Daytona 200

[No actual spoilers below]

Well, the last few laps were exciting, but overall I'd have to say...
what a fucking disaster!

For me, running under the lights really didn't add anything at all to
the show. We've already had MotoGP and F1 under the lights and the
lighting at Daytona just didn't seem quite as impressive for some
reason.

The rolling start was almost as exciting as a box of rocks. I'd say
it was far more of a loss than a gain for the show. I suppose the one
thing it did accomplish was to make turn 1 safer since the riders were
more spread out behind the car than they would have been on the grid.

The "safety" car is a total disaster too. They don't need it or use
it anywhere else in the world of motorcycle racing, but those Daytona
experts know better. The use of the safety car was directly
responsible for one crash with a red flag and several more near
crashes.

Naturally, running under the lights means one more thing that can
fail. And they did. And the safety car has to come out while they
work on the lights.

Then they wave the race leader by the safety car and have to waste
even more laps trying to get that straightened out. The problem is
made worse for motorcycles because they don't use radios or have a way
to communicate complex information to the riders. I was wondering if
we were going to finish the race under yellow as is common in NASCAR.

The new competition number system is another disaster. Even the
announcers are calling riders by the wrong name because they lost
their usual number this year. In a way I'm glad they let both Ben and
Jake use #1 though. It wasn't bad since the two bikes are so easy to
differentiate.

Then there's the rules confusion. Apparently they changed the
starting procedure and some riders such as Tommy Hayden don't
understand what the new procedure is even after reading the rulebook.
Danny Eslick qualified second for the 200 and wasn't even sure where
that put him on the grid, "It's good for the ... Buell to be on the
front row, or however they're doing it." According to Soup there was
a tussle in the riders meeting but they didn't say what it was about.
All this hints at the lack of clear communication coming from the new
regime.

Finally, Hodgson and Bostrom both point out that a Superpole is only
interesting as a live event. You need to watch it without already
knowing the outcome, and just seeing highlights on the TV show won't
cut it either. Admittedly, I've only seen WSBK Superpole two or three
times in total and never found it to be all that interesting.

I'm not so sure I'll even watch the ASB race in two weeks since I
already know how it plays out. I can avoid the Motorcycle websites
and spoilers until Tuesday when necessary, but two weeks? No way!

 

But, but, it's just like NASCAR, it's got to be more exciting that
way

Agreed, and by the looks of it caused the worst injury of the event.

I'm not so sure they failed. It happen at a convenient time to bunch
everyone back up for a run to the finish. There seemed to be plenty
of light despite the two banks going out. It was never mentioned why
they went out. I assume they got put back on, but there was never any
mention of that either. Guess it got overlooked with all the
excitement of the pace car screw up and red flag.

They would have finished under the yellow if they hadn't red flagged
it. Then they add insult to injury when they get going under the
green for the last laps only to cut away to run four or five adds that
we had already seen a few times in the last hour.

It's all part of the plan. DMG wants that class to go away. ASB
makes their chosen class look slow.

 

Totaly stupid race format

I wonder how the potographers dealt with the nighttime shots, the
pictures in the local Daytona paper online sucked.

Live timing got stuck on lap 37 for 10-15 minutes, plus ended at lap 55
(2 laps missing?)

Pace car bullshit made that race just as boring as the Rolex.

They broke for commercials with 4 to go via what the announcer said.

Oh well in 2 weeks real sports car racing starts and the TT is less than
3 months away + Northwest 200.

 

Reading the press conference transcript on Superbikeplanet, it felt like
race control didn't have a clue what was going on half the time.

Was talking to another race fan yesterday about all this. The US is such
a strange mixture looking from the outside. It can produce some of the
best stuff in the world (if you're prepared to pay for it) And it can be
extraordinarily professional. But at other times, stuff is built down to
lowest common denominator and calling the organisation chaotic is an
understatement. And unfortunately the AMA, Daytona and US bike racing
seems to fall in the second camp. There's been just too many instances
of flat out amateurish chaos over the last 20 years for anyone to take
it seriously any more.

On pace cars, BSB has been using a pace car for the last 5-8 years. It
works and everyone understands it. They put a fast car driven
aggressively out between the leader and the tail-ender. The car has
flashing lights on it that are turned off during the lap when it comes
in so the riders know when the race is about to start again. But the
tracks and races are short enough that there's usually a clear gap
between first and last. From a spectator's point of view it's better
than a restart (or three) but it does tend to screw up the result
especially if somebody has made a clear break or is trying to fight back
though the field.

 

Safety car is always a disaster. Every single time it seems. Two
problems with the 200. It's the first race of the season, and it's the
only one of its kind. So it always plays out as if these guys have never
run a race in their life. There always seems to be some CF that happens.
I don't understand it.

