"They were two dream pit
stops," Herrin said. "We did so
much practice on it. They worked
so hard to make it as perfect
as possible. I don't know what
I like more—riding in a group or
riding at the front on my own. In
the group in the first stint, one of
the riders was putting off a lot
of heat, and that made it uncom
-
fortable, so I was happy to get
out on my own eventually. It's
difficult leading at Daytona on
your own, but there's something
peaceful about it, too.
"When you're leading, your
mind can wander a bit, so you just
DAYTONA 200 / MARCH 7-9, 2024
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY / DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA
ROAD RACE I MOTOAMERICA / FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
P80
765 PETER HICKMAN
DNF DAYTONA 200
"It's been a steep learning curve,
which we knew it would be, to be
honest," Peter Hickman said. "The
entire team was new to it, except my
teammate Richard Cooper, but I think
we did pretty well. We had both bikes
sixth and seventh in qualifying, which,
in this field, which has been the stron-
gest in years, was a good achieve-
ment as a team. Cooper led the race
for a bit. I got caught up in some oil
on the third lap when a motor went
bang from the guy in front, so I was
covered in oil. I couldn't see at all,
and by the time I took the tear-off off,
I was 29th, and I'd been 15th at the
time. I fought back to 12th, but then
to have a mechanical with three laps
to go was a bit hard to swallow, and
Coops crash meant it didn't end how
we wanted, but it is what it is."
37 STEFANO MESA
8TH DAYTONA 200
"It was a good race for my first
Daytona 200," rookie Stefano Mesa
said. "We started well and was with
the lead group for a while, but I think
we maybe thought we had a better
MYOWNRACE
Richie Escalante (54) with
teammate Scott in tow. It
would be heartbreaking for
the Mexican again in the
200, this time with a dry gas
tank with one lap to go.
