2013 AMA Daytona 200 Race Report

Cameron Beaubier led a parade of Yamaha YZF-R6 racebikes to win the 72nd running of the famed Daytona 200. The Yamaha Extended Service Graves Yamaha rider started from pole position and led for 50 of 57 laps before winning by a 22.254-second margin.

Behind Beaubier were four other R6 riders including his teammate Garret Gerloff who finished second. The Y.E.S. riders were followed by Bobby Fong of Triple Crown /RMR, and the RoadRace Factory team’s Jake Gagne and JD Beach. The five Yamaha riders were also the only five to finish on the lead lap.

The race was clean of the red flags that were common in recent runnings of the Daytona 200, but it also lacked the dramatic 0.048-second victory by Joey Pascarella in last year’s race. The 2013 race did produce some noteworthy results however.

Beaubier had a near perfect race with two clean pit stops. The 20-year-old California native took the lead for good on Lap 21 and developed a comfortable gap for the win.

“I’m pretty tired right now but I’m trying to soak in everything. I rode as hard as I could in the first stint and then tried to be super consistent,” says Beaubier. “I had one little mess up running wide in Turn one but after that I calmed down and kept clicking off lap times.”

For his teammate, the 2013 Daytona 200 marked a big turnaround from last year’s race where he crashed and broke his leg in a practice session. Gerloff led in the early going and was able finish with a 15.888 second gap over Fong.

“(The race was) longer than I thought it would be, but it was awesome,” says Gerloff. “It was awesome to be in the front group at the beginning and then Cameron started pulling away and we started pulling him back. Every once in a while we’d pass him and then he made a run for it and kind of got away. I tried to catch up but I just couldn’t do it. Big thanks to my team for awesome pit stops and all the testing we do. That’s why we’re 1-2 on the podium. I think this is going to be an awesome year and I just want to keep it rolling.”

Other notable results include Sturgess Cycle Triumph rider Elena Myers and MPH Racing’s Melissa Paris finishing ninth and tenth respectively, becoming the first women to ever finish in the top 10 of the Daytona 200. Myers finished two laps back of Beaubier on her Triumph Daytona 675, 16.312 seconds ahead of Paris on her Honda CBR600RR. Their order could have been reversed if it weren’t for a ride-through penalty assessed to Paris for a pit stop infraction.

[Source: AMA]

By Dennis Chung