MotoAmerica: Race Results From The Restarted 81st Daytona 200 – Roadracing World Magazine
KurveyGirl.com brings you the results of this weekend’s events.
Editorial Note: The Daytona 200 was red flagged on lap 53 of 57 scheduled laps. MotoAmerica officials decided to run a 10-lap restart, resulting in a race distance of 62 laps, or 217.52 miles.
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More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Herrin Wins 81st Running Of The Daytona 200
Thirteen Years Later, Josh Herrin Wins The Great American Motorcycle Race For The Second Time
DAYTONA, FL (March 11, 2023) – Thirteen years ago, a young Josh Herrin won the Daytona 200. Unfortunately, back then it was the pole sitter who was awarded the Rolex and Herrin didn’t start the race from pole. Thus, no Rolex. When it changed to the race winner getting the Rolex, Herrin started getting poles but not wins. Today he got it right, winning the 81st running of the Daytona 200, sponsored in part by Pirelli and Bridgestone, and earning his second 200 victory. And this time he got his Rolex.
The 13 years between wins for Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Herrin is the longest gap between Daytona wins in the history of the race. The previous longest timespan between wins was seven years for Eddie Lawson, who won the race in 1986 and not again until 1993.
Herrin was at or near the front of the lead pack for the duration of the 200 and with nine laps to go it looked like a two-rider shootout between Herrin and his Ducati Panigale V2 and the Suzuki GSX-R750 of Mission M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante. Those two had seemingly broken the spirit of the rest and there was a gap back to third-placed Josh Hayes and the Squid Hunter Racing Yamaha YZF-R6.
A lap later, however, and Escalante was on the ground in turn one and out of the race after the pair came together. That left Herrin alone at the front, but with five laps to go the red flag came out on the 52nd lap when Teagg Hobbs and Jason Waters crashed together in the International Horseshoe.
The Daytona 200 rulebook states: “For the Daytona 200, the number of laps of the second race will be the number of laps required to complete the original race distance of fifty-seven (57) laps but shall not be less than ten (10) laps.” Thus, the race would end up being 62 laps and 217.62 miles.
Herrin, meanwhile, had been penalized six spots on the grid of the restart because of his altercation with Escalante.
The 10-lap sprint after the restart featured a horde of seven riders at the front, but it was Herrin at the pointy end when it mattered as he won the drafting war to beat Hayes by .070 of a second. Attack Performance Yamaha’s Cameron Petersen was third, .140 behind, for a complete turnaround of how his day had gone with a clutch issue thwarting his progress in the early stages of the race. The clutch problem translated to Petersen being forced to pit three times, but he didn’t give up and it paid dividends at the completion of the 10-lap sprint.
Fourth place went to Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim, who would later protest the results believing that Petersen didn’t actually finish third. His protest was denied. Gillim had fought back after crashing with 20 laps to go and remounting.
Celtic/Tytlers Cycle/TSE Racing’s PJ Jacobsen finished fifth and just .439 of a second behind Herrin. Jacobsen also got new life thanks to the restart after crashing and remounting on the 31st lap.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Hobbs was sixth after his team rebuilt his crashed bike. Disrupt Racing’s Geoff May, TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick, TSE/Truelove Brothers Racing’s Matt Truelove and Farrell Performance’s Jason Farrell rounded out the top 10.
Two-time and defending Daytona 200 winner Brandon Paasch was 12th after being penalized 15 seconds at the end of the race for a pit lane speed violation. Biothermal/Blake Davis Racing’s Blake Davis suffered a similar fate and was dropped to 11th in the final standings. Both riders raced at the front of the pack in the restarted portion of the race, but their penalties were applied at the completion of the race, per the rulebook.
Herrin’s victory on the Ducati Panigale V2 was the Italian marque’s second win in the 200 with Jason DiSalvo winning on a Team Latus Ducati 848 EVO.
Daytona 200 Quotes
Josh Herrin – Winner
“We were on I think after the final pitstop, and I had been seeing just different spots that I could overtake if I needed to,” Herrin explained of his run-in with Richie Escalante. “His bike was a missile, especially the first banking. I had to get a really good run out to get him into the chicane because he was really good coming out of the chicane. So, in my head I’m thinking, ‘All right, I’m going to struggle to do it if he puts in a good lap.’ That was one of the spots where I thought would be a possibility and it would kind of throw him off of his rhythm. With the last however many laps to go, I just saw an opening and wanted to try it. As far as I was concerned, I was there and had the line. I felt the contact and looked back. I didn’t see him, but I wasn’t positive if he had gone down or not. So, I kept putting my head down. When I came around the next time, I saw him out there flipping me off. So, I figured that something had happened.”
