DiSalvo/Ducati Win Daytona 200

Paul Carruthers | March 12, 2011

DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MARCH 12 – After a day that can only be described as bizarre, the Daytona 200 is in the books with Latus Motors’ Jason DiSalvo giving Ducati its first-ever victory in the 70th running of the race. But there will be some argument for an asterisk next to DiSalvo’s name in the record books… after all the race only went 147 miles. And it took two motors for him to get there.Some explanation: On the 27th lap, a red flag was thrown after a few riders had experienced front tire troubles and the AMA opted to stop the proceedings to mandate a front-tire change to the medium compound Dunlop Sportmax D211 GP. After a lengthy delay, the race would be restarted as a 15-lap sprint race – thus the 147 miles.By the time the red flag was thrown, DiSalvo was in the pits with the Ducati 848 Evo having dropped a cylinder. He was out of the race. Or was he? With the delay a lengthy one, his Latus Racing crew changed motors and he was suddenly back in business. DiSalvo raced away from his spot on the front row on the restart and diced with the lead pack. Then, on the 37th lap, he slowed in the International Horseshoe with what he thought was a bad front tire.

“I thought we were having a problem with the front tire,” DiSalvo said. “I didn’t want to crash with a bunch of people behind me so I dropped to the back of the lead group and accessed the situation to see what was going on with the bike. Once saw that everything was okay, I put my head down and got back up there.”He got back up front in a hurry, rejoined the lead pack and battled to the flag. But on the run to the flag, all hell broke loose with Monster Energy Graves Motorsports Josh Herrin colliding with M4 Suzuki’s Dane Westby, the Oklahoman’s front brake locking and putting him in a 170 mph stoppie. With Westby crashing, Taylor Knapp had no where to go and he also went down, the two coming to a stop on the grass that last week played host to the Supercross Series.With that going on behind him, DiSalvo crossed the finish line in front of Cory West and Jake Zemke as the red flag came out. As DiSalvo did his celebration lap, AMA reverted its scoring to the previous lap, and brought Herrin, Cycle World/Attack Kawasaki’s JD Beach and Zemke into Victory Lane as the top three. Then they changed their mind and kicked Beach and West out and brought in DiSalvo and West after deciding that the top six had already crossed the finish line prior to the red flag. The top six would be scored on the 42nd lap, the rest of the field being based on lap 41. Let the head scratching begin.For now at least, the results are as follows:

1.                  Jason DiSalvo (Ducati)

2.                  Cory West (Suzuki)

3.                  Jake Zemke (Yamaha)

4.                  JD Beach (Kawasaki)

5.                  Josh Herrin (Yamaha)

6.                  Dane Westby (Suzuki)

7.                  Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)

8.                  Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)

9.                  Bostjan Skubic (Yamaha)

10.                  Fernando Amantini (Kawasaki)

 

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.