Race Report

So we show up in Daytona Beach, FL about as prepared as we can expect to be. Daytona is one of those places though – where you just never really know how prepared you actually are. We were to find out.

We showed up for the CCS races the weekend prior to the AMA weekend to get the bikes sorted out and remind ourselves what this track looks like at speed. The CCS races went off fairly well. We had a few mechanical issues, and a few good rides, and we were getting ourselves fairly set up for the big show.

Our typical three day weekend starts on Friday and ends on Sunday, but because of coordination between the AMA Flat Track, AMA Supercross, and AMA Pro Roadracing events we run a pretty strange schedule at Daytona for the 200. We get going on Wednesday and finish up on Friday night with the first ever Daytona 200 to be held at night under the lights.

First practice on Wednesday morning we have an issue with our water pump seal that puts me out on the very first lap. Due to the length of time it takes to change one of these things out on the Buell the guys just band-aided it together in hopes that it would hold for the only evening practice we’d get all week later that night. It didn’t. It went out again on the first lap of that practice as well. The engine will need to be swapped out for a brand new one at this point. One that had never even been started yet, and needed a proper break-in, and I only get a 20 minute qualifying session first thing the next morning. So I’ve got to go into the only 20 minutes that counts, down 2.5 hours practice time to everyone else, and have to use up half that time breaking in the engine without even being able to hold it open on the banking! I was about as excited about this idea as the guys were about staying up all night to change the bike over to the new engine! The guys were troopers though, and got it done and ready for me the next morning.

I tooled around for a few laps, came in to let the engine cool a bit, put the tires on the warmers, got a drink of water in me…… all in prep for trying to set a fast time near the end of my session. Based on our practice times they take the fastest half of the entries and have them qualify together and same for the slower group. Of course I was in the slower group since I hadn’t turned a lap in practice. I only got two flying laps in before the chequered flag came out, and both of those laps I had to follow someone through “the kink”, which is critical to a fast lap. I wasn’t stoked about it, but thankfully I qualified in 40th position out of 80. The reason that is good is because they take the first 40 qualifiers and start them behind the pace car, then 15 seconds behind all of that they take the next 40 guys and have them start behind a different pace car. For obvious reasons you want to be in with the first group.

Since it was hot out on race day I couldn’t practice with the bike during warm-up. We’d had too many cooling related issues over the course of the week that we didn’t want to push it before the 200, especially considering that the race was going to be held at night when the temperatures should be much cooler. So that left me starting the 200 with less that 10 laps total all weekend on the bike. On top of that, I hadn’t practiced at all at night! I’ve never felt so unprepared going into an AMA National event before.

Well here we are. We’re on the grid for the Daytona 200 on Friday night in front of a great crowd. We’ve practiced pit stops 100 times and the crew is SOLID! We can do a full tank of fuel and a rear tire in about 17 seconds. Although I feel anything but practiced up, I’m jazzed for a good long race that’ll make the weak drop off the tail end of the herd. Although I only qualified 40th out of 80, I had high expectations. So much so that while standing on the grid all I could think about was going around the outside of the group in front of me and setting chase after the next.

When they finally turned us loose that exact thing happened. I immediately began slicing through the pack and gaining positions hand over fist. Problem is though, that what I use for a reference point for where I apply the brakes into the 175mph first turn is completely invisible at night (right around this time I was wishing I’d had a little of that night time practice). I went shooting off the end of the front straightaway unable to make the turn with the speed I was carrying. I went down several positions while getting the bike back onto the racing surface, but my drive wasn’t hurt in the least.

For some reason my radio wasn’t working so I had no communication with the pit crew. However, I knew the basic plan of what we would do for pit stops between myself and my teammate Josh Bryan. The plan was whoever was in the lead would pit on or around lap 19 as that was the ideal window. When coming off of NASCAR turn 4 you can take a look up to the left to see the tower that tells what lap you’re on, as well as a leader board for the top 15 positions. I decided to pit on lap 20 as it would give the guys an extra lap to get regrouped after pitting Josh up. Plus, I was in an epic battle with a few riders and really didn’t want to end it that early.

