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AMA Superbike: Honda on Daytona 200


The Daytona 200 has been the scene of a couple fiascos in recent years. Last year the AMA was to blame when it botched a red-flag restart with the pace car, this time around Honda ran into problems with three out of four main contenders withdrawing due to fuel issues. Honda's ace, Miguel Duhamel, was blaming the snafu on faulty fuel pumps, but upon further investigation the manufacturer is now pointing to a problem with its dry-break fuel tank system.

In the 2007 Daytona 200 by Honda event, the CBR600RR machines fielded by American Honda and Erion Racing all suffered fuel-related problems that affected the outcome of the race. American Honda's Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke, and Erion Racing's Aaron Gobert all dropped out of the race. Erion's Josh Hayes, the reigning AMA Formula Xtreme champion, following a premature pit stop, was able to finish in sixth place after similar issues dropped him from the lead pack of riders. All four CBR600RRs had sufficient fuel in their tanks when they encountered problems during the race.

The four machines all featured the same aftermarket quick-fill refueling dry-break system. Post-race evaluation of the bikes by American Honda has traced the fuel starvation problem to an apparent venting issue associated with the quick-fill dry-break fuel tank systems. There were no mechanical failures with any of the four machines. The CBR600RR of Duhamel, Zemke, Gobert and Hayes were the only CBR600RRs that suffered fuel starvation problems at Daytona, and they were the only bikes running this dry-break system. The other 14 CBR600RR machines entered in the Daytona 200 and Supersport class that did not use this dry-break system-including the Erion Honda CBR600RR Supersport bikes of Hayes and Gobert-did not experience any problems.

American Honda would like to thank its sponsors and the Daytona organization for another successful Daytona event, and look forward to a season of close AMA road racing, commencing once again at the Honda Superbike Classic, April 20-22 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.