Daytona Bike Week Updates
Saturday, March 10, 2007

Rapp Upset Winner in Daytona 200 By Honda

Steve Rapp and Ben Attard, starting from the third row, took advantage of apparent fuel pump problems on the lead four Hondas to score an upset victory for Attack Kawasaki in the 66th Daytona 200 By Honda.

Rapp led his teammate by 21.151 seconds to win America's most prestigious motorcycle race, and run down the curtain on Bike Week 2007.

The early going saw a spirited fight for the lead among the top eight riders, with Honda stars Miguel Duhamel and Josh Hayes mixing it up for the lead while defending 200 winner Jake Zemke and Aaron Gobert rode at the back of the lead train.

Suddenly, on lap 22, all four of the red bikes seemed to run out of fuel, triggered when Duhamel coasted to a stop in the infield, while Zemke pulled off 100 yards up the track moments later. Hayes and Gobert both ran out heading to the pits. Only Hayes was able to continue, but an unplanned third stop for fuel cost the defending Formula Xtreme champ a chance at victory. He finished fifth.

That put the Attack Kawasakis up front, with Rapp holding the lead from the final round of pit stops.

EMGO Suzuki's Michael Barnes took third, followed by the surprising Celtic Yamaha of Chaz Davies.

While the favored Hondas of Duhamel (a five-time Daytona 200 winner) and Zemke failed to win, the pair finished second and third in the Superbike sprint race earlier in the day.

Honda Woes Fuel Daytona 200 Upset BidThe stage is set for an upset in the 66th Daytona 200 By Honda, with all four of the top Honda contenders simultaneously stricken by fuel woes.

Honda factory rider Miguel Duhamel, seeking his sixth Daytona 200 victory, was battling Erion Honda's Josh Hayes and Attack Kawasaki's Steve Rapp for the lead in the very competitive event, when Duhamel's bike suddenly lost power in the infield. Moments later, defending Daytona 200 winner Jake Zemke -- who had been running sixth -- slowed while going by Duhamel's bike, and came to a halt. Then, Hayes slowly came to the pits. All three bikes had run out of fuel. Erion Honda's Aaron Gobert also ran low and stalled in his pit. Moments later, he also pulled off with either electrical problems or vapor lock.

After 26 laps, Rapp held the lead over Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo, Celtic Yamaha's Chaz Davies and Attack Kawasaki's Ben Attard. EMGO Suzuki's Michael Barnes, who led several times in the early going, was fifth, followed by Hayes, with 40 laps remaining in the classic.

Spies Wins Superbike Race

Ben Spies opened defense of his AMA Superbike title with a victory Saturday morning at Daytona International Speedway.

Eric Bostrom put his new Yamaha Superbike out front for two laps, but pitted and lost a lap with tire problems.

That gave the lead to Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin, who was seeking his sixth Daytona Superbike victory. Spies, coming back from an early mistake, ran down his teammate and took the lead on lap five. He quickly built up a two-second lead and cruised the rest of the way. Mladin, meanwhile, made an uncharacteristic mistake, lost the front and went down. He recovered to finish 10th.

"Everybody knows that Daytona is a place where you can lose a lot of points quick and you can't win the championship here," said Spies, who won 10 races last year after finishing second on a last-lap pass by Mladin in the Daytona opener.

Honda teammates Miguel Duhamel and Jake Zemke finished third and fourth on Hondas, Akira Yanagawa took fifth on a Kawasaki, with Jason DiSalvo sixth on a Yamaha.

The Daytona 200 By Honda takes the green light at 2:15 p.m. Duhamel won his third consecutive pole for the event, with the five-time Daytona winner's biggest challenger expected to be teammate Zemke. Duhamel lost a year ago when he went down with a 10-second lead.

Their biggest challengers in American motorcycle racing's showcase event are expected to be DiSalvo and Josh Hayes, the defending Formula Xtreme champion.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Stewart Rules at Daytona

James Stewart quickly jumped to the lead and pulled away, scoring his seventh AMA Supercross victory of the season, but his first in the Daytona Supercross By Honda.

Stewart spoiled the final Daytona Supercross race by NASCAR-bound Ricky Carmichael, who finished second in his penultimate two-wheel race, 13.571 seconds behind the winner.

While Honda rider Kyle Lewis got the hole shot, Stewart got off the line second in his Monster Kawasaki. He need only a few turns to take the lead, and from there on it was all open track until Stewart began disposing backmarkers, lapping all the way up to fifth place.

