IN
THE
WIND
P30
DAYTONA 200 SET FOR ACTION
A
rguably one of America's
most historic motorcycle
races, the Daytona 200 will take
place Saturday, March 14 under
a new sanctioning body—the
American Sportbike Racing As-
sociation (ASRA).
While the prestigious race is
no longer on the schedule of
the newly formed MotoAmerica
Series—the new home of the AMA
Superbike Series—and a majority
of the U.S.'s top teams chose to sit
out the event, there are 50 riders
on the pre-entry list, including five
former Daytona 200 winners.
As racers coming out of retire-
ment is in fashion, David Sad-
owski Sr. (1990 winner) will have
another crack at the 200 aboard
a Honda, while long-time Daytona
racer (1989 winner) John Ash-
mead returns to put in the miles
towards the all-time record.
The 2007 Daytona 200 win-
ner—Steve Rapp—will campaign
a Tuned Racing/Tuned Indus-
tries Yamaha for a shot at victory
number two and the Rolex Cos-
mograph Daytona.
Last year's winner Danny
Eslick also returns this year to
defend his title aboard TOBC
Racing Suzuki.
After a rough 2014 in the Moto2
Championship, Josh Herrin (2010
winner) looks to get 2015 off to
a much better start with his new
team—Wheels in Motion/Moto-
sport.com/Meen Yamaha—before
the MotoAmerica Series' debut at
the Circuit of the Americas next
month in Austin.
"Whenever we found out it was
going to be [held], it was really
important to me," Herrin said via a
release. "Not only because I won
it before, but I also want to be like
some of my heroes like Scott Rus-
sell and Miguel Duhamel who have
won it multiple times. I think that's a
really big accomplishment."
Like Herrin, after a rough
season overseas in the World
Superbike Championship, Geoff
May also makes his return to rac-
ing in the U.S. aboard a Suzuki
GSX-R600 in his self-ran effort—
Project Mayday. The team gets
its name from its crowd-sourced
origin after a ride he had lined
up fell through. Helping May in
Daytona is former Celtic Racing
crew chief—William Myers—who
returned stateside after work-
ing with Michael Laverty on Paul
Bird's MotoGP team.
Practice gets underway Thurs-
day, with qualifying tentatively
scheduled at 10:40 a.m. eastern
time on Friday.
Unfortunately the 74
th
running
of the historic event will not be
televised.
At the time of going to press
there was no announcement as
to whether there would be online
streaming or live timing.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
ANDREA
WILSON
Josh Herrin (8) looks to add
another Daytona 200 victory to
his resume at this year's ASRA
sanctioned event.