“I was freaking out,” Herrin said when asked about the race being red flagged and restarted. “My neck was destroyed just from sitting on the banking for that long. We didn’t put a pad, which we should have. I didn’t think about it. After 57 laps, your neck just sitting there holding it up the whole time, I was wrecked. When they added five laps I was panicking because at that point I knew it was going to be a sprint to the finish, and I didn’t think I had the legs to get the win. They told me Cam (Petersen) was a lap down. They told me Brandon (Paasch) had a 20-second penalty. I thought that I had lapped Blake Davis at one point, but it must have been somebody else. I was just super confused. I didn’t know if I needed to try to beat Cam or if I needed to try to beat Brandon. I didn’t know what was going on. I just had a lap where I said, “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I need to just try to win, no matter who’s there.” Because if for some reason the guys in the pit were wrong, then I’d be screwed.”
Josh Hayes – Second Place
“Honestly, I had some pace in the infield and in the second and third sectors I was just hanging on,” Hayes said. “I needed them to be able to do it. Two or three laps there, and maybe consecutive, I think I got two where they would get somebody on the entrance to the chicane, and I couldn’t get in the position to do it. So, I’d have to follow a few people through and then I was just kind of hung out there on my own. It was a gap of what you can see in the tri-oval. They were going into one and I was still coming into the tri-oval. I pushed as hard as I could for a while, and I could see I was kind of maintaining. I did the pit stop and came back out and I was kind of in the same position. I might have lost a second to them, but I was relatively in the same position. I fought, and fought, and fought. I finally got what the gap was behind me. I kind of settled in and then I saw Richie (Escalante) on the ground and saw P2. I said, ‘Well, I’m just going to kind of bring her home clean right now.’ Actually, it kind of worked in my favor because I took it pretty easy on the tire at that point, which ended up giving me some tire at the end.”
Cameron Petersen – Third Place
“Something happened with the clutch from lap one,” Petersen said of his early race woes. “The rear chatter when doing downshifts was just incredible. I couldn’t get on the brakes. I couldn’t tip it into the corners. I was really struggling through the infield. The lead group got a little bit of a gap on me and that was pretty much it. We were forced to do three pit stops this race, which kind of put us a lap down. Lucky enough, my tires were pretty fresh. I think the lap the red flag came out, I was able to un-lap myself. So again, I got super lucky. But I don’t really know. Going into those last 10 laps, I had no idea where I was. Nobody told me anything. So, I just put my head down and tried to ride as fast as I could. Once again, I just got beat to the line.”
More, from a press release issued by CSBK:
Herrin wins controversial Daytona 200; Vieira 15th, Young DNF
Daytona Beach, FL – The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike duo of Ben Young and Elliot Vieira completed their Daytona 200 weekend in opposite spirits on Saturday, as Josh Herrin won a controversial 62-lap feature at Daytona International Speedway.
While Vieira finally exercised his mechanical demons in warm-up on Saturday morning, specifically fixing the braking issues that plagued him all week, it was Young who found brake problems of his own aboard his Bridgestone-backed BPM Yamaha.
Hoping to just manage their machines to the end, both enjoyed strong starts to the historic 200-mile endurance race, with Young putting himself 13th after the first batch of pit stops and Vieira up eleven spots to 21st.
Despite a slower second pit-stop for Vieira, the duo continued their momentum into the second stage of the race, with Young climbing just outside the top-ten and with stronger pace than some ahead of him while Vieira settled into 25th.
However, the worst-case scenario struck for the BPM Yamaha team with just five laps to go, when a late red-flag produced a ten-lap restart. The all-out pace of the restart meant the lesser-powered machines of Young and Vieira were mismatched against the heavyweight teams up front, who carried as much as 15-20 extra horsepower.
Desperately fighting to stay inside the top-15, Young ultimately pushed beyond his machine’s limits as he crashed out with just six laps remaining, running in a strong 12th at the time. Vieira, meanwhile, found consistent pace on fresher tires right when he needed it, scrapping his way through the pack to finish an excellent 15th in the end.
