Hayes wins first Daytona 200

By John Hopkins

DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Erion Honda rider Josh Hayes scored his first ever Daytona 200 by Honda victory in Sunday's opening round of the AMA Formula Xtreme Series at Daytona International Speedway.

Riding a CBR600RR, Hayes crossed the line 32.762 secs. ahead of Welshman Chaz Davies on his Attack Kawasaki ZX-6R. Davies' teammate Steve Rapp finished third, a further 18.921 secs. back on his ZX-6R.

"My race just couldn't have gone any better," said Hayes, the defending Formula Xtreme champion. "I had the best team. I had the best crew. I had the best motorcycle. I definitely had the best tires. Man, on the 23rd-24th laps of my stints I was able to put down some good times to try to drive the nail in the coffin on those guys."

Hayes spent the early part of the race trading the lead with Erion teammate Jake Zemke. But Zemke dropped out of contention at his first scheduled pit stop on lap 22, when his crew had trouble completing a rear tire change. He rejoined the race in 52nd spot but managed to claw his way back to 13th by the finish.

After Zemke's trouble polesitter Neil Hodgson settled into second place. But the American Honda factory rider lost ground when he ran off at the chicane on lap 42, and then retired just five laps from the finish with an apparent engine failure.

It was a rough afternoon for the American Honda team, as Hodgson's teammate Miguel Duhamel ran into clutch trouble on his CBR600RR right off the start. The Montreal racer pitted at the end of the opening lap and switched to a back-up bike, which at the time was thought to be allowed by the series rules. But on lap 54 Duhamel was black flagged as AMA officials determined that since the race hadn't been red flagged, Duhamel was not allowed to rejoin on a new motorcycle.

The Attack Kawasaki duo of Davies and Rapp were never in the hunt for the win. Davies struggled through his opening stint with a rear end vibration that left him lagging in fifth before the first round of pit stops.

"During the first stint I didn't think a podium was possible," Davies said. But I dug in in the second stint and the bike felt better."

On the second round of stops Davies accidentally came in on the same lap as Rapp, and Rapp had to leave the pits and return a lap later for service.

"I don't know if that would have changed the results," said the defending Daytona 200 champ, who came back from a heavy fall in the morning warm-up to finish third. "To win Daytona you can't have any mistakes and we had a few today."

Leo Vince/Pegram Racing Ducati rider Larry Pegram was fourth on his Ducati 848, a lap behind the winner after passing the M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R600 of Martin Cardenas in the closing laps. Cardenas placed fifth.

Sixth and seventh, with 67 laps completed, were two of the BMW HP2 Sport entries, with Englishman Richard Cooper leading Brian Parriott across the line.