Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

the middle of the second horseshoe and ran wide, catching Mladin off guard. Mladin had little choice but to go under the teenager, and the race to the flag was on. Mladin looked back once on the backstraight, once in the middle of the chicane, and again on the exit of the chicane. Every time he glanced over his shoulder on thi'lt final lap, he got a faceshield full of Hayden. On the run down the tri-oval to the finish line, Hayden pulled out of the draft and actually passed Mladin - then, just as quickly, the Suzuki found a bit more speed and won the dash to the line. By the blink of an eye. "We were on a Sunday ride there at the end, and I thought that Eric [Bostrom] and Tommy [Hayden both of whom had been lapped] were going to catch back up and overtake us," Mladin said. "I really didn't want to get in front of him [Hayden]. When he went wide, if I was quick enough there, I don't think he would have been able to get back in my draft but I wasn't quick enough. He caught me a little bit unexpectedly. I knew we had enough motor that it didn't matter where he was - that if we were pushing wind together, in each other's draft, we were going to beat him to the finish line. He pulled out a bit early, and we beat him." Hayden had indeed jumped out of the Suzuki's draft just a tad too early - and he knew it. "The whole time after the second stop, Mat [Mladin] would never go by me no matter how hard I tried to let him," Hayden said. "I figured that he was thinking he was going to be able to draft past me at the line. A couple of times I tried to make a break, let my tire cool off, and come up on a lapper and maybe squeeze through and try to get away. I knew he was going to be right there, and I figured maybe I'd catch him off guard a little bit in the second horseshoe. I ran wide and it worked, and I followed him the rest of the way. I just pulled out of the draft a little bit too early. I pulled out and I thought I was home, but right before the line he came back by me. I was pretty sure that he'd won. At first it [the scoreboard] said 69, then it clicked number one. I figured he won. "I'm satisfied with second," Hayden added. "It was my first race on the bike, my first 200. But to get that close to winning the thing, I'm disappointed." Although all the attention was focused at the front, there was a battle for the aged going on behind them as Kawasaki's Doug Chandler and American Honda's Miguel DuHamel spent the closing laps fig.hting over the final rostrum position. Like the battle before them, theirs went to the line, with Chandler just drafting past last year's winner at the flag. He had the distinct advantage of better grip. (Above) The race came down to a battle between two: Mladin 111 and Hayden (69). It ended up being the second closest finish in Daytona 200 history with Mladin beating Hayden to the line by just .011 of a second. (Right) The two waged a war for 57 laps and when they were finished Daytona 200 rookie Hayden had earned the respect of not only Mladin, but everyone in attendance. as he'd elected to go with a softer compound tire during his final pit stop. It was Chandler's fourth visit to Daytona's Victory Lane - though he is still without a victory. "I felt pretty good," Chandler said. "I had some problems in the first part of the race because the bike didn't seem to want to get through the gears on the banking. Once I got out on my own, I noticed the clutch was slipping, so I wound the lever out. That's the first time I've ever had to do that on the Kawasaki, so that was odd. Once I got that back out, I was able to continue on. I had a pretty uneventful race, trying to make up as much as I could. Aaron [Slight] wasn't too far back. When I caught Aaron and Miguel [DuHamel], I tried to keep going, but by that time I wasn't going anywhere. It was going to be a group of us to the end. With two laps to go, I just kind of looked back to see where Aaron was, and I didn't think he would quite be there at the end, so I sat back and waited for the final straightaway, timed my draft, and beat Miguel to the line. Everything went really 900d and clean for us. Those guys [the Kawasaki crew] got me in and out so fast I didn't even have time for a drink or anything." As for still not getting that elusive win in the Daytona 200, Chandler said: "I've got to keep trying. The guys keep giving me good bikes, and one of these years I'd like be up there on top." DuHamel wasn't overly pleased with finishing fourth. His week had been a struggle with a neck injury, but come race time that seemed to be behind him. What was ahead of him, however, were some suspension problems with the RC51, that wouldn't allow him to circulate as quickly as he would have liked. "The suspension went south on us," DuHamel said. "I got a good start, but I was in trouble right away. The front end was bottoming really bad, and then the rear started pogoing. When Doug was catching up, I eye I e had one bad lap where the bike jumped out of gear, and I got held up behind this guy. But that was just putting off the inevitable. Doug was coming; he had a softer tire. But it's not so bad - we [Honda] finished second and fourth, and we barely tested the bike." Yates ended up fifth on the Yoshimura Suzuki. He'd spent the race dicing with the likes of DuHamel, Chandler and Steve Rapp. "On the start there, I think I revved n e _ S • MARCH 22, 2000 7

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