VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P91
While certainly a unique per-
sonality, Westby also happens to
be an exceptionally quick racer.
A check of the record books
will show you that he's currently
tied for second in career race
wins among all active DSB rid-
ers - trailing only two-time class
champ Danny Eslick.
His pedigree may shout 'fac-
tory pilot,' but his mindset is more
in tune with this year's rebel pro-
gram - even if that meant wheel-
ing out a relic R6 for the 2014
season opener.
Westby battled for the lead in
this year's Daytona 200 aboard
the same 2008 Yamaha he took to
victory (as part of a four-rider team
that also included Josh Hayes) on
the high banks back in '09.
"At the beginning we just
popped the old bikes that we
last ran at the Moto-GT 8 Hours
at Daytona when we won that
deal," he explained. "That bike
had just been sitting in the show-
room since then. We popped it
out and cleaned out some of the
systems, threw in a new motor,
put it back on like it was, and ran
it like that. That frame was the
same one we raced at Daytona.
I was hoping that maybe it could
do good there again, but I kind of
stopped that."
Westby led multiple laps during
the race's opening and second
stint, however, he highsided out
of contention on lap 38 ("Daytona
was just all pilot error. I just grabbed
an extra downshift there").
Following a frustrating two-
month wait for redemption, West-
by was right back in the mix again
at Road America. Only this time
his engine blew up on the final lap
following a late-race red flag and
restart ("Road America was look-
ing promising but the motor had a
'component conflict' there").
But before anyone could point
to the team's small size claim
it was hindering their results,
Westby bounced back from a
poor launch the following day to
secure a breakthrough podium
finish for the squad.
"At Road America, I got a ter-
rible start and Jake Gagne got
away," Westby said. "And then
I had to kind of give up and just
take third. I felt if I could have got-
ten a better start, I might have
been able to latch onto him and
give him a bit more trouble. We
