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2001-06-29
Pro Sportbike
Acree jumped into the front at the start of the 18-lap Pro Sportbike race, ahead of Parriott, Barnes and Shogun’s Paul Harrell. Ciccotto passed nine riders on the first lap but then crashed starting the second lap. Parriott took over the lead on lap four and at the start of lap five, Acree ran off the track and fell back to fifth. An ambulance on course helped Acree catch up to leaders Parriott and Harrell, Parriott crashed out of the lead on lap 10, Acree passed Harrell on lap 11, and, except for Harrell briefly leading again at the end of lap 13, the race at the front was set, Acree barely ahead of passing, probing Harrell, both well ahead of Barnes, who in turn had a good advantage on the battling trio of Stoney Landers, Chuck Chouinard and Marc Palazzo. Acree won by 0.101-second and Barnes was 3.0 seconds behind Harrell.
"When Brian went by me, I got on the throttle too hard coming out of three and flipped the tip-over switch," said Acree. "Got it collected, then the next lap, ran off turn one, just got in too hot trying to make up what I’d just blown, ran off turn one, came back on, I think I was fifth when I came back on. Well, I thought, I need to settle down, get back up to the box, try to settle down and ride smart, get in some clean laps. A rider crashed, an ambulance was out, we had to go the long way around, really slowed these guys down, pretty much as much as I lost when I ran off in turn one, that got me back up there. Brian (Parriott) tucked the front between 17 and 17a when he was leading me and Paul, fighting, fighting it, just couldn’t get it to come back up.Once I got in front, it was just guard. I knew Paul was eating me up so I just tried to be in the way as much as I could.
"I got sick yesterday," said Harrell afterwards. "I thought I had him nailed, I set him up on every corner, the last seven, eight laps, and every lap, every corner that I set him up on, he blocked me. He did a great job and I didn’t have nothing for him, he rode really good, steady, consistent, just hard to beat that here. I think I might have had some bad fish or something the night before last and I’m not feeling good at all."
"I was surprised that I was able to be that strong for that long into the race," said Barnes, who is coming back from a shoulder injury. "But I got a good start like I planned, I kind of planned to get the holeshot so I could hold those guys up so (teammate) Mike (Ciccotto) could catch up but it didn’t look like he would have caught up anyway.
"That was the hardest race that I ever had," said Landers, who finished fourth ahead of Chouinard and Palazzo, well behind Barnes. "It was just they’d get out in front, they’d make a mistake, I’d get up in front of them, then I got hit, Marc Palazzo ran into me, then it was just back-and-forth the whole race. I pulled my shoulder a while back so it started coming it, I just tried to ride as hard as I could."
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