Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

chicane, the bike and some hay bales catching fire in the aftermath. With 43 of the 57 laps remaining, the race was restarted for the final time at 4:20 p.m .. over two hours after the original start time . and run to its completion. When the race finally came to a merciful end under a setting sun at 5:45, the result was exactly what most had predicted: Mat Mladin had won his second·successive Daytona 200, setting himself up as the run· away favorite to win a third·straight AMA Superbike crown. "I enjoy racing here," Mladin said. "It took me a couple of years to understand just how big this race is to the manufacturers. We don't have anything like this in Australia, but here in the States it is huge. First things first, I have to thank Suzuki. It's pretty unbelievable really· we've had this bike in our possession for about five months, and all we've done is tested it. It's unbelievable just how well it's been able to do in its first race. It's a great motorcycle." Those who finished the race in one piece and with championship points can look back at the race with some relief, while several others can only lick their wounds and prepare for the rest of the season. The Kawasaki team had plenty of reason to celebrate after the 200. Eric Bostrom finished second, and Doug Chandler was fourth· this despite the fact that the pair had qualified 13th and 14th, respectively, and that Chandler was riding with a back injury suffered in a practice crash (see Briefly ... ). "Each start, I'd try to be quick and go with the guys, and I think I could maybe do two or three decent laps, and then after that I just started miss· ing my laps because I just couldn't get side·to-side quick enough," Chandler said. "It's a lot better fmish On just the fifth lap of the Daytona 200, all hell broke loose after Mike Ciccotto crashed his Suzuki in the second horseshoe. Though his crash wasn't out of the ordinary, there was debris on the circuit and that's what brought out the pace car. And it was what fol· lowed that tumed into havoc. Mat M1adin was leading the race at the time. He says he didn't think he saw a pace·car flag, which is orange, only a waving yellow caution flag. He did, however, see the pace car because it pulled out in front of him as he was leading the race. Those who followed didn't get any waming, and the result was a spectacular crash on the back straight, with Aaron Yates running into the back of Kurtis Roberts. Yates crashed and so too did his teammate Jamie Hacking. "I saw a waving yellow, not an orange," M1adin said. "I wasn't sure if it was orange or yellow. Fortunately, I could see the pace car start to pull out." The fact that the two colors can be confused is a problem in itself, says Roberts. "I saw the pace car and Mat [M1adin): Roberts said. "I thought it might be a pace-car flag. but come on . yellow and orange. They look so much alike, it's ridiculous. They're holding 'em still. they're waving them· they [comer workers] don't know what they're doing with 'em. And then there's a pace car coming out on the banking, and we're going 160 mph. When you're racing close, from second to however many there were, it's a pretty big deal. There definitely has to be something done about the flag situation, that's for sure." Eric Bostrom concurred with the others. "All three of us saw yellow flags, and there was no pace car, as far as I knew, coming out," Bostrom said. "I saw the crash before I saw the pace car." "All I know is it was obviously hard for everyone to see the pace car except for me because they were in such a tight group," Mladin said. "You could tell that nobody saw the flag, or struggled to see the flag. I was sitting behind the pace car, and we'd already come off the back banking; when I looked over my shoulder there were people going everywhere. I remember seeing one flag, but I don't even know what it was. I think it was yel· low, but obviously something needs to be done about the flags." Anthony Gobert was a littie closer to the incident than he would have liked to have been. "They had one waving yellow in the infield," Gobert said. "The way they were waving, I kind of thought, 'Oh, pace car,' and then I went into the left·hander going onto the bank· ing, and there was no flags or anything, and I thought, 'Oh, maybe there's not.' So I come around and we went up the banking, and because I sort of hesitated a bit, they pulled a bit of a gap on me, you know, which is lucky, because otherwise I would have been in it big· time. So then I come around and I saw, out of the comer of my eye, I saw the pace car, and I looked, and I was like, 'Shit, they hadn't seen it.' Then they come off the banking and they were all realizing, and they all hit the brakes and they all piled in. Then I realized I was still in the throttle