Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Round 1:Daytona 200 By Arai By Paul Carruthers .c DAYTONA BEACH. FL, MAR. 10 \0 0'1 ~ ike yesterday, there will be no histor y m ade her e tod ay, no fourth Daytona 200 victory for Scott Russell, no record-breaking speeds. Instead there have been only torrential downpo ur s and floodi ng, hea vy en oug h to force the postponement of the 55th Dayton a 200 By Arai to ne xt Sa turday, March 16. " Wit h the treme ndo us amo unt o f rain we have received here, there is virtu ally no opportunity to run the event before Saturd ay," said John Graham, p res iden t o f Da ytona Intern a tional Speedway . "It will take several days for the infield to dry out enough to conduct an entertaining race." This is on ly the second time in the history of the Daytona 200 that the race has been postponed due to incle me nt wea ther. In 1969, Cal Rayborn won the Day tona 200 the Sa tu r d ay a fte r its schedu led running. Two abortive attempts at running the 600cc Su persport ra ce were as far as thin gs w ent on Sunday, March 10. Numerous crashes led to two red flags, and it was finally called a day with the races sche d u le d to run on Mond ay, March 11. The rains that have dropped some six inches on south Florida continued through Sunday nigh t, and the decision to move the event to next weekend was mad e early on Mond ay mornin g. The good news for race fans is that the to p gu ns will be back. Despite upcoming test schedu les in Malaysia and Italy, both Lucky Strike Suzuki' s Scott Rus sell and Promotor Ducati' s Troy Corser and Mike Hale will be on the grid come Saturday morning. Ditto for Muzzy Kawasaki 's Anthony Gobert. The only teams makin g the decision not to return are the Suzuki World Superbike team of John Reynolds and Kirk McCarthy, and Yamaha World Sup erbike rider Colin Edwards II du e to testschedul e commitments. Natu rally the AMA Superbike teams will also be here for a one-day program that will include practice, 600cc Supersport, Harl ey-Da vid son SuperTw ins and the 55th running of the Daytona 200 By Arai. "The bo ttom line is th at we're not going to let ano the r manufactu rer win th is race - we' ll be back," said Luck y Strike Suzuki team manager Garry Taylor. Russell is schedule d to resum e hi s 500cc Gr and Pri x test sch ed u le i n Malaysia beginning on March 20, bu t at least that only involves rider and crew ma kin g th e trip . For th e Prom ot or Ducati team, things are made more difficult because the bikes that are scheduled to test in Misan o, Italy, begin nin g on May 20 are the same ones they' ll use in the Daytona 200. Riders were few and far between at DAYTONA 200 QUALIFYING 1. Troy Corser (1:49.387/117.162) 2. Mike H ale (1:50.824) ~ . Scott Russell (1:50.472) 4. Anthony Gob ert (1:51.043) 5. Pascal Picotte (1:50.620) 6. Colin Edwards II (1:50.752 7. Aaron Yates (1:51.035) 8. Miguel DuHamel (1:51.220) 9. M ike Smith (1:51.681) 10. Larry Pegram (1:51.703) 11. Jamie James (1:51.779 ) 12. Tom Kipp (1:52.134) 13. Mat Mladin (1:52.175) 14. Kirk McCarthy (1:52.319) 15. Shawn Higbee (1:52.350) 16. Doug Chandler (1:52.562) 17. Steve Crevier (1:52.779) 18. Chris Carr (1:54.369) 19. Thomas Wi lso n (1:55.049) 20. John Reynolds (1:55.193) 21. Mich ael Tayl or (1:55.497) 22. Randy Renfrow (l :55.543) 23. Al Salaverria (1:56.863) 24. Masayuki Hayashi (1:57.006) 25. Michael Barnes (1:57.016) 26. Eric Moe (1:57.020) ยท 27. Tripp N obles (1:57.223) 28. Mark Miller (1:57.409) 29. [uha Berner (1:58.080) 30 . Jeff Stern (1:58.371 ) 31. M ichael Luke (1:58.527) 32. Frank W ilson (1:58.694) 33. Steve Cooke (1:58.857) 34. Mich ael Fitzpatrick (1:58.951) 35 . Ricky Orla ndo (1:59.047) 36. Rick Shaw (1:59.205) 37. Paul N etterstrom (1:59.363) 38. James Milroy Jr. (1:59.437) 39. Karim Babic (1:59.622) 40. John Ashmead (1:59.858) 41. Brett Metzger (1;59.877) 42. Israel [aitovich (2:00.024) 43. Damian Weber (2:00.274) 44. Daniel Bailey (2:00.354) 45. Steve Patterson (2:00.405) 46. Karl Wilson (2:00.458) 47. Jeff H eino (2:00.508) 48. Mark Black (2:00.577) 49. James Eberhart (2:00.932) 50. Mike Walsh (2:01.074) 51. Kory Rooks (2:01.204) 52. John Spitulski (2:01.243 ) 53. Anthony Lupo (2:01.277) 54. Ron McGill (2:01.393 ) 55. Doug Gross (2:01.468) 56. Timothy Alan Blasquez (2:01.489) 57. Greg Hutcheson (2:01.495) 58. Richard Alexander Jr . (2:01.609) 59. Peter Hubberich (2:01.796) 60. T. David Porter (2:01.883) 61. John Weiss (2:02.023) 62. Quenni King (2:02.147) 63. John Blessed (2:02.266) 64. Noel Brown (2:02.393) 65. Brett Ray (2:02.475) 66. Mark Lunge (2:02.576) 67. Brian Gibb s (2:02.619) 68. D ean Mizdal (2:02.675) 69. James Hanlon (2:02.717) 70. Seth H ahn (2:02.732) 71. Stephen DeCamp (2:02.740) 72. James Perreault (2:02.755) 73. Jeff Ree ves (2:02.782) 74. Jim Dickenson (2:03.135) 75. Jimmy Shelton (2:03.255) 76. Jared Parliament (2:03.280) 77. Kevin Hunt (2:03.428) 78. Tommy Dyreson (2:03.552) 79. David Roy (2:03.594) 80. Rad Grea ves (2:03.736) .