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The Daytona Redo Traditionally, it's two turns and you're out of there." Mladin agreed that there'd be little passing once the riders turned right lrom the old dogleg to the new section. "I highly doubt there'll be any passing in that area, especially in the race when tires get worn down and that sort of Mladln said. "There used to be a bit 01 passing down there, into the kink there used to be a bit 01 passing, Into the horseshoe, and then into the tum six, you used to get a bit 01 passing. But then again, honestly, if a rider's going to complain about that, they've got to have rocks in their head because safety's gat to come before thinking about losing a couple of comers to passing - because in reality, the race is not won stuff: in passing in those corners." The newest incarnation of Daytona I International Speedway was put to the test for the first time on Monday, January 3, with riders offering generally pOSitive, though guarded, reviews, and most seeing more work to be done. The morning session began late and was shut down ear1y by a briel rain shower. Many riders didn't get a chance to go out at all, and those who did didn't get more than a handlui of laps on the new 2.95-mile layout. "I guess the first thing to look at is that I'm at least a little bit happy because one banking's [the West Banking] been taken out 01 the racetrack," Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin said alter fIVe laps at speed in the morning; his best lap time was in the I:45 seconds, less than his best of I:49.4 en route to winning the 2004 Daytona 200. "When the second banking gets taken out over here [pointing to the East Banking], I'll be a lot happier. But lor now it's good they got rid of that banking. "The new layout 01 the track, there's a couple of tight turns. It's not bad. Yeah, it's a bit tight. I'm not complaining about that at all." The left-hand run onto the back straight, a lack of grip and a lew too many obstacles were the main concerns. "It's reasonably safe and all, except lor the last turn coming onto the back straight," Mladin said. "You're coming out of there now in second, and when some grip gets down on the track and you get going, you'll probably come out of there in second and click into third really quickly, and here, as you know, with the left-hand side of the tire, you're going to spin a lot. And it's just lacing you right at the wall. You're coming through there, you get the thing sideways, and once it gets sideways, it's just going to drift to the right anyway, and It's just facing you straight into the wall. Just in the few laps we did this morning, there's already been one time where I've had to roll off the gas and physically lean the bike over to stay off the wall." Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster tested the track on his Yamaha R-6 and lound many 01 the same issues. "There's a few walls coming into play, there's a couple 01 light poles coming into play," Buckmaster said. "There's a big bump coming onto the back straightaway. When someone loses the Iront there, you're going to go straight into that light pole or into the wall. And they know it because there's a shitload of Air Fence around it. Just put a bullseye on the light pole then." The utility pole is to the rider's right and is heavily protected by Air Fence. Buckmaster's teammate Aaron Gobert said that his Yamaha R-I wobbled in the transition onto the backstretch. "Big wheelspin, sideways," the 2004 AHA Superstock Champion said. "Maybe in the future when it comes race time and we're not all using our heads as good as we should be [there could be problems]. Maybe we need to revise that section a little bit. Not too dramatically. It's really close. When you do race, you do throw caution to the wind to get to !he Iront. Not too bad, but it could be better." The new section 01 the track has Iresh pavement, which transitions onto and off of the older pavement. That leaves a green track and several new lelt-hand turns that the harder left side 01 the multicompound tires need to deal with. Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates was the first rider to lall when he crashed coming out of a new left that heads back toward the old West End Horseshoe. Until more rubber is laid down, riders will be reluctant to complain about grip. "It's not one of those things that you relate to Daytona," Gobert said. "You've got really, really fast and really, really slow. In the past, it's never been like that. It's just get through the horseshoes and go fast again. I don't think there's a whole lot of room lor passing in the infield - it's going to definitely change the racing. Same old story, Daytona's only won by the dralt because there's not going to be anywhere to place on the infield unless you're silly enough to pork everybody. Not to say bad things about the place, they've done their best to make it saler. But it's really hard to have the hardest tires in the world for the bank and then have a street course on the infield. Traditionally, it hasn't really been classified as a street course. What bothered Mladin more than the layout was the lack of rider input. "Personally, I think the thing to do was to get a bunch of the riders down here, which they said they were doing to do which I don't think happened," Mladin said. "One or two guys came down pretty late in the decision-making process. And that lefthand corner should have been maybe moved just a little bit further away from where it is and then bring it back, so you're actually coming on the straight pretty straight. Again, it's not horrible, but certainly there could be some issues there lor sure." The AHA tried to get riders, including Mladin, to the track, but scheduling problems late in the year precipitated by the postponement 01 the Virginia International Raceway event prevented him, and others, Irom coming. American Honda's Miguel Duhamel was at the track late in the process. Privateer Michael Barnes also had input in the design. Much 01 it was designed by Bob Barnard, an Australian who has extensive racetrack experience worldwide. "II they just fix that last corner a little bit, they've certainly made an improvement on what they had by taking out that banking," Mladin said. "Bob Barnard has done a great job. I'm sure given a clean sheet 01 paper he probably could have done a better job. The bottom line is they need to start learning to talk to the riders." Henny Ray Abrams