Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 28 JULY 16, 2013 P85 Briefly... There was an hour-long delay for the start of Sunday's Daytona Sportbike final. It was caused by a rider's bike leaking oil during the lunchtime fan lap, which resulted in a crash and then a long cleanup. The rider turned out to be Brian Harvey who sent his apologies out via Twitter. @brianharvey2 said: "It's amazing 1 quart out of a Supermoto can cause a ruckus like this. I need a new countershaft seal and some band aids." Then added: "Sorry for my bike blowing oil all over the track. I'm okay; just a little rash. Rear tire looks like someone tire shined it." is and you start charging as hard as you can. Not that I wasn't before, but it refueled me and definitely helped snap my focus into the right place. "I tried really hard. All the way to the last lap, last corner. I rode the best race that I could and I'm happy with that." Oddly enough Herrin didn't realize that the pit board signals he was getting showing his lead dropping was in fact for the overall lead of the race. He thought it was showing third-place Martin Cardenas catching him. "I had a +4 at one time and I didn't realize it then, but when I got that +4 I was kind of staying at the same distance away from Josh for a little while," Herrin said. "So it stayed 3.8, then 3.5 and I was like, 'Well, Martin is catching me a little bit.' I figured it was him. Then with two laps to go it was 1.5 and the last lap I came around there was no board so I kind of panicked - thinking he was right on me and they didn't want to distract me. "They were giving me the plus what I had, but I didn't ever think to look to see what position I was in. They had P1 the whole time, but I never thought about looking. I knew what place I was in so I had no reason to look. I came across the line wheelying. If it would have been a bad wheelie or would have been a little bit higher I would have lost that one, so thank God it wasn't." Corey Alexander made a controversial pass on Stefano Mesa in a torrid battle for fourth during Sunday's Supersport race. The pass made what might be a critical difference in the championship standings. Mesa moved from first to third in the standings at Mid-Ohio and is locked in a tight battle with series leader Alexander and now secondranked Hayden Gillim in the Supersport East Championship. The two riders saw the incident very differently. "I felt the pace coming down and the guys out in front of us were starting to pull away," Alexander said. "I was anxious to get around him. The spots I was faster than him he would kind of gap me prior to and I couldn't get close enough to make a pass. I finally made a pass at the only spot I really felt I had enough on him. We bumped, but that's racing. I'm glad it wasn't too hard. I was on the inside and he just kind of came in on me."

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