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/128605
Oayt;.ona Beach, FL . March 12. 2000
AMA,/Chevy Trucks Superbike Series
Round 1 : Daytona International Speedway
the thing a little too much, and the
clutch slipped a lot, and I went ahead
and dumped the clutch; it just kept
slipping," Yates explained. "I was
like, 'What the hell?' I let off and got
back on - it kind of slipped more. I
was hoping it wasn't going to be a
problem. It wasn't a problem through
tie faster. We were right together
whenever I blew the chicane. I just
caught up the last lap and passed
him at the finish. We got some points,
and it's a good start to the year and
the first time on this bike."
Bostrom was hoping for better in
his Team Green debut. He suffered
the race, but I ended up getting
behind a few guys on the start, and
we got scrapping back and forth and
lost a bunch of ground on the top four
from a lack of grip. "In the end we
were way more hooked up than with
the first two tires," Bostrom said.
"Before, I just had no entry grip and
no acceleration grip. I couldn't flick it
in because the rear would step
around. It made it difficult. I couldn't
guys. After a couple of laps, I was
able to get by them and try to make
that ground up - they were going
good. I was really too far back to try
and hang with them."
Rapp ended up a rather lonely
sixth on the Vance [, Hines Ducati.
"It was good," Rapp said. "I
thought for awhile I was going to pull
go in as hot as I wanted to, and I
couldn't accelerate as hard as I wanted to - especially on the parts, the
entries onto the bankings. It was frustrating. I also screwed up the final pit
stop by not getting the bike in neutral
- that cost us about five seconds."
Filling the top 10 was HarleyDavidson's Pascal Picotte and Competition Accessories' Larry Pegram.
One was happy to have finished, the
other expected more.
"I had fun, actually," Picotte said.
"I couldn't get the traction like those
guys had, especially going onto the
banking - the first banking. It was
tough for me to hang with those guys
because first of all, we were down on
top speed, and if you can't get a drive
out of the corners, you're screwed. So
I tried hard for the first 10-12 laps,
then after that I couldn't do much
with them. We had our first pit stop,
off a third or a fourth. The middle
stint,
I
was
passing
Miguel
[DuHamel], [Aaron] Vates and [Doug]
Chandler easy. I don't know what
happened in the last stint. I know
Chandler went to a softer tire, and I
don't know what Yates and Migl)el
did, but they definitely pulled. My
bike started running bad towards the
end, backfiring and spluttering. I
think they just startec! going quicker
because my lap times pretty much
stayed the same. I'm happy. Sixth
• isn't so bad for our first race and for
Daytona. I think this will be our worst
track. The Ducati is no better around
here than when I rode the Suzuki,
got out of there, and ended up being
with Larry [Pegram]. I was enjoying
that. I wasn't by myself; I wasn't lone-
really. I'm looking forward to getting
to Sears Point."
Another battle that went to the end
was the one between Yamaha's
Tommy Hayden and Eric Bostrom, in
his debut on the factory Kawasaki. In
ly out there. Larry was about the
same speed that I was doing, except
that his bike was way faster on the
banking, so we were able to do a
good lap time. Until he started slowing down. At that time, I just decided
to go for it and do the best I could.
Then the electric shifter started mis-
the end, it went to Hayden.
"I'm not really happy, but I'm not
totally disappointed, I don't guess,"
Tommy Hayden said. "I blew the chicane twice, and it really killed me. I
firing. I had to flip the switch off and
just short-shift it actually at about
10,000 rpm because I had like 40-
did it early, kind of lost though, and I
did it at the end to with 1.0 laps to go.
It felt pretty good the whole race. My
times were pretty consistent. I just
needed them to be consistently a lit-
S
MARCH 22, 2000'
cue
I
something seconds on Larry at that
point."
e
neVU's
(Above) Although they
weren't together much
the entire race, Miguel
DuHamel (17) and Doug
Chandler (1) found
themselves together at
the end. Chandler just
managed to beat the
defending race champion
to the line for third place.
(Right) Troy Bayliss was
the only other rider in the
field capable of running
Hayilen and Mladin's
pace. He did so until
crashing out of the race in
tum six.
At least a portion of Dunlop honch Jim Allen's graying beard can likely be attributed to
being a tire technician who visits Daytona International Speedway at least twice a season.
High speed generates high heat, and there are no higher speeds than at Daytona. It's a
tire technician's worst nightmare.
"During the race, you're on edge the whole time," Allen said on Sunday morning, prior
to the Daytona 200. "At the moment it's not so bad, but during the race your guts are
always in an uproar. During practice you're trying to evaluate, look at all the specifications, you're analyzing tires and there's a lot going on. This race, as an entity, for sure is
the most stressful race."
Not only do Allen and the rest of the Dunlop crew have to worry about rider safety,
they also have to listen to a myriad of complaints throughout the week about a lack of
grip. Riders want grip, and it's a compromise to try and provide that grip when it comes to
getting the tire to last at Daytona.
"The biggest complaint is no grip," Allen said. "It's Daytona. It's just not easy here to
get the thing to go the distance and have grip. They come out of turn one, ar