VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013
P85
Briefly...
WO
eaubier
s romp
aytona
eries at
a Seca
Gagne wasted little time in getting around the veteran to take
the lead. Gerloff would also
make his move quickly on DiSalvo while Beaubier remained a bit
more patient.
On the third lap, Beaubier made
his move on the Triumph-mounted
DiSalvo into turn six and by that
point he was almost a second
behind Gagne. On the fifth lap,
Beaubier passed Gerloff in turn
two and a lap later he did likewise
to Gagne in the same spot. From
there he steadily pulled away until
the proceedings came to a stop
with Rich's crash.
DiSalvo again played a role
Jake Gagne (32) leads
the Graves Yamahas
of Beaubier (6) and
Garrett Gerloff (8)
early in the first part
of the red-flag interrupted race.
in the restarted race, the New
Yorker firing off the line from the
second row to slot in behind the
fast-starting Beaubier.
"I just made sure I got a really
good start on the restart and just
put my head down," Beaubier
said. "I knew Jake and Garrett
would be right there. I just have
to give it up to my whole crew.
They've been working hard and
giving us an awesome bike."
By the time Gerloff got past
DiSalvo, Beaubier had pulled
away to lead by almost two seconds. Gagne would pass DiSalvo
on the third lap going into the
Corkscrew, but the only rider
Although the progress isn't as fast
as needed, the factory KTMs are
getting better. Chris Fillmore and
Taylor Knapp were competitive
at Laguna with both running the
same pace as the Jordan Suzuki
of Danny Eslick. "I think the bike is
getting better," Fillmore said. "If you
look at the results, we're constantly
in the top 10, top eight in qualifying and on the second row. I think
the bike is getting better. We always need more time to go testing
and everything like that, but I think
we've come a long way and I hope
we can just keep on rolling with the
progress that we have. We haven't
had that much testing except what
we've been able to do at the racetrack. It's kind of been up to Taylor [Knapp] and I to make the bike
what it is right now. We've just been
wringing it and it's been working so
far. By no means is everything ideal, but it's getting better. The bike is
for sure getting better. It's hard as
a racer to pat myself on the back
for where I finish, but it's good and
the team is happy. For me, I want
to see myself toward the front and
I really want to stand on the box."
KTM's Taylor Knapp suffered an
injured middle finger on his left
hand when he crashed in turn two
in the Superbike National while battling with his teammate Chris Fillmore. "It was good. Me and Chris
were working together. We weren't
doing anything stupid and I saw
that we were catching Danny. We
kept inching on him and inching
on him. I made a little mistake and
tried to make it all up again in turn
one on the brakes and just got a
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