Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The 2003 AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship presented by Parts Unlimited event at Daytona International Speedway March 5-10 was marred by rain, which led to the 62nd running of the Daytona 200 by Arai being held on Monday for the first time ever.

Back from a multi-year stint with Ducati in the World Superbike Championship, 1998 AMA Superbike Champion Ben Bostrom took pole position for the race on his American Honda RC51 with a time of 1:48.376. Bostrom’s time was significantly slower than Nicky Hayden’s Daytona lap record, 1:47.174, due in part to Dunlop not supplying qualifying tires during the 2003 season. Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts (1:48.554), on a full-factory RC51, and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin (1:48.555) and Aaron Yates (1:48.659), on the brand new GSX-R1000, also qualified on the front row.

Dream Team Ducati’s Larry Pegram led into turn one at the start of the race but was forced to pit for new Michelin rear tires four times (versus the norm of two pitstops) during the race and ended up 12th, the first Ducati rider.

Mladin officially led the first lap of the race but was shuffled as far back as seventh due to tire and handling problems with his new bike, before passing teammate and Superbike rookie Ben Spies in the latter stages of the race for sixth. Spies finished seventh, the final rider on the lead lap, in his Daytona 200 debut.

Despite riding with a broken left hand suffered in a training accident, Anthony Gobert led at one point of the race on his back-up Ducati Austin 998RS before mechanical trouble knocked him out on lap 21.

After his new 788cc big-bore engine proved somewhat unreliable during practice, Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom was forced to ride his 750cc ZX-7RR in the field of 1000cc machines. Bostrom ran strong early before finishing fifth.

Aaron Yates had a better time than Mladin in the 200, running with the lead group well into the last stint. The Georgian lost contact with the leading three riders when he ran off at turn one while trying to lap Vincent Haskovec. Yates finished fourth.

For the last 10 laps of the race, it looked certain it would be a 1-2-3 Honda sweep of the podium, but who would come out on top of the equally-matched group was yet to be determined. On the final lap, Bostrom led into the chicane followed by Roberts and Duhamel. Duhamel drafted by Roberts early on the east banking, caught Bostrom’s slipstream coming off of NASCAR Turn Four and passed the Californian coming into the tri-oval to win his fourth career Daytona 200 by a mere 0.069-second. Bostrom finished second with Roberts 0.155-second back in third.

Supersport

In the Supersport race (which was postponed from Friday to Sunday due to rain) it was Roberts’ turn, as he gave the new 2003 Honda CBR600RR an all-important victory in its debut race. Roberts used the top speed advantage of the bike to draft Jamie Hacking and his fast-accelerating Yamaha YZF-R6 to the finish line. Duhamel was third, inches in front of Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke – the top four were separated by 0.4-second.

As many as 10 riders contested the lead through the race. After a crash in qualifying left him 27th on the grid and with an injured hand, Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo came through to lead at one point before finishing fourth.

Damon Buckmaster was fifth, ahead of true privateer Jamie Stauffer and Aaron Gobert – a trio of Australians on Yamahas.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies came home ninth, the first Suzuki finisher, while defending Supersport Champion Aaron Yates struggled and finished 14th. American Honda’s Ben Bostrom finished 10th in a one-off ride in the Supersport class. Tommy Hayden came home 13th in the debut of the new, under-powered Kawasaki ZX-6RR.

Superstock

Hayden had a better but not easier time in the Superstock final on the 636cc Kawasaki ZX-6R. Riding near the back of the large lead pack for most of the shortened 15-lap race on Monday, Hayden took the lead going into the infield on the white flag lap and was able to just hold off the pursuing pack of Suzuki GSX-R750 riders.

Lee Acree, riding an Arclight Suzuki built to 2003 AMA 750cc Supersport specs, came up just short (0.009-second) of Hayden at the line for the closest-ever finish for the Superstock class at Daytona. Barden Bearings’ Eric Wood finished a close third with a borrowed motor in his Suzuki.

Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Steve Rapp, Hooters Suzuki teammates Vincent Haskovec and Mike Ciccotto and Corona Extra Suzuki’s Adam Fergusson finished fourth through seventh, respectively, after each took a turn leading the race at some point on the track.

Hayden’s teammate Tony Meiring finished eighth on the second 636cc Kawasaki, just in front of Yamaha YZF-R6-mounted Jason DiSalvo, who started the race dead-last after missing qualifying and taking a provisional starting spot at the back of the grid. Rapp’s teammate Matt Furtek rounded out the top 10.

Pole-sitter Jason Pridmore led the most laps of the race on his Attack Suzuki, before running off the track while leading and eventually pulling in on lap 14. Pridmore’s teammate Josh Hayes started what would turn out to be a Championship-winning season with a stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start and an 11th-place result. Defending Champion Jimmy Moore also ran off the track and came home 15th.

250cc Grand Prix

Qualifying for the final 250cc Grand Prix ever at Daytona was rained out and the grid was formed based on 2002 class point standings and then the order of entry. But that didn’t stop Mystery School Yamaha’s Rich Oliver, fourth on the grid, from leaving everyone in his dust. Oliver ran away to win his 61st career AMA 250cc race by over 11 seconds.

Team Stargel Aprilia’s Chuck Sorensen, the defending Champion, stayed close to Oliver for a few laps, but Oliver’s clean work through traffic and slight top end advantage sealed Sorensen’s fate at second.

Riding the late Randy Renfrow’s TSR-framed Honda 250, Simon Turner finished a distant and lonely third.


BMW Boxer Cup

One of the biggest highlights of the rain-soaked week came with the inaugural BMW Motorrad BMW Boxer Cup race on Sunday. Veterans of the highest levels of International road racing, club racers, journalists and invited VIPs bashed bars and cylinder heads of evenly-matched BMW R1100S in a highly-entertaining show. Every lap of the race saw a huge pack of swerving BMWs come across the stripe four- and five-wide. Passes were fast, furious and too numerous to recount.

As the red-flag interrupted race wound down, American Brian Parriott took a big lead coming out of the infield, but as had happened to each leader before him, Parriott was reeled back into the group. Italian Roberto Panichi caught Parriott at the chicane, and the pair drafted back and forth toward the finish line, resulting in the closest line call of the weekend if not ever at Daytona.

After numerous careful reviews of the video replay of the finish, Parriott was judged to have crossed the line first ahead of Panichi, but not until long after the checkered flag flew it was discovered that the race was scored on aggregate time. When the times from the two race segments were combined, Panichi was declared the winner over Parriott with Germany’s Markus Barth third.