It was a sensational result for Vieira, who had completed only a handful of clean laps prior to Saturday amidst his mechanical issues and ultimately found a way to put himself in the top-15 in his first ever Daytona appearance.
While Young’s crash was a frustrating end to an even more frustrating weekend, the reigning Bridgestone CSBK champion proved that a sensational result was possible under different circumstances.
Both riders will now have a few days off to soak in their first Daytona 200 appearance together, before returning to Bridgestone CSBK action on Tuesday for the official Winter Test in nearby Jennings, FL.
Josh Herrin (centre) won a wild Daytona 200 on Saturday ahead of Josh Hayes (left) in second and Cameron Petersen (right) in third. [Photo: Colin Fraser]
Herrin wins “confusing” Daytona 200 for second time
Josh Herrin will walk away from the famed International Speedway as a Daytona 200 winner for the second time in his career and first time in 12 years, a controversial result that was just one part of a wild and puzzling last few laps.
Battling with Richie Escalante for most of the middle part of the race, largely one-on-one with Josh Hayes a distant third, Herrin collided with the Vision Wheel M4 Suzuki of Escalante in turn one, knocking the Mexican out of the lead and the contest.
With third-place runner Brandon Paasch facing a 15-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane and sixth-place competitor Cameron Petersen a lap down, it seemed likely that only Hayes, Teagg Hobbs in fourth, or Hayden Gillim in fifth could challenge the Warhorse HSBK Ducati of Herrin if he was to be penalized himself.
However, an extra wrench got thrown into things when Hobbs got collected in a red-flag incident with five laps to go, the first stoppage of the afternoon. Facing a five-lap sprint, the puzzling decisions continued to pile up in the next few moments.
First, the race was extended to five extra laps, producing a ten-lap restart and the first ever “Daytona 216.5” across 62 laps. Then, Herrin was awarded a six-place grid penalty on said restart – an inconsequential punishment for the blazingly-fast Ducati rider.
Herrin quickly returned to the front as expected, battling at the front of an eight-rider group that included Hayes, the penalized Paasch, and the lap-down Petersen. The next wrinkle came when a charging Petersen unlapped himself, inexplicably jumping to the front of the timesheets and somehow in the battle for the win.
Amidst all the chaos and confusion – both on and off the track – it was Hayes who exited the chicane on the final lap leading from Herrin and Petersen, at one point looking far enough ahead to hold on for his first official Daytona 200 victory. However, the power and slipstream of Herrin was inevitable, as he charged across the line to score his second career Daytona win.
“When they added five laps I didn’t know if I had the legs in me to finish,” Herrin said. “And then I didn’t know what the deal was with Petersen and Paasch – I was super confused – but I just decided it didn’t matter as long as I finished first.”
As for the controversial incident with Escalante, the eventual winner maintained his innocence despite the grid penalty.
“As far as I’m concerned, I had the line. I got creative and he wasn’t expecting it,” Herrin protested.
When the dust settled, it was Hayes who finished second officially, while Petersen was awarded third despite being a lap down up until the final moments. Petersen himself did not even know of the decision, but that didn’t stop the criticism from coming.
“I love Cam Petersen to death, but he did not finish third,” Hayden Gillim said, who ultimately finished one spot back in fourth. “I quit racing in 2019 over stuff like this, and to be on the other side of it again sucks.”
Full results from the wild 81st running of the Daytona 200 can be found on the official MotoAmerica website.
More, from a press release issued by Ducati:
Josh Herrin Wins The 2023 Daytona 200 For Ducati
Herrin puts the number one Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC in P1 at The World Center of Racing
Sunnyvale, Calif., March 11, 2023 – Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC) pulled off a legendary victory in the 2023 Daytona 200, the 81st running of the iconic event. Herrin started from pole position and led for much of the encounter but a red flag while holding a lead of over 20 seconds with only a handful of laps remaining meant everything was back to square one and a 10-lap dash.
Herrin kept his cool during the melee, positioning himself perfectly for the slingshot to finish line on the last lap. He played that card to perfection, drafting past Yamaha’s Josh Hayes to record a historic Daytona 200 win for Ducati by just 0.070 seconds and the first for the Panigale V2.
