Throwback Thursday: Bray Leads 1988 Daytona 600cc Supersport Battle
Larry Lawrence | July 20, 2017
Photo by Henny Ray Abrams
Paul Bray leads the way in the 1988 Daytona AMA/Vance & Hines 600cc Supersport Series ahead of John Ashmead and Gary Goodfellow. It was round one of the series and Suzuki had introduced its Katana 600 and put some top-name riders on the bike, including 1987 AMA Supersport Champion Doug Polen. But riders of the Honda Hurricanes had a year’s experience racing and the bike was faster than the new Suzuki, although the Katana was an excellent handler.
The opening round of the series in ’88 at Daytona International Speedway came down to a four-rider battle with Bray and Ashmead on Hurricanes and Polen and Goodfellow on Katanas.
The quartet swapped the lead back and forth in the closing laps. In the end Ashmead took a close victory over Goodfellow, Polen and Bray.
While he just missed out at Daytona, Bray earned a pair of victories that season, at the August Road Atlanta round over Polen and Ashmead and then at Talladega over Ashmead and Cam Roos. Polen went on later that season to defend his 600 Supersport championship.
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