Saturday SuperbikePlanet.com Cinema Presents the 2000 Daytona 200 Pre-Race Show

Miguel Duhamel on the #17 American Honda/Dunlop/Jardine/Shoei-sponsored Honda RVT1000R RC51 tries to hold off Aaron Yates on the #20 American Suzuki/Yoshimura/Dunlop/Motorex-backed Suzuki GSX-R750 during the Wiseco Superbike 100 race two at Mid-Ohio on July 16, 2000.  Duhamel's team mate Nicky Hayden, on the #69 American Honda/Honda Riders Club/Pro Honda Oils/Dunlop-sponsored RC51 keeps the duo in sight as he comes up on a lapped rider going into the carousel just past the mid-point of the race.

With just a handful of laps to go, Duhamel would bin it while leading coming out of the Thunder Valley area, and Yates would take his second win of the weekend in the doubleheader round, with The Kentucky Kid following him home to a hard-earned 2nd-place effort.  

The Honda Super Cycle Weekend presented by Dunlop Tire event at the Lexington, OH. facility was in it's 18th running at the northeast Ohio track, but also in the first-ever weekend of running a doubleheader round.  AMA Pro Racing had experimented with the two-race format since the '98 season at the Road Atlanta rounds, and for the 2000 season Mid-Ohio and Road America would be added to the doubleheader slate in what is now a standard for the top-tiered America road racing class, ala World Superbike, but split into two days of the three-day race weekends.

Earlier in the season and a little over 1000 miles south, the AMA Superbike Championship kicked off in Daytona Beach, FL.with the 40th running of the 200-mile classic at the infamous Daytona International Speedway, in the days when the superbike class was the ruling show and still being run on the full, 3.56 mile course.  The race at Daytona had been run for 19 years on the beach course before heading to DIS for the first time in 1961, so technically 2000 would have been the 59th running of the '200.'

Dean Adams from SuperbikePlanet.com has been busy with his video editing skills and has put together another great Saturday diversion with this pre-race show from the 2000 season.  Saturday superbike cinema at it's best.

A big thanks to Dean Adams from SuperbikePlanet.com for this video of the 2000 Daytona 200 pre-race show.  Dean's been around the biz for what seems like forever (I can say that being around as a fan for what seems like forever), and has gone to the trouble of archiving this footage (and many others) from the true glory days of AMA Superbike Championship Series racing.  Thanks for all the hard work man, it's definitely appreciated!

Now kick back with your Saturday coffee--or other beverage of choice--and enjoy the exciting footage of  the pre-race show from the new millennium's first running of the classic Daytona 200.  And enjoy!

Aaron Yates Signed to Ride for Erik Buell Racing in 2013 AMA Pro Superbike Championship

Aaron Yates and members of the GPTech team take a final look at the team's #20 BCL Motorsports/GPTech GP212 before Double A-ron heads out for another practice session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 11, 2012.  Yates and the team were taking part in AMA Pro Road Racing's and IMS's hosting of the pre-race testing held at The Brickyard the weekend before the 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP.  After getting used to the team's Suzuki GSX-R1000 set-up, Yates and the GPTech team were ready to do some tire testing with the Bridgestone 'Battlax' spec tire of choice for the MotoGP and CRT class.  

Yates, in his first big return to racing after suffering a severely broken leg at Fontana in March '10, went on to finish 16th at Indy the next weekend in his and the team's MotoGP debut.  After having raced a couple of WERA events before the Indy round, Erik Buell Racing brought him back to the Superbike class in AMA Pro Road Racing's premier U.S. series towards the end of last season, and Yates rewarded himself and the team with a 4th-place finish in one of the season-ending rounds.

EBR announced yesterday that Yates would be back with the team, and full-time for the 2013 AMA Pro National Guard Superbike Championship season and along with returning sponsors AMSOIL and Team Hero will be on-board the team's EBR 1190RS superbikes, starting with the upcoming Daytona doubleheader opening round in less then 40 days.  Great news for EBR and for Aaron!