Herrin’s teammate Xavi Forés American debut didn’t go to plan with a mechanical problem signaling the end of his race before the first round of pitstops.
2023 Daytona 200 Results
P1 – Josh Herrin (Ducati)
P2 – Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
P3 – Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
P4 – Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
P5 – PJ Jacobsen (Yamaha)
DNF – Xavi Forés (Ducati)
Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York – Ducati #1):
“The race went amazing,” beamed Herrin from Victory Lane. “It seemed like everything was against us, but we worked as a team and got settled down and even Xavi’s guys from Germany came over at the end to help us. It was a very eventful race and I can’t believe we were able to pull it off. After how the race went in 2022, in my mind I needed to get the win for the team and for Ducati. It’s such a special moment and that I was able to do it on the V2 before we step up to the V4 R in Superbike this year. We’ve got a lot of confidence heading into the race season now and I’m thankful to be part of the Ducati family. Also, a huge thank you to Paolo and Gigi for believing in me and the team!”
Xavi Forés (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York – Ducati #12):
“Well, it was a very disappointing weekend for me. Today we had to deal with some issues that ended my race very early so I cannot hide my frustration. Hopefully, I can have another chance to ride properly here in Daytona in the future. A big thanks to the team who tried hard to build the best bike possible.”
More, from a press release issued by Daytona International Speedway:
Josh Herrin Battles Back To Win Second Career DAYTONA 200, Second for Ducati
Full slate of races at Daytona International Speedway cap off 82nd annual Bike Week
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 11, 2023) – With a thrilling dive to the inside apron as a pack of five bikes prepared to cross the finish line within a half-second of each other, Josh Herrin captured the second DAYTONA 200 championship of his career 13 years after first topping the podium.
The 13 years between wins is the longest gap between DAYTONA 200 victories in the history of the race. The previous longest number of years was seven for Eddie Lawson with wins in 1986 and 1993.
For Ducati, it was the make’s second win after last winning it with Jason DiSalvo in 2011.
Yamaha secured second and third place with Joshua Hayes riding the No. 4 Squid Hunter Racing bike, and Cameron Peterson rounding out the podium on this No. 45 Attack Performance Yamaha.
Herrin sat on pole for the 81st running of the DAYTONA 200, but the race wasn’t straightforward for the rider of the No. 2 Warhorse HSBK Ducati NYC.
With 24 laps to go, lead pack Celtic/Tytlers Cycle/TSE Racing rider PJ Jacobsen went down in the infield portion, and that was followed three laps later by Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim going down in the middle of the Le Mans Chicane on the oval backstretch. Both had been running in the top six at the time of their incidents. Gillim was able to get his bike back up and remained on the lead lap to return as a factor late in the race.
After the second set of pit stops, Herrin and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Richie Escalante separated themselves from the rest of the field – putting up an 18-second lead over third-place Hayes with 10 laps to go. The pair traded the lead back and forth – and at times from turn to turn.
But with eight laps to go, Escalante and Herrin went toe-to-toe coming out of Turn 1 as Herrin dove inside of Escalante for the pass, and only Herrin made it through. Escalante went down and that left Herrin alone out front.
“We were after the final pit stop, I had been seeing different spots that I could overtake if I needed to. His bike was a missile,” Herrin said post-race. “That was one of the spots where I thought would be a possibility and would kinda throw him off of his rhythm. With however many laps to go, I just saw an opening and wanted to try it, and as far as I was concerned, I was there, had the line.
“I’m just trying to figure out where I could win the race from. I was just trying to get creative and find spots, and I think he just wasn’t expecting it because it wasn’t the last lap.”
Following the incident, Herrin built up a 24- second lead on Hayes, but a red flag with five laps to go for an incident between fourth-place Teague Hobbs on his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki and Edge Racing Yamaha rider Jason Waters, who was two laps down, in the infield. The field was brought down pit road and Hobbs was able to get his bike back to pit road and repaired for the restart.
During the red flag a pair of officiating decisions were announced by MotoAmerica. Herrin was penalized six grid positions on the restart for the incident with Escalante, which dropped him to seventh and put Hayes on the pole for the restart. Additionally, five laps were added to the remainder of the race, to make it a 10-lap dash for the finish.
The grid penalty didn’t hurt Herrin as he made his way back to the lead a lap after the restart. And a battle reminiscent of Herrin and Escalante earlier in the race developed between Herrin, Hayes, Gillim and Petersen.
