Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

What lies ahead for motorcycle road racing at Daytona International Speedway? ric Bostrom is a rider whose voice should be heard . Despite his goofy charm and laidback surfer dude exterior, Bostrom thinks and cares deeply about racing. His approach is more reasoned and even-tempered than some of his more bellicose contemporaries, but that shouldn't negate the validity of his words. Which is why what he thinks about Daytona International Speedway deserves an audience. "l love Daytona," Bostrom said. "Even though I don't love the racetrack, I love the event. There's so much going on here. We go out and do the autograph signing. There's like hundreds of people. It's huge. It'd be such a shame not to race here, but it's too dangerous. Every lap you're out there riding around, you're terrified, basically. So you just want to get out of here in one piece, and you don't get to share that love and joy for racing that you typically would have at other racetracks. I desperately want to come back here and race - I just want to do it on a different racetrack." The dichotomy of Bostrom's feelings is typical of the dozen riders queried about the future of Daytona International Speedway as a viable racetrack, especially for the increasingly swift Superbikes . The pageantry and history are beguiling. the track as anachronistic as it is E 40 MARCH 24, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS dangerous . These are men who don't shy away from challenges or speed. Quite the opposite. They've made it their lives. But Daytona goes beyond the limits of reason . What does Eric Bostrom think is the answer for Superbikes at Daytona : "There is no answer for a Superbike on this track , as far as I can tell." What , then , does the future hold? Mat Mladin made an empty threat not to race in this year's Daytona 200. His contract calls for him to be in Florida, and he would be there and make the most of it, which he did, as he does every time he gets on a racebike. The stance was taken in response to the rear tire failures of first teammate Ben Spies in October, then Jason DiSalvo in December at the Speedway. Mladin had been guaranteed by Dunlop that the Spies incident wouldn't happen again. Then it did. The guarantee had been made by Dunlop's U.S. road race manager, Jim Allen, at a meeting with riders prior to the test. "I wouldn't have said that to anyone else in that room or any other rider in the pits, and I don't know why Isaid it to Mat [Mladin), and that's the regret I have," Allen said of Mladin's forceful personality and presence. "I shouldn't have said it. I should've said, 'I can't guarantee anything, Mat, but we did our best,' which is the case. We did our best. For some reason our best wasn't good 40th Anniversary enough that time." It was good enough last week, however. Mladin outthought, outmaneuvered and outrode his rivals to w in his third Daytona 200 in five years. The team 's strategy to pit three times , rather than two , made the difference . Why didn't Honda think of that? "We thought that maybe you couldn't make up the difference with three stops," American Honda's Miguel Duhamel said after finishingthird. "That was a miscalculation." Tire wear was the 800-pound gorilla at Bike Week 2004. The new 1000cc Superstock machines were so fast that Spies' pole time was faster than Ben Bostrom's 2003 Superbike pole. Now Dunlop, Michelin and Pirelli would have to worry not only about Superb ike, but Superstock as well. The level of factory support was such that there were more factory riders in Superstock than Superbike. The quality of Thursday's race was also higher, w ith six riders goingto the flag, first through sixth covered by .862 of a second . Postrace inspections showed concern w ith the rear tire on Roger Lee Hayden's fifth-placed Kawasaki ZXlOR. Spies had a blemish on the rear of his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-RI000 . But when the tires were dissected, they were sound .

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