We hate to say We told you so, but Honda’s re-designed RC51 (known as the SP-2 in Europe) is shaping up to be one hell of a superbike.
Prior to today, no one had lapped at Daytona under 1:48 flat and, after today, only three riders have done so. These three riders consist of the entire Honda superbike race team, Nicky Hayden, Miguel DuHammel and Kurtis Roberts (who actually rides for Erion Honda). These three individuals will occupy the front row for Sunday’s prestiguous Daytona 200 superbike race, along with Yamaha’s Anthony Gobert. Nicky went down after setting his fast lap, and had some medical attention at the track, but is apparently uninjured.
By the way, Nicky Hayden also took pole position for the 600 supersport final at Daytona, ahead of his brother Tommy Hayden (on a Kawasaki).
Below, we list the top ten superbike qualifying times today:
Superbike Qualifying - Daytona 200 (Top 10) 1. Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1:47.174 2. Miguel DuHammel (Honda) 1:47.259 3. Kurtis Roberts (Honda) 1:47.527 4. Anthony Gobert (Yamaha) 1:48.083 5. Pascal Picotte (Ducati) 1:48.219 6. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 1:48.311 7. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 1:48.482 8. Eric Bostrom (Kawasaki) 1:49.110 9. Jamie Hacking (Suzuki) 1:50.224 10. Michael Barnes (Suzuki) 1:53.854
