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VOL. 54 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 12, 2017 P117 compression release might do, which is to help slow you down a bit more, and it pulled me off into the grass and I crashed. I landed on my left arm and it was the same size from my elbow all the way to my knuck- les." X-rays revealed a fracture. The doctors discouraged Schwantz from racing but didn't completely rule it out. "They said they'd let me decide," Schwantz said. "Here I am thinking, 'Man, I'm sup- posed to go grand prix racing in two weeks.' Everything was really going bad now." In spite of all the challenges piling up, Schwantz found a way to rally from a terrible start to his Daytona Bike Week. "We managed to qualify on the pole and I think most of that was due to Michelin tires," Schwantz said. "But in the race it was going to be tough, because Polen was there and his bike was handling perfect, running great, it had top-end on my bike, and came off the corner harder." Bubba Shobert was also on the factory Honda, which had won the race the year before with Wayne Rainey at the con- trols. At the time the series was still sponsored by Camel and the company paid big money for its Camel Challenge, a short sprint race featuring the top qualifiers. The effort to win that Challenge would come into play during the 200. "Our saving grace was that it rained all the way up to race time. The Camel Challenge was normally raced before the main event, but that particular year they scored the Camel Chal- lenge on lap five of the Daytona 200. So the $10,000 went to Polen, I think I was second, but what it tempted those guys to do was run a little bit softer tire than they really should have ran. After about lap 10, they were on a steady march back- wards. "That's what allowed us to get away like we did, because the Michelins we ran were dead consistent the whole time and those guys (on Dunlops) went with something that would get them to the front on the first five laps and win them that money." The other amazing thing about Schwantz' '88 Daytona 200 victory, was that it marked Suzuki's first win, in what was then still one of the most impor- tant races in all of motorcycling. It was also a happy ending for Schwantz. He finally won the Daytona 200 in what would be his final appearance in an AMA Superbike race. The only problem was that broken arm and the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix, the open- ing to the 1988 grand prix sea- son. As it turns out, Schwantz said his sore arm might have even played in his favor for that event. "Maybe it helped me not be as aggressive as I typically might have been at Suzuka," Schwantz admits. "I had to try to finesse the thing a bit more. I think that helped me in the race and ironically enough, we'd tested there about a month before the race. It was wet all weekend up until the race and nobody had any dry time. We just went back to the setup we had in testing and it kind of played into our hands with the weather there as well." Looking back on his 1988 Daytona 200 victory, Schwantz is happy he got that win under his belt. One humorous thing that sticks out in his mind from that race was the podium cel- ebration. "If you know how heavy the Daytona 200 trophy was, if you see any photos from the podium that year I couldn't pick it up with just one arm and my left hand hurt too bad to do any- thing with it. It was like, 'I can't pick it up over my head, anyone want to help?' I don't think you'll find a picture of me with that trophy over my head." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives