Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128148
Daytona Recap STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS ommy Hayden's motorcycle was flying through the air and Eric Bostrom was chin on the tank, head under the bubble, and heading straight for it. His options were as limited as the time he had to react. All he could really do was keep it pinned, dive low on the east banking, and pray that he could out-race it. The alternative of hitting it full throttle was unthinkable. SlOWing to avoid it meant getting rear-ended by a fearsome pack of 600cc Supersport riders, even more unthinkable. There were bodies everywhere. Hayden being tossed toward the apron, the Gobert brothers, Aaron and Anthony, getting the worst of it, Anthony going headfirst into the track. None of which was the worst part. The worst 24 APRIL 3, 2002' cue • _ part was that Bostrom had lived through this exact same scenario two years ago in exactly the same place. "It's the one race I leave and I don't care how I finished," Kawasaki's Bostrom says about Daytona. "I just want to make it out and go on to the next one. That's a pretty big statement because I hate getting beaten. I have no ambition to win that race. It's not the most prestigious race to win." Every year at Daytona, the rumble gets louder among the riders and teams: What are we doing here? Why are we racing at nearly 200 mph a few inches from a concrete wall, hoping - praying - that the engine or tires don't let go, not just on your bike but on the ones all around you, the vast majority of which are just circulating for a paycheck? Does this make any sense? Have the motorcycles gotten too fast? Has the tire technology, now n _ _ so resting squarely in the hands of Dunlop, the company responsible for supplying all the factory teams, kept up? The field for the Daytona 200 this year held nine factory bikes (eight on the grid after Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat MJadin withdrew with an elbow injury) and 14 rows of filler, all but three aboard Supersport-spec Suzuki GSXR750s. The 64th rider on the grid was 13 seconds a lap slower than polesitter Nicky Hayden. The disparity is too great, the closing speeds too dire. "I haven't really given it a lot of thought, to be honest with you," Hayden, the 2002 Daytona 200 winner, replied when asked if the motorcycles had gotten too fast. Anecdotal evidence suggests his Honda Re51 was capable of 197 mph on the front straight, with tire spin inflating the rear-tire read-out to 209 mph. Teammate Miguel DuHamel claims to have gone 200 mph on his fast qualifying lap. Hayden continued: "You try to go faster and faster. At some time, you're going to get to that point: When is too fast, too fast? I don't know what the top speed was at Daytona, but I think we were over 190 mph. So you figure another year or two, we're going to be 200 around there. It's something that definitely we've got to think about. You really sit back and think about it. It is awful risky that something big could happen." Of all the riders, team managers, and others interviewed, Bostrom was the most virulent in his attack, and with good reason. A few years back, during the December Dunlop tire tests, his older brother Ben blew a tire on the east banking, sending him skidding on his chest and hands. His injuries were serious, but not lifethreatening, and could have been much worse. Regardless, the damage was done. Two years ago, Eric Bostrom was exiting the chicane when all hell broke loose in front of him. Bikes were flying through the air. He would avoid it, but others were less lucky. Jamie Hacking got caught up in it as did Josh Hayes, who would take years to recover. "Really, the only two corners that you can crash in and be pretty okay, are probably the two right-handers [the infield horseshoes], because turn one's dangerous because it's got that wall: Bostrom says. "And that last corner up onto the banking [turn six], going in you have a solid impact area right in front of you and you're hauling ass. And driving up the banking you're just aiming at the wall, which is just kind of really bad for you. And once you get up there you're going through the gears around the 750 Supersport guys and then pretty soon you're sliding the tires and pushing the front end at the walls exiting onto the back straight. Exiting the chicane it's slippery, there's direction changes and finally going up on the banking. That's a pretty small area. "Dude, what happens if somebody blew up a 600, one of the front-runners blew up a 600, especially closer to the beginning of the race, even if they didn't scatter oil, just the time that that their bike was stopped, you'd have nowhere to go, because everyone is just following the guy. You are going to have 15-20 bikes stacked up." Bostrom says that he sometimes drags his right elbow on the wall in the east banking "and the bars couldn't have been more than a millimeter away, and that's every third or fourth lap just coming out of the chicane, and I'm like, 'Why?' "I mean, seriously, I always look at these guys that ride the Isle of Man. Those guys are nuts. That's some pretty crazy shit they do. But compared to myself going 170 next to a wall, is it?" he asks.