Scott Russell (motorcyclist)

Raymond Scott Russell (born October 28, 1964), a.k.a. Mr. Daytona,[1] is an American former professional motorcycle and sports car racer. He is a former World Superbike and AMA Superbike Champion, has won the Daytona 200 a record five times, and won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 1993. Russell is the all-time leader in 750 cc AMA Supersport wins. In 2005, he was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.[2]

Scott Russell
Russell at the 2011 Dallas International Motorcycle Show
NationalityAmerican
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Active years1995 - 1996
First race1995 500cc Italian Grand Prix
Last race1996 500cc Australian Grand Prix
Team(s)Suzuki
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
19 0 2 0 1 176
Superbike World Championship
Active years1989 - 1995, 1997 - 1998
ManufacturersKawasaki, Yamaha
Championships1 (1993)
1998 championship position10th
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
118 14 39 8 8 1201

Motorcycle racing career

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Russell at the 1993 Suzuka 8 Hours

Russell was born in East Point, Georgia. After racing motocross as a child, Russell raced in WERA events before reaching AMA in 1987. In 1988 he was runner-up in the 750 cc Supersport class and also had some successes in Superbike and 600 cc Supersport. He was Superbike runner-up in 1989, before winning the 750 cc Supersport title three years in a row from 1990 to 1992 and winning every race in 1991. In 1992, Russell claimed the AMA Superbike championship. In the 1995 Daytona 200 he crashed on the second lap, but got back on the bike and won, finishing ahead of Carl Fogarty.

Having previously scored a handful of World Superbike podiums, he became the Superbike world champion riding for Muzzy Kawasaki in 1993, and was runner-up in 1994.[3] He left the series after a poor start to 1995,[4] replacing the retired Kevin Schwantz at Suzuki in the 500 cc Grand Prix world championship. Staying with Suzuki in 1996 he finished sixth overall.[5]

Russell returned to World Superbikes with Yamaha in 1997, coming sixth overall with a pole and two podiums. In 1998, he came tenth overall but rarely ran near the front. His season is most remembered for the Laguna Seca round, in which he made a blatant jump start and ignored the instruction to come in for a stop-go penalty, eventually falling off, almost causing teammate Noriyuki Haga to crash. Russell had an unsuccessful spell racing Harley-Davidson bikes in the AMA Superbike championship during the following two years. His final year in AMA Superbike ended at the first race of 2001 at Daytona after a move to the HMC Ducati team. Ducati had high hopes that "Mr. Daytona" would help them achieve their first ever 200 win. However, during the start, Russell's bike stalled and was hit from behind after trying to move out of the way to the side of the track.[6] Russell suffered severe injuries which ultimately ended his two-wheeled career.

In 2005, Russell was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.[2] Scott returned to the highbanks of Daytona in 2008 on a Jamie James prepared Yamaha R1. Russell began serving as lead motorcycle road racing analyst for SPEED TV in May 2009, replacing Freddie Spencer whose European scheduling conflicts led to the change.[7]

In 2008, Russell made the switch professionally to four wheels, racing in the Grand American Road Racing Association in both the Rolex Sports Car Series and Koni Challenge (now Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge) series. In the 2010 season, he won Round 11 at Montreal along with co-driver Paul Edwards.[8]

In 2014, Russell spoke at Yale University alongside Ken Hill, Nick Ienatsch, and Jamie Bestwick about motorcycle racing and success.[9][10] As of 2016, Russell is an instructor at Yamaha Champions Riding School[11] and Rickdiculous Racing.[12]

Career statistics

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Superbike World Championship

