VOL. 51 ISSUE 22 JUNE 3, 2014 P45
gine tightening up and then it sud-
denly bucked him off at turn 13 in
a triple-digit speed highside. The
crash ground off the tip of Eslick's
left pinky and basically trash-
binned his Triumph when it ghost
rode into a concrete barrier.
In spite of the pain of his hand,
Eslick rode on Sunday and rallied
to finish fourth. That was enough
to recoup something from an oth-
erwise anguishing weekend.
What all of this meant was
a complete reshuffling of the
championship. Gagne went from
fourth to first, now with a 22-point
lead over Eslick - an amazing
turnaround from a single week-
end of racing.
"It was a perfect weekend,"
said a beaming Gagne. "I'm su-
per, super stoked. To come out
of here with the pole and two
wins, I couldn't ask for anything
better. [After Daytona] we really
wanted to improve and come out
swinging here and we did."
Gerloff Up in Smoke
Any time your race weekend
ends up in an ambulance it's not
a good thing. Unfortunately that's
exactly what happened to se-
ries contender Garrett Gerloff in
what was a Road America roller-
coaster ride for the 18-year-old
Texan. His Elkhart Lake week-
end started off on the positive
side. Gerloff topped preliminary
qualifying on Friday aboard his
Yamaha Extended Service/Mon-
ster Energy/Graves Yamaha. He
then trashed his bike in a quali-
fying crash and had to start from
scratch with a new machine for
the races.
In Saturday's race Gerloff bat-
tled for the lead in the closing
laps and held on for second in an
epic last-lap battle with his team-
mate J.D. Beach, Jake Lewis and
Dane Westby. That finish put him
in a great position, up to second
in the standings and only four
points behind Saturday's winner
and new points leader Gagne.
On Sunday disaster struck.
At the start Gerloff came from
around the outside to lead the
pack into turn one. Riders went
three abreast in turn five and
Gagne emerged the leader. As
the pack came through Canada
Corner a puff of smoke could be
seen coming from Gerloff's bike.
Suddenly in turn 13 Gerloff was
down hard and Jake Lewis, hitting
the fluid from Gerloff's machine,
followed suit. The chasing pack
did an outstanding job of avoid-
ing Lewis, who was sliding down
AMA PRO GOPRO DAYTONA SPORTBIKE SERIES
Graves Yamaha riders JD Beach (6) and Garett Gerloff (8)
battle for second place in Saturday's race.
