Honda Britain sent a formidable team with Jamie Whitham and Carl Fogarty to the 1990 Daytona 200. Here the two riders ready for the start of the race.

The strategy for the Honda Britain was the play it conservatively to preserve the team’s Honda RC30s in qualifying – Fogarty qualified sixth, Whitham eighth – and then the two would try to race aggressively early in the 200 in an attempt to run up front during the race.

It all went according to plan early on. Both riders avoided a first-turn melee involving Jamie James and Naill Mackenzie, who tangled and crashed in front of the entire field.

After racing resumed Fogarty and Whitham both raced in the lead pack with Vance & Hines riders Thomas Stevens and David Sadowski and Commonwealth Honda’s Randy Renfrow.  All five spent their share of time in the lead as the quintet drafted back and forth on one another around the banking.

Then it all started going wrong for the Brits.

First Fogarty’s Honda popped out of gear as he was downshifting for turn one on lap 36 of 57 and he went down and was out. Eight laps later Whitham flicked his Honda into a turn so hard he ran off the edge of his tire and he too crashed out.

In the end Sadowski out-dueled Renfrow on the final lap to take the win.

Fogarty came back again the next year and fared no better, but in 1995 he nearly won the race on a factory Ducati, losing out to Kawasaki’s Scott Russell  after a full-course yellow brought out the pace car and bunched up the field giving Russell, who crashed on the first lap, a perfect opportunity to close the gap on Fogarty.