You can read the full press release below and we're looking forward to seeing #20 back on the track full-time again for the 2013 season!


Thanks to RoadRacing World.com for this press release announcing Aaron Yates' signing to ride for Erik Buell Racing in the 2013 AMA Superbike Championship.

Roadracing World.com Reports GPTech MotoGP CRT Team Awarded Wild Card Entries for 2013 U.S. MotoGP Rounds at COTA, Laguna Seca & Indy

The GP Tech team goes about readying the #20 BCL Motorsports/GPTech GP212 mount for rider Aaron Yates just before the afternoon practice session of testing hosted by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August '12, while The Enforcer waits in the background with his helmet on and his steely-eyed focus on what was yet to come. 

In only their third outing on-track before the next weekend's events surrounding the 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP, Yates and the team were still in the process of becoming familiar with the MotoGP-spec Bridgestone tires (after testing at two other venues with AMA-spec rubber) and making adjustments to the electronics on the GSX-R1000-powered CRT machine.

Only getting a brief minute to talk before he headed back out for more laps, I took the time to introduce myself to one of the true legends of AMA Pro Road Racing.  Having been a long-time fan of Yates' I explained, that it was great to see him back out at it again and that the sport needed more guys with his personality.  He took the time to thank me and shake my hand while casually saying 'we're just going to do what we can' and try and 'have some fun' in the process.  He also assured me his leg was completely healed from his devastating injuries suffered in an AMA Superbike practice session in California in spring of 2010.

Roadracing World.com reported earlier today that the GPTech team has been granted wild card entries with their CRT (claiming rules team) machine for all of the U.S. rounds in the 2013 season.  You can read more on that below.

Aaron Yates looks over the GPTech MotoGP CRT machine as the team preps the bike for another test run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 11, 2012.  The team had previously entered wild card entries in the Moto2 class at Indy with Jason DiSalvo in 2010 and Jake Gagne during the 2011 round, and decided to 'step-up' to the premier class at the 5th Annual Red Bull Indy MotoGP.

With the new claiming rules team bikes allowed on the grid with the multi-million dollar MotoGP prototypes in order to help fill the grids, the GPTech team was one of the first along with Attack Performance Kawasaki to field entires in the first season with the new rules in one or both of the U.S. rounds of the series. 

Yates put in a great effort for himself and the team in what was his first big race back at the track.  He had previously done some WERA events in order to get re-acclimated to being back in the saddle again after his long break from the track after being injured at Fontana back in early 2010 while still riding for the Michael Jordan Motorsports AMA Superbike team (note Yates' leathers from that season).  Although they finished 16th and first out of the points in the final, they were still running at the end and held the distinction of being the last bike running at the end of the 28-lap race.

Hopefully with the team announcing their intent to run all three U.S. rounds in the upcoming 2013 season they will be able to utilize the fine efforts of 'Double A-ron' again.  With the first U.S. round scheduled in Texas in late April '13, they have just a few precious months to get ready.  And regardless of the outcome, it was great seeing Yikes Yates back on the track again!


David Swarts at Roadracing World.com reports today that the GPTech MotoGP team has been awarded wild card entries for all of the MotoGP rounds in the United States next year for their CRT effort.  Read on:

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=50411

Here's a great glimpse at the team's efforts from their inuagural outing in the MotoGP class at the 5th Annual Red Bull Indy MotoGP round in August, thanks to Dean Adams and SuperbikePlanet.com.  This also has a great shot of the bike in it's 'raced-in' livery as opposed to the 'testing' basic graphics as what were used during the team's initial outing at IMS just a week before the Indy round:

http://superbikeplanet.com/2012/Aug/120817p2wsaxz.htm

And this was posted on Roadracing World.com back in early August '12 about the team's efforts to get ready for the Indy round over the August 17-19 weekend:

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=49267