Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Daytona is all about tires. To win the race, you have to preserve your tires while riding as quickly as you can on rubber that is hard in compound. During qualifying, the situation changes - but it's still all about tires. In order to get a lap time that can put you on pole position or on the front row, you have to use a tire that is soft. That same tire will barely make it through one flying lap around the racetrack, so riders are forced to dance on that fine line between going fast and making the tire last. Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin was able to do that dance the best, and the result was a new lap record and pole position, the 16th pole of the Australian's AMA career but his first at Daytona International Speedway. M1adin clicked off his 1:48.424 at 2:45 p.m. on a bright and sunny Thursday afternoon, but ended up leaving at the end of the session not knOWing if his time would hold up to the challenge of the next group of qualifiers. He had predicted that he could break into the 1:47s, but in order to do so he had to have a tire last a complete lap. That wasn't the case. "It was a good lap for us," MJadin said. "We did okay. We sort of had the same problems that Anthony [Gobert] had. The last two years, last year and this year, we haven't been able to get a full lap on a single-compound qualifier. The things just come apart on the last banking there, no matter how slow you go for the first lap out of the pits - they just come apart. I was tiptoeing around the last banking a little bit and over the fmish line. The dual-compound qualifiers are pretty good, but they are just now the same. They still spin up a little bit, so it's pretty hard to do a pole lap on a dual-compound qualifier. It was good to get it. I fully expected Anthony to give it a run because I know he does a good job in that department. It all tumed out good for us - the first race for the new Suzuki 750, and we're looking forward to the race." As it turns out, MJadin was correct in thinking that it would be Yamaha's Anthony Gobert who would make the most serious run at his time. Going out in the second group, Gobert knew what he had to shoot for. And he nearly pulled it off, lapping at 1:48.663. "I knew that somebody would beat It," Gobert said of his lap record.. "I expected more people would beat it, really. I thought Mat [Mladin] would beat it, and I thought that probably Kurtis [Roberts] and Nicky [Hayden] would beat it as well. As it turned out, Mat only just got it. We've been chasing setup, and in the last practice [on Thursday moming] we kinda surprised myself with doing that time. We put all the things we learned into one packet at the end there, and that's when we did the 49.7. I thought if I got a good run that I could get pole and had a good chance at it. When Mat did that time, it put the pressure on a bit, and on my first Q tire it blistered coming up onto the banking, and I tiptoed around the banking because I knew it was a good lap and I wanted to get across the stripe. That was still a 48.8, just tiptoeing, so I thought I could definitely do a low 48, maybe just enough to get Mat. "On the second tire, I took it a little bit too tentative, and the thing still was bopping around and blistered as well, so unfortunately we didn't beat Mat today, but it's a position we weren't really expecting to be in, so it's a good surprise and a confidence boost for me and the team. It's just a shame that we didn't have a tire because I feel that we could have held the record. I'd like to at least finish a race and try to fmish on the podium. I would like to start the season strong and finish on the podium on Sunday - that's all I'm aiming for." After coming close last year before ultimately losing pole to fellow Aussie Troy Bayliss, Mladin was detennined to get the Rolex chronograph that is awarded to the pole winner at Daytona. "It would have been [a disappointment if he didn't earn pole position] because last year we were so close to getting it, and last year we weren't even able to finish a lap. We qualified on a sjngle-compound race tire and missed out by a 10th of a second, so it was just one of those things. I was disappointed last year, and I really wanted to get it this year. When things started coming apart again, I walked back to the truck and just couldn't believe what was happening. You've got to be happy to be on the pole. It's one point and we're leading the championship again before Sunday. That's the best thing about it because one point can make a difference at the end of the year. We expected to get more, but everyone always expects to get more - these guys will tell you the same. It's hard to get more out of a tire that's not actually round for the last part of the lap." Third-quickest was Honda's Nicky Hayden, the youngster ending up on the front row for the second year in a row. He did so despite a nagging wrist injury and a brand-new Honda RC5L Hayden lapped at 1:48.765 and was in a confident mood for Sunday's 200. "We've been getting better as the week goes on," Hayden said. "Our bikes were basically brand new when we got here. They never turned a wheel on the track, so it took us a little bit to get going. We're definitely getting a little better each session. I feel pretty good. I wish I could have qualified a bit better, but our bike was working really good with qualifiers. Last year at the same place, I qualified third, so I wanted to try and improve on that. But I went almost a full second faster than I did last year, so I'm pretty happy about that." The front row would be filled by Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, another of the walking wounded in the 200. Yates had suffered a broken ankle in a motocross crash at the end of 2000, but it was a 600cc Supersport crash on Wednesday morning that was hindering him the most, as he did some damage to his toes. Still, he was able to do a last-lap flyer of 1:48. 