Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127775
. . ·IN R IE Aaron Yates TE V W sound, sandwiched between Yamaha World Superbike ace Colin Edwards II and defending AMA Superbike Nationill Champion Miguel DuHamel? At this point it matters little what Yates' result in th e rain-delayed Da yton a 200 ends up bein g, he's gone a long way toward makin g hi s mark. Th e 6foot-l-Inch, 180-pound Yates seems to be a bona fid e AMA su perbi ke racer, blazing a path made more fam iliar by former motocrosser Edwards. "I started motocrossing when I was 11," Yates explained from the Daytona press room as rain p elted down on a day when he shou ld have been racing in his first Day tona 200. "I did tha t until I wa s about 17. I actually had a Pro-Am license and tried to do some supercrosses and stuff on a 250 Suzuki. I ne ver qualified for an ything, but I go t to ride w ith a ll the guy s on the su per cro ss By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams few hours after winning th e bi g g est ra ce o f h is you ng career, Aaron Yates clim bed in his 1973 Dod ge Maxivan, sat in traffic like everyone else and departed Dayto n a Int ernati onal Speed w ay for hi s hot el. No fan cy ca rs, no wild celebrations. After all, there's ga me to h un t. " It was jus t a race," Yates said a few days after winning the 750cc Supersport fina l at Dayt ona on M a rch 8. "Ju s t a race" w as ac t ua lly a race-lo ng du e l between the 23-ye ar-old Georgian and hi s highl y touted Yoshimura Suzuki teammat e Pascal Pic otte, a two-time AMA Superbike National winner - with Yates com ing out on top . But despite the fact that his road racing caree r spans a total o f on ly four ye a rs, y ou get the sense that this first win won't be his last. You also get t he feeling that Yates would agree. He' s not cocky or overconfident, he ju st feels h e belongs. And give n his qualifying performance in his firs t-ever Dayt on a 200, how could yo u argue? H ow d oes se ve nth on th e grid Jt tracks. It was pretty fun. I ended up hurting my knee, tearing the ACL, at a qualifier for Loretta Lynn' s. I got it fixed, but then I hurt it again. I was just ' taking it easy after that, but I wanted to race something. I had a street bike and I was riding it a litt le bit. I kept reading . about Colin Edwards thi s and Colin Edwards th at - h e wa s a motocrosser dominating all th ese road races. I was working at a motorc ycle shop and rid ing it to work. I got to kinda cuttin' up on some crooked roads. Most were in the neighborhood or out by th e lake, those were the only crooked roads. I got to riding the turns and it was really neat to me. It was the first time I'd ever really tried that. Then I drug my knee one time and I was like, ' Wow!'" Yate s gives the words learning cume n ew m eaning. He w on h is fir s t-e ver ro ad r ace after a d ay of practic e at