VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P89
erybody out. He let us drive his
truck to get his bike for us to use.
"We brought the bike back and
it would only run on three cylin-
ders up until 10,000 rpm when
it had enough compression or
whatever and then it was a rock-
etship. So I went out and won my
race. Then he ended up taking a
second look."
Giacchetto's connections and
Georgia-based shop also proved
invaluable in landing the new team
a much-needed title sponsor.
Yamaha Motor Corporation
USA's business activities are divid-
ed up between Cypress, Califor-
nia - which houses its motorcycle
headquarters along with its race
programs - and Kennesaw, Geor-
gia, home to Yamaha Extended
Services, Yamalube, and so on.
Traditionally, Kennesaw's race
budget has 'stayed in the fam-
ily' and supported the power-
ful Graves/Yamaha juggernaut,
but this season a little extra was
found to help out the fledgling
Westby effort.
"The Yamalube headquarters
are kind of down there where
Chuck is at and it just so hap-
Kennesaw wing. This has cre-
ated, let's say, an interesting dy-
namic between the established
championship-winning team and
their upstart challengers.
The Yamalube Westby Rac-
ing Team receives no technical
support from the factory squad
and the #00 bike is not count-
ed among the fleet of Graves-
prepared R6s on track, sporting
only a purchased Graves pipe.
"There's a little friendly rivalry
there," Westby admitted. "But
we're all in the same boat and
we're all in it together. I think they
would probably rather that we
weren't out there, but we're more
Yamahas out there doing it for
that brand. But, yeah, I think that
they would probably prefer that
the competition was slimmer but
at the same time, we've got to fill
out the grid. If they were reluctant
to take us on board at first, now I
think they're starting to see it can
be a good thing for all of us."
While Westby describes him-
self as just the guy who 'turns
the throttle,' thankfully Daytona
SportBike remains an arena
where the guy who turns the
throttle is a crucially important
part of the equation.
Westby is bit of a different
breed. He has a dry, offbeat
sense of humor and his own
lexicon. A bit removed from your
average racer, he finds ways to
keep his Broaster Chicken plugs
fresh and makes time between
races to organize and promote
an annual music festival in Tulsa.
He's also something of a
"I'VE BEEN WITH CHUCK
[GIACCHETTO] FOR ALMOST 10
YEARS NOW AND WE JUST WANTED
TO GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER
AND NOT HAVE TO ANSWER TO
ANYBODY - IT'S JUST US."
-Dane Westby
pened that Yamalube was wanting
to start a team while we were start-
ing ours," Westby said. "Chuck
is down there and got to talking
to Yamalube's Trevor Kemp and
things got to banging and that's
pretty much how it went down."
The team's close proximity and
family feel resulted in it being
readily embraced by Yamaha's
