The Daytona 200 roadrace ran in Florida over the weekend, with interesting results—and both good news and bad news for Canada.
The good news is, the Canadian racers who made the trip posted excellent results. Trevor Daley, the generally-acknowledged top Canuck at this year’s Daytona, got to 14th overall—not a top 10, but moving six slots up from last year’s 20th-overall finish.
Daley was once again riding a Suzuki GSX-R750 this year, but without Ben Young alongside this time. The two were teammates in 2024.
Young might have passed on this year’s 200, but two other Canadian riders challenged the Daytona race this year, both with previous CSBK experience: Alex Michel (on a Kawasaki) and Dylan Bauer (on a Yamaha) ended 20th and 16th overall respectively. It was Bauer’s first race at the Daytona 200; Michel raced it last year for the first time, and was 28th then, so he saw a significant improvement in his results just like Daley did.
The race win went to current MotoAmerica Josh Herrin, making it his fourth Daytona 200 win. If you’re keeping track, that puts him only one win behind Miguel Duhamel, the legendary Canadian roadracer who shares the five-victory record with Scott Russell. Herrin rode a Ducati 955 (the previous-generation version of the bike, with the Superquadro) to the win. Congrats to him, even if it looks like Canadian Duhamel may have another name to share his record with, or even lose that record to, if Herrin keeps up his pace. It is his third consecutive Daytona 200 win.
Four years after the event’s official 1937 founding, Canadian rider Billy Matthews won the Daytona 200 and he took it again in 1950, with both wins on the old Daytona Beach Course—and then a Canadian didn’t win again until Duhamel’s victory in 1991. Duhamel took his last Daytona 200 win in 2005, so we’re in a 20-year-drought at the race.
It will be hard for a Canadian to take it again. Not only do we have highly-experienced MotoAmerica competitors to cut through, but the Daytona 200 is once again attracting top racers from overseas as well. Peter Hickman, best-known for his Isle of Man TT heroics as well as Macau GP wins, finished fourth at Daytona this year. Michael Dunlop also made the trip over and finished ninth. When you’re up against the most legendary street circuit racers of our generation, and Americans riding in their own backyard, you know wins and even a top-10 finish are going to require skill, luck, and perhaps deeper pockets than most Canadian race teams can manage these days.
Outside of the main Daytona 200 event, CSBK’s Mavrick Cyr finished 10th overall in the Twins Cup race aboard his Aprilia, despite injuring himself in a crash while testing earlier in March in Georgia. Considering how beat-up he was, his finish was impressive.
