CoxRacen rider scores five podiums in six races on weekend cut short by mechanical problems
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 23, 2018
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When Bailey Cox’s team packed up Sunday evening at Daytona International Speedway, it was apparent that Cox’s eighth-place in Saturday’s Daytona 200 was anything but a fluke. The CoxRacen rider demonstrated consistent pace all weekend on his Ridersville Cycle/MRP Motorsports-sponsored Kawasaki ZX-6R, taking one win and four podiums in six Championship Cup Series/American Sportbike Racing Association races. Cox was the top-finishing Kawasaki rider in every race he finished on Daytona’s famed 3.51-mile road course.
Bailey Cox pushing hard on his Kawasaki ZX-6R at Daytona International Speedway.
Photo credit: BrockImaging
In additional qualifying 12th for the Daytona 200 on Friday, Cox took a second-place and a win Friday afternoon in the Expert Supersport Middleweight and Expert Supersport Heavyweight classes, respectively. Cox’s win was a close one, narrowly beating out his competition by a mere 0.041 seconds. Before the iconic Daytona 200 got underway Saturday afternoon, Cox scored another second-place in the Expert GTU endurance race Saturday morning. Sunday saw the CoxRacen rider take two more podiums in Expert ASRA Sportbike and Expert Superbike Middleweight. Cox entered the Expert Grand Prix Middleweight race, but only completed two laps before retiring with a mechanical problem.
The CoxRacen team will compete in one more CCS/ASRA event April 14-15 at Carolina Motorsports Park before they contest the MotoAmerica round at VIRginia International Raceway on May 4-6.
Bailey Cox, rider for CoxRacen, said, “I had been looking forward to getting my 2018 racing season going at Daytona ever since the end of last year. I won a CCS regional championship last year in my first year racing as an expert, and was looking to carry that momentum into 2018. I crashed in Friday’s first qualifying session for the Daytona 200, but my amazing crew got the bike back together and ready for the rest of qualifying and Friday’s races. I grabbed a second-place in my first race on Friday afternoon, and scored a hard-fought win in my second race. Saturday morning before the Daytona 200. I took home another second-place and was riding a high into Sunday after finishing eighth in the Daytona 200. On Sunday, we had another tough battle and missed out on a win by less than 0.04 seconds. I followed that up with a third-place in the Expert Superbike Middleweight race and had planned on racing the Expert Grand Prix Middleweight and Expert Superbike Heavyweight. Unfortunately, the bike experienced a mechanical failure and our weekend was over. Overall, I was really happy with the incredible effort my team and family put in this weekend. They really had my back, and my MRP Motorsports-supported crew really had my Kawasaki ZX-6R working well out there. Six races is a lot to run in one weekend, especially when one of them is 200 miles long. I want to give a big shout out to 4Arm Strong and Fitness-N-Me for having me physically ready to perform my best this weekend. I am looking forward to getting on track again in April, as well as entering our first MotoAmerica races of the season at VIR in May.”
Marino Communications 