DESPAIN WILL LEAD SPEED COVERAGE OF BIKE WEEK IN DAYTONA LONG-TIME VOICE OF MOTORCYCLING SHARES TOP FIVE BIKE WEEK MEMORIES Veteran motor sports broadcaster Dave Despain will lead a strong SPEED on-air team at Bike Week in Daytona, beginning with LIVE coverage of Daytona 200 qualifying for both the Supersport and Superstock races from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on March 9. With Despain handling host duties, Road Racing coverage will be handled by Ralph Sheheen, Freddie Spencer and Greg White. The SPEED Supercross team will include Sheheen, Denny Stephenson and Krista Voda, while Flat Track racing will be covered by Larry Meiers and Scott Parker. Billed as the “World’s Largest Motorcycle Event,” Bike Week is celebrating its 65th Anniversary in 2006 and Despain has been around for most of them in one capacity or the other, first attending in 1972 as an AMA public relations assistant. The host of Wind Tunnel on SPEED shares his Top Five Memories from his many years of attendance: 1.) The year Giacomo Agostini won the 200, in his one and only try, Motor Racing Network was still broadcasting the race and I was in their broadcast booth, high above start/finish. A minute or so after the checker, I heard this strange noise, growing louder and louder. I took off the headphones and realized it was the chanting of thousands of Italians, who had appeared from nowhere and were swarming across the tri-oval, oblivious to the threats of the Speedway’s aging security personnel. “Ago, Ago, Ago” they yelled at the top of their lungs as they awaited the return of their hero from the cool-off lap. In 34 years of going to Daytona, and including the stock car fan adoration I’ve witnessed for two generations of Earnhardts, I have never seen or heard anything else quite like that. 2.) The first year they ran “Supercross” in the tri-oval, a die-hard road race fan watched the action — and the crowd reaction — in gloomy silence. Then he turned to me and said, “We’re screwed! It’s only a matter of time until this will be the main event.” 3.) I hope I’ve got the chronology of Johnny Cecotto’s story right, for it was a long time ago. I believe 1973 was the first year he came to Daytona, and he didn’t have a garage; his Venezuelan crew didn’t know he needed to arrange that in advance. They wound up prepping the bike in the lobby of the Holiday Inn across the street, which drew quite a crowd. Little did we know, that next year, he would qualify on the front row, get pushed off the grid when his bike started puking water, start dead last and come back to finish on the podium. And the year after that, as his cavalier sponsor — the Venezuelan Yamaha importer — ignored the pleas of the crew and everybody else on pit road to bring him in, he won the race on a tire so shot that you could see the white cords from pit road as he flashed by start finish to start the last lap. I hate to think what might have happened, but I’m glad a guy with his talent got to win the race. 4.) In the early years, going to Daytona as an AMA PR person, part of my job was to file short “radio reports” for the Speedway on an old-fashioned answering machine called a Code-a-Phone. The idea was that radio stations could call the Code-a-Phone, record the reports and broadcast them. Because of the huge escalation of speed that eventually led to installation of the chicane, there were terrible problems with the tires. I believe this was 1977. Goodyear was the supplier back then and their stuff was blowing right and left, to the extent that plans were being made to divide the race into two 100-mile legs, an unprecedented move. A bit naive in the ways of the world — specifically the relationships among Goodyear, the Speedway and NASCAR — boy reporter here dutifully announced on the Code-a-Phone report, “Tire problems at Daytona.” Within minutes, I was summoned to the office of a Speedway functionary (who shall remain nameless) and summarily relieved of my Code-a-Phone responsibilities. The explanation was, “Boy, we don’t HAVE tire problems at Daytona.” 5) I have fond memories of all the close finishes in the 200. It’s amazing that a race so long so often comes down to a few thousandths of a second and a successful or unsuccessful draft pass at the finish. My favorite was the year Miguel Duhamel edged Scott Russell. They had both had a lot of laps to think about it and the outcome seemed obvious. With Miguel leading, Scott would simply tuck in coming out of the chicane, suck the draft until exactly the right moment, then pull out and win it easily, albeit by a tiny margin. But Miguel, not content to play the sitting duck, dreamed up a brilliant counter-move. Instead of going high through three and into four, then swooping down off the bank in the traditional Daytona line, he stayed low and then turned up the hill and ran full-throttle straight at the wall! Russell, tucked so close behind that he couldn’t see anything but Duhamel’s butt, must have known something was wrong but had no choice but to follow. And when Miguel, at the last instant, hung a hard left and headed for start/finish, all Russell saw was the unforgiving concrete approaching at a buck-ninety. He had no choice but to roll out of the throttle for a split second, and in that split second, Miguel won the race. That’s the kind of stuff that separates them from the rest of us, and it only has to happen now and then to keep me coming back to Daytona. The SPEED Bike Week broadcast schedule (all times ET and subject to change): March 9 (2:30 6 p.m., LIVE) — Daytona 200 Qualifying, Supersport and Superstock races March 10 (9:30 p.m. 12:30 a.m., SDD) — Supercross March 11 (11 a.m. 12:30 p.m., LIVE) — Superbike race March 11 (12:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m., TAPE) — Flat Track race (tape) March 11 (1:30 p.m. 4:30 p.m., LIVE) — Daytona 200 Formula Xtreme SPEED, celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2006, is the nation’s first and foremost cable network dedicated to motor sports and the passion for everything automotive. From racing to restoration, motorcycles to movies, SPEED delivers quality programming from the track to the garage. Now available in more than 71 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the fastest growing sports cable networks in the country, the home to NASCAR TV and an industry leader in interactive TV, video on-demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services.
