Cycle News Staff | March 8, 2023
The 81st running of the Daytona 200 is getting set to roar this weekend at Daytona International Speedway and it will be one of the most competitive in the race’s history with 51 riders from 16 countries attempting to qualify.
The United States leads the way in the rider list with 32 entrants from 18 states. From there, Canada, Portugal, Great Britain and Cuba have two riders each while the Czech Republic, Spain, Brazil, Australia, Guyana, South Africa, Ireland, Argentina, France, Italy and Peru each have a single rider entered.
There will also be six manufacturers represented with Yamaha, Suzuki, MV Agusta, Triumph, Ducati and Kawasaki present.
“This will mark MotoAmerica’s second year of running the race and interest in the event continues to rise at a rapid rate,” said MotoAmerica COO, Chuck Aksland. “To have riders from 16 different countries heading to Daytona Beach is huge as one of our goals was to work toward building the race into a truly international event as it once was. I think 16 countries being represented shows that our goals are being realized. It’s also impressive to have six different manufacturers with an opportunity to win the Daytona 200.”
Let’s have a look at who we think will be in the fight for the winner’s Rolex Daytona this Saturday.
Brandon Paasch
The current and two-time Daytona 200 Champion is one of the firm favorites in this year’s event on the ultra-quick TOBC Racing Triumph Street Triple. Paasch pulled a master-stroke in Daytona-style racing last year, using the draft to slingshot from fourth onto the final banking to nip past a brokenhearted Cameron Petersen’s Yamaha, a move he’s also pulled on Sean Dylan Kelly in 2021. Can Paasch become the first rider in history to win three Daytona 200’s in a row?
Josh Herrin
The Warhorse HSBK Ducati NYC rider took pole last year in Ducati’s return to the race and looked in prime position to add to his 2010 triumph until his team misjudged his fuel consumption, which is kind of an important thing at Daytona. The Georgian will thus be out for blood this year as the lead of six Ducatis that include new fancied teammate, former WorldSBK, EWC and MotoGP rider, Xavi Fores.
Sheridan Morias
Sheridan Morias was one of the surprise packages last year by very nearly taking the win on his Yamaha YZF-R6. The South African has a massive bank of experience in everything from WorldSBK to endurance racing and even the street circuit series in the International Road Race Championship (IRRC) and his diminutive stature is perfectly suited to the banks of Daytona, plus he won’t want to be duped the same way he was in 2022 after leading onto the last banking on the last lap but ending up third at the flag.
Cameron Petersen
At Daytona, there’s always a winner and a loser, and for Cameron Petersen, he was on the wrong end of that equation in 2022 after he was denied a career-first 200 win by just 0.007 seconds by Paasch and his flying Triumph.
Petersen, Jake Gagne’s teammate once again in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship for 2023, will have the might of Richard Stamboli’s Attack Performance Yamaha team behind him and thus one of the fastest and most methodically prepared bikes on the grid and must go into the event as one of the heavy race favorites.
Josh Hayes
Evergreen Josh Hayes is still chasing that elusive “real” Daytona 200 win after his 2008 triumph was denied when his Honda was found to be running an illegal crankshaft. Riding once again for Squid Hunter Racing on the Yamaha YZF-R6, the Mississippi Madman knows time is running out if he’s to take the one title that’s eluded him in his illustrious career. However, after a massive crash at Barber last year that broke his leg, fitness might come into question although his determination certainly won’t.
Xavi Fores
Spaniard Xavi Fores makes his American racing debut in the Warhorse HSBK Ducati NYC team alongside Josh Herrin at Daytona, the rider he replaces for the 2022 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship as Herrin moves back up to Superbike. One of the most experienced riders in terms of international competition on the grid, Fores has proven himself time and again in everything from MotoGP to WorldSBK, MotoE and World Endurance, and should be expected to be at the pointy end in his first taste of the high banks at Daytona.
Tyler Scott
A favorite for the 2023 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship, Tyler Scott will have the hopes of the Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki team on his shoulders on the GSX-R750, one of nine such entries in the race. The Russian-born American teenager’s ice-cool nature and undoubted fitness, plus his ever-increasing speed with the still-developing GSX-R750 will be a potent combination at Daytona.
Danny Eslick
A four-time Daytona 200 champion, one can never rule out the mercurial Danny Eslick. Returning with the TOBC team he won with in 2015, 2017 and 2018, nobody better knows how to win at Daytona and he wants to make up for a disappointing 200 (by his standards) last year when he took sixth, but over one minute behind his victorious teammate, Brandon Paasch.
Ben Young
The current and two-time Canadian Superbike Champion Ben Young will return to Daytona for the first time since 2012 when he fronts the grid on the Bridgestone/CSBK Yamaha YZF-R6. Young, Scottish born but now a naturalized Canadian, defeated former MotoAmerica Junior Cup and Twins Cup Champion Alex Dumas for the CSBK title in 2022 and could spring a surprise on the high banks but he’ll be up against it in such a stacked field in 2023.
Blake Davis
The 2022 MotoAmerica Twins Cup Champion, Blake Davis, moves up to the Supersport ranks in 2023 abord the Biothermal/Blake Davis Racing Yamaha YZF-R6. Daytona is a happy hunting ground for Davis as the Floridian track signaled his first Twins Cup victory in what would be his title-winning season last year, and given how quickly he took to the bigger YZF-R7 after a couple of seasons in the Junior Cup ranks, don’t be surprised if Davis is at the sharp end when the last-lap flag comes out. CN
