Daytona 2025 VIP Magazine by 541 Marketing

Slicer’s Corner

Greetings to you, a valued member of our Daytona VIP Superfans! The 83rd running of the Daytona 200 was truly historic with Josh Herrin taking his Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati to his third consecutive Daytona victory!

The start of the season always brings familiar teams and faces to the paddock, as well as to our VIP Superfan Experience. It’s always exciting to see the new teams that have joined the MotoAmerica paddock. One team that certainly brought a lot of attention was the ARCH Racing team. Team owner Keanu Reeves hired veteran racer Corey Alexander to campaign the ARCH 2S-R in the 2025 Mission Super Hooligan National Championship. The class continues to grow with over 45 entries and nine OEM motorcycle brands competing.

One of several teams that definitely did their homework during the off-season was the Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing team. Former Mission King Of The Baggers champion Kyle Wyman was on top of his game, winning both races and taking home a cool $5,000 for winning the Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge!

We hope you enjoyed the two days of motorcycle road racing entertainment at the “World Center of Racing!” Special thanks to Scott Odell for providing several pieces of his unique photography artwork.

Overall, it looks like we are going to have a great year of racing, with the next stop on the U.S. Tour at Barber Motorsports Park in April.

Thank you again for being one of our VIP Superfans. Please enjoy and share your Daytona VIP Superfan Experience magazine, which includes Sean Bice’s “Duly Noted” race summary. We look forward to seeing you again next year at Daytona or, better yet, at one of our many stops in 2025!

Best Regards, Ron

“Slicer”Heben

GUEST SPEAKERS

Sean Bice, K-Tech’s Chris Nash, Larry Meyer, Alessandro Di Mario, Danny Eslick, Tyler Scott, Greg White, Jason Pridmore, Hayden Gillim, Troy Herfoss, Jason Kingham, and Michael Martin.

Front and center as our ﬁrst guest speaker was Chris Nash and the K-Tech Suspension crew. Our VIPs were treated to a tour of the MotoAmerica Race Control and Timing & Scoring and MA TV compound.

We had a great turnout for the pre-grid of the Mission King Of The Baggers race one. You can’t beat the opportunity to stand next to the likes of Loris Baz,

and

Troy Herfoss, Kyle Wyman

Hayden Gillim.

Being able to stand alongside the top three ﬁnishers in the King Of The Baggers at the historic Daytona Victory Circle was a great experience!

Through the lens of Scott Odell

Moto Art’s Scott Odell always has a unique perspective when it comes to photography. Please enjoy his taste of Daytona.

Duly Noted Random notes, comments, statistics, musings, and bits of trivia from the Daytona round:

Fast Things First

I watched the Daytona 500 this year. You know, that little car race they have at the “World Center Of Racing” as a lead-up to the big one: the Daytona 200. The announcers frequently mentioned that the NASCAR Cup Series cars reach top speeds of 190 miles per hour on the high banks at Daytona. “Not bad,” I thought. “Wait till we get there.”

Are you ready for this? The highest trap speed achieved during this year’s MotoAmerica round at Daytona International Speedway was during Saturday morning’s Warm Up for Race 2 in the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship. S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Tyler O’Hara got his Indian Challenger up to an eyeball-flattening 193.0 miles per hour on Lap 4 of the 9 laps he did during that session.

Not too far behind O’Hara was Supersport Next Generation rider Danny Eslick aboard his TOBC Racing Triumph Street Triple 765 RS. On Lap 6 of 57 in the Daytona 200 itself, four-time 200 winner Eslick went 182.6 miles per hour.

Here are the highest trap speeds achieved in the other two race classes at Daytona:

Mission Super Hooligan National Championship: 173.3 miles per hour

• Jake Lewis, Saddlemen Race Development Harley-Davidson Pan America, Race 1 Lap 1 of 6

• Dominic Doyle, Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing MT-09 SP, Race 2 Lap 4 of 6 SC-Project Twins Cup Championship: 163.6 miles per hour

• Sean Ungvarsky, Koch Racing Yamaha YZF-R7, Race 1 Lap 1 of 9

Chicanery

Like most chicanes on road racing courses, the chicane at Daytona International Speedway is is a four-turn track feature designed primarily to slow the motorcycles and cars down after they come off the Turn 7 banking and before they go up onto the Turn 12 banking.

In 2022, the chicane heretofore known as the “Bus Stop” was renamed the “Le Mans Chicane,” and the first chicane at the iconic Mulsanne Straight in France was renamed the “Daytona Chicane.” As an additional nod to the alliance, the curbs in the Le Mans Chicane were repainted in the same blue and yellow used at Le Mans.