Carmichael was sixth in the early going on the Makita Suzuki. By the time he passed Kevin Windham for second on the fourth lap, Stewart had a 7.1-second lead.

Two-time Daytona winner Chad Reed also had a rough start. Seventh at the end of the first lap, Reed came back to take third, but 47.9 seconds behind Stewart and 34 seconds behind Carmichael.

Timmy Ferry finished fourth, with Windham the only other rider on the lead lap.

The AMA road racers return to action as Bike Week winds down on Saturday, with the Daytona 200 By Honda for the Formula Xtreme bikes, along with the AMA Superbikes in a 15-lap sprint.

Supercross Takes Center StageWhile the AMA road racer have a quiet day Friday, making final preparations for Saturday's Daytona 200 By Honda and Superbike races, attention focuses on the frontstretch trioval, which has been reshaped into a Supercross track. Tonight, five-time Daytona winner Ricky Carmichael bids farewell to two-wheel competition, while he hopes to return someday in NASCAR. Title hopefuls James Stewart and Chad Reed will be battling Carmichael for the top of the podium, coming off their get-together in last weekend's race.

Stage Set for Stewart, ReedJames Stewart and Chad Reed both pulled away to win their respective heat races to set the stage for tonight's showdown in the Daytona Supercross By Honda.

Ricky Carmichael, set for his final Daytona bike race, lined up next to Stewart in the first heat. However, he got bottled up at the start and dropped to around 20th. While Stewart cruised to a 27-second victory ahead of Ivan Tedesco, Carmichael stormed back to nearly catch third place Kevin Windham.

While Reed quickly took the lead early on in the second heat, Timmy Ferry managed to stay in contact throughout the race, finishing about four seconds behind. Eric Sorby was well back in third, followed by Michale Byrne and David Vuillemin.

Jacob Marsack won the last chance qualifier.

Ryan Sipes and Thomas Hahn won the heats for the Supercross Lites class. Atlanta winner Ryan Dungey missed the Lites feature. Dungey was involved in an accident at the start of his heat, and never got going. In the last chance qualifier, he was mired in the pack at the start, but worked his way back to finish fifth.

While the forecast called for the possibility of evening rain, conditions are perfect and a good crowd on hand for the event.

Reed Leads Practice The 'Big Three' led Friday's Supercross practice. Chad Reed was fastest on a Yamaha, 1:09.859, followed by James Stewart, 1:10.309, and Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael, 1:10.419. Timmy Ferry, Stewart's Kawasaki teammate, was the only rider to come close, 1:11.801, with another two seconds back to Honda riders David Vuillemin and Travis Preston, Suzuki's Ivan Tedesco and Yamaha's Grant Langston. Farther back, in 10th and 11th, were Honda hopefuls Kevin Windham and Davi Millsaps.

Millsaps was last year's Supercross Lites winner. Fastest in that class on Friday was Ryan Dungey, 1:12.684.

First order of business Friday had Stewart and Reed called to the AMA truck to discuss last weekend's race at St. Louis, where Reed drove into Stewart's bike while battling for the lead, opening the door for Carmichael to win.

While the Supercross teams were practicing, the road racers were hanging out, signing autographs while their teams made final adjustments to their bikes.

Rush Pulls Dirt Track ShockerA saying in AMA Flat Track racing is that Wednesday night's hero at Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium often winds up missing the show on Thursday. The tricky sandy quarter-mile track can change that much.

Mike Rush probably never heard that. After all, the 19-year-old Californian is only beginning his first full season in the Grand Nationals. Last year's Daytona event was his first at that level. He missed the show on Wednesday, then placed a quiet 12th on Thursday.

Wednesday night, Rush started the feature race in the second row, and quickly got up to seventh. While eventual winner Jake Johnson pulled away, Rush worked his way past some of the biggest names in flat track racing, including multi-time champion Chris Carr and 2006 GN titlist Kenny Coolbeth.

How would the youngster fare on Thursday?

Even better. Rush won his heat race, and then pulled away at the drop of the green flag to wire the field in the feature. While he won by about seven seconds, there was a reason he never let up his attack.

"I thought they were right on my tail for the whole race," Rush admitted. "I heard people back there. After I took the checker, I looked back, and I had a big back. I try not to look back, I try to focus ahead.

"I'm speechless," Rush said. "It's a dream come true winning the Daytona Short Track.

Thursday, March 8, 2007 Greetings from sunny Daytona Beach, Florida! Motorcycles of all types have converged on Daytona Beach, Florida, for the 2007 Daytona 200 Week By Honda.

