Get out the racing record book and turn to the Daytona 200 page. It's a crowded one-about 65 years worth. Check the last time a Buell was embroiled in a Daytona 200 controversy. Let's see here, the answer is...uh, never.

Okay, let's dig a little deeper into the issue. When was the last time a Buell even raced in a Daytona 200? That, too, would be never. But its controversy and its race happened this year-big time! In fact, this Buell controversy went so far over the top it even rocked -and changed-the very structure of the AMA, or the lords of the highest level of professional motorcycle racing in the U.S.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? 

The short version: It was the consummation of two desires, opposed by virtually everyone else in the room.

Desire # 1: Buell wanted to race in the new Formula Xtreme-class format of the Daytona 200, which is Bike Week's crowning race. (It had been a Superbike-class race for years until the riders protested that the track was too unsafe for current superbike speeds.)

Desire #2: The AMA desperately wanted more manufacturer participation and some two-cylinder bikes on the grid with all the fours. So the AMA said yes, come and race your bike in the Daytona 200.

END OF STORY. BEGINNING OF WAR.

The problem was the bike that Buell wanted to race: the XB-KR. The what? Exactly. FX-class rules stipulate the bikes must be based on currently available street production motorcycles of which there are at least 50 available for retail sale. This means you should be able to walk into your local H-D/Buell dealer tomorrow, pay up, and ride one of these 150hp rifles off into the blurred sunset.

Second, Buell claimed the XB-RR is based on the 112hp XB-12R. I can hear you gear-heads snickering already, along with almost everybody else in AMA Pro Racing. Remember, one of those guys was the one who said yes. So yes it was.

Next thing you know, heads are rolling at AMA racing. The top people cither jump or get pushed. Additionally, Honda ups and pulls its reps from the AMA Board, describing its secession in so many words as a protest against the seemingly wanton circumvention of the rules by the very people who created fhem-and who are charged with upholding them.

All of this sounds like something we might do ourselves in a similar situation. But AMA rules aren't the most definitive on the best of days-neither are the ways they're enforced. There was something else: The Daytona 200 Formula-Xtreme format was sorely in need oflegitimization. Hell, it was sorely in need of competition. When the AMA announced the change from Superbike to FX late in 2004, it came so late that only one factory had bikes to field. And that factory was, ahem, Honda. The other manufacturers rightly screamed there was no time to build competitive bikes, so they all pulled out ofDaytona's showcase race. The result was laughingly predictable. The factory Hondas ran away from the rest of the field, making the biggest race of the year no race at all. This year, Yamaha joined, making things a little better. And when Buell also wanted in, it seemed natural. It turned into a natural disaster,   

The Buell XB-RR controversy filled moto-joumal pages for a month before Daytona. Lines were drawn and sides were taken. But the Buell was going to race-four Buells in fact. They were all from dealer-backed teams, and only one of them from the U.S.! Buell veteran, Mike Ciccotto, (2000 Formula-USA Pro Thunder National Champion on a Buell) was riding for Hal's H-D/Buell of New Berlin, Wisconsin. Steve Crevier, well-known to U.S. fans and the current Canadian Sportbike Champion, was on the Deely's H-D/Buell of Canada. Irishman Jeremy McWilliams, with world GP experience, was on the Warr's Buell from London, England. And from   Buell Hannover in Germany, came Rico Penzkofer.

Let the Buells race, the skeptics laughed, they won't last the distance; they'll be puking innards all over the place.

Well, the 2006 Daytona 200 ran. A Honda won, but it was a race this time. The four Buells ran, "officially" labeled as XB-12Rs to meet the homologation rules. McWilliams on the British Warr's bike ran in the Top 10 for quite a while, looking really strong, until it quit on the 40th of the 68 laps. It was the last of the Buells. The rest had already broken.

So that made the skeptics right, yes? No. Well, there was one more surprise: RoadRacingWorld.com (the Web bible of such matters) revealed in a post-race story on March 17 that, amazingly, it was the same part that broke on all four Buells: then-Japanese clutches! The engines had all held up fine. Amen.