Zemke takes the Daytona 200

Jake Zemke relied on quick pit stops, hard riding and a never-give-up performance to win to collect the winner's trophy in the 65th running of the Daytona 200 by Honda on his CBR600RR.

“I’ve gotten second the first year and third last year, and there was one spot on the box that I had to get,” said Zemke. “We’re there.”

The kick-off race of the 2006 AMA Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme season wasn’t looking good for Zemke early, however. His teammate Miguel Duhamel had the younger rider beat on all three fronts heading into the 44th lap of the 68-lap race. But as the five-time Daytona 200 winner blasted  through turn 1 on the brakes, he lost his rear tire and high-sided onto the pavement.

For most riders—especially those not racing the entire Formula Xtreme series, like Duhamel—that would be the end of their campaign, but the 37-year-old Honda rider, half-smashed faceshield and all, jumped up, ran to his rashed CBR600RR and remounted, 24 seconds behind the new leader Zemke.

“I was just trying to salvage, to see if anything was going to go my way and I would have a shot at it,” Duhamel said. “That’s racing. You’ve got to have some luck, and on that side, we didn’t have the luck at the right places.”

As the leaders’ second pit stops shook out over the next few laps, Zemke found himself 16 seconds ahead of Erion Racing’s Josh Hayes. Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo was third, and Duhamel was fourth. Yamaha’s other factory rider, Eric Bostrom, was in fifth.

With Zemke and Hayes far out front, Duhamel made a brief push toward DiSalvo, but the Yamaha rider upped his pace as he felt the heat of the No. 1 Honda. As the next few laps played out, Duhamel stopped pushing his Honda, which was probably suffering from more damage than the broken windshield and cracked fairing indicated.

After a pace-car situation was resolved with 9 laps to go, Hayes found himself a couple seconds behind Zemke, and made a run at the leader. But it wouldn’t be enough, as Zemke put down his fastest lap of the race, a 1:41.840, to re-gap his challenger in the second-to-last lap.

“I was gaining on him," Hayes said. "I really started trying hard. I thought I might have something for him. Once he realized I was there and coming, he picked up the pace. He won it honest.”

With a few laps to go, Bostrom would take fourth from Duhamel, who would finish in fifth.

© 2006, American Motorcyclist Association