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Team Yamaha Ready for Daytona
Category: Racing News
Date: 07 Mar 2006
Time:
13:37:01 -0500
Comments
The most successful manufacturer in the history of the Daytona 200 returns in 2006 with a strong rider line-up and a potent new weapon. Yamaha, winner of the most prestigious race on the American calendar an unprecedented 18 times, hopes to add to that total in the March 11 Daytona 200. Following three days of fine-tuning the all-new Yamaha R-6 on the Championship Cup Series weekend, prior to the start of the AMA Superbike Championship, the Yamaha team is ready for both Saturday’s 200 and Thursday’s Supersport race at Daytona International Speedway. Yamaha last raced the Daytona 200 in 2002. Yamaha’s Jason Disalvo and Eric Bostrom got valuable head starts on the competition by taking part in the CCS races. On the new Formula Xtreme-spec R-6, Disalvo was able to lap the 2.95-mile Speedway quicker than ever, lowering the benchmark he set with the fastest time during the all-teams winter tire test in December. What makes last weekend’s feat more impressive is that it was done on a race tire, not the qualifier that he’d used three months earlier. With lap times in the mid-1:41’s, Disalvo could become the first rider to break the 1:40 barrier in Thursday’s pole qualifying. Many believe the 22-year-old New Yorker is the early favorite for the 200 win, which would make him part of an elite Yamaha family: World Champions Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Scott Russell, Giacomo Agostini, Steve Baker, Johnny Cecotto, Graeme Crosby, and the late Jarno Saarinen all enjoyed victory in the March classic aboard Yamahas.