too, and I hit the brakes because they just stopped . then I was like running up on them. And Yates got flicked right in front of me, and his bike was slid· ing and I was coming, and I thought I was just going to hit his bike and cartwheel. Luckily, somehow his bike slid out of the way, and I just got around it I went down the apron and thought I was all right - and then I saw a bike out of the comer of my eye, and it had no rider on it. It was just a bike by itself, and it was coming directly for my leg. So I went back a gear and gassed and just went around, and it hit Steve Rapp, who was behind me, and nearly knocked him off his bike." Yates was a lucky man to escape this one. He was battered and bruised, but not much more. "We come out of there, and I saw the flag, just barely, right when I was coming out of the infield there, and then Kurtis stayed in it and I was kind of looking up the track trying to find the pace car," Yates said. "And then I saw it. and Kurtis got on the brakes and the thing wouldn't tum. I was on the brakes so hard, I was trying to go right. it went left. I barely kind of got over, and I hit him and, shit, after that, I don't what happened." The man with the best view· or worst, depending on how you look at it . was Hacking. "I was right there, man, wide open: Hacking said. "It's like nobody really let off until it was like that. I saw Kurtis jam on the brakes and it was all he [Yatesl could do. And by the time you hit the brakes, and by the time I let off and hit the brakes, it was just a big mess. [ hit him so hard. Kurtis had slowed it down SO much. I hit him and flew right off my bike. I couldn't even stay on it. I jumped up to make sure he [Yates) was all right. I looked up, my damned bike was almost to the chicane and then it hooked a left and went straight into the inside retaining wall and, boom, wide open." than I kind of expected. [ was think· ing if we could just finish the top 10 and get out of here, we'd be okay." Bostrom was also pleasantly surprised with how things transpired. "I was only surprised because of where we had to start," Bostrom said. "I knew we were pretty quick; it was just a case of actually getting there. Our qualifying was so bad for us that we were miles behind everybody by the time things got going. Kurtis [Roberts] effectively took me out of the race for the lead because with his tire problem, I got hung up behind him, and that was enough to let Mat get away. I was just hanging on there, anyway, because of a few spots where I wasn't actually very fast. I tried to make up for it in other areas. I have to thank my guys for doing a great pit stop and for really figuring things out with the tires. Dunlop really came through. It feels great. I anticipated being here on Friday [in 600cc Super· sport], but it was really nice. It was a long race, and at the end it was just, 'Get this thing over with.' It's definitely nice to be up here at Daytona." Between the two Kawasakis came Erion Racing/Parts Unlimited/PJ 1 Oils' Roberts in what was both his AMA Superbike and Daytona 200 debut. Roberts had survived the pace· car incident, but not without injury to both his body and his motorcycle. He was able to get things together enough to stay in contention until tire woes eventually meant that third was as high as he could finish. But it was a cue. e Kurtis Roberts (80) and Eric &osborn (321 ran strong for most of the day, u-.gh they couldn't quite match Mladln's pace. Bostrom ended up seconcI with Roberts third, In what was his AMA SupertHke and Daytona 200 debut. result that either of his Honda team· mates would gladly trade for. "The first part, Mat [Mladin) was pulling away from us all, and we were racing for second," Roberts said. "Then the unfortunate event hap· pened with the pace car, and then the race got going again after the third restart or whatever. I got a pretty good start and came through a couple of guys and was a couple of sec· onds behind these guys, but then started closing in. Once I caught up to 'em, our bike was developing a lit· tie hop. I knew I was hard on tires, so I knew we were in trouble. I was try· ing to get past these guys because Miguel [DuHamel] was in the lead at that point, and I thought I might be able to slow these guys down enough for Miguel to get a few seconds' lead and win one for Honda. I knew I was going to have to pull in, anyway. Then the tire just started hopping so bad that I just rode those few laps out. Mat [Mladin) got by me, and Eric [Bostrom] got by me, and then I just pulled in. I came back out in about seventh or eighth and passed all Miguel DuHamel (17) was the onl)' one who could match Mladln (1), but he ended up crashing out of the race while tr)'Ing to make up ground on the Australian. n e _ 50 • MARCH21.2001 7

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