Scott Harwell, riding solo, won the 44-lap ASRA Team Challenge on his Dunlop-shod TOBC Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000 Friday during the 31st annual Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway.
Harwell fought for the lead with Jason Farrell on the Martinez Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R from the start of the race, but Harwell took the lead for good when Martinez Racing made a second pit stop late in the race. TOBC Racing’s Harwell, who only pitted once to refuel and change his rear Dunlop, took the overall and GTO class victories by the margin of 44.422 seconds over Martinez Racing’s Farrell.
Any race win at Daytona is special, but Harwell’s victory was extra special for him and the rest of the TOBC Racing team. Less than one month ago, TOBC Racing Team Owner and racer Jon Couch and his mother Frances Gene Couch, TOBC Racing’s Team Mom, were killed when Couch’s personal plane crashed September 19 at VIRginia International Raceway.
After the tragic accident the team halted its multi-rider, multi-series racing operation, but they returned to action at Daytona.
“We wanted closure for ourselves,” Harwell, the TOBC Racing Team Manager, told Roadracingworld.com, “and we wanted to come down here to win for Jon and Fran.”
Harwell said he didn’t know he was leading the race and didn’t know he had won until he saw the checkered flag was pulled out as he approached the finish line.
“I didn’t have a clue,” said Harwell. “I was watching the [scoring trylon] every time, but after the pit stops it went off and I had no clue. I knew I was in the top three and I knew the guys did a good job on our pit stop, but I didn’t know exactly where I was at. So I just put my head down and kept on going.”
Asked what he was feeling, Harwell choked back tears and said, “A lot of emotions are coming through. This was all for Fran and Jon. They were the ones who got us here.”
Martinez Racing Team Owner Calvin Martinez said the key to their race was the decision not to change their rear Pirelli at their first pit stop.
“Our plan was to change it,” said Martinez, “but Jason looked at it during the first pit stop and said he wanted to leave it on.”
“I knew I was going to have to baby it, but I thought I could do that and still ride fast enough to win,” said Farrell. “It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t doing anything crazy. I was just losing drive grip, except the one time I had a big slide going into the chicane. I looked back at it, and I thought, ‘Oh boy! I need to change that right now.”
Farrell pitted, personally changed his rear wheel and tire, got back on the track and immediately started doing laps as fast as 1:48, but the extra pit stop gave TOBC Racing an insurmountable lead.
Unfortunately, the Team Challenge was marred by problems with ASRA’s timing and scoring system that led to no results past second place overall being determined immediately after the race.
“It’s a software glitch that knocked out the scoring,” ASRA/CCS boss Kevin Elliott told Roadracingworld.com. “We restarted the system as soon as we could, but we lost three laps. Now I’m going to manually add those three laps that we missed and add those to the laps that were recorded electronically.”
Stay tuned for more results from the ASRA Team Challenge at Daytona International Speedway.
ASRA Team Challenge Presented by Michelin
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Florida
October 17, 2014
Provisional Race Results:
Overall:
1. TOBC Racing (Scott Harwell), Suz GSX-R1000, GTO, 44 laps
2. Martinez Racing (Jason Farrell), Kaw ZX-10R, GTO, -44.422 seconds
3. Grease Monkey Racing (Eric Helmbach/Rob Oliva/Paul Scalph), BMW S1000RR, GTO, 42 laps
4. Barry Motorsports (Jim Barry/Dustin Young/Mike Selpe/Jeremy Cook), BMW S1000RR, GTO, 42 laps
5. Team Worldwide (Scott Stall/Pat Stewart), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 42 laps
6. Katra Team (Robertino Pietri/Kat Zimpel), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 41 laps
GTO:
1. TOBC (Scott Harwell), Suz GSX-R1000, GTO, 44 laps
2. Martinez Racing (Jason Farrell), Kaw ZX-10R, GTO, 44 laps
3. Grease Monkey Racing (Eric Helmbach/Rob Oliva/Paul Scalph), BMW S1000RR, GTO, 42 laps
GTU:
1. Team Worldwide (Scott Stall/Pat Stewart), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 42 laps
2. Katra Team (Robertino Pietri/Kat Zimpel), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 41 laps
3. MDM (Arthur Aznavuryan/Alex Shaw), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 41 laps
GT Lights:
1. Mavros & Boy Team (Charlie Mavros/Seth Starnes), Suz GSX-R550, 40 laps
2. Italian Connection (Jeff Puleo/Michael Eaton), Bim DB5, 39 laps
3. Faceplant (Kevin Farrell/Charlie Long), Duc 1000, 38 laps