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Races by year

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Year Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pos. Pts
R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2
1989 Suzuki GBR GBR HUN HUN CAN CAN USA
15
USA
17
AUT AUT FRA FRA JPN JPN GER GER ITA ITA AUS AUS NZL NZL 80th 1
1990 Kawasaki SPA SPA GBR GBR HUN HUN GER GER CAN CAN USA
10
USA
7
AUT AUT JPN JPN FRA FRA ITA ITA MAL MAL AUS AUS NZL NZL 35th 15
1991 Kawasaki GBR GBR SPA SPA CAN CAN USA
2
USA
2
AUT AUT SMR SMR SWE SWE JPN
8
JPN
5
MAL MAL GER GER FRA FRA ITA ITA AUS AUS 17th 53
1992 Kawasaki SPA
Ret
SPA
7
GBR
3
GBR
3
GER
4
GER
7
BEL
3
BEL
9
SPA SPA AUT AUT ITA ITA MAL MAL JPN JPN NED NED ITA ITA AUS AUS NZL NZL 11th 83
1993 Kawasaki IRL
2
IRL
2
GER
6
GER
1
SPA
27
SPA
2
SMR
4
SMR
2
AUT
3
AUT
7
CZE
2
CZE
1
SWE
4
SWE
2
MAL
2
MAL
2
JPN
8
JPN
1
NED
2
NED
2
ITA
2
ITA
5
GBR
1
GBR
1
POR
Ret
POR
2
1st 378,5
1994 Kawasaki GBR
4
GBR
1
GER
1
GER
1
ITA
1
ITA
2
SPA
Ret
SPA
Ret
AUT
14
AUT
12
INA
3
INA
3
JPN
1
JPN
1
NED
6
NED
9
SMR
1
SMR
Ret
EUR
1
EUR
1
AUS
2
AUS
17
2nd 280
1995 Kawasaki GER
8
GER
10
SMR
14
SMR
8
GBR
6
GBR
Ret
ITA ITA SPA SPA AUT AUT USA USA EUR EUR JPN JPN NED NED INA INA AUS AUS 18th 34
1997 Yamaha AUS
7
AUS
6
SMR
Ret
SMR
6
GBR
6
GBR
7
GER
3
GER
4
ITA
5
ITA
8
USA
6
USA
4
EUR
2
EUR
5
AUT
7
AUT
4
NED
6
NED
8
SPA
Ret
SPA
5
JPN
12
JPN
Ret
INA
6
INA
5
6th 226
1998 Yamaha AUS
10
AUS
8
GBR
13
GBR
11
ITA
Ret
ITA
Ret
SPA
6
SPA
9
GER
11
GER
Ret
SMR
8
SMR
6
RSA
10
RSA
9
USA
15
USA
Ret
EUR
3
EUR
8
AUT
12
AUT
11
NED
9
NED
Ret
JPN
5
JPN
12
10th 130,5

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

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By season

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Season Class Motorcycle Race Win Podium Pole FLap Pts Plcd
1995 500cc Suzuki 6 0 0 0 0 43 13th
1996 500cc Suzuki 13 0 2 0 1 133 6th
Total 19 0 2 0 1 176

Races by year

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Class Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Pos Pts
1995 500cc Suzuki AUS MAL JPN SPA GER ITA
11
NED
12
FRA
6
GBR
DNS
CZE
11
BRA
5
ARG
Ret
EUR
8
13th 43
1996 500cc Suzuki MAL
4
INA
7
JPN
3
SPA
DNS
ITA FRA
5
NED
4
GER
4
GBR
5
AUT
6
CZE
3
IMO
7
CAT
11
BRA
9
AUS
Ret
6th 133

References

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  1. ^ "Mr. Daytona Bids Farewell". SuperbikePlanet.com. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
  2. ^ a b "Scott Russell at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame". motorcyclemuseum.org. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  3. ^ Scott Russell career World Superbike statistics at worldsbk.com Archived 2009-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1996-12-19. Retrieved 2007-03-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ Scott Russell Grand Prix statistics at MotoGP.com Archived 2007-06-25 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Scott Russell Crash". ESPN2. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
  7. ^ Russell named lead road racing analyst for Speed, Speed TV
  8. ^ "Driver Standings". grand-am.com. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  9. ^ "Excellence in Motion: What Motorcycle Racing Can Teach Us About Success". Yale University. Calendar of Events. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2016.[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ Levy, Jason (19 February 2015). "Higher (and Faster) Learning". Yamaha Champions Riding School. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  11. ^ Instructors, Yamaha Champions Riding School, archived from the original on 2013-01-29, retrieved 2012-10-31
  12. ^ "Instructors". Archived from the original on 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
Preceded by AMA Superbike Champion
1992
Succeeded by