The 74th Daytona 200 was quite an eventful race
for everyone involved. The
Woodcraft/Penguin Racing Kawasaki ZX636 worked very well during the course of
the weekend, and we have a lot of people to thank for contributing to the
effort in many different ways.
The team sorted through some typical Daytona issues early in
the weekend, and the bike really started to come around on Friday afternoon
before qualifying. Our bike had the
fastest trap speed of all the Kawasaki’s during the qualifying session, and
after Q1 we found ourselves in 5th place. We then went out in qualifying session two
and put in some good laps on a race tire and then put on a soft qualifier to
try to better our times, but we pushed a little too hard in a couple places and
could only match our race tire pace.
Starting from the third row we had a great chance to run
with the lead pack. We had a good
restart after the first of 4 red flags during the day brought us back into the
pits before the first lap was completed.
The pace was fast up front and I watched a ton a positions swapping
around in the first few laps. With
Daytona being such a long race, our strategy was just to make sure that we hung
onto the lead draft and stayed within a few seconds of the leaders until the
first round of pit stops. We ran our
fastest lap of the race (1:51.9) on lap nine as we made a push to stay with the
leaders. When the lead pack caught the
first group of lapped riders it was crazy!
That served as a separator and broke the pack up a bit. As the first round of pit stops was
approaching, a red flag halted the action.
We got a good start to begin lap 20, and ran again until a
third red flag halted the action 11 laps later.
This would alter the pit stop strategy for everyone in the field. Our plan was to run as long as we could on
each tank to avoid losing track positions on another red flag. We were running with the lead pack and
looking to pass eventual 4th place finisher Bostjan Skubic, but when
we were forced to tighten our entry entering turn 6 we lost the front and
crashed into the air-fence at about 60MPH.
Luckily, I was unhurt but the bars bent to the point where I only had a
couple degrees of steering movement, and it looked like our race was over. Luckily, the 4th red flag of the
race came out a few minutes later, and I thought that we might be able to get
back into the race. We managed to limp
the bike back into the pits and my fantastic crew pulled parts from my spare
bike and managed to secure a few parts back together with zip ties and duct
tape.
The final start went smoothly and we were right up front,
and when I looked up at the leader board I realized that we were a lap down and
in 18th place. Our fight was
to get back as many positions as possible, and with the help of a fantastic
final pit stop we were able to get back up to 12th place in the
final 26 laps.
Many thanks for the help we got from so many people for this
event. First and foremost, I need to
thank my crew members who came down to help during this race. I am especially thankful for my wife Margo
for all her support, son Austin who was in charge of the fuel, and daughter
Amanda who ran the towel and drinks during pit stops. Wheel changes and lots of work in the pits
all weekend long were run by Waylon Dempsey (who also built me great motors),
Chris Holske, and Steve Aspland. Jerry
Wood manned the extinguisher and ran pit stop inspections, Dee Wood kept a
detailed race chart, Jerri Boatman ran our pit board, and Joanna Piepiora was
ready and willing to help with anything that was needed.
Nordica and First Trax Sport Shop put together a raffle for
some top shelf ski gear, and we owe both them and all the people who supported
us by buying tickets a big vote of thanks!
We got support from a bunch of great companies to put together our
Kawasaki 636’s. Woodcraft, Penguin
Racing, Kawasaki, Armour Bodies bodywork, Dunlop tires, Maxima Oils, Vanson
leathers, Arai helmets, TCX boots, Held gloves, Penske shocks, GMD Boston,
Arrow exhaust, Street & Competition, Bazzaz, VP fuels, Van Waylon engines,
Robs Dyno, Zero Gravity windscreens, Turn One graphics, Speedcell batteries,
Vesrah brakes and K Tech forks. I also
want to thank Justin from Adrenaline Cycles for fantastic work on a dry break fuel
tank, Jason Farrell for help with some spare parts and for being a perfect
drafting partner and Jeff Maloney from GP tech for lending us a top shelf quick
fill fuel tank. Finally, I want to thank
all the supporters we had cheering us on both at the track and at home. We are very fortunate to be part of a great
family of racers who support each other in this sport we all love.
Motors Built and Maintained by
http://vanwaylonmotorsports.com
