2023 MotoAmerica - Round 1 - Daytona

Daytona 200 kicks off tomorrow.

Josh Herrin is on pole after running a superior lap early in the qualifying time attack. Brandon Paasch has won 2 in a row. Eslick is looking to join Russell and DuHamel with 5 wins. Hayes is back. The Suzuki's look really fast, but the riders don't seem to have the experience to win.

We'll see what happens. Should be a good race tomorrow.

The red flag was questionable, but it seems the ten lap restart was actually to the letter of the rules. The riders must complete 53 for the race to be called, but they only completed 52 because the red flag was shown just before Herrin crossed the stripe to complete lap 53. The rules stipulate a 10 lap minimum, and the AMA chose to run the minimum. The flag could be argued, but the restart was necessary, and it produced the longest Daytona 200 race in history, which is kind of cool to witness after 81 years.

The questionable part of the officiating, imo, was that Brandon Paasch's penalty was upheld after the restart. So he crossed the line 2nd, but finished well down the order due to the penalty. Seems sort of weird after the entire field was given 20-30 second advantage from the red flag.

Overall, I thought it was a great race, and I feel badly for Richie Escalante. The Suzuki GSX-R750 definitely had something this weekend, and despite my prediction that Team M4 did not have the rider experience, Escalante rode a flawless race, only to be taken out by a harsh pass from Josh Herrin. The red flag forced Herrin to win the race twice, which was probably the best thing for him, since people would have claimed ill-gotten victory, if the red flag had not come out.

Hayes also rode a solid race, it would have been amazing if he could actually have held that lead coming out of the bus stop, but a Next Gen bike does not have enough power to produce its own draft.

Disappointed that Paasch and Eslick weren't really in contention. Both were trying to make history, but it wasn't meant to be.

I think the rule was written specifically for Daytona, since it's a longer distance race. The regular rules allow races to be waved if they complete 75% or something like that. For the Daytona 200, 75% would still leave almost 15 laps remaining. I think that why they created the current rule that requires a restart of 10 laps minimum, if 5 laps or more remain at the time of the red flag. It is curious that they would require a 10 lap minimum if 5 laps remain, but stranger rules have existed.

IIRC, Hayes was in 2nd place about 20 seconds down when the red flag was displayed. It was Cam Peterson who curiously unlapped himself. At the beginning of the 53rd lap, Herrin had just pipped him at the line to put him 1 lap down. Technically, at the conclusion of the 53rd lap Peterson unlapped himself, but it seems like he should have been a lap down, since the 53rd lap was not recognized.....at least that's what the stewards determined and that's what triggered the 10 lap sprint.

But here's the catch, when Cam beat Josh to the line before Josh completed Lap 53, Cam Peterson had just finished Lap 52. Lap 53 didn't count, but Lap 52 did. Maybe there was some technicality that allowed Cam to receive credit for Lap 52 though the red flag technically came out before he completed his Lap 52. Or maybe Cam Peterson also had his lap count rolled back by 1 lap. If so, he was not lapped on Lap 51. It's also possible that race direction determined that the red flag was displayed in the .05 between when Peterson crossed for 52 and Herrin crossed for 53.

Honestly, I have no idea. Just thinking out loud regarding possible rulings. They definitely need to look at those rules because Peterson did indeed have a shot at the win, despite being out of contention most of the race.