We caught up with Dylan Bauer a week after the Daytona 200, on a gym day where he was also rehabbing the blistered feet, he suffered during the lengthy MotoAmerica race back on Saturday, March 8 in Florida. 24-year-old Bauer is based in the Breslau area near Kitchener-Waterloo in western Ontario, with Grand Bend and the SOAR group his local track.
A Daytona 200 newcomer, Bauer netted a strong 16th in the race, while the top Canuck was OneSpeed Suzuki’s Trevor Daley in 14th. The other Canuck entered also finished, Alex Michel in 20th with the Speed Factory Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja 636. It was the second career and consecutive start in the 200 for Daley and Michel.
“We really only decided in the last couple of weeks to do the Daytona 200,” starts Bauer, who raced regionally and in two Bridgestone CSBK nationals last season, as well as helping Scott Miller with the Econo Lube Ducati Superbike of Alex Dumas.
“We got a bunch of parts for our Yamaha YZF-R6, and we talked to Jon Cornwell (famed racer, tuner, Hall of Famer and Daley crew chief at Daytona), and he told us people start getting ready months before the Daytona race. We were limited getting our parts, and I worked only on the race bike for two weeks, my dad and I were exhausted, and my brother was coming in to help too – he does shift work.”
Bauer works with his father in a service business at a truck shop that specializes in Dodge Diesels and “bigger stuff.”
“The big challenge was to get the quick-change set-up ready for tire swaps at the pit stops. I wasn’t really ready for what we faced, it really was a challenge!”
In 2023, Bauer took his regional race bike to Daytona in the fall, with his girlfriend’s dad and uncle helping as crew.
“That was way less competition than at the 200, but it was still an eye opener,” continues Bauer.
“This bike is based on the machine I raced last year, but different electronics that we had worked with. The revised bike was around 25 miles per hour down on where it should be, and we knew that from the test we did on the way to Daytona at Roebling Road in Georgia.
“We had the long gearing for Daytona, we didn’t want to change too much. But the power just didn’t seem to be there.
“When we got to Daytona, right away, I couldn’t stay with anybody! Everyone was just taking off. So, we need to get to a Dyno. My old bike had 118 horsepower, and it didn’t feel like that.”
The Bridgestone CSBK official horsepower limit for Pro Sport Bike is 125 horsepower on the official series Dynojet Dyno. MotoAmerica runs to the new electronics-controlled FIM Generation Two rules, where the previous design Yamaha R6 (such as Bauer’s) is viewed as a benchmark.
The lack of straight-line performance turned out to be a problem, with Bauer’s Yamaha way down on top speed compared to the R6 he had previously raced, let alone the stronger competition offered at Daytona.
“It turned out it was like racing a 600 (middleweight) against Superbikes,” confirms Bauer. “I really had to over-ride in the infield to stay close – in the draft (slipstream) it was impossible to stay close enough. Even if I was a foot behind in the middle of the Chicane, I couldn’t stay close enough to slipstream.”
After the second restart, Bauer and Michel diced for position in one of the more entertaining races beyond the fight at the front.
“It was good to have a carrot, for sure,” reflects Bauer, who was pushing hard through the infield. “But the downside was that there was no one else close in front of the two of us.”
Bauer didn’t know Michel well prior to Daytona, but they sat together at the Rider’s Meeting (“We Canadians have to stay together, eh?”) and then were side by side for position during the 200.
“When me and Alex went back and forth, that was great, and it turned out we had so much support coming our way, on Facebook and Instagram, and for me from the whole SOAR family. I want to say thanks to everyone for that support.”
While Daley used Bridgestone rubber and Michel was on Dunlops, Bauer did a very last-minute deal to use Pirellis after testing with Dunlops.
“We took our fuel tank to Trevor Daley to have him weld it up for our Quick Fill the week before,” elaborates Bauer, “and he told us how we had to pick our tires, let the organizers know what our plan was.”
The Daytona 200 is the only “open tire” race offered all season in North American national competition, and for the rest of the MotoAmerica tour the AMA National series reverts to their “spec” Dunlop slick offerings.
“Then Kevin Graham from Pirelli came by at Daytona, and said there we be no issue to change, so we switched. That was something else last minute to deal with.”
“It was truly amazing how things worked out. The whole team worked so well together, and we were practicing pit stops, we had buddies who came to help, some of them had never been to the track, like our fuel guy. But everything went smoothly – you wouldn’t believe it!
“I would do it again, we could view 2025 as a good trial effort. There were some small disasters, but we definitely have memories forever.”
The 2025 Dylan Bauer Daytona 200 effort was backed by Goatshop, ASAP Motorsports (Andrew Westbrook), Fast Company (Scott Miller), Bickle Racing and EMZone.
