffrey Johnson (Buell XB-12R) 5. Joe Rozynski (Buell XB-12R) 6. Andrew Hamblin (Buell XB-12R) 7. Rhiannon Lucente (Duc 748) 8. Sam Rozynski (Buell XB-12R) 9. Tim Hall (Buell XB-RR) 10. Anthony Caligiuri (Buell XB-12R) 11. Scott Korol (Buell 1200) 12. James Delk, Jr. (Buell XB-RR), -1 lap 13. Richard Dubarton (Suz SV650), -1 lap 14. Robert Pirog (Buell 1200), -1 lap 15. Paul James (Buell XB-12R), -3 laps, DNF, mechanical 16. Dave Maney (Duc 748), -4 laps, DNF, mechanical 17. Bryan Bemisderfer (Buell XB-12R), -6 laps, DNF, mechanical 18. Dave Estok (Buell XB-12R), -6 laps, DNF, mechanical 19. Nate Kern (BMW R 1200 S), disqualified for not reporting directly to dyno
ASRA CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: (After 8 of 8 races):
SUPERBIKE: 1. Wood, 249 points 2. Himmelsbach, 152 points 3. Ryan Patterson, 104 points 4. Greenwood, 70 points 5. Barnes, 65 points 6. Tim Bemisderfer, 61 points 7. Narbonne, 56 points 8. Sipp, 50 points 9. Daniel Doty, 46 points 10. Reuben Frankenfield, 43 points
FACTORY PRO SPORTBIKE: 1. Wood, 216 points 2. Himmelsbach, 187 points 3. Arwood, 77 points 4. Mark Schnettler, 76 points 5. Greenwood, 67 points 6. Robert Jensen, 66 points 7. Scott Ryan, 63 points 8. May, 59 points 9. Narbonne, 58 points 10. Tim Bemisderfer, 56 points
THUNDEBRIKE: 1. Bilansky, 199 points 2. Estok, 198 points 3. Bemisderfer, 188 points 4. Sam Rozynski, 159 points 5. Kern, 134 points 6. James, 90 points 7. Ed Key, 88 points 8. Walt Sipp, 87 points 9. Joe Rozynski, 71 points 10. Caligiuri, 68 points