Michael Barnes, the journeyman racer who at age 47 became the oldest rider to ever win America’s greatest motorcycle road race with his victory in the 2016 Daytona 200, is looking forward to defending his title in 2017.
More than that, however, Barnes is looking to prove that his victory on his Pirelli-shod Prieto Performance Yamaha YZF-R6 wasn’t a fluke by winning a bigger, fiercer battle against this year’s deeper field of talent.
At post time, the pre-entry list for the 76th Daytona 200 had 69 riders on it, including established professional racers like: Valentin Debise, Danny Eslick, Jason Farrell, Taylor Knapp, Barrett Long, Geoff May, Stefano Mesa, Shane Narbonne, Robertino Pietri, Benny Solis, Cory West and Kyle Wyman. And then there are veteran Daytona 200 front-runners like Bostjan Skubic and up-and-coming stars like Jody Barry and Kaleb De Keyrel, just to name a few.
“I’m ready. I want it, and I want it bad,” Barnes told Roadracingworld.com. “Everyone had their thoughts about last year with not a lot of competition in the field, but with Geoff May being the second-place finisher over and over and him finishing second again [to Barnes in 2016] showed me it was a competitive race. And we were running fast lap times, even the ones I was doing by myself.”
Asked directly if he wants to prove that his victory in 2016 wasn’t a fluke and the result of a diminished field, Barnes said, “Yeah, and I want to do it racing. I want to get that big draft, the five plus bikes we’ve had in all the Supersport races of the past. And this is more comparable to a Supersport race than a Superbike race of the past because there’s less chance of getting away even with top machinery. Now it’s a lot more even and a big draft game and the top 10 can hang together at least until the first pit stops.
“There’s going to be a lot of riders going at it. And that’s what I’m looking forward to, duking it out. And with Danny [Eslick] being such a good friend of mine, this is going to be so much fun. I haven’t raced with him since a little bit on the Harleys [AMA Pro Harley-Davidson XR1200 Series]. We’re on equal footing, and the last time we were on equal footing was back in AMA Pro on 600s, and I could beat him back then. I think he’s gotten faster since then, but I haven’t gotten any slower. If anything I’ve gotten faster.
“I’m really excited to race with Danny and with Cory [West], and now Taylor [Knapp] is entered on a MV Agusta. That should be interesting. And Valentin Debise and Kyle Wyman. There’s definitely some contenders all of a sudden. I’m excited by that. The race is going to be awesome.”
As for what he expects in the race, Barnes said, “It’s going to be a different type of a race [than in 2016]. It’s going to be more of three, battling-type of sprint races [in between pit stops] rather than three, semi-battling sprint races.
“We’ll see. I just hope we have a nice safe race. I’m hoping for clean pit stops and making no mistakes, because that’s the key to Daytona. Just don’t make any mistakes as a rider or as part of the crew. I think if we can accomplish that we’ll be where we’ll be at the end of the day, and hopefully that’ll be on top of the podium again.”
And after racing at Daytona since 1988 – that’s 29 years, or longer than many of his competitors have been alive, Barnes says he still has some tricks up his sleeve if the race comes down to a classic Daytona drafting battle to the line.
The 76th Daytona will run on Saturday, March 18. It will be streamed live on Fanschoice.tv.