Coming to the white flag, Herrin led a tightly packed together lead group of seven riders. He pulled a strategic move as they came out of the infield portion onto the high banks, swinging wide to allow a pair of riders to pass him.
“Before the first banking, I went in hot and tried to get at least a couple guys to go by me because I didn’t think I would be able to hold it off leading,” said Herrin. “That worked out good. That was huge risk number one. Huge risk number two was going into the chicane I chopped everybody up and rolled through the chicane really slow to give Josh about a five to 10 bike-length lead because I knew if I was on him I would pass him about halfway through the banking and it would be a double-wide draft of guys behind and they would get by us.”
Hayes carried that slight gap out of the Le Mans Chicane and up onto the banking. But it wasn’t enough of a lead as the pack caught him in the draft coming onto the front stretch and Herrin dove to the inside apron for the winning pass as the pack came to the finish line.
Two-time defending DAYTONA 200 champion and TOBC Racing rider Brandon Paasch was in the lead pack of six bikes that initially separated itself from the field, but a pit-road speeding penalty on the first pit stop landed him a 15-second time penalty that was assessed at the end of the race. He crossed the line with the lead pack of seven but was relegated to a 12th-place finish.
Roland Sands Design (RSD) Mission Super Hooligan Class
The second and final weekend of the 82nd Bike Week at DAYTONA Presented by Monster Energy got underway with the first event of MotoAmerica racing. Friday, March 10 saw the first round of the Roland Sands Super Hooligans Championship at The World Center of Racing. Tyler O’Hara, rider of the No. 1 Indian FTR, crossed the finish line first in an exciting last lap pass over Bobby Fong, rider of the No. 50 Indian Challenger, after the two battled it out for six intense laps. British rider Jeremy McWilliams rounded out the podium, finishing third place on his No. 99 Indian FTR.
The second round of the Super Hooligans class took place on Saturday, with another six laps of racing around the road course. Cory West came across the finish line first on his No. 13 Team Saddlemen bike but was later disqualified for a technical infraction. The final finishing order for Roland Sands Super Hooligans race two featured the two of the podium placers from race one, Tyler O’Hara finishing first and Jeremy McWilliams in second, with rider of the No. 665 Grey Area Racing KTM Mark Price moving up into third.
REV’IT! Twins Cup Class
The Rev’It Twins Cup kicked off Friday afternoon with an eventful nine laps of racing. Three laps after riders left the grid, the action intensified when the rider of the No. 25 Team ISO Yamaha, Dominic Doyle, crashed out, taking Ben Gloddy on his No. 72 Rodio Racing Aprilia. The crash caused a shift in the battle for third place, as both riders were in fourth and fifth when their races ended. Hayden Shultz finished third on his No. 49 Cycle Tech Yamaha, with Jackson Blackmon finishing second on his No. 18 Trackday Winner/Blackmon Racing Yamaha. Gus Rodio, the rider of the No. 96 Rodio Racing Aprilia, came out on top in race one.
Doyle’s bad luck continued in race two of the Rev’It Twins Cup on Saturday. The Rodio Racing rider crashed out again on lap three of the nine lap race, bringing out the red flag. Racing resumed about 20 minutes later in a five-lap sprint, with the Stefano Mesa, the native Floridian, standing in for Kayla Yaakov following a leg injury, finishing first on the No. 137 MP13 Racing Yamaha. Gus Rodio finished second and Jackson Blackmon finished third, both riders securing a couple more points on the weekend.
Mission King Of The Baggers Class
The Mission King of the Baggers Championship returned to Daytona for the second year, with Baggers racing on the high banks of the superspeedway. Race one got underway on Friday afternoon, with James Rispoli coming in first on his No. 43 Vance & Hines Harley Davidson after a great save coming out of turn six. His teammate Hayden Gillim finished second on his No. 79 Vance & Hines Harley Davidson, with Tyler O’Hara picking up another podium this weekend after scoring points in the Super Hooligans Class.
The second race in the Mission King of the Baggers class finished early Saturday evening, closing out an epic weekend of MotoAmerica racing with a Harley-Davidson podium lockout. American Kyle Wyman crossed the finish line in first place on his No. 33 Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle, with Vance & Hines riders James Rispoli and Hayden Gillim finishing second and third, securing podiums in Baggers both races.
