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
DeytOne Beach. FL . Met""Ch 12. 2OCJO AMA/Chevy Trucks Superbike Series Round 1 : Daytona International Speedway By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS t's doubtful that Nicky Hayden will get much sympathy from Mat Mia din after losing the Daytona 200 by .011 of a second. M1adin knows the feeling all too well after coming out on the short end of the stick in last year's race to Miguel DuHamel by a similar margin. This year it was Mladin administering the dose of pain that comes with losing such a big race by so very little. Call it sweet revenge for a season ago. This one belonged to Mladin. The Yoshimura Suzuki rider made only one mistake the entire day, but he was able to come back from that to turn last year's frustration into victory in the Daytona 200 by Arai. As is now fashionable at Daytona International Speedway, the race went down to the very end with a drafting battle to the finish line. Last year Mladin came out the loser in a similar scenario, but this year he and his Suzuki were better prepared for the task at hand, and they were able to thwart Hayden's last-gasp drafting effort. It was a banner day for the Aus- 6 MARCH 22,2000' eye I tralian and Suzuki, the pair continuing to find new successes together. Last year Mladin ended Suzuki's championship drought, and today he gave the company only its secondever victory in the Daytona 200 - and its first since Kevin Schwantz won the race in 1988. Thus ending another Suzuki dry spell. Mladin's win also marked a first for Australia in the Daytona 200. Unfortunately, there has to be a loser in any close battle, but 18-yearold Nicky Hayden has nothing to hang his head about. The Daytona 200 rookie never put a wheel wrong the entire day, and he was in the hunt right to the finish, ultimately losing to Mladin by just .011 of a second - the second-closest finish in the 59-year history of the race. And if Hayden was impressive, then so too was his motorcycle. Daytona marked the debut of the all-new Honda RC51, and the bike very nearly won its maiden race - despite the fact that the team has had very little time on the V-twin. The battle between Mladin and Hayden was one that brewed from the e neVIl's beginning, with the duo linked from start to finish, joined only by Vance [, Hines Ducati's Troy Bayliss. Mladin and countryman Bayliss were the Australian bread in a Hayden sandwich for a lot of the race, with those three head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field. But the three-rider battle turned into a two-rider showdown when Bayliss, another Daytona 200 rookie, crashed the Ducati on the 35th lap in turn six. "I had some sort of wee problem with that, and it [the Ducati's chain] come loose," Bayliss explained later. "It was sort of jumping and carrying on, and it got really hard. Out of all the first-and second-gear corners, it was jumping, and I thought it was a quick-shifting problem, so I stopped using that. And it kept on doing it. And it felt like the bike was missing. I didn't realize it was the chain. I thought, 'Something weird is going on.' It was worse and worse, and just getting worse. And I had to really jump on the brakes at the end of the straights just to keep on the back of them. I was pushing the front that hard, and I ended up just going down. Mat Mladin (1) readies to go around the outside of Troy Bayliss (hidden) with Larry Pegram (72), Nicky Hayden (69) and Miguel DuHamel (17) following suit at the start of the 59th Daytona 200. I wasn't going to make it back in anyhow. I kept looking down and trying to work it out, and then I just went down in a blaze of glory trying to stay with them - I wasn't going to finish anyway." With Bayliss gone, the battle at the front didn't get any easier, as Mladin and Hayden continued to go at it and not even the two pit stops could separate the two on the racetrack. It came down to the end, with Hayden just wishing Mladin would take a turn at the front. But the Aussie didn't just fall off the turnip truck, and there was no way he was going to go down like he did the year before. No matter how early Hayden got on the brakes in an effort to entice Mladin to pass, the Suzuki rider didn't take the bait. Not until the final lap, anyway. That's when Hayden picked the Honda up in