But, but BUT they're SUPPOSED to have radios. That's supposed to be one
of the Big Changes. The change that brings the AMA in to the early 20th
century.

Well, speaking of Eslick...

I don't want to disparage him or his team. I don't really want to
disparage the Buell, but...

WTF was a Buell doing on the front row? If the Buell is doing that well
out the gate with Eslick on it, then that bike is going to be trouble.

Superpole is fun AT THE TRACK, personally. NASCAR (when I saw it)
effectively did SuperPole for its qualifying. Even it was mildly
interesting at the track.

I watched it "live" on the web.

Yea 2 weeks is a corker. What a joke.

For a minute there, I had almost positive thoughts on the TV show.

See, in 2 weeks, they'll be out here in Fontana. And the (according to
the Schedule), they're going to run DSB and ASB on Sat, and then again
on Sunday. 2 races each day. (well I think the kid show runs too
sometime, I really don't care.)

Anyway, my thinking was "Ya know, if they were smart, they COULD
broadcast the 2 SAT races ON Saturday night, and we'd be stuck waiting a
week for Sundays. But, truth, they can't do any reasonable coverage of
Daytona and do the 2 Sat races, even in a 3hr show unless they just
butcher everything. So, once I realized that, I knew I hadn't lost my
ground. SNAFU maintained control.

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

It WAS NASCAR (save, you know, for the TV coverage). All it was missing
was Ben doing backflips off his Yamaha. How much more NASCAR can you get
than this?

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

The pictures on the TV sucked. They were out of focus half the time.
Actually, the real problem was the DIRECTION. I dunno who directed the
show but they were great at showing unimportant stuff on the TV.

For example, when they came back from break to a full course yellow,
what did we see? Hayes "in traffic" and the booth chatting up how
horrible it was. Took them a good several minutes to tell us they were
even under yellow. Now, if they, you know, came back from break showing
the safety car, well we'd probably get a clue as spectators.

Speed does that with WSB too. They somehow think that nobody is going
anywhere that late in the race.

The only highlight of the night were the colored lights on the Yamahas.
Those looked pretty cool. Other than that, meh.

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

Safety cars are used in World Endurance as well; *two* cars come on to
the track at the same time, separated by half a lap. This divides the
field (which can be up to 64 bikes) into two groups, which seems more
manageable than having one big pack. Riders complain about getting
stuck behind the "wrong" car sometimes, but by and large it works
well.

World Endurance has also been running night races for a long time,
with all the circuits at least partially lit. In ten years of
attending every race in the championship, I've never known there to be
a lighting problem.

 

Has Speed shown the Philip Island WSB and WSS yet? Is it ok if I tell
you the results? [1]
































[1]All three races were great and an American won one of them.

 

Yea, we got Race 1 on Sunday, and Race 2 and WSS on Tuesday.

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

Oh, we're perfectly capable of screwing everything up too. Just wait
till the Olympics. The marching band will be perfect, everything else
will be fairly flaky.

I don't know. Trying to keep a program on schedule with 3 red flags
sucks as well. I've been at Brands when the WSS race took 3 goes (after
Chambon deliberately lay on the track, allegedly). Any serious break in
the program messes everyone up as well. At Cadwell last year when there
was a 45 minute break while they brought two ambulance helicopters in.
On balance a pace car probably is preferable to a red flag but it should
only be used when the alternative is a red flag.

As for the lighting at Daytona, there was a fire, right? Or was that
imaginary?

 

Or should most of incidents be taken care of with a stationary or
waving yellow in the affected turn, resulting in little or no change
in the spacing of the field? The first time the pace car was brought
out it was for a single bike down with rider up and the bike off the
track. The general rule at national races (including Daytona) used to
be that if the bike was off the track a stationary yellow was all that
was put out. Corner workers know when they are in a crash zone and
keep an eye on what is coming at them.

Only some of the lights in the chicane went out. There were still
enough on to keep racing while they got them all back on. At most it
warrented a waving yellow to prevent passing in that area.

The red flag only came out due to the crash caused by bringing out the
pace car. If the pace car wasn't used the race could have run the
full distance without stopping it. With a pace car they use it in
situations that don't require it because they see it as less of an
interruption than stopping the race, and having the bennefit of
bunching the field back up.

 

Just got back from clusterfuk '09, so gimmee a little while to kick
this monumental hangover...

 

To be fair, I think his point was that I mistakenly said that pace
cars aren't used in motorcycle racing anywhere else in the world.
Julian and Martin both pointed out two separate venues where they are.
I stand corrected.

However, I think it's still safe to say that a pace car shouldn't be
used in a one-off event of a larger series. All the unique
characteristics of Daytona make it the most confusing and downright
unsafe event of the year. It also seems to be the biggest clusterfuck
event of the year when it comes to race direction and procedures.

