Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOLUME 59 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 23, 2022 P131 weeks to experience the event that was once considered one of the most important in world rac- ing. And I'll even get to have a go of the place myself as I'm riding for Roland Sands in the Super Hooligan race on the beautiful Indian Chief I raced last year. The 2022 race sees the dawn- ing of a new era in the history of the Daytona 200 with the AMA and MotoAmerica taking over the reins of running the event, which will hopefully help rebuild the diluted image the race has suffered over the past decade and a half. The Daytona 200 holds a similar place in the pantheon of great motorcycle races to the Isle of Man TT or the sadly long gone Imola 200. Have a look at the names who've conquered the banking: Emde, Nixon, Ray- born, Mann, Saarinen, Agostini, Roberts, Crosby, Spencer, Rainey, Lawson, Russell, Du- hamel, Hayden, Mladin, Herrin, Eslick, Beaubier, and 19-year-old Brandon Paasch in 2021. And for 2022, the 200 will have the most stacked field in years, headlined by none other than current Mo- toAmerica Superbike Champion, Jake Gagne. To find the last time the cur- rent AMA SBK champion fronted the grid for the Daytona 200, you'd have to go back to Mat Mladin in 2004, the last year the 200 was run with full-spec AMA Superbikes. In 2005, the 200 switched from Superbike to For- mula Xtreme rules, with Miguel Duhamel taking the last of his five Daytona wins on a Honda CBR600RR. The 2004 AMA SBK champion, Mladin, was the first number-one plate holder in 2005 not to contest the 200 in the modern era, as his intense inter-team battle with Ben Spies on the Yoshimura Suzuki began to take center stage. And so the 200 didn't exactly fade from importance, but its stature as the race you had to win in North America began to fade. The switch to 600s (first in FX rules, then as Daytona Sport- bikes and, finally, as Supersport regulations) didn't help the so- called prestige of the race, but the truth was the gnarly 200-plus horsepower monster superbikes of the day combined with the banking were just too much for the tire technology to cope with. The forces going through the tires on those big bikes were immense, and just like Barry Sheene in 1975, Ben Spies suf- fered a catastrophic tire failure in 2003 at 186 mph just as he crossed the start/finish line while testing his Suzuki GSX- R1000. It was miraculous Spies suffered (only) second- and third-degree burns on his left elbow, shoulder and hip thanks to sliding for what seemed like a week and then bouncing off the outer tri-oval wall. I highly doubt you would find favor in the 200 returning to full- house superbikes if the notion was ever put to a vote. And be- sides, the pole lap from Eric Bo- stom in that final Superbike-spec race of 2004 was a 1:48.775 on the Ducati 999R, and the pole lap of the 2021 by Sean Dylan- Kelly on the Suzuki GSX-R600 was a 1:48.896. Naturally, if AMA-spec Super- bikes were allowed back on the banking, I'm sure they would go a damn sight faster than what Kelly could do last year, but it shows that although the race bikes are smaller than 20 years ago, they are far from slower. And they come with the added bonus of being much safer on tires than those old beasts ever were. I want to see the Daytona 200 get back to being the premier race in the United States. There's no shortage of loot on offer, with $175,000 in prize money up for grabs ensuring whoever wins it will have earned a very handsome payday. The industry needs the Daytona 200 name to mean what it used to, much like the Indianapolis 500 or indeed the Daytona 500 for NASCAR. The race provides a unique link to our shared past, to the heroes who came and conquered the banking before. Racing needs the Daytona 200. And if you're in Florida on March 12, get down to The World Center of Racing to sup- port the riders and witness what will hopefully be the rebirth of this great race. CN