amazing pit stop and he came
out way in front. So, I just got
tangled a little bit up with Josh,
having a good race. Finally,
I got to the front and put my
head down. Saw Cam and
then we were in for it the last
three or four laps."
Fourth went to Hayes as
the veteran saw yet another
Daytona win go begging, this
one by just 0.126 seconds.
Fifth, some 46 seconds adrift
of the first-place battle was
Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Su-
zuki's Richie Escalante ahead
of four-time Daytona winner
Danny Eslick, who had earlier
ran out of fuel and lost nearly
a lap on the second TOBC
Triumph.
The top 10 was rounded
out by TSE Racing Yamaha's
Harry Truelove, eight seconds
ahead of Vision Wheel M4
Ecstar Suzuki's Geoff May.
Disrupt Racing's Hayden Gillim
and Warhorse HSBK Rac-
ing Ducati NYC's Josh Herrin
rounded out the top 10.
For Herrin, the Daytona 200
was a frustrating affair after
qualifying on pole and being in
the hunt for the first third of the
race, but he also fell victim to
the dreaded running-out-of-fuel
issue that's always present at
Daytona. He coasted back into
the pits, losing any hope of the
race win but eventually got go-
ing again to fight his way back
to 10th place.
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 11 MARCH 15, 2022 P89
TOUGH ONE FOR
GAGNE
Reigning MotoAmerica Superbike
Champion Jake Gagne's 200 was
a shocker. Gagne crashed heav-
ily in morning warm-up after failing
to pump his brakes following the
pitstop and hit the outer pit wall, se-
verely damaging his R6 and injuring
his back. The team got his bike back
together for the race, and he lined
up for the race but was just too sore
and withdrew from the race before
the red flag. "It was a tough end
to the weekend because we were
feeling better every session, and
it was nice to qualify well," Gagne
said. "This morning in the warm-up,
we were just practicing pit stops
and I ran off in there, didn't have the
brakes, and hit the wall pretty hard. I
was just feeling beat up in a couple
of different areas of my body and
knew it would be tough to get back
out there and race, but I wanted
to at least try. I just didn't have the
strength to fight up front and didn't
really want to ride around 57 laps in
the back of the pack or anything like
that. We're ready to go Superbike
racing, and luckily, we're in good
shape for that. I'm excited to get the
season started at COTA."
Briefly...
Richie Escalante (54) ran
off-track early on but charged
back through the pack to take
fifth, making it three Daytona
rookies in the top five.
