Daytona Diary
Daytona Diary
RACE WATCH
Former 200 winner Steve Rapp rode the tires off his borrowed Yamaha
In the weeks leading up to this year's AMA Pro Racing season-opener, three past Daytona 200 champions—Miguel Duhamel, Chaz Davies and Steve Rapp—were without rides.
Duhamel, a five-time 200 winner, found himself on the sidelines when American
Honda pulled out of U.S. roadracing. Davies, a victor last year after Erion Honda's Josh Hayes was disqualified for an illegally modified crankshaft, lost his gig with Attack Performance, as did Rapp, the 2007 winner, when Kawasaki downsized its program.
Duhamel and Davies eventually landed on their feet, the former on a Suzuki with support from fellow French Canadian Pascal Picotte's Blackfoot Motorsports. Davies was picked up by the Aprilia-factory-backed Millennium Technologies team. A release issued in early February confirmed that Illinois-based R&R Racing would supply Rapp and Scott Jenson with Aprilia RSV1 000Rs in Daytona SportBike, the class that made up this year's 200.
Last season, Rapp felt that the Ducati 848 campaigned by Larry Pegram in AMA Formula Xtreme (now Daytona SportBike) was both quicker and faster than his well-
prepared Kawasaki ZX-6R. Would the 998cc Aprilia offer similar advantages? At Daytona, Davies capitalized on the big Twin's larger displacement, recording a seventh-place finish (and the fastest lap of the race). Duhamel, his GSX-R600 "lacking steam," was 16th. Rapp, meanwhile, was credited with 12th riding a Yamaha YZF-R6 under the Four Feathers Racing banner.
Come again?
Turns out, Rapp's ApriUa deal was a bust. He missed Wednesday's opening practice because the RSV wasn't track-ready. In the second session, run at night under the lights, he soon maxed-out the stock gearing.
"I'm on the rev-limiter," he told the R&R team. "We need more gearing."
"We don't have any gearing," he was told.
To his credit, Rapp had a backup plan. After privateer Scotty Lee VanHawk crashed in opening practice and tweaked his knee, Rapp asked to ride VanHawk's Toyota-backed R6. The bike was waiting for him when he stepped off the Aprilia. He also hired Mark Oatley, his former mechanic at Jordan Motorsports, to help with setup. He qualified 25th for the 200, but with no way to change wheels quickly, a top-i 0 finish would require running the entire race on a single set of series-spec Dunlops.
So that's what Rapp set out to do. During the race, he ran as high as sixth. When a red flag temporarily stopped the race, he took one look at his rear tire and knew he was in trouble.
"All the tread was gone from the left side of the tire," he said.
Worse, Rapp couldn't see the tront straight flag stand, so he had no idea how many laps were remaining when the starter waved the white flag. At the checkers, not only was the rear tire bare of rubber just left of center, a loose carcass cord had cut a groove in the fender.
Disaster averted. -Matthew Miles
