Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Daytona 200 Russell crashed on a cold tire in the International Horseshoe on the first lap, remounted, got a break with three pace car laps, and went on to win by 53.747 seconds. For the most part, the race has developed into a two-man affair, and for much of the '90s Russell was one of the two. "I've always tried to break out early and take whoever was going to go with me or leave them behind, that always seemed to work out," Russell say~. "[Doug] Polen and myself one year, [Eddie] Lawson one year, and DuHamel. There was only one guy to go with me." "In '92 I knew I had him [Polen] covered," Russell says. "With about 10 laps to go I said, '1 know I've got him covered, let's get this going.'" Russell set up Fast by Ferracci's Polen with a classic last-lap Daytona draft pass to win by .182 of a second, the closest Ducati has ever come to winning the 200. "With [Eddie] Lawson it was different," Russell said. "He knew he had motor on straights. No matter what I did in the infield he could make it up." Lawson drafted by Russell at the line, winning by.051 of a second. Asked why the races have been close the past two years, Russell replied: "Because I've been on a Harley basically, that's why they've been close the last two years." Having won five of them, he believes, "It's not that hard of a race to win. It was never for me. The other guys just figured out how to manage a tire [something Russell excelled at throughout his five Daytona wins] and the teams were good in the pits." For the most part there's not much to be gained in the pit stops. "As far as I can see, the pit stops really don't mean much," Mladin says. "One second in the pits, the difference in pit stops really doesn't mean anything on the race track. It really doesn't mean a thing." Chandler concurs. "Everyone's so close now as far as the tire changes go, there's very little time to be made. They get you in and get you out. You're still together. It's hard to get away and it's really hard to break away." Tires are another equalizer. All of the factory machines use Dunlop dualcompound tires, and there isn't a lot of choice. Safety concerns mean that you almost have to use the hardest of the dual compounds and pray for the best. Chandler is one rider who can Roulette, anyone? Some call it a crapshoot, but whatever game of chance you use to describe the nation's premier dirt short track motorcycle race, the Daytona Short Track, predicting its outcome is always a gamble. Last year, I picked three riders - Chris Carr, Will Davis and Rich King as the guys that I thought stood above the crowd as odds-on favorites to take the victory. None of them even made the box. Instead, "Texas Terry" Poovey pulled to the starting line on the motorcycle that he used to absolutely destroy the field in 1997, and once again he absolutely handed the field a whoopin', just like he did in '97. Finishing second was the man who would ultimately prove to be the king of the ring in 2000, Joe Kopp. And in third place was the most consistent man in Daytona history, 1995 winner Brett Landes. All are capable short trackers who are shoo-ins to make the main event in 2001. That's the thing about Daytona: While there are several riders capable of winning the race, you can never be sure which of them will rise up and put it all together on the big night. Furthermore, basing any prediction on the AMA National Hot Shoe Series opener the night before the Daytona Short Track is an exercise in tomfoolery, as the track has traditionally turned out to be in a very different state of groom by the time the Saturday night showdown gets underway. What to do then? Pick the winner out of a hat? Build a roulette wheel with the names of the perennial contenders on it and give 'er a spin? Nope, here's how it's going to go this year. Will Davis is going to win the 2001 Daytona Short Track. Period. The 36-year-old North Carolinian will become the first man in history to win the race three times. He will be 10 FEBRUARY 28,2001 • cue •• n • _ s get away with using a softer tire and he tried it at the end of last year's race. "We had tested all week, planning on running that softer tire, which some of the guys had trouble with," Chandler said, "and the safety thing, everyone opted to run that harder one, which I didn't like and that kind of put me off as far as being able to run what Mat [Miadin] and Nicky [Hayden] were running. That last stop we put that soft one in. I think we only had to go 17 laps before the checkered. I did some good laps and came from sixth or fifth up to beating Miguel [DuHamel] at the line for third. So that's what kind of saved me. If we were able to run that tire, we might have been closer." It's been a few years since the pace car was a factor in the race, but DuHamel remembers the first time it was used. "Throughout the whole race I had about a 20-second cushion all the time," DuHamel said of the 1991 race. "They pulled the pace car out... I think they came out five times. It was the first time with the pace car and they just wanted to guarantee a close show. It was a bit discouraging back then when they did that because you look around and see nothing. I don't DuHamel celebrates his unlikely victory in the 1999 Daytona 200. The French Canadian could barely walk after suffering a broken leg the previous June. but he did what he needed to do to score the victory by just .014 of a second over MatMladin. know if somebody dropped their popcorn in the third row or what. It was a bit discouraging. It was also very satisfying that as soon as the flag would go green, I would be able to pull almost a second a lap. So that time it wasn't very risky to lead out of the chicane.'" riding a Fasthog.com 600 prepared by Mike Wheeler, a man whose bikes are so spot-on at Daytona that even high-riding half-miler Steve Morehead managed to win a Friday night main event aboard one a few years back. Behind Davis you can take your pick of riders who will make the podium, but one of them that is safe bet to be on the box is Brett Landes. The Californian is really not that good anywhere else on the circuit, but at Daytona he is nothing short of awesome, with a list of podium finishes dating back all the way back to the year before he won the event in '95. He finished just outside of the top three just once since winning, placing fourth in' 1996. How's that for consistency? After Landes, the usual suspects could be considered to make the show, including King, who failed miserably in his attempt to make the main event after posting an easy win on Friday night, and Kopp, who is not unWilling to grind out when the going gets tight. Poovey could be a factor, as could veterans Carr, Jay Springsteen and former winner Ronnie Jones - that is if Jones once again decides to show up and ride. . But there are still two unlikely heroes to keep your eye on if you want to cheer for an underdog: J.R. Schnabel and Greg Tysor. Schnabel rode an excellent race last year and went on to finish sixth. He is an excellent 600 rider, and he has what it takes to make the podium if things fall his way. Tysor, on the other hand, is simply a good sidebet to make the main, as the Georgian has done so for the past two years. He has done it twice when nobody thought he could do it once. So there you have it, predictions for the most difficult race to predict in just about all of dirt track racing, a sport where the outcome of the races is almost always in doubt, except for when that Carr fella heads to Peoria. Scott Rousseau

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