Ben Bostrom Wins 7 Lap Sprint, Damo Cudlin 13th...

The Daytona 200 race was run at night for the first time this year, resulting in an event described by roadracingworld.com as “a race marred by incidents, errors and controversy.”

The problems began on lap 36 of the 57 lap race when the lights at the chicane began to fail. Race officials called out the safety car but as the slowing riders bunched together at the now dark chicane, Tommy Aquino was hit from behind and crashed, leaving his bike in the middle of the track. The race was red-flagged while Aquino was recovered to the medical centre. He was subsequently declared unhurt.

The race restarted with the bikes behind the safety car in the positions they had held on lap 37. Two laps later, another crash caused the race to be suspended again. The race finally restarted as a six lap sprint to the finish.

Yamaha YZF-R6s took first and second place, with Ben Bostrom the winner, Josh Herrin second and Jason DiSalvo (Suzuki GSX-R600) third. Fastest lap of the race went to Brit Chaz Davies on an Aprilia RSV1000R (don't ask us to explain how they work out which bikes are elligable to race) with a time of 1:48.948.

Phase One's Damian Cudlin (ESP Yamaha R6) finished the race in a creditable 13th place, just 51 seconds behind the leader. Cudlin was described in the results as hailing from “Taree, NSW, Sweedin” but I suppose all those foreign accents sound the same.

Quotes

Ben Bostrom, 1st: "The race was really intense and under the lights it was really spectacular. When we started out, there were several of us going tooth and nail at the front.  I loved every minute of it."

Josh Herrin, 2nd: "It was a really awesome race and really eventful and probably one of the most exciting races I have been in. For being my first 200, actually for my first race over 20 laps, I think I did really good and I am really happy with it. We got a Yamaha one-two finish and that might be the first time that has been done in the 200."

Jason DiSalvo, 3rd: "The M4 Suzuki was running really strong up top out there. I think if we could have been a little bit closer and had a little bit better preparation coming into the final lap we could have made a run. We could have got the double draft and I was sitting in third thinking this was going to work out, but it wasn't to be tonight."

Results: Top 16