Results from Daytona 200

Kurtis didn't slam on the brakes, he rolled off (just as he was supposed to), then Bonehead Hacking rammed him and Yates. Yamaha needs to get rid of that joker. I hope Aaron is OK. Congratulations to Kurtis for finishing his first 200 in 3rd with a busted up hand and an ill handling machine.



Speaking of the RC, that thing has some serious steam. Did you notice how Miguel was toying with Mladin? He let Matt around him than ran him down on the front straight. The Suzuki is a great bike, but Honda has really got its ponies in the stable now. Sad that Miguel biffed it out of the race. He was very, very likely to have won it.



As for Russell, I am sorry to see that happen and I hope that he and the other two riders are OK. Still, he really screwed up. One of the first things you learn in roadracing is if you have a problem, DO NOT pull off the track. Rather, put your hand up and wave it, signifying the problem. People will find their way around you. Scott swerved left and caused the crash. Really strange to see such an experienced rider make that sort of mistake. I hope he is not too badly beaten up.



Lastly, endless kudos to Eric Bostrom for wringing that old Kawasaki's neck to a 2nd place finish. On a competitive bike, Eric could easily take the championship. Speaking of which, I heard a rumor about a Kawasaki liter twin in the works.

Just a few points ....

Uh, first of all -- where've you been? Yamaha DID get rid of Jamie Hacking. He was on a Suzuki.

Secondly, Scott Russell did not "swerve left" -- his engine died and he was trying to get off the track to the rider's RIGHT, which was the closest edge to the track.

Thirdly, I don't know what Okie racing organization you learned in, but I was taught to get out of the racing line and get my hand up. The starting grid is ALL racing line. Because he was close to the edge of the track anyway, it made sense to me. Dean Mizdal is a veteran racer (in fact I used to race against him back in the late 80's on RZ350s in the AFM)and I have to believe his vision was simply obscured in some way in order for him to tag Russell like that.

I am on record as being of the opinion that Russell is a loudmouth egomaniac whose time has passed. Even so, I wouldn't wish that incident (I shudder remembering Bubba Shobert's career-ending collision with Kevin McGhee) on anyone. I sincerely hope his injuries are not severe.

Give ESPN a break ....

I originally thought the same thing about the race coverage from ESPN2.

Then I realized that this race was set up to be televised 4 hours after it's start time -- roughly 2 hours after the end of the race. In reality, the race start was delayed 45 minutes to begin with, and because of all of the restarts and carnage, the race was actually still running when ESPN begain it's "taped" coveage. I'm not a television producer, and I'm sure they're paid well enough to need to be able to handle this situation, but I don't imagine it was a whole lot of fun to have to deal with. You've got a crew who expects to be editing a complete race and have two hours to do it, then they're faced with a situation of editing an event that is still unfolding, with no time cushion whatsoever.

I agree it wasn't the best sports broadcast I've ever witnessed. As for your tirade against Daytona, well, it IS the single biggest motorcycle race in the world, like it or not, and it's not going away. And while I am not a big NASCAR fan, there is real skill and strategy involved, far more than most people realize.

I think ESPN2 did a pretty good job with all the delays. Too many commercials though.



As far as I'm concerned, as long as Dave "cannon fodder" Despain, and that constantly bewildered Larry Maiers are not on the program, it is a class presentation.



Gobert's incident looked scary...



Mladin and Suzuki look erect and ready for the season.

I got a hold of the race on tape. I watched the ESPN2 slow-mo on my vcr on slow-mo and watched the crashes happen in ultra-slow-mo. Anyway, they were too blurry to see exactly who crashed and who did not. I am getting mixed reports both online and from the commentators on ESPN2 (and the ESPN2 commentators have been known to be quite inaccurate at times with names and bike models.. like when they called the YZF750 an FZR750, etc..etc..). Anyway, I'm not sure but from what I can tell from the blurry images, it looked like it wasn't actually John Pearson who plowed into Russell, but someone else.. I think John was behind that guy and ended up low-siding his GSXR after clipping another downed bike sliding across the grid. Not too sure though as everything was so blurry. Anyway, Scott didn't do the wise thing by making himself wider on the grid when his bike stalled on him. The narrower he makes himself the better.. There is no way he could have made it off the track perpindicular to the racing line at turtle speed and not expect to get hit! Regardless though, I hope they all recover quickly!