Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

AMA Pro Racing does not run races in the rain at Daytona International Speedway, but Formula USA, CCS and AHRMA do run races at Daytona in the rain.

What’s it like to ride around the paint-stripe-covered, wall-lined Daytona Speedway in the rain? We talked with two of the top Formula USA racers about their recent experiences.

“I just rode around, used a lot of throttle control, tried to be real smooth,” said Kneedraggers.com Yamaha’s Matt Watt after qualifying on F-USA pole position with a YZF-R6. “The paint stripes are really super slippery. I hit one of them and the bike went sideways. So I just tried to ride around and stay off the paint….I didn’t know how hard I could go in because it was raining harder in some corners than others. But I was just trying to be careful.

“Turn one, there’s a major, big paint stripe going into turn one, so you have to make sure you stand the bike up and let off the brakes real quick when you go over it. The high-speed stuff, the kink, be careful through there. I tried to roll it and not chop it or wick it up through there. Entering the chicane, obviously. When it rains a lot there’s a big, huge puddle there that causes your bike to hydroplane. There’s grip there, but you have dodge the paint stripe.”

“Having to come off of turn six, out of the infield and out of the chicane; those two spots are real, real slick and the puddles against the dark pavement, and you can’t really see how deep the puddles are,” Formula USA Unlimited Grand Prix winner Michael Barnes said after wet qualifying. “That’s a real challenge, especially coming out of the chicane. Then to have a 170-plus-horsepower GSX-R1000 cruising around the banking in full-wet conditions, besides having the tire spinning on the banking, in the tri-oval the rear was stepped out a good foot. You could feel it, just full counter-steering through the tri-oval past the start/finish line. I can see why other organizations don’t race in the rain here.”

Another consequence of racing in the rain is that fallen riders slide much farther on wet pavement, quickly traveling through what is considered to be safe run-off room.

Tilley H-D/Buell’s Tripp Nobles crashed at the exit of the chicane during the wet Thunderbike final and slid a great distance before impacting inflatable air barriers at speed.

Earlier last week, Bettencourt Racing’s Jeff Wood crashed in the high-speed dogleg turn and nearly slid completely across the expansive run-off area and back across the west horseshoe.