Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Three-time AMA Superbike Champion Doug Chandler will sit out the 62nd Daytona 200 by Arai Superbike race, the second consecutive year Chandler has missed the March classic.

“I think we’re just going to do the 600 (race),” Chandler told Roadracingworld.com Saturday.

The 37-year-old Salinas, California native missed the 2002 edition of the Daytona 200 because he had no ride (he was later hired by the HMC Ducati team to finish the remainder of the AMA season). In 2003, however, Chandler, and longtime Crew Chief Gary Medley, came to Daytona with No Limit Motorsports, a Honda support team armed with CBR600RR Supersport machines and CBR954RRs built to be legal in both Superbike and Formula Xtreme.

Chandler was 20th-fastest in Wednesday’s first AMA Superbike practice at Daytona with a 1:55.166, but the soft-spoken racer improved to a 1:51.438 in Thursday’s one and only Superbike qualifying session, good enough for the 11th on the grid.

“I don’t think we planned on doing as much as we did on the (Honda CBR954RR) Superbike, but it seemed to get better and better,” said Chandler. “I’m really happy with what we’ve done with it around this track. With as little time as we had – we just kind of threw some stuff together and brought it back here to have something to ride – I was pretty happy with the lap times.”

Chandler said his new Honda was starting to feel like the Kawasaki ZX-7 Superbikes he rode from 1996 until 2001, adding, “(At) the end of the first day, I knew we were low (on top speed) on the banking, but our infield split was really good and I was really happy with the way the bike was working. I was focusing on that, trying to relate that to later in the season to normal racetracks. I was real happy with what the thing would do for me in the infield.

“And the acceleration of it, I don’t think we were down anywhere except the last two gears on the banking. A lot of that, I think, would (relate) to the aerodynamics of the bike, which we know we need to do some more work on that.” Chandler pointed to the lack of bodywork enclosing the underside of his Honda’s tailsection.

Chandler also mentioned a lack of complete quick-change hardware and, more importantly, the high fuel consumption of his Honda as factors in the decision to skip the 200-miler.

“I think with the month between this race and the next we’ll have a little bit more time, and we’ll hopefully get the motors a little better sorted out, get a little more speed out of it and I think we’ll be sitting pretty good for Fontana,” said Chandler.

“I’m very satisfied with the tires (Michelins), no real big surprises. We’ve got a real big selection. I think it’s going to come together, and we’re going to be in contention for some wins.”