 

So they're running ASB and DSB on both days? This means we *should*
be getting the Saturday races on Saturday evening throughout the
season but the Sunday races will always be one-week delayed. And
frankly, we don't even know yet that they'll be able to get the
Saturday races edited in time for the Saturday evening show so they
might both be delayed a week. Actually, come to think of it they
couldn't really show all four races plus tiny-tot highlights in one
show (plus exciting special guests and late-breaking insider news!!!!)
They will have to split the Saturday and Sunday races between two
shows, which works out I guess since they intentionally avoided any
back-to-back race weekends on the schedule.

Man this sucks! I've never really cared about races being shown live,
with all the problems that entails, but I've always wanted them shown
same-day or at least same-weekend. I fail to see how this "ground
breaking" new Saturday night show with its week+ delayed races is
doing *anything* at all positive for the sport.

 

Julian Bond posits:

Yebut. I think AMA is different in that the leaders are lapping
people after not very many laps, even at Daytona.. So the clear
break isn't so clear by lap 30 something as happened this time.
There are all these backmarkers that the pace car has to figure
out.

Are they going to use the pace car all year? If so I can't wait for
Mid-Ohio where the 10th place guy will get lapped twice minimum.
Will give the new DMG motto - "clusterfucks backwards R us"


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 

LOL!

I really thought the Aprilia RSVs would be faster. I guess the most
notable thing was that the CBR600s really weren't competitive. And I did
have to laugh at the same Buell model being up there in both ASB and
DSB.

 

Or rather, Zemke got screwed by all the messing about.
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Mar/090308a.htm

 

(Only odd because I rode this year and was waaay too occupied with one
of the female persuasion..)

Speedweek 09 started out shakey, had a few "bright spots" and ended
with a bang, though however you viewed the events the weather was as if
the chamber of commerce ordered it up, nothing short of spectacular,
55-75 and not a cloud, much less a rain filled one, to be found..

A cold front and threat of tornadoes caused the Savannah, Ga. Hot-shoe
to be cancelled and we understood that, what I couldn't was why the
B'ville "Shoe" was cancelled the following day(Sunday) and given it has
always been very well attended I'm still at a loss as to why. The
Memorial Stadium Shortrack's were again the class of the weeknights,
well run and pretty much sold out, hat's off to "Wiley" and Kopp for a
couple of great efforts..

At the Speedway the Superpoles were pretty cool and actually offered a
little drama, though for an almost non-existent crowd and if I
understand it correctly they won't show up on TV for a couple of
weeks.(WTF is that all about?)
The ASB race was one of the closest big bike races (brand wise) in some
time, though Mat still found a way. Damn good race, just waaaay too
short. He may have been on last years bike, but Pegram, and to some
extent Hodgy, served notice that things may be a little tougher this
year for Suz and his "Aussieness." BTW, the Duc is a F'ing rocket-ship
and had everybody totally covered in the traps.

The 200 was, for the lack of a better description, a clusterfuk, that
even running under the lights didn't, or couldn't hide, though TBH it
did have a fair amount of drama, but when Eslick's Buell/Rotax/H-D went
south it seemed like the whole race went with it. Guys started running
into each other, passing under caution, you name it and it probably
happened somewhere. Obviously, "somebody's" weren't paying attention to
caution lights, though the "safety car" screw-up and lights burning out
damn sure didn't help.
To me, the format Proracing's uses at DIS needs to be re-thought, why
doesn't ASB do the 200? At one time tires were an issue and given the
speed at DIS a critical one too, but with night racing on production
equipment, why the f*ck not? Another qualm I have is why so many bikes?
There had to be 70, or so and a lot of those guys just run this one
race so they don't have a bunch of experience, nor are they likely to
ever get much of DMG's Nasty Car ways, so why? Make no mistake DIS and
ProRacing dodged a couple huge bullets Friday night in the form of
600cc rockets that came unbelievably close to making the 200 more like
pavement bowling than a motorcycle race. No one needs that shit, trim
and educate the field!

SX was awesome and while it's not my chosen brand of M/C racing I can
not diminish it's impact and how well they put on the show. Very well
done and Kudos' to Reed for an outstanding performance running down
J-Law for the W, as well as my boy Davi for snatching third..

I had lil' Red in tow this year and broke all kinds of 'Tona rules, we
rode and stayed there and yes, actually went downtown,(just once;-)
sorta all the stuff I learned a long time ago that's not really in your
best interest to do and while we had a good time and no one we knew
went to jail I'm sorry to report, Daytona, east of the speedway is
still comes off like a sleazy shithole, sorta' like a cross between a
rodeo and Thunderdome with some blue-hairs thrown in for sport..

A week of much needed (liver) rest and we're off to Gatorland for the
Nationals, C'ya there...

 

Still changing the results:

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=35828


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.