As I expected, our pit stop was better than most and when I re-entered the track we’d picked up several positions. It was really strange getting used to the bike after the pit stop. I had shredded up my rear tire pretty bad working my way up through the field. For the last 4 laps or so I had no grip on the left side of the rear tire, but the bike turned and stopped fairly well due to the lack of fuel. After the pit stop everywhere the front used to hook up it was pushing due to the full fuel load, and everywhere the rear tire was spinning it was gripping because we had a fresh one on. It took me at least 4 or 5 corners to get it figured out.

Right around 2/3rds distance (lap 36 or so) I was really in a groove. My heart rate was stabilized, the bike wasn’t surprising me anymore (since I’d now put in about 500% of the laps I’d turned previously!), and I was looking forward to our second pit stop and making the last leg to the finish. Unfortunately the pace car came out because the lights had malfunctioned in a section of the track. This is where everything goes a little crazy. I pitted after a couple laps of full course caution. I re-entered the track with about 8 or 10 other guys all hurrying to catch back up to the pace car. We blasted through the infield, and were tapped going around NASCAR turn 2 headed for the chicane. You could see the tail lights of the bikes behind the pace car way ahead, but there was no way to tell how fast they were travelling. I started slowing down, but had no idea they were nearly all standing still. All of us in our group of 8 or 100 were soon all carrying our rear tires in the air hurdling towards the unsuspecting nearly stopped riders. I soon realized I wasn’t going to stop before the group and began looking for a hole to blast into the group. Well, my fellow competitors were looking to do the same and the hole I was eyeing up filled up. Onto the next one – it filled up too. I ended up finding enough room to get my bike stopped, and so did the riders around me. However, another bike was coming in from behind with much more speed. He flew into the pack near the wall and clipped Tommy Aquino from behind. Tommy was spun off of his bike and into the chain link fence. His bike spun across the asphalt in front of me. Nobody was seriously hurt, but they stopped the race to regroup us all.

This stoppage created a scoring fiasco that unfortunately the 2009 Daytona 200 will probably always be remembered for. Although they originally had my scoring messed up, I ended up getting lucky. They had me down a lap that I wasn’t down, and restarted me well back in the pack. When they started us up again we only ran for about 2 or 3 laps before the pace car was out again. All this time behind the pace car negated any advantage one crew might have had over another in their pit stops. Everybody had all the time in the world to conduct their pit stops, which is really too bad as I feel that was one of our stronger points.

After it was all said and done it ended up being about a 7 or 8 lap sprint to the finish. They had me down that extra lap so when we took the flag I was scored as being in 34th position, and my teammate Josh in 36th. We immediately talked our way past the security guy to get up to timing and scoring to voice our concern over our positions. Just due to the circumstances I was credited back my lap but Josh wasn’t. I guess it was due to the lap that he pitted on, and his location in relation to the leader. Basically he went down a lap when he pitted, but I didn’t as the leader’s had already pitted prior to me. It all would have worked out in the end if the race wasn’t stopped, but because they backed up the scoring a couple laps many competitors got screwed.

After 4 different versions of the results I finally ended up in 19th position, but apparently I’m getting some form of point penalty as I guess I passed someone during one of the caution laps. I honestly am completely unaware of this. I must have passed someone after the course had gone into caution, but before I realized we were under caution. That’s the only thing I can think of that might have happened. I could be upset about it, but I’m just glad I got my lap back, and should be happy I didn’t end up with the misfortune that many had.

Overall I’d say that the race was a tremendous success from Team Latus Racing’s perspective. Given what we were up against between no practice laps and an engine/cooling package that had proved to be anything but rock solid, to finish up the 200 running strong and in the top 20 is a tremendous feat. I’m proud of the efforts of our team, and am happy to report that my confidence in the bike, my riding, and the incredible talents of our crew has soared over the last couple weeks.

I know the boys are hard at getting things ready for the next round here next week at California Speedway in East L.A. I’m excited for the races, and can’t wait to catch back up with the guys. We’re going to have a really good race, and an even better season. Stay tuned.



Update: Alan Schmidt was DQ'd from the Daytona 200 for allegedly passing during a caution lap.