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~~I . . -. ' j AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series - ~ roadrac~ (Above) The 60th running of the Daytona 200 gets underway wItIt Mat Mladln (1) leading Anthony Gobert (16), Scott Russell (4), NIcQ Hayden (69), and the rest of the pack In the first of four starts to the red-flag Intenvpted race. (LefQ When all was said and done, It __ Mladln who scored the VIctory - his second straight In the 200. By PHOTOS than anyone could remember, it PAUL CARRUTHERS HENNY RAY ABRAMS made little difference to the outcome. It just took longer than it should have. Mladin was untouchable from the By DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 11 nless something out of the ordinary was to happen, there was very little chance of anyone beating Mat Mladin in the 60th running of the Daytona 200. He knew it, and his competition knew it. And although it was a day of racing that featured more out-of-the-ordinary incidents 6 MARCH 21, 2001 • eye I first time his Yoshimura Suzuki turned a wheel at Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday. He was the fastest in practice, he qualified on pole position and - just a day after his _ 29th birthday - M1adin was masterful in the race, thwarting any challenges n __ s that were thrown his way. And there weren't many. Unfortunately, Mladin's victory may not be the thing that people remember most about this year's 200-miler. What they are likely to recall is that this one took three-anda-half hours to complete. They'll remember the three red flags, the long delays between restarts, and the fact that this was the race that, at the very least, ended Scott Russell's season. In a day of horrific accidents, Russell's was shocking. The Georgian's bike stalled on the grid after the lights flashed to green on the second restart, and he was collected from behind first by Dean Mizdal and then a speeding Richie Morris from their positions farther back on the grid. The impact was horrendous, and its implications may be far-reaching for the five-time winner of the race who is known as Mr. Daytona. Russell suffered a compound fracture to his left femur and his left arm, and faced a lengthy surgery on Sunday night at Halifax Memorial Hospital. Morris also suffered injury, breaking his left wrist and arm and also suffering from bums when one of the motorcycles in the incident caught fire. Believe it or not, Russell's crash was the second terrifying incident of the day. The first took place just five laps into the race, when Mike Ciccotto's crash in the second horseshoe brought out the pace car. M1adin, who was already leading the race by some five seconds, saw the car come on to the West Banking and pulled in behind it on the backstraight. Some of the others didn't see the car or the orange flag that signals that it is on track, and the result was a melee on the backstraight, as Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates slammed into the back of a slowing Kurtis Roberts. Yates went down, taking his teammate Jamie Hacking with him, while Roberts was able to continue - though with a broken bone in his hand from the impact. The race was quickly red-flagged. The third and final red flag came when Larry Pegram crashed his Competition Accessories Ducati in the