Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Late in Sunday’s 63rd running of the Daytona 200 by Arai AMA Superbike race at Daytona International Speedway, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates was in second place and running hard to stay with his teammate Mat Mladin, the race leader and eventual winner.

Coming into the west horseshoe turn in the infield, Yates and KSW Insurance’s Anthony Fania, Jr. collided, and both riders crashed hard.

“It was a racing incident,” Fania told Roadracingworld.com after the race. “Whether I was running wide, or he thought I was running wide, or whatever he said, I stood the bike up, bullshit! I was dead center of the racetrack. I was committed to the corner, to where I was going. I’ve been doing this as long as he has. He’s not going to tell me I was doing something wrong.”

“I was coming around the outside of the guy, and he stood the thing up, went straight,” said Yates. “I tried to stand up a little, and he ran into me. We got together.”

Neither rider was injured in the crash, but when they finished tumbling, they started rumbling.

“I stood up and saw it was him, Yates, and he came running right at me, yelling at me, ‘You took me out! You took me out!'” said Fania. “I started yelling at him, ‘Asshole, you hit me! You took me out!’ And at that point, he head-butted me, or whatever he did.”

Video replays of the incident appeared to show Yates attempt to drop-kick Fania before the head-butt, but Fania said, “There was no drop-kicking, no drop kicking involved. All he did was head-butt me, like the jerkoff that he is.”

“I was just upset,” Yates told Roadracingworld.com. “I didn’t really do anything major (to Fania), you know? Let’s just say I didn’t put any effort into what I did. I felt I had to do something, but I didn’t want to push him or nothing. But I just didn’t really kick at him. I just kind of jumped up (and) brushed him with my feet. I didn’t extend my legs or try to kick him or anything. And then he was trying to get me started and f—king with me. ‘Come on, come on, do something.'”

Asked what action, if any, he thought AMA Pro Racing would take against him for the head-butt, Yates said, “Oh, I’m sure they’ve got to punish me some how. I felt like I didn’t do anything. It wasn’t my fault.”

Yates’ Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager Don Sakakura described his rider’s actions after the crash as “a bit excessive.”