Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

My OWN RACE 961l1' mJ.,,;:;o~""-lI m· and you n eve r know what to expect. This is obviously how I want it to turn out." Hayden said he'd been coming to Daytona for a long time on a slow bike, "so it felt really good when I got out there and knew I had the fastest bike." What he didn't expect was that he'd have a four-second lead. Neither did Hacking, who called the race the "boringest 600 race I've ever raced around Daytona. I'm looking at my lap counter on my lap thing, and it's counting up, and I'm like, 'Man, this thing's like I'm racing the Daytona 200. I'm ready to come in for a pit stop or something.''' The difference was the new track. Lapped traffic came into play on the ninth lap and was a constant presence. The new section is tighter, slower and narrower than the old track, though passing can be done. It was a lapper that separated Hacking from Hayden in the chicane, and, once the draft was gone, Hacking had little hope of catching up. Part of that was the Yamaha R6. "I had nothing for him at all - I mean, nothing," Hacking said. The former Supers port Champion slotted into second on lap three, holding it until lap nine, when Roger Lee Hayden came past. "I'm like, 'Okay, we'll have two green bikes tow us around,' and that was even better," Hacking said. Then he took the spot back on lap I 3, but by then the pace was too much and the gap too large. "I was like, 'Dang boy, you've got to slow this thing down here,''' Hacking said of Tommy Hayden's string of laps in the I:42's. "He just kept going. He rode a great race. I don't know what else to say. It was boring, very boring." Roger Lee Hayden ran second until running wide in turn one on the lap 13. He recovered quickly enough to lose only one spot. Within a lap or two, he was losing ground to Hacking as his ZX-6RR began to overheat. (See My Own Race.) The engine expired less than a lap from the end. Roger Lee was credited with 21 st. Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo chased Roger Lee Hayden, with Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies joining the fight a handful of laps from the end. When Roger Lee began to slow on lap 21 , it was DiSalvo against Spies. DiSalvo made the unconventional choice of leading out of the chicane on the final lap, a move that paid off with a podium third. "Well, I knew it was going to be close," DiSalvo said after finishing .084 seconds in front of Spies. "Ben [Spies] had been behind me a few times during the race, and it was always kind of one of those deals where it was just close." DiSalvo said he'd seen the strategy work for American Honda's Miguel Duhamel, "so I figured, why can't I do it? And I did it, and it worked." Any doubts? "The whole time around the banking," he said. "Right before the line I felt the wind coming from his bike, I felt it pushing up. When you're in the draft, bikes drafting you, coming up beside you... before you actually see it, you feel the wind coming off the front of the fairing, and the line was pretty close, and I wasn't sure how it was going to work out." Spies said that he'd never ridden that hard, for that long, and that it felt like the Daytona 200. eN DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA REsulJS: MARcH 10, 2005 (ROUND 1 OF 11) PRO HONDA OILS SUPERS PORT: I. Tommy Hayden (Kaw); 2. Jamie Hacking (Yam): 3. Jason DiSalvo (Yam); 4. Ben Spies (Suz); 5. Aaron Gobert (Yam); 6. Robert Jensen (Yam): 7. Michael Barnes (Yam); 8. Geoff May (Suz): 9. Pascal Picotte (Yarn); 10. Danny Eslick (Suz): II. Chris Peris (Yam); 12. Ben Attard (Kaw); 13. Scott Greenwood (Kaw); 14. Mike Smith (Yam); 15. Nicky Moore (Yam); 16. Blake Young (Kaw): 17. Alan Schmidt (Yam): 18. Taylor Knapp (Yam); 19. Roy Yonce (Yam); 20. Giovanni Rojas (Suz): 21. Roger Lee Hayden (Kaw); 22. William Meyers (Yam); 23. Brian Hall (Kaw); 24. Jesse Janisch (Suz); 25. Keith Marshall (Suz); 26. Justin Filice (Hon); 27. Jeremiah Johnson (Suz); 28. Mark McCormick (Yam); 29. Pedro Valiente (Yam); 30. Chad Klock (Hon); 3 I. Armando Ferrer (Yam); 32. Kristipher Ullegard (Yam); 33. Declan Swanton (Yam); 34. William Sheridan (Yam); 35. David McPherson (Yam); 36. Benjamin Deleon (Hon); J7. Barren long (Yam); 38. Vietor Chirinos (Yam): 39. Joseph Ford (Yam); 40. Darin Scherer (Yam): 41. Bostian Skubic (Hon): 42. Todd Keesee (Yam); 43. Ivan Garza (Suz): 44. Johnny Page (Yam); 45. Jason Moss (Yam); 46. Donny Kelley (Suz): 47. Dan Ortega (Yam); 48. Tim Knutson (Yam); 49. Simon Turner (Yam): 50. Mat Furtek (Kaw); 5 I. Ty Howard (Yam); 52. Jason Farrell (Suz); 53. Nathan Hester (Yam): 54. Pedro Bravo (Kaw): 55. Ryan Elleby (Suz); 56. Nahun Alvarez (Hon): 57. Myron Bell (Suz). Time 38 min., 3 sec. Distance 22 laps. 64.9 miles Average speed 102.339 mph Margin of victory: 3.723 sec. PRO HONDA OILS SUPERSPORT SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After I of I I rounds): I. Tommy