By David Swarts

Penguin Racing School’s Jeff Wood took two wins on his Bitwrench Incorporated Suzuki SV650 in CCS racing action at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, March 2. In the five-lap Lightweight Supersport Expert race, Wood took an early lead but was tracked down by CAD Racing’s David Yaakov on another Suzuki 650. The two riders went back and forth setting up for a classic Daytona finish. Yaakov led into the Chicane on the last lap with Wood making the draft pass for the lead on the East banking. Wood seemed to pull out too early as Yaakov regained ground approaching the Tri-oval. But Wood caught a boost of draft off a lapped rider and gained the advantage over Yaakov at the line.

In the 30-minute GT Lights race, Wood again jumped out to an early lead, but CCS officials thought that “jumped” was the problem. Wood was called in for a stop-and-go penalty for a jumped start. Wood rejoined the race in 10th place, but steadily worked his way forward, again reaching the front with less than four minutes remaining in the race.

Team Outa Sight Racing’s Jason Peters made a successful debut on the high banks in Grand Prix Singles. With one practice session of motor break-in as his only Daytona experience, 16-year-old Peters ran away with the race on his 2001 Honda RS125. Peters took the lead the first time through NASCAR turn two and went on to win by 13 seconds.

Team James’ Steve Marlow grabbed a victory in Super Singles over AMA Pro Thunder Champion Jeff Nash. Reigning British Super Mono Champion Marlow ran 2:05s on his BMW 720-powered Pani/GRC to beat Ducati Supermono-mounted Nash by three seconds.

The Expert GTO race was an extra practice for some riders, a missed opportunity for various crash victims, and an extended tire test for winner Joe Gill. Of the full 80-bike grid, more than half either pitted to make changes to their machines or crashed. Starnet/ 4&6 Racing’s Gill diced for most of the race with Shogun Motorsports’ Ryan Landers and Larry Denning with all three riders on Yamaha R1s. Both Landers and Denning crashed late in the race allowing Gill to cruise home 30 seconds ahead of second place Chuck Chouinard, who was followed by Michael Hanley, Shane Prieto and Landers’ teammate Paul Harrell coming from row 19 of the huge grid to take fifth.

Gill, Landers and Denning returned in the 30-minute GTU race on their 600s, but the action was stopped with a red flag after six laps, about halfway through the race. The race was called and Gill was declared the winner over Denning and Landers with Randy Renfrow fourth on his TSR Honda RS250 and first-year Expert Ted Cobb fifth.