A Long Day at the Races

Yesterday was the 70th running of the Daytona 200 (mile) motorcycle race. It's the start of the American Motorcycle Association 2011 championship series and apparently the grandaddy of bike races back from the days of racing on the beach. Truthfully, we went to see the famed Daytona Speedway more than to see the races but it was quite an education in this speed sport. Some observations:

We arrived at just after 9 a.m., thinking we had to be early to get a good seat for the 1:15 main event. No need --- the capacity of the Speedway is over 160,000 and my guess is only 5,000 attended the preliminary races and at most 10,000 for the main event. Very odd considering over 700,000 are in town for Bike Week. Does that mean the races are very separate from the bikers?

Similarly, I would say the bikes in town are 99% Harley-Davidsons but the bikes racing were 1% Harleys at best. Built for comfort and not for speed? The winning racers were on Yamahas, Suzukis, and Ducatis.

Two Canadian drivers were mentioned. One from Calgary in a 15-lap preliminary, one from Burlington in the 200. Others that did well were from Colombia, Italy, the U.K. and Australia.

The main event was described as one of the wildest and strangest in the 70 years. Originally scheduled for 57 laps, the race was stopped twice. In the first red flag there was a 2-hour delay as every bike was ordered to change their front tire due to failure on one of them. The other red flag came just after the restart when 3 bikers collided and went down, causing oil spill.

Two cinderella stories. The driver of one team only started with them in January, and with him driving it was the first time in 50 years that an unsponsored team took the pole position. But he then placed second (by 0.0122 seconds)to a Ducati --- the first win for Ducati in the 70 years of the event! Turns out the Ducati was able to change engines during the 2-hour delay for tires.

Overall we were weary from the 8 hours of racing, delays, and sun at Daytona, even though the main race had been shortened from 57 laps to a historic low of 42. The speedway is gigantic, but an intoxicating thrill was standing within 10 feet of bikes whizzing by at 180 mph!