Gary Mason wins Daytona MOTO-ST Eight Hour

Former British Superbike rider Gary Mason won the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series Eight Hours at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.

The British rider shared the winning Roadracing World.com Suzuki SV1000 with Californians Chris Ulrich and Cory West and completed the 234-lap race 25.838 secs ahead of the San Jose BMW BMW R1200S shared by Brian Parriott of Calistoga, California, Atlanta rider Nate Kern and yet another Brit Richard Cooper.

MOTO-ST is an American-based endurance racing series for twin-cylinder machines ridden by teams of rider’s.

Rules enforcement involves straight-forward parameters including machine weight and engine output, as monitored by the official series Dynojet Dynamometer.

Gary Mason’s team were competing in the Supersport Twins class for motorcycles which must produce at least 90 horsepower and no more than 118 horsepower as measured on the official Dynojet Dyno in post race testing.

Mason’s team battled with the San Jose BMW team most of the race but took the lead for the last time when he beat the BMW out of the pits during a full course caution period in the closing stages.

The BMW stayed close until just over 45 minutes from the end of the race, when Richard Cooper collided with another bike on the infield portion of the course.

Cooper was able to pick up the bike and continue but the BMW had suffered damage, including a torn front fender. Mike Parriott took over the final stint but steadily lost ground to the Suzuki.

Two-time World Superbike champion Doug Polen, Peter Friedland and Frank Shockley teamed up to with the Grand Sport Twins class on a Touring Sport Ducati 1000DS.

They survived a broken clutch with 20 minutes to go to win the GST class and beat Richie Morris Racing Buell to the team title. Shockley also took the Rider points title.

GST motorcycles must produce at least 75 horsepower and no more than 90 horsepower as measured on the official Dynojet Dyno in post race testing.

MOTO-ST president Roger Edmondson announced plans for a six to eight race 2008 season, beginning back at Daytona International Speedway in March, 2008.