Energy drinks have fully invaded the AMA Superbike paddock. While Red Bull has sponsored riders like the Bostroms and Jake Zemke, and Monster has sponsored Kawasaki's team in previous seasons, the ante has been upped for 2008.

Yoshimura Suzuki has signed up Rockstar to add a third prominent Energy Drink sponsorship to the paddock. Rockstar had sponsored John Haner in the past but now move up to the championship winning squad.

Red Bull and Monster aren't sitting still, either. Monster has worked a deal with Erion Honda to sponsor Josh Hayes this season.

Red Bull is sponsoring the Rookies Cup, a 10-race series for 13 to 16 year-olds that will run at most AMA Nationals plus the two GPs in the States this year.

The Superbike series may generally lack outside-the-motorcycle-industry sponsorships but it looks like the energy drinks are covered.

The factory Yamaha squad is racing their first event with the former World Superbike equipment the team first tested at Daytona in late November.

Last season Yamaha struggled as they got back into Superbike racing after a multi-year hiatus. At the November test, team riders Eric Bostrom and Jason DiSalvo both felt the so-called "bike from Italy" was a huge leap in performance from the machines the team raced last year.

"So far, everything has been very promising," said Yamaha's Tom Halverson.

With no factory bikes in Superstock, the class looks to be more wide-open in '08. Aaron Yates says it won't change his approach. "I'm not going to look at it any different," he said. "I'm going in there and going to ride my bike as hard as I can and do the best I can working with my team and setting the bike up as good as it can for the race so we have the best chance we can."

Still, Yates is considered by many to be the favorite to take the 'Stock title. "It's kind of nice ... I guess there's a lot of focus on us coming out with a championship this year," said Aaron. "I wish that's the way it was every year. We're off to a good start. We're leading the points right now and I feel good about that. I'm just going to go out there and do what I do.

Celtic Racing had a big year in 2007 with Chaz Davies and Yamaha, but now Chaz is gone to Kawasaki. Now Barry Gilsenan's team has switched to Suzukis and signed up Michael Barnes.

"Barney", however, is racing the Daytona 200 for his old team, M4 EMGO Suzuki.

Mat Mladin has switched to Scorpion helmets for 2008. He has also switched from his familiar number 66 to six.

Travel chaos hit the series along with bad weather on Tuesday and left many series regulars standing around in the Atlanta airport as flights were cancelled. Eric Bostrom and Soup editor Dean Adams ended up hopping in a rental car and driving down to 'Tona. Both lived to tell the tale.

On the drive into the track this AM, Soup staff noticed a lot of vacancy signs at the hotels. It looked to us that Bike Week attendance might be down in Daytona.