139 to put a second Suzuki on the front row. "Qualifying for me went pretty good, and I'm up here on the front row," Yates said. "Having two Suzukis up here really looks good for us. I started out in qualifying trying some things to make the bike a little better. A few things worked, and we decided to try a different shock. I was kinda undecided, and we went back to the old one when it was time for the qualifier. We got it all done and had a pretty good lap going, and I was coming up on [Larry] Pegram, and I was like, 'this is perfect; I'm going to get me a good draft around three and four, and that'll help me out with my time a bit.: But we got over the chicane, and I ran up on a guy and just blew that lap. That was pretty aggravating. Anyway, we got back around there, and I had a real good lap going, and I came out of the chicane and then the thing started sputtering and running out of gas. I managed to coast it all the way around and got it back in. We got some fuel in it with three minutes left. I had to go and hammer it. I was kinda concerned about that qualifier because I knew I had to take It easy all the way to the chicane so the thing would last a lap, but I had to go pretty hard all the way around to make that extra lap. I've been having a problem with grip all weekend, but it's been getting a little bit better. We stuck a qualifier in there, and it gave me what we needed." On friday the rest of the Superbike field qualified in an effort to grab the rest of the spots on the grid, including the second row. That would end up being filled by Erion Racing/Parts Unlimited/PJ 1 Oils-backed Kurtis Roberts, Competition Accessories Ducati's Larry Pegram, Yamaha's Tommy Hayden and Honda's Miguel DuHamel. Mladin'. pit stops were flawless and the defending Superbike Champion did everything right to leave Daytona with the championship points lead. hopped down here. I feel so lucky right now. I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet. It would have been so said this victory at Daytona was better than last year's. "It was more sweet than the last big, like 180 mph over the handle- one," Mladin said. "We had all of bars down the front straight." those restarts, and we had them beat The Harley-Davidson team had a respectable Daytona 200 going until the very end. Pascal Picotte had his VR 1 000 in a comfortable seventh place until it blew up with just six laps remaining. That handed the position to his teammate Mike Smith, who had held down eighth for most of the race. in the first couple, and then in another restart sort of a few of the lads came along with me. Unfortunately, we learned today that the Honda is very, ward some won't very fast, so we're looking forto going to Sears Point and of those other tracks where it help quite as much. It was a lit- just kept hammering it, kept looking at my lap board, just making sure I could tle brutal. There was nothing I could do. The boys told me after a couple of the restarts that I was pulling half- do what I could do. I just rode hard to three-quarters of a second on the and had a pretty good pit stop. It was a really weird Daytona 200. It was kind of scary. 1just kept hammering." infield, and it was all gone. Miguel [DuHamel] - I could feel him up the back of me up there. And I know I Two privateers took advantage of was a lot faster than him in the chi- "I'm pretty stoked," Smith said. "I the misfortune of some of the factory cane because when I was behind him, men to finish in the top 10. Corona Ebsco Suzuki's Jimmy Moore rode 1 could catch him half a second, easy. It's just the way it goes." CN his Supersport-spec GSX-R750 to an impressive eighth place, one spot ahead of Daytona 200 rookie Mauro Cereda, who was also mounted on a Supersport-spec GSX-R. It really mattered not, that the race was held in so many parts. Mladin was superior in all of them - and he Daytona InbunatiDnal Speedvway Daytona Beach, FIDrida Results: March 8-11, 2001 SUPERBIKE QUALlFVING: 1. Mat Mladln (IA8.424): 2. Anthony Goben (1:48.663): 3. Nicky Hayden (1:48.765): 4. Aaron Vales (J:49.139): 5. Kurtis Roberts (1 :49.196); 6. Lllrry Pegram (1:49.223): 7. Tommy Hayden (1:49.384): 8. Miguel DuHamel (1:49.485): 9. Steve Rapp (1:49.708): 10. Jamie Hacking (1:49.'148); 11. Aeron Slight (1:50.610): 12. Scott Russell (1:50.843); 13. Eric Bostrom (1:50.859); 14. Doug Chandler (1:51.357); Not surprisingly, opinions varied on the effect the new AMA rule limiting the over-the-wall pit-stop crew to five would have on the Daytona 200. Some crews figured the pit stops wouldn't be any longer, others said they would be. "The difference isn't too much," said Kawasaki team manager Mike Preston. "It's just a matter of a little extra practice. We're a little slower, but not too bad. We're fortunate in that our sister team in Japan gave us a lot of ideas. They are only allowed five in the Suzuka Eight-Hour, so they could give us some help. It's just an inconvenience more than anything. I don't know the reasons behind it, but we're right there - within a second or so. We're just using a dedicated staff this year, where in the past we've had some help from a few extra staff guys." When asked if the pit stops provide the most stress for team managers, Preston said: "No, 1don't think so. The hardest part is just waiting until we go racing. They've practiced, and they'll do well." Retiring Honda team manager Gary Mathers said that the Honda team's pit stops had gone up by as much as three seconds with the fewer crew members over the wall. "It just slows everybody down," Mathers said. "They're just a little rusty. Apparently, privateers complained that they couldn't muster up the people needed to help. I think everyone is more apt to screw up because now everybody does two jobs. We're about three to four-and-a-half seconds slower, but it doesn't matter - it's the same for everybody." Mathers believes the safest change would be to break the stop into two parts. The first part would consist of just the rider and the fuel man. When the fuel man completed his task, he would hop over the wall, and at that time the rest of the crew would be allowed to perform their tasks. "I think that would be the safest way," Mathers said. "And it could also make for good TV by breaking the stop up a bit." cycle neVIl's MARCH 21, 2001 9

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