Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Doug Chandler did in this race, it really didn't make any difference, but it could mean getting out and having a bit of a lead and maybe holding it." DuHamel confirmed that the American Honda team would again be g.etting the Japanese edge. "There's the Japanese guys from HRC [Honda Racing Corporation] and HGA [Honda Grown Asians) that will be coming down and giving the helping hand they usually do," he said. The service life of the tires between pit stops is right around 19-20 laps. - After that it's time for new ones. Dunlop is the predominant brand in AMA Superbike racing, and with the Michelin-shod Fast by Ferracci team pulling out, they will be supplying all of the top teams with their dual-compound tires. Scott Russell made his name as "Mr. Daytona" partly because he understands tire management like very few others. Russell did most of his accelerating with the bike nearly upright on the fat, middle part of the tire, spinning as little as possible. None of the front-runners had tire problems last year, though Vance & Hines Ducati's Anthony Gobert thought he did. Gobert has since departed, replaced by fellow Aussie Troy Bayliss, who saw Daytona for the first time during the tire test, impressively setting the fast time. Bayliss is clearly Ducati's best hope for the 200 and had a lot to learn during the tire test the track, the bike, the team, the tire wear, the race strategy. "I haven't been involved in pit-stop races before, so you've got to try not to bite yourself too much and look after the tires and do it," Bayliss said. "I think like I was only doing six or seven [laps] at the same time, but I ended up doing a 51.3 after 16 laps on the same tire. The times were quite consistent. And I was consistent over the weekend, and that was on one of the harder tires." After riding an inline-four at Daytona for the past five years, DuHamel switches to the V-twin Honda RC51, which uses tires in a different way. "It didn't seem to be a bike that will take more of the tires than the RC45 or any of the other teams out there. It definitely looks like it'll be the same," DuHamel said, at the end of the tire test. On the mid die day of the three-day test, several of the teams blistered their rear tires, Honda among them, but no more or no less than anyone else. What isn't known is whether the Honda that comes back in March will have the same blazing speed advantage that the RC45 had. Mladin chased DuHamel for the distance, but, between not getting up on the banking efficiently and being down on power, he was fighting an uphill battle. "I think if I could've got a lead in the race where Miguel wasn't in my draft, I think I could've pulled away," he said. "It was just his bike was very fast, and there's no chance he's doing that. Because every time I came out of the pits I was behind him, at one stage three seconds behind him coming out from the last pit stop, so I had to make that back up. So pit stops were something that really didn't go as they should have - don't get me wrong, they wer.>t smoothly, but we found where we could make time in the pits. Other than that, the only thing really that I wasn't happy with was the speed of my bike. It was slow. There's nothing we can do about that, that's up to Suzuki in Japan to try to make it faster." Doug Chandler comes to this year's Daytona 200 as the rider's choice to win the AMA Superbike crown. To take his unprecedented fourth title, he'll have to get off to a better start to the season than he did last year, where he finished Daytona a very dispirited ninth on a Muzzy Kawasaki which hadn't kept up with the increasing pace of progress. Kawasaki cut Rob Muzzy loose last year and took the road race program in-house. That means bikes and parts from the factory and the profligate spending habits of a presidential candidate. The results weren't evident during the tire test, but crew chief Gary Medley said they'd be testing constantly in It all comes down to this' In past editions of our Daytona Short Track preview, we have suggested that you might need a crystal ball or a psychic hotline number in order to make some sort of sound determination as to whom will walk away with the AMA Grand National Dirt Track Series opener. After all, the race itself presents a unique cast of characters not normally found at events on the rest of the series calendar. For example, Daytona is usually the place where rookie GNC Experts make their debut. Hot off of one season - or perhaps several - of 600cc competition, these fiesty young lads are hungry to go out and make an impression on the fans who flock to Daytona Municipal Stadium. The new kids want it to be their names that fans remember and ponder for the rest of the season. "Wow, that kid sure looked good." So, they go fast. Then yO,u have the veteran riders. Some may have racked up several victories in the previous season, and some may not have scored any. But their common bond at Daytona is that they all seem to share a sense of true importance in winning the event. For some, it is "winning Daytona" that gives the race such meaning. Others merely want to win the first race of the year, thus getting their series championship drives off to a good start. For some riders, both reasons apply. So, they go fast. In between these two groups, you have the rest of the field, which is comprised of talented journeymen, short track specialists and the occasional lucky (or unlucky) sucker who has never won. Yes, luck still does playa part in making the Daytona Short Track main event. And if any of this group has even a small dose of it, they go fast. Point is that every rider who comes to the Day- tona Short Track goes really fast. It is probable that you will not find a larger group of potential winners anywhere on the rest of the circuit. That said, the cream of this huge crop usually manages to rise to the surface, and so we arrive at our prediction for the ract! and the season: The battle for the Daytona Short Track win will come down to the three riders who we believe will be racing for championship honors down the stretch in 2000. Two-time and defending AMA Grand National Dirt Track Champion Chris Carr will be in the hunt for the win, as will two-time Daytona Short Track winner Will Davis. They will be joined by new Harley-Davidson factory teamster Rich King. If we had to guess (and we do) we'd give the advantage to King, who has never won Daytona and thus perhaps fits into more of the above profiles than do Carr or Davis. Of course, there are several others, such as Brett Landes, Ronnie Jones, Terry Poovey, Jay Springsteen, who could win Daytona. We think that Carr, Davis or King will win it. And, maybe, whoever wins Daytona will win a number-one plate, regardless of whose series name is on it. Scott Rousseau cue I e n e _ S • MARCH 1, 2000 13

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