Horror_Professional Posted February 7 Posted February 7 The Daytona 200 is an annual motorcycle road racing competition held in early spring at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.[1] The 200-mile (320 km) race was founded in 1937 when it was sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA).[2] The original course used the beach itself before moving to a paved closed circuit in 1961. The Daytona 200 reached its zenith of worldwide po[CENSORED]rity in the 1970s when the race attracted the largest crowds of any AMA race along with some of the top rated international motorcycle racers.[3][4][5] The race is currently promoted by MotoAmerica and run in their middleweight Supersport Class. The race is typically held in early March. As motorcycle engine technology transitioned from the 60 horsepower four-stroke motorcycles of the 1960s, to the 100 horsepower two-stroke motorcycles of the 1970s, it became apparent that motorcycle tire technology was lagging behind engine performance on the track's banking.[17] In an effort to slow the fastest bikes down and save on tire wear, a chicane was added in 1973 at the end of the Daytona back straight.[18] The dangers that motorcycle racers were exposed to was highlighted in 1975 when a documentary crew were filming as Barry Sheene crashed on the banked track at over 170 mph when his rear tire failed.[17] As speeds continued to increase, organizers eventually moved away from high powered Grand Prix-style motorcycles to highly modified production motorcycles known as Superbikes in 1985, which led to a global trend of Superbike racing that by 1988 would lead to the development of an FIM-sanctioned Superbike World Championship in 1988.[3] The loss of Grand Prix machinery meant that fewer international competitors were interested in entering the race and, began a slow decline in the event's prestige.[5][17] By the late 1990s, even the production based Superbikes were overheating the tires on the banking.[19] To keep Superbikes in the Daytona 200, the West Banking was eliminated to reduce the tire issues that had been plaguing the motorcycles.[19] However, the owners of Daytona International Speedway were unsatisfied with the banking being omitted from the course so, a compromise was reached after the 2004 season reducing the size and power of the bikes by going to a Supersport-based class (known as "AMA Formula Xtreme"), and putting both bankings back into the race course.[19] The Supersport class race kept the 200 miles (320 km) distance, but the Superbike race was converted to a standard 100 kilometers (62 mi) round of the national championship. In 2009, the Supersport class for this was renamed AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike Championship.[20][21] The changes left spectators confused as to why the most powerful motorcycles were replaced by a lesser class in the premier Daytona race.[19] The changes also meant that the top factory backed riders would be excluded from the race.[21] The race's future was clouded with the circuit's inability to negotiate with the Dorna-aligned Wayne Rainey KRAVE organization that organizes the MotoAmerica motorcycle racing series in the United States beginning in 2015 when MotoAmerica decided not to place Daytona on the 2015 schedule, considerably important since Daytona's 200 mile format was going against the grain of typical 110-km (68 mile) races that are typical of most Superbike races in the world, as MotoAmerica's future plans to adopt the Spanish CEV championship format of FIM Moto3 and Moto2 classes (the Spanish championship is also a Dorna-promoted championship, and most recent riders come from CEV to Moto3), went against the traditions of American motorcycle racing. On December 1, 2014, American Sportbike Racing Association, parent company of Championship Cup Series (CCS), which sanctions the Fall Cycle Scene autumn events at Daytona, agreed to sanction the Daytona 200 with Supersport motorcycles racing 57 laps on the full motorcycle layout.[22][23] Steve Rapp's 2007 victory was the first win for Kawasaki since 1995 and the first win for a privateer rider since John Ashmead won in 1989.[24] The race was cancelled in 2020 for the first time since World War II because of the COVID-19 pandemic after the Rudy Gobert incident took place during the Wednesday of the race meeting, and officials moved the entire race meeting to Biketoberfest with the Fall Cycle Scene at the Speedway. When the city cancelled Biketoberfest, the feature was cancelled, but not the remainder of the fall race meeting. Conducted despite the pandemic, the 2021 race saw a thrilling finish line victory by rising star, American Brandon Paasch. Coming out of the final pit stop six seconds behind race leader Sean Dylan Kelly, Paasch made a thrilling charge to catch the leader, with a daring pass at the line to win by .03 second. For the 2022 edition, MotoAmerica replaced ASRA as the sanctioning body, with the race becoming a non-points race under updated Supersport rules. The race has been one of the toughest in American motorcycling because of its endurance-like qualities of pit stops for tires and fuel, and safety car periods, and nine FIM world champions, including seven 500cc/MotoGP World Champions—six Americans and one Italian—have won the race. Of recent American world champions, only Kenny Roberts Jr. did not win the Daytona 200. Finnish and Venezuelan FIM world champions in smaller classes have also won the 200. Scott Russell and Miguel Duhamel are tied for most Daytona 200 wins at five each. Russell, known by the nickname "Mr. Daytona"[25] because of his achievements at the famed track, won all his Daytona races in the Superbike class (750-1000cc). Duhamel's fifth victory came in the Supersport-based classes beginning in 2005.[26. https://www.pakwheels.com/used-bikes/200cc-bikes/642202 Quote
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