job done, and even put a bit of
a cushion between himself and
Gagne. Although Gagne put in a
late-race charge, Jacobsen was
able to withstand the pressure
to take that elusive first win by
0.322 seconds.
"[The win] feels pretty good,"
Jacobsen said. "It was a big
moment for me out there. I've
wanted to do this. When you're a
kid coming up racing, and you're
in the paddock running around
there, watching all these guys
and then you want to be up here
with a win, like Hayes, Zemke,
Duhamel, all those guys. So, it's
cool to be up here and to finally
get a win in MotoAmerica."
"I was just on the edge,"
Gagne said. "I was really push
-
ing, trying to keep with PJ.
Right when he passed me that
first lap, two laps, he was just
putting 10ths on me. I kind of
calmed down and figured out
a couple of little things where
he was quicker and tried to ride
the bike a little differently, be a
little smoother, and keep it from
spinning up quite as much. Then
that last lap, we came up on a
lapper, and I was wondering if I
was going to get lucky and see
what happened. But it was fun
racing with PJ. The guy has got
so much talent. It's good for him
to get his first win."
Scholtz came back to finish
third, with Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
and Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
rounding out the top five.
Herrin was running third when
his Ducati suffered a mechani
-
cal and had to retire.
Gagne's lead in the champion-
ship swelled to 68 points over
when I had more grip. I was see-
ing some spots, but I just didn't
go for it. I was sitting there
behind him. Then he pulled a
small bit of a gap, and it seemed
like it stayed the same. I'd catch
him in some spots, and he'd pull
away in others. I tried to do what
he was doing. I was picking the
bike up as much as I could and
it seemed like it was helping, but
obviously, it just wouldn't bring
me closer to him."
Herrin was never far behind
in third. "I kind of clawed back
up," said Herrin. "I didn't push
that extra two percent that I
needed to do try to catch him. I
don't know if it would have been
possible."
In race two, Jacobsen was
again behind Gagne until there
were nine laps to go. At that
point, Jacobsen made his move
on Gagne in turn three, got the
see Beaubier go down that big.
I hope that he's all good. I think
he was kind of the guy setting
the pace this weekend."
"It was a pretty crazy race,
especially everything that hap-
pened at the start with Cam
[Beaubier]," Petersen said. "[In
the first start] I moved over
a little bit to avoid [Beaubier]
because I was going to get
cleaned out. And then Scholtz
really smashed into the back of
me. I think I got a whole bunch
of oil all over my tire because I
went into the next corner and I
almost high-sided, and the same
with the right. So, it was kind of
freaking me out. I thought I bent
my swingarm, or something
happened, or the tire spun or
something.
"I just felt like I could have
made a pass on Jake in the
beginning of the [re-started] race
VOLUME ISSUE AUGUST , P69
