Top Four Finishers Covered by 0.785 second in Classic Drafting Battle
Daytona Beach, Fla. (March 16, 2012) – Kyle Wyman won a classic four-rider drafting battle on the last of seven laps to earn his second consecutive victory in the season-opening AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 series race at Daytona International Speedway March 16.
Riding under the Kyle Wyman Racing/Kuryakyn/Riders Discount banner, the 22-year-old racer from Macedon, NY, who started from the pole position, out-drafted veterans Michael Barnes (Bartels’ Harley-Davidson) and David Estok (Trev Deeley Motorcycles) and Bartels’ H-D’s Tyler O’Hara on his Harley-Davidson XR1200 motorcycle to win his second career AMA Pro victory. His winning margin over O’Hara was 0.117 second with Barnes rounding out the top three only 0.413 second back. Estok finished fourth.
“It was really just like last year. Four riders at the front swapping positions and trying to play head games with each other where we were going to be on the last lap,” Wyman said. “I knew it was going to be a race from the last chicane to the checkers and that’s what it turned out to be. So I just wanted to be at the right place at the right time. I actually broke probably two or three hundred yards early going into the chicane and let them out maybe twenty bike lengths and that’s all I needed. ”
Despite leading the pack on the final trip around the 3.51-mile Daytona road course, Barnes knew he had a slim chance of winning if he was still ahead entering the chicane before the exit onto the last section of the high-banked oval speedway.
“I railed through the infield and the chicane the best I could just to see if it was at all possible but I should know better,” Barnes said. “It’s been done to me as much as I’ve done it to other people. Got schooled.”
The lead group broke from the rest of the 19-rider field almost immediately from the start of the 7-lap, 25-mile race, with several other multi-rider battles forming up throughout the pack at the draft-heavy high banking of Daytona International Speedway’s 3.5-mile long course, including a seven-rider pack that finished tenth through 17th within a one-second gap.
Final Results:
1. Kyle Wyman (KWR/Kuryakyn), 7 laps
2. Tyler O’Hara (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), +0.117 second
3. Michael Barnes (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), +0.413 second
4. David Estok (Trev Deeley Motorcycles), +0.785 second
5. Darren James (Ruthless Racing/Deeley), +9.376 seconds
6. Travis Wyman (Harv’s H-D), +9.387 seconds
7. Michael Corbino (XP Motorsports/Rossiter’s H-D), +9.428 seconds
8. Gerry Signorelli (Kuryakyn), +18.116 seconds
9. Josh Chisum (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), +18.269 seconds
10. Nicholas Hansen (Suburban Motors H-D), +25.525 seconds
11. Jeremiah Johnson (BE-EV.com/New Roc H-D), +25.556 seconds
12. Brice Cooper (Woodstock H-D), +25.684 seconds
13. Benjamin Carlson (Suburban Motors H-D), +25.719 seconds
14. Paul Schwemmer (Peter Brady/Level 10 Contractors), +26.001 seconds
15. Russell Proctor (Tech Spec), 26.014 seconds
16. Paul James (Hoban Cycle/Woodstock H-D), +26.144 seconds
17. Chris Harmon (Vision H-D), +31.142 seconds
18. Matthew Heidel (Online Paddock/Down Home H-D), +1:20.603
19. Shane Narbonne (Suburban Motors H-D), -6 laps
20. James Pooler (VIB-ISO), DNS
The next round of the Vance & Hines XR1200 series will be April 20-22 at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA.
