Daytona: 250cc post-race quotes

MBNA Grand Prix 250 Post-Race Quotes

Chuck Sorensen (No. 90 Team Stargel Aprilia)
"It's been a dream of mine to win Daytona. I've had the visions of spraying the champagne on top of the podium and now I realize that and it's very satisfying. It's especially satisfying after working hard of the winter and putting together this program.

ON THE INCIDENT WITH JASON DISALVO
"I had a front row seat. Jason and I had a different lines coming through the west horseshoe. His was more of a point and chute and my was more of arch. We came out of there, I was leading and he was riding my tail and there was a lapper right in front of us. He thought he could stuff it on the inside of this guy but this guy was already committed. He was basically in the place where Jason was and Jason just plowed him and they both went down. I saw it happen I had probably two seconds to make a move and I was clear."

HEARING ANY NOISES AT THE END WITH SUCH A HUGE LEAD
"Of course those are going to come up. Did they put enough fuel in the bike? All that kind of stuff. I was feeling things on the foot pegs. Is this thing loose? All that stuff goes through your mind, especially when you're on a bike you've never raced before.

Perry Melneciuc (No. 5 Team Oliver Yamaha)
"Rich put a really good program together for me and helped me in the off-season. I've been living with him out in California and training with him. He has been helping me with my mental attitude. The race went really good. I got a good start and I was happy. I knew Chuck and Jason were going to take off. I saw Jason go down. A couple laps at the end, It seemed like it was running out of fuel. The bike was starting to seize up. It wouldn't pull the gears. The whole time I was praying to bring this thing home. I'm just really happy to be here."

Al Salaverria (No. 22 FGF Aprilia)
"It's been two years since I rode a road race bike. Just to finish third and come from 52nd, I didn't even know that I finished third. I went straight back to my pit. I came close in 1999 winning this race. In 1998 and 1999, we qualified pole position. I felt like three years in a row we should've won this race. Three weeks before Daytona, we put this deal together. We had nothing but problems all week long. We discovered my black box was bad. Chuck was nice enough to lone me a black box. Pretty much the race was my practice. It was eye opening being on the bike going 160 mph. It was pretty tough after a two-year layoff. I'm just happy to be here."

Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Cruise America Honda)
"I was behind Chuck Sorensen down one of the short chutes and I pulled out of his draft to go behind and there was a lap rider there, a much slower rider. I couldn't get it slowed down in time. I wasn't aware of him until I pulled out of Chuck's draft and there wasn't really anything I could do. I tried to get it slowed down as much as possible, but didn't happen."

Roland Sands (No. 10 Performance Machine Yamaha)
"We had an old clutch in the bike and we thought it would be OK, but it wasn't. I think we would have been in there for the win for sure."

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