"The thing that Daytona always teaches us, is that Daytona teaches us nothing."

- Ohlin Metzeler

Ohlin is a strange, shadowy creature that often leaves the chicane to wander around in the woods and examine rare fungi and tree frogs. But, amazingly, I think there is some truth (this time) in what he says.

As the beginning of the new season, Daytona is theoretically a shakedown of the new bikes and an indicator on how the riders are set for the upcoming year. But like the shadowy one opines, Daytona is a weird-ass track that requires the bikes to fly low to the ground more than corner, or change direction, or accelerate. As a result it's an anomaly that even has to have its own tire, and one of the few races on the calendar were women wrestling in Cole slaw is just a short ride away.

I guess what I'm trying to underline here is, a bike that does well at Daytona may not necessarily crush the competition at other venues. Thus, it really doesn't mean much. As I know you've been keeping up with the texts, look at how many Daytona winners haven't gone on to win the Championship (thank you, Mr. Evan Williams).

OK, so duh. Daytona is a blast, a thriller, and I believe a great way to start the season from a spectator's point of view. But can we glean anything about what we're going to see the rest of the year?

Perhaps. But a lack of relevant data has never stopped me from making ludicrous generalizations and conclusions. Hey, I used to be a scientist. No, really. But my superiors often chastised me for making ludicrous generalizations and conclusions, which made entire departments look bad.

So, I'm here to make amasuperbike.com look bad, with my ludicrous generalizations and conclusions. Are you with me? You're either with me, or you're . . . bored. But I have some observations to share.

Watching the race this year from afar, as I had to do, was still entertaining thank to abnormally large TV that seems to be in my house and what I thought was some decent coverage. Mladin not being able to ride was a major drag, as he would have been in the mix at the front, but I'm just glad he'll heal up and be incredibly driven the rest of the year. He's a fighter and one sharp cookie, with an amazing team behind him. He's not going to give up the title easily.

That said, he's got all kinds of trouble on his hands. Something really interesting happened at the beginning of the 200 this year: an injured Anthony Gobert threw caution to the wind and made a smooth, graceful rabbit attack out of the start of the race. Nobody really thought the Yamaha could run with the Hondas and Suzukis, did they? Yet, he finished third, and almost second, had it not for that crafty Jamie Hacking getting him at the line. Jamie, in this writer's opinion, was inspired by his wife the Suzuki Siren. She used to be the Yamamama, as you may recall.

Anyway, back to Anthony. Gobert told me something at Loudon a couple of years ago that is instructive. He said he has always been winning races on slower bikes which is arguably true. He has always been able to win races, but his consistency has been, well, inconsistent. He's had problems off the track that I don't need to catalogue here.

But I saw something at Daytona that works totally sweet as a funkadelic analogy: I saw less of the sliding, spectacular Gobert riding a bucking bronco and more of a smooth, disciplined Go Show. To ride like he did on cold tires at the beginning of the race could have put him on the tarmac, much like what happened to Scott Russell just a few years ago when he gave it a bit too much welly in the International Horseshoe.

But Gobert was awesomely smooth and fast. He eventually succumbed to the three H's (Honda Horsepower and Hayden) but his performance, while concerned about his brother as we all were and quite banged up himself, was very impressive indeed. He's armed for bear, buckaroo. His bike may be a bit down on power compared with all those Hondas and Suzukis, but nobody makes up for horsepower like this guy.

Let's jump over to Kurtis Roberts, who I feel is actually the true Kenny Junior. Hey, KRJR is an awesome rider, and a guy I really respect. In many ways I think he is a different customer than his namesake and a much more sophisticated competitor. I'd love to see him give Rossi a run for his money, and he might surprise some people if his new machine is competitive.

But Kurtis seems to be a 21st Century version of his dad. He's a loose cannon, and does beautiful violence on his RC51. One of my favorite quotes of the weekend was Kurtis' "I wasn't really sliding the bike much, any more than anybody else."

OK. But there sure was a mess of smoke coming off his tire at the exit of turn one compared with the other guys. Even the Speed Channel's (which should still be called Speedvision, in my view, as it sounds much better) David Sadowski commented on it as it was pretty dramatic. Kurtis' rear tire looked like the fat was in the fire with all the righteous smokitude, while Nicky's rear tire just left lovely darkies but wasn't all lit up.

Young Mr. Roberts is hard on the equipment. I think this may ultimately slow him down this year, during the latter portions of races where his tire will, once again, be shot. I would be delighted to be proved wrong.

So what of the other Honda boys? Have you ever seen an odder thing than Miguel Duhamel with a broken motorcycle, yet he is not furious? Indeed, he seems to have found the magic ingredient that has eluded him the last couple of years. Last year he admitted to a crisis of confidence; a feeling that he really wasn't his old self even though his body has healed. But now with Our Pal Al back tuning and a motorcycle that seems to do what he wants it to, he seems stoked for battle.

This brings us to the magical Mr. Hayden. Nicky survived a brutal highside to be the belle of the ball, and rode a terrific race. He made a mistake here or there, like overcooking a turn once, but he showed terrific poise when Roberts was all over him in the famous turn one tire cooking area.

Nicky was a monster the last half of the season last year, and now has started 2002 with a convincing victory on an incredibly fast motorcycle. Honda is determined to derail the Suzuki/Mladin juggernaut, or to deflate the Blimpie, so to speak. They've focused on the American Honda RC51 and it's safe to say they'll give Nicky anything they possibly can to win.

But wait: there's more. Consistency wins championships, and both Hacking and Double-A Ron Yates are capable of winning races this year, no question. If they can avoid misfortune, who knows?

Ducatis are getting scarce in AMA Superbike, but Picotte is a hungry man and the bike can still be wicked in the right hands. If Chandler joins the red camp we're in for something cool indeed, and the change might really motivate Dougie, in addition to helping HMC get things sorted.

Which brings us to EBos. Once again, Eric Bostrom is facing an uphill battle as he has to do battle using what most would agree is dated equipment. But he was on dated equipment last year, and not only landed the 600SS Title but bagged a pair of Superbike wins at as well. Not bad. There are some tracks that aren't as horsepower oriented, and he just may shine.

So here's to a very wild year of racing. My only prediction is that nobody's going to run off with the Title this year, even though many think Nicky will. We shall see, won't we? We sure will.