Kawasaki 1-2 in Daytona

Initial winner Honda’s Hayes DQ’d after inspection

By Motorcycle.Com Staff, Mar. 10, 2008

In a stunning turn of events, Kawasaki was awarded the top two spots on the podium at the Daytona 200 after initial winner Honda’s Josh Hayes was disqualified following a post-race inspection.

Hayes, who had finished the 69-lap race with a 32.762 second lead over Attack Kawasaki’s Chaz Davies, was disqualified after inspectors noticed that the crankshaft of his CBR600RR had been illegally altered. This bumped Davies up to first place followed by teammate and last year’s Daytona 200 winner, Steve Rapp. Larry Pegram, racing for Ducati, was promoted to third.

In more unfortunate news for Honda, five-time Daytona 200 winner Miguel DuHamel was black-flagged, after early in the race entering the pits to change to his back-up motorcycle. Under America Motorcyclist Association rules, riders may only do so during the first three laps in the race and with permission from the chief steward or race manager.

After his first lap, Honda asked a race official, who was neither the chief steward nor race manager, whether Duhamel was allowed to make the swap, and the race official incorrectly indicated that he could.

After making the exchange, race officials allowed Duhamel to continue racing but had no choice but to issue the black flag after lap 54.