DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Arizona contingent managed to keep their bikes sunnyside up today at the Championship Cup Series Race of Champions – through race officials couldn’t manage the same with their timing equipment.
Technological failures within race administration marred an otherwise exciting day of racing. Though we cannot officially convey the winners of the 14 races contested today, we can say that Grand Canyon racers claimed three podium finishes – or not.
Ray Thibodeaux won the amateur Unlimited SuperBike race, finishing third in the amateur GTO, while Dave Stone finished third in a thrilling expert GTO contest, as the Arizona contingent claimed about seven Top 10 finishes today at Daytona International Speedway.

On the No. 25 All Stone Army Suzuki GSX-R 1000, Stone got the day off to a thrilling start, edging fellow Valley resident Johnny Rock Page at the line for third-place in the grueling 25-minute amateur GTO race.
“Page’s bike was so fast it took everything I had to beat him,” said Stone, who threaded a lapped amateur and expert to gain his slight advantage on Page. “All those bikes are so friggin fast. The only advantage we have racing in the Southwest is we know how to race tight tracks. That was the difference.”
Unfortunately, even though race officials brought Stone to Victory Lane after his triumph to take his photograph and allow him to thank his sponsors, the “official results” listed him as the 13th place finisher – a result he successfully contested before race officials determined that they would not post anymore of Friday’s final results until Saturday morning (hopefully after they figured out their computer problems).
By this reporter’s count, Patrick Bertinelli and the No 93 Krewe of Helios-Arizona Suzuki GSX-R 1000 finished seventh in the GTO, followed by Matt Heppler in ninth (and I defy race officials to tell me otherwise, until their computers are back up and running).
“It was just like back at home,” Heppler said with a grin. “I finished right behind Pat!”
The majority of the CCS Races of Champions are being contested with experts and amateurs simultaneously running in each division. Thus, any given race could have as many as 40 riders railing around the fabled 31-degree banks of DIS – and all of our Phoenix riders seemed to be more comfortable with the track at every pass.
“It was fun, it was exciting, it was scary – all of it,” Bertinelli said. “When we were racing, I lost all inhibitions about the banking. (The GTO) didn’t seem like a 25-minute race – there was so much going on.”
There was a lot going on in the Unlimited SuperBike race – the penultimate race of the afternoon. Expert Stone got off to a brick-like start with an inadvertent wheelie at the drop of the flag – finishing eighth in his class. Bertinelli fared little better among the amateurs – jumping to fourth place among amateurs going into Turn 1, when a racer cut him off, and letting up to avert a crash, Pat was run off the track by another rider. Returning to the track in next-to-last place, he crawled his way back to a respectable ninth or 10th (depending on who’s scoring), while Heppler followed at 10th or 11th.
Thibodeaux, however, walked away from the amateur field after mixing it up with 16-year-old Virginia phenom Robert Wilkey during the first two laps of the five-lap Unlimited SuperBike amateur race.
“I had an excellent start – running third into Turn 1, and took the lead for the first time on the back banking. We went back and forth until I passed (Wilkey) for the final time on the banking in NASCAR Turn 4,” said Thibodeaux, who last raced at Daytona as a professional in the AMA SuperBike series 16 years ago. “It’s cool to be back – it’s different. It’s like I’ve never been here before.”
Escaping out of NASCAR Turn 4, Thibodeaux cruised to a commanding victory… at least, that is until race officials post the “official” results Saturday, after they get the computers fixed, and then, who knows?
We will have reports from the second day of racing (and hopefully some photos and official-OFFICIAL results) early Saturday evening.