2024 Daytona 200 aka Big D

Hayes pushing his bike halfway around the track on the hottest day of the weekend just in case there's a red flag.

Clearly the Duc can make it on 2 stops, the 4 cylinder bikes are stretching it. Mesa's crew (Pirelli) did awesome, 2 tires and fuel both times pretty flawless. Rahal (Pirelli) clearly on a 3 stop strategy when the other Ducati teams were on 2 stop strategy. Mesa spent a lot of the race in the 51's where Herrin (Dunlop) was able to maintain a sub 50 pace even at the end.

My guess is the Dunlop front, and new Dual Compound rear has more endurance and the lap times for the Pirelli riders dropped off on the longer stints.

M4 had 4 riders in the 200, the pit stops probably had to be staggered? The 2 stop strategy probably threw a wrench into the plans. They were fastest in the pits for sure.

The original bulletin said VP MGP-R was the new spec fuel (More octane, more O2). As usual it was difficult to get until a few months before the race. Then MA issued a bulletin that MGP would be allowed for Daytona and on sale cheap to deplete the old stock.

Well, when VP showed up, guess what- NO MGP-R! they said it would be there Friday afternoon. Even for the riders who pre-ordered. So if you re-tuned and lets say upped your compression a little bit for the new fuel, you are screwed until Saturday. That was a major screw up on VP's part.

 

Yes

 

No press , a lot of $$$ left the paddock . One team has Ducati full support another doesn't is all I know.

 

What the TV/Live Stream doesn't show is the weather. The wind changed 3 times during that race. Super sunny then some cloud cover and a little sprinkle to boot on the west end. Surprised it ran flawless. The first stint with the wind pushing them "ever so slightly " into the chicane I was thinking trouble for sure getting sucked into the draft. Then there was a cross wind for a few laps then major head wind coming up the front. I think most bikes were just using 5th , M4 guys were grabbing 6th at the line for a split second. Josh was flawless and on point, great ride.

 

I think Ritchie pitted early planning to work w/Herrin post-stop. Herrin looked back and gave Ritchie a thumbs-up as they went down pit lane but Ritchie's stop was a bit slow.

Great showing by the young racers. Ty (18), obviously. Teague Hobbs (18) 10th after Fong's DQ. Yaakov (16) 11th. It looks like she finished about a second behind PJ on track. Blake Davis (17) 18th.

PJ ripped through the field early but didn't catch the big draft group. From 31st to 13th or so.

 

Kaleb was significantly down on power to the ram air Yamahas and the Robem Aprilias. We messed around with gearing trying to see what the power band would do- that motor build is quite different from my FZ build, which made more torque and HP down low. Also I think the Yamaha front end suffers in the high speed dogleg and chicane which seems unbelievably bumpier every year. Rodio was flat out through that dogleg- it was impressive.

I'm still coming to terms with the Aprilia, it's got tons of potential. Needs to be ridden a little differently and it is a little sensitive to spring rates- not having springs around is another problem but that's on me- should have gotten my hands on some before the weekend.

Every session the bike got better. The Aprilia turns in like magic and is phenomenal on the brakes compared to the R7. My exit setup sucks right now, combined with my general lack of ability to find a late apex, it's a vicious circle- The revs drop while I wait for the bike to rotate and then the exit sucks- (normally my strongest part of the corner.) And exits are EVERYTHING at Daytona. I ended up about 1.5 sec off my PB from last year on the FZ, not where I want to be, but I just need to keep working- as usual it's the rider that needs the most work.

Had a great couple of races with the more senior riders in the back of the grid, the battle for 19th was real! After Kaleb's crash, his bars were all bent in and he ended up catching us coming to the chicane on the last lap- got in the middle of our little battle and blew up all of our drafting strategies. We told him after- if you can ride like that with the bars hitting the tank, we're never adjusting your clip ons again.

I was garaged between Peter Hickman on one side, and @assjuice cyrus on the other. Royalty!

@regularguy really appreciate all of your help and taking the time to answer dumb Aprilia questions.

 

How would the foam change the tank capacity?

 

Because it has volume. Not a lot but still it could be a couple % of total tank volume. This could then be added when cutting and welding the top of the tank for a quick fill.

 

Hank and I were watching in the shade of the dunlop trailer of Nascar 4 and we saw him pushing his bike along the apron. I told him that's why he is a champion. Never give up.

 

What beer hunter said. I don’t know how they measure but foam definitely impacts tank fuel capacity.

 

The estimate for the foam I have is 3% reduction in capacity.

 

That’s why I thought, it reduces the volume of the tank. So they added to much when modifying the tank, which again begs to answer, why wouldn’t you make sure it was legal? Should be pretty easy to test before you get to Daytona and get a DQ.

 

Weird, we had 4 drums delivered on Wednesday and another on Friday afternoon. Should have stopped by we'd have loaned one.

 

Thanks for the support.
The Maximum capacity allowed is 18L and when tested our tank held 18.4

This was an oversight by myself, it was an unmodified std tank with dry break fitted. Extra foam would have helped but most likely some kind of filler would need to be added to reduce volume.

I can’t see anyone cheating with an oversized tank as there is no benefit, you still need to make two stops. We had enough fuel to do 3-4 laps more in each stint than we did.
Obviously very disappointed with the DQ but looking at the positives we led a lot of laps and were a serious contender for the win.

Looking forward to contending for wins on the SBK.

 

Does anyone know if Josh was running a Ducati Corse bike? That bike had some serious legs on it.
Saw Paolo Ciabatti, I figure he didn't just show up to watch the 200.
Maybe that's the Worldsbk team too? Heck of a pit stop.

 

He was on an HSBK built V2.

Ciabatti was there because Warhorse is a factory supported team and he is the sporting director for road racing outside of MotoGP.

 

Agreed. (On this being a cheat)

I think a hard fast rule on 18L capacity for all machines only benefits the twin as it only has two cylinders to feed. I would file a protest statint 4 cylinder bikes are being penalized and will always use more fuel in a 57 lap race. Its not rocket science that fuel consumption on the different machines will be different.

If something doesn't change we are in for a long Ducati run in the 200.

 

And it's spring break.

 

Farrell just posted to FB

Pulled over on HWY 75 just south of Macon, GA.
Blew the engine in my truck.
Stranded on the side of the highway. Need someone to tow the trailer off the road and or help get the trailer back to WI.

 

That's not quite how it works, two BIGGER cylinders, so more fuel per squirt. Basically, 100hp is going to need the same amount of CFM of air to produce, which is going to require the matching amount of fuel to match. Now, you can make a motor that's 'sloppy' and throws excess unburnt fuel down the exhaust, etc, and throw the consumption off, but that's not the result of two cylinders vs four.