Eraldo Ferracci makes a very welcome return to Superbike racing this weekend with his MV Agusta four-cylinder machine and riders Luca Scassa and Matt Lynn. Ferracci's crew-dressed in MV Black mind you-were plentiful and busy but fast lap times had not yet come this morning.

Judging from the body language of Scassa in the pit lane the MV is suffering from high speed stability issues.

"These not my old bikes you know," Ferracci said this afternoon. "These new bikes, not the bikes that I blow up here in December. All new. So we have some work to do. And it seems to shake a little, we need to make it straighten a little."

Scassa sat on a short stool in the garage, obviously deep in thought, only occasionally speaking with his crew, while Ferracci talked.
***********

American Ben Bostrom won't be racing Superbike this weekend at Daytona. Hopes were raised that some kind of last-minute effort was made that would see the popular elder Bostrom race Superbike this season instead of Superstock when Ben's 155 Yamaha was out in Superbike practice.

Bostrom says it's not happening.

"We got some red flags in practice this morning, and I just needed time on the bike, so I went out in Superbike," Bostrom said as he walked to the Noon rider's meeting. This will come as good news to some Superbike-only riders. Bostrom was fifth-fastest in Superbike practice on his SUPERSTOCK Bike.

None too surprisingly, overall, Bostrom was happy with everything at Yamaha. "Awesome team, awesome company. Such a great group of people, man, this is just so great," Bostrom said as he ate a banana.

**************
Whatever Jason DiSalvo rode around on this morning in Superbike practice, you can rest assured that he will be on something completely different this afternoon when he goes out for Superbike.

DiSalvo's Superbike is currently little more than a bare chassis as his crew swaps the engine and suspension from the machine he rode this morning to a completely different chassis. Yamaha has several different chassis available to them, including one that they developed themselves and one from Yamaha Japan.

DiSalvo was only thirteenth-fastest this morning.

***************

Rose and Earl Hayden are both here at Daytona. This was surprising to some, what with the Qatar MotoGP round this weekend where World Champion and middle son Nick Hayden will be in action.

The Kentucky Kid is being joined by his trainer, Eldon Baker, at Qatar, while his parents tend to elder and younger racer sons Tommy and Roger Lee.
**********

Five-time Daytona 200 winner Miguel DuHamel came in on the crash truck after Formula Extreme practice this morning, prompting some to wonder if he biffed the CBR600RR after setting his fast lap. Actually, the bike died after his fast lap and it would not come in under its own power.

Someone theorized a wiring failure shut off the fuel supply to the engine.
**********

Wednesday at the Speedway is the usual low-key day at Daytona. The weather is warm, crew and riders seem to outnumber spectators, and riders stand in the paddock between sessions trading off-season stories. The rush will begin tomorrow and build to a crescendo on Saturday when the Daytona 200 happens.
*************

The mood in the Yoshimura Suzuki garage during lunch seemed calm without a sense of any urgency. Mat Mladin is currently fastest without using the "new" Dunlop Superbike tire, Ben Spies is second-fastest, while new teammate Tom Hayden is twelfth.

**************

After all of the hubris and tempest-in-a-teapot controversy that the Buell XBRR brought with it last year, 2007 is absolutely the opposite. Just a handful of the "American sportbikes" are entered in the 200 and just two XBRRs were pre-entered in the Daytona 200. This is a fairly sad statement from a bike pumped up by Buell as a machine "designed and purpose-built to compete with the other teams at the highest levels". Clearly, the hype of the XBRR never, or best-case scenario, hasn't yet, made up for the fact that the XBRRs are slow.

The fact that Buell presumably made 50 of these machines and only two of them are in the Daytona 200, one year after the machine was introduced, speaks the loudest.

**************

Defending Daytona 200 winner Jake Zemke has his wife and new son daughter with him here at Daytona. He seems set to impress: Zemke was third-fastest in Superbike practice this morning and sixth-fastest in Formula Extreme/Daytona 200 practice.