win in his comeback race from
when his 2023 season was cut
short after an injury suffered at
round nine at Pittsburgh.
Gagne was two-tenths of a
second away at the flag, Fong
another tenth of a second be-
hind, with Sean Dylan Kelly hav-
ing a great ride to fourth ahead
of Herrin, Baz, JD Beach (Tytlers
Cycle Racing BMW) Richie Es-
calante (Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar
Suzuki), Hayden Gillim (Real
Steel Motorsports Honda) and
Max Flinders (Thrashed Bike
Racing Yamaha) rounding out
the top 10.
However, high drama fol
-
lowed just after the finish line
in race one as Baz was run into
by Escalante at high speed, the
resulting impact destroying both
machines, with Baz suffering an
injured ankle and Escalante a
broken wrist and several com
-
pressed vertebrae.
Race two had Gagne con-
trolling the pace at the front
in the wet, but he came under
increasing BMW-fueled attack
first from rain-master Beach and
later Beaubier. First Beach had
a crack, taking the lead on lap
nine, Gagne getting him back a
couple of laps later and pulling a
one-second gap.
Beach then went head over
tail down the esses in spectacu
-
lar fashion with four laps to go,
VOLUME ISSUE APRIL , P89
45 CAMERON PETERSEN
15-3 SUPERBIKE
Cameron Petersen's season got off
to a rough start but ended smoothly.
In race one, the Attack Performance
Yamaha rider was penalized for
passing under the yellow flag then
later crashed. Sunday went much
better for him after finishing on the
box. "It feels good to get this po-
dium," Petersen said on Sunday. "It's
been a rough nine months. A few
weeks ago, I didn't even know if I
was going to be able to do this. So, to
bounce back after the day I had yes-
terday and get back on the podium—it
just feels so good."
MYOWNRACE
Josh Herrin (2) led the early
part of race one, but that
was as good as it got for the
Ducati man all weekend.