Hayden (38/1 win): 2. Jamie Hacking (32): 3. Jason DiSalvo (29): 4. Ben Spies (27): 5. Aaron Gobert (26): 6. RobertJense~ (25); 7. Michael Barnes (24); 8. Geoff May (23); 9. Pascal Picotte (22); 10. Danny Eslick (21); II. Chris Peris (20): 12. Ben Attard (19); 13. SCOtt Greenwood (18); 14. Mike Smith (17); 15. Nicky Moore (16): 16. Btake Young (15): 17. Alan Schmidt (14): 18. Taylor Knapp (13): 19. Roy Yonce (12): 20. Giovanni ROfas (II). UPCOMING ROUNDS: Round 2 . Birmingham, Alabama, April 24 Round 3 . Fantana, Califarnia, May I Yamaha's Aaroh Gobert thought he had a head start. To sort out the new Yamaha R6, he and the rest of the Yamaha team had come to D2ytona for the previous weekend's Formula USA/ChampIOnship Cup SerIes weekend. They'd been the fastest riders on the track, but they never faced the Kawasakis, which ran a much fasbIr pace. Gobert started the race In fourth then mowcl to third on the third lap. By then, he discovered that he wasn't able to get through the new Infield section. "I couldn't get through all those four new turns, live new turns, as quick as they _re," he said. "' was not even aware of the power of that Kawasaki because when I was behind him, Jamie (Hacklng] was drafting him, and I was drafting the two of them." Gobert said he'd "never really been happy with the bike. We raced CCS, and I was doing really good lap times and everything was really good compared to my teammates. I thought If this was the race, I'm going to be right In there with them. Then out there I was doilll the same lap times that I did In CCS, but they had more. Maybe they weren't fighting such problems that I was that they could carry on without such drama." 34 Venemotos Racing's Michael Barnes spent the race being chased by Robert J8II$IlIl and Geoff May, with Jensen passing him on the 20th of 22 laps. But the race had been decided long before that. FlUld on the track delayed the start of the race and had the fleld idling on the crId after the warmup lap. The delay was so long they were given a second wannup lap. The stop and start affected the tires, Barnes' Plreilis more than the others, he belleYes. "We lust sat around so long, the tires really wwen't up to temperature at the beginning," he said. "I think I had a little bit of a cold tear. I know I had the tires to really compete as well as Idid last year." On the start of the second lap, Barnes nearly hl&h-slded coming out of the International H0rseshoe, as the photo at right shows. Then there was another moment, withln a lap, In the chicane when he ran wide, hit a cone and got Into a tank-slapper. "That was two of maybe four moments I had. I was doing everything I could. After that, my tires just cold tore. I didn't have much left. Uke I said, It's not the tires, It's that time that _ spent on the grid. I know everybody had It, 1lust think It affected the PlreUis a little bit more having to sit around. Other than that, it was a good race with Jensen. He got a little tough. I 0_ him one - a friendly 'I 0_ him one: It wasn't anything rude. It was just. man, that's balisy. He's a great rider. I really enjoy racing with him." 21 Yamaha Canada's Pascal Picotte didn't see much of the new track before the race started. With only 12 laps of practice. he wasn't prepared for the 22-1ap final. On the morning of the race, the team changed everything. "I wasn't comfortable with anything. so _ loosen up everything, lust to get a feel from the bike, be able to build my confidence and then push It. It worked really good." He was at the front of a pack that was contesting 10th and was able to catch the ninth-place rider, Danny Eslick, on the final lap to take ninth. Picotte will run a Umited AMA schedule this year. 95 ~_.....n Kawasaki's Roger Lee Hayden knew that he had a rocket under him. What he didn't know was that it had short fuse. Two laps from the end of the race, Roger Lee slowed with engine problems, pulling out on the final lap with englne problems caused by a lack of fluids. Roger Lee explained that a water hose, which was too close to the exhaust, melted, sending water out the back of the lower falring. '" wasn't really paying attention to the temperature gauge," he said. "I just started sliding a lot and I was wondering, what is that? Then [Ben) Spies came by and was pointing at me. and then , pretty much knew there was stuff allover. Just a bad day. I didn't crash, I don't have to go the hospital or nothing toclay, so I almost feel like it's a bonus." Uke his brother Tommy. Roger Lee felt he had the fastest bike on the track, "Started kind of got going a little bit, and my bike was a rocket ship, and , thought It was going to be a good day for Kawi," he said. "Things happen. Just kind of proved myself this weekend that I could still run with these boys. I was pretty happy about that." CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 23, 2005 39

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