MotoGP Race And Practice Results

Results of the Daytona 200:

American Superbike Race II Results and Notes

They call these things sprint races. After today's second American Superbike race at Daytona International Speedway, it's easy to see why. Jordan/National Guard Suzuki's Jake Zemke took his second race win of this young season in a race so action-packed it was hard to find time to breathe.

Aaron Yates got the holeshot off the line but Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Tommy Hayden overhauled him coming into turn one, followed by Rockstar's Blake Young,  Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates, Foremost Insurance Ducati's  Larry Pegram and Jake Zemke. Hayden stretched out his lead to nearly a second but Zemke was working his way up to the head of an 8-rider pack and turned his fastest lap of the race so far at lap five. By lap seven Zemke had closed Hayden's lead to 2 tenths of a second. At the start of  lap eight,  Zemke overtook Hayden coming into turn one while Young ran wide

Hayden retook the lead on lap eleven but by lap twelve Zemke had gone back into the lead and had Hayden in a Jordan sandwich between himself and teammate Aaron Yates. Meanwhile, further back in the pack, Pat Clark Motorsports' Ben Bostrom was building up a head of steam on his Yamaha R1 and had climbed into fifth. Hayden then ran wide going into lap thireteen allowing Yates to get between him and Zemke. On the last lap, Hayden got by Zemke in the International Horseshoe, pulled a slight lead and got a good drive coming out of the chicane going into the banking with Bostrom close behind and Yates and Pegram trailing. 

Coming to the line, Zemke caught Hayden's draft and took the win by .009 seconds with Bostrom in third by .081. Zemke said that his GSXR was spinning up and bucking coming off the banking and was sliding so much that he thought Hayden had gone back by.

John Hopkins failed to finish the race again, retiring after 6 laps with an as yet undivulged mechanical problem and Shawn Higbee crashed out on lap 4.

Whatever went awry with AMA/DMG roadracing last season seems to gone by the wayside this year. The racing is close and hard and the riders are hungry. Ben Bostrom said at the post-race press conference that he thought that the series had "turned a corner" and thanked the series for the "love" in the pits. From a fan's point of view, happy riders are good for the level of competition and we look forward to more of the same.

2. Tommy Hayden

3. Ben Bostrom

4. Aaron Yates

5. Larry Pegram

6. Josh Hayes

7. Blake Young

8. Brett McCormick

9. David Anthony

10. Taylor Knapp

11. Jeffrey Tigert

12. Chris Ulrich

13. Shane Narbonne

14. Eric Haugo

15. Scott Jensen

16. Chris Clark

17. Johnny Rock Page

18. Trent Gibson

19. Eric Pinson

20. Skip Salenius

DNF

John Hopkins

Shawn Higbee

Warmup Times from Daytona

Weather is a bit warmer, not as breezy as yesterday

Results of American Superbike Race 1

1. Jake Zemke

2. Tommy Hayden

3. Larry Pegram

4. Aaron Yates

5. Blake young

6. Chris Ulrich

7. Taylor Knapp

8. Shawn Higbee

9. Shane Narbonne

10. Barrett Long

11. Chris Clark

12. Eric Haugo

13. Josh Hayes

14. Johnny Rock Page

15. Eric Pinson

16. Trent Gibson

17. Skip Salenius

18. Ben Bostrom

19. Jeffrey Tigert

20. Brett McCormick

DNF

David Anthony

Scott Jenson

John Hopkins

Results of World Superbikes race 2 at Phillip Island: 

Results of the World Supersport race at Phillip Island: 

Results of World Superbike Race 1 from Phillip Island: 

Results of the warm up session for the World Supersport class at Phillip Island: 

It's cool and windy at Phillip Island, and the problems which the Aprilias have had over the past few days have disappeared. The colder conditions and lower grip seem to have negated the chatter that Max Biaggi has complained of all weekend. Biaggi finished ahead of his teammate Leon Camier and polesitter Leon Haslam.

Results of the warm up session for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island: 

Results of the World Superbikes Superpole session, setting the grid for tomorrow's race at Phillip Island:

Leon Haslam took his first ever Superpole at Phillip Island, after squeezing out Ducati's Michel Fabrizio to take pole for Sunday's race. The Suzuki Alstare rider has been close to the front all weekend and strong at the tests a week ago, and Haslam finally made good on the promise he showed all last year.

Alongside Fabrizio is another newcomer, Cal Crutchlow rocketing to 3rd place and a front row start in his first World Superbike race. After a disastrous first day, the Yamaha engineers discarded the carbon fuel tank and tail section built for this season, replacing them with 2009 units. That switch has clearly paid off, as both Crutchlow and teammate James Toseland made it in to Superpole 3, and Toseland ended up 8th because he'd already been forced to use one of his two qualifying tires in the first Superpole session, leaving him to contest Superpole 3 on race tires.

Carlos Checa, who dominated practice on Saturday, could not capitalize during Superpole, though the Spanish veteran still starts from the front row. Sylvain Guintoli heads up the second row, directly behind his Alstare Suzuki teammate. Guintoli has another privateer Ducati beside him, in the shape of the Pata Ducati of Jakub Smrz. Johnny Rea will start from 7th, the Ulsterman still struggling to get the best out of grippy new tires. But Rea's aggressive style leaves no doubt that he'll be barging his way to the front during the race.

The big surprise of the session was the absence of two title contenders from Superpole 3. Max Biaggi is struggling with vibration both on corner entry and corner exit from the new tires that Pirelli have brought, and could only put his Aprilia into 11th place. Noriyuki Haga, the man who finished last year's championship in 2nd behind the phenomenon that is Ben Spies, went out on a race tire in Superpole 2 but could not put the time in he needed. The Xerox Ducati man missed the cut, and will have to start from 10th.

The weather, which was threatening to be very blustery and wet earlier in the week, appears to have cleared up, after a giant thunderstorm blew through the area overnight on Friday. Race day looks to be dry and not too hot, though the strong winds forecast will be a factor. But in just a few hours time, racing will be underway again at Phillip Island, and all will be right with the world.

Superpole results: