Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013 "I really wanted to get that win and I really wanted to beat Cameron… If he's moving up [to Superbike], I wanted to beat him in his last race. But it was a good race and we battled real hard. It was a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to next year - I'm not too sure what I'm doing. I might be mowing yards, but whatever I'm doing I'm going to be enjoying it." Meanwhile, a handful of secondary stories played out in the season finale, including the gritty effort of the injured Jake Gagne to hang onto his position as the series' runner-up and the Daytona SportBike debuts of a number of SuperSport standouts. RoadRace Factory's Gagne broke his collarbone during the New Jersey Motorsports Park weekend and underwent surgery to repair it the following Wednesday, just a little over a week ahead of the season finale. He came into Laguna Seca well beaten up and on the mend but still managed to soldier on to an 11th-place result. That earned him enough points to fend off factory-backed Gerloff for the spot, 254-243. Gagne, who was the only rider to defeat Beaubier all season long with his triumph at Road America, said, "My only goal this weekend was to do what we could to finish second and we managed to do it. It was really rough. I didn't do practice and only did a few laps in both of the qualifying sessions. I just tried to save my shoulder. Twenty laps was really tough, but we got through it. The team communicated to me really well during the race. We had the pit board all dialed in and knew what we had to do the whole time. Now we have some time to rest -I'm supposed to be in a sling for something like nine more weeks after this." With the SuperSport season having wrapped up a round earlier in New Jersey, a handful of SuperSport frontrunners were extended invitations to compete in the Daytona SportBike season finale. East Division Champion Corey Alexander and runner-up Hayden Gillim flashed competitive speed on the weekend, but the rider who enjoyed the greatest degree of success was the overall SuperSport National Champion, Colombian Tomas Puerta. The RoadRace Factory rider diced with a pair of established AMA stars in GEICO Honda's Dane Westby and Riders Discount Racing Triumph's Jake Zemke throughout the race. The trio overhauled a fading Fong on the D&D Cycles/Castrol Triumph and then closed in on Latus Motors Racing's DiSalvo as they approached the checkered flag. DiSalvo held on for fifth, followed by Zemke, Westby, and Puerta, who earned an impressive eighth in his maiden SportBike appearance. "I knew it was going to be a pretty tough weekend," Puerta said. "We ran pretty much SuperSport-spec; we just changed the master cylinder and the brake. So I knew I would have to P85 Briefly... Josh Herrin had his first crash of the season on Friday. "It was a fun slide into the gravel trap," Herrin said. "It was my first crash since Homestead last year so it was something new for me. It scared me at first, but I got up and was fine." Josh Hayes' win on Sunday was the 41st AMA Superbike win of his career. Mat Mladin leads the category with 82 victories. Hayes' perfect eight for eight pole position run in 2013 moves him to 32 career Superbike poles. Again, the leader is Mladin with 63. push harder to be in the top 10 because these guys have been working on their bikes and have more parts that make a little difference. The race went good and I feel I gave 100 percent from the first lap on. That made me happy and gives me a lot of confidence going into next year." Fong finished in ninth with Venezuelan Fernando Amantini rounding out the top ten. CN Daytona SportBike Finale 1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2. Jake Lewis (Yamaha) 3. JD Beach (Yamaha) 4. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 5. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph) 6. Jake Zemke (Triumph) 7. Dane Westby (Honda) 8. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha) 9. Bobby Fong (Triumph) 10. Fernando Amantini (Yamaha)

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