For this year, the Le Mans Chicane was slightly reconfigured with raised curbing that is bordered entirely by pavement instead of grass. First used during the Rolex 24 car race, the chicane did slow the cars down a little bit through that section, and the expectation was that lap times would be slower for motorcycles, as well.

Well, that wasn’t quite what happened.

You

Can’t Curb Their Enthusiasm

Whereas last year, new lap records and race lap records were broken in all four classes that raced at Daytona, admittedly, that didn’t happen this year. But records were still broken despite the changes made to the Le Mans Chicane.

S&S/Indian Motorcycle rider Tyler O’Hara notched the highest overall trap speed at Daytona when he went 193.0 miles per hour aboard his Indian Challenger in Mission King Of The Baggers Race 2.

J. Nelson.

Danny Eslick got his TOBC Racing Triumph Street

765 RS up to 182.6 miles per hour during the early stages of the Daytona 200.

In the Daytona 200 and on the way to his unprecedented, third-consecutive Daytona 200 victory, Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati rider Josh Herrin set a new race lap record of 1:47.879 on Lap 51 of 57, which almost eclipsed Richie Escalante’s Supersport class lap record of 1:47.833 set in Daytona 200 Qualifying 1 last year.

A new class lap record was set in the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship by Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman, who did a 1:49.383 in Friday’s Qualifying 2. Later on Friday, in KOTB Race 1, S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss set a new race lap record of 1:49.608.

Not to be outdone, in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, the class lap record and race lap record were also broken despite the track changes. Defending Super Hooligan Champion and Saddlemen Race Development rider Cory West set a new class lap record of 1:51.032 aboard his Harley-Davidson Pan America in Friday’s Qualifying 2. On Saturday, Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle set a new race lap record with a 1:51.289 aboard his Yamaha MT-09 SP.

Photo

Brian

Triple

Photo by Brian J. Nelson.

do too much

Slippery Snake Slingshots To Victory

Slipstreaming or “drafting” has been a big part of racing at Daytona International Speedway since it opened for car racing in 1959, and since 1964 when motorcycles started using the 31-degree banking at the Speedway.

There have been many tales told of the efforts the motorcycle race teams have made over the years to improve the aerodynamics of the motorcycles and their riders. Everything from wake-modifying tail sections and NACA ducts to extensive wind-tunnel testing and riders perfecting their race tucks and trying to crawl under the paint on their motorcycles.

Then we have the riders and teams of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship with their by-rule, fairing-free, “streetfighter”-style machines. And, among those high-handlebar heroes is Saddlemen Race Development’s six-foot, four-inch rider Jake Lewis whose nickname is “The Snake.” Well, that super-lengthy reptile of a human Jake the Snake sure did get slippery on the high banks of Daytona.

If you didn’t see him rocket from sixth place to first and take the checkered flag in Super Hooligan Race 2 on Saturday, you need to check out the full race on our YouTube Channel. What Lewis did to win that race was nothing short of astounding. By the way, the win was Lewis’s first at Daytona International Speedway, which is now a highlight of his long and storied career spanning two eras of AMA-sanctioned professional road racing.

The Hurt Locker

Our thoughts and best wishes go out to the riders who suffered injuries at Daytona International Speedway, including S&S/Indian Motorcycle rider Loris Baz, who sustained a deep avulsion on his left elbow when he crashed in Mission King Of The Baggers Race 1. The nasty-looking wound required stitches, but he still competed in Race 2 and ended up on the podium.

Jake Lewis celebrates on the cool-down lap after ripping past five riders on the final run to the checkered flag in Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Race 2 at Daytona.

VBoost/Victory Racing USA’s Gene Frerichs shows oﬀ the souvenirs he got courtesy of the crash he suﬀered in SC-Project Twins Cup Qualifying 2 at Daytona

Drop And Give Me Twenty

VBoost/Victory Racing USA’s Gene Frerichs went down hard in SC-Project Twins Cup Qualifying 2, and he sustained injuries to both of his wrists and forearms, which resulted in both of his lower arms being placed in casts.

Finally, Get Fast Performance rider Jason Farrell had a get-off on the restart of the red-flagged Daytona 200, which brought out another red flag. Farrell’s crash was a bad one, and he suffered a concussion in the incident.

Best wishes for speedy recoveries to Loris, Gene, Jason, and anyone else who was injured at Daytona International Speedway during our event.

Two riders reached Double-X (Roman numerals) milestones at Daytona International Speedway, and in two distinctly different ways.

TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick competed in his 20th Daytona 200 as he tried again to join Scott Russell and Miguel Duhamel in the “Five-Time Fraternity.” Here’s hoping that Slick keeps racing in the 200 next year and beyond because we’d love to see him get the V (Roman numeral) for victory.

Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman won his 19th and 20th all-time Mission King Of The Baggers races to extend his KOTB career wins lead even more over his competitors.