Bike Week began in 1937, with the first running of the Daytona 200 on the beach-road course. The event moved to Daytona International Speedway in 1961, and the event has been growing ever since then.

Today, Bike Week also includes everything from paryting at the Boot Hill Saloon to cole slaw wrestling at the Cabbage Patch.

The centerpiece, though is the great racing.

The Daytona 200 By Honda is one of four AMA Superbike Championship races taking place at Daytona International Speedway. The schedule begins with Superstock and Supersport races on Thursday, with the 15-lap Superbike feature and the main event -- a 68 lap, 200 mile race for the Formula Xtreme bikes -- on Saturday.

Friday, attention at the speedway shifts to the frontstaight trioval, which has been transformed into a Supercross course. Friday night will be one of the last meetings of the "Big Three" -- with Ricky Carmichael making his penultimate appearance on two weeks, taking on James Stewart and Chad Reed.

Thursday, America's premier dirt track series, the AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship -- holds its second Grand National Singles race of the season at nearby Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium. Defending series champion Jake Johnson won Wednesday night's opener, quickly pulling away while an exciting battle developed for second.

Check in throughout the weekend for updates.

Spies Wins Superbike Pole One day after winning the pole for Thursday's Superstock race, Ben Spies ran a lap of 1:37.546 to capture the pole for Saturday's Superbike race.

Spies edged Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin by only .035 seconds. A year ago, Mladin pulled over the at the exit of the chicane on the final lap to let Spies take the lead, and then pulled a winning slingshot entering the trioval.

Since then, Spies has gotten the better of the six-time Superbike champ, winning 10 races to take the 2006 title.

"Hopefully, we can outthink everybody this year," Spies said. "It's Daytona and everybody wants to win, and I definitely want to win for me and my team. But this is a place where you can lose a championship, not win it, so we need to finish first of all. If we can win, that would be great."

Surprisingly, Spies pole was only one second faster than his Superstock pole, despite running a street-based bike in the lower class.

Duhamel Waits, Wins Daytona 200 PoleWhen the checkered flag waived for Thursday's qualifying session for the Daytona 200 By Honda, it was Yamaha rider Jason DiSalvo atop the scoring chart.br>
However, Canadian veteran Miguel Duhamel had yet to complete his final lap. When he crossed the stripe, he stopped the clock at 1:41.095, giving him his third consecutive Rolex Pole for America's most prestigious motorcycle race.

Duhamal became the first rider to win three consecutive Daytona 200 poles since Kenny Roberts did in 1980-82.

DiSalvo will start second, 1:41.440, and will be joined by two other Hondas on the front row. Erion Honda's Josh Hayes, the defending Formula Xtreme champion, starts third, 1:41.829, while defending Daytona 200 winner Jake Zemke starts fourth on the other factory Honda, 1:41.933.

Starting on the second row are Michael Barnes on an EMGO Suzuki, Chaz Davies on a Yamaha, Larry Pegram on a Ducati and Anthony Gobert on a Honda. Steve Rapp, riding for NBA great Michael Jordan, starts ninth on a Suzuki.

Spies, RL Hayden Flex MuscleBen Spies and Roger Lee Hayden found that being out front was the place to be, as they managed to avoid slingshots to win Thursday's AMA races.

Spies passed Geoff May with three laps remaining and pulled away to win the Superstock race on a Yoshimura Suzuki. May led much of the race on an EMGO Suzuki, with Spies and new Yamaha rider Ben Bostrom in two. Spies managed to break away from Bostrom when he made his move, and won by 2.861 seconds in the 13-lap race.

May held on for third, followed by the distanced Jordan Suzuki of Aaron Yates, who made a trip through the grass early in the race in his debut run for the NBA great.

Hayden and Monster Kawasaki teammate Ben Spies managed to pull away from the pack early in the race and ran 1-2 throughout the 22-lap Superstock feature. Hacking was expected to attempt a slingshot on the final lap in his debut run for the team, but the defending Superstock and Supersport champion bobbled coming out of the infield and could not mount a challenge. Hayden muscled away to win by .368 seconds.

Tommy Hayden, older brother of the winner, took third in his first ride aboard a Yoshimura Suzuki. The finishing podium was identical to this race a year ago.

Michael Barnes was fourth for EMGO Suzuki, edging the Erion Honda of Josh Hayes at the stripe.
Posted: 3/8/2007 11:38:00 AM
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