Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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After earning his first-career pole, Dane Westby was the standout in the rain in race one. Westby sprinted off to a big lead on his Yamalube/Westby Rac- ing Yamaha R6 in the drenched 16-lap contest and backed off in the closing laps to win by an 8.998-second margin of vic- tory over Gagne and a surprising Jake Zemke. "Man, I'm just ecstatic," race winner Westby said. "I'm over the moon to be able to ride in the rain and get this win. It was ex- tremely treacherous, and I had a couple of moments out there on my double-zero R6. Someone told me I'm the winningest rider of the 2014 [DSB] season, so that's pretty amazing. I'm really happy to get this win." Second-place never felt so good for Gagne. He clinched the Daytona SportBike title, one that he was the pre-season favorite to win after finishing second to Beaubier in last year's champi- onship. Gagne spoke about the feelings of finally nailing down the title. "It's incredible," he said. "This class is stacked with so many fast riders, and a lot of the guys are on Yamaha R6s like me. The last thing I thought about today was to have this wrapped up. I'm stoked for the Yamaha and the whole RoadRace Factory crew. To do it for those guys and to pay off all their hard work is incred- ible." For Zemke, getting back on the podium at an AMA race for the first time in three years made him smile. "The rain helped us a lot for sure," Zemke said. "The condi- tions helped us get up on the podium today. It's the first rain race we've had all year and they VOL. 51 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 P69 Briefly... ADR Motorsports, Sic, Motul Fly's David Anthony had a breakthrough season in AMA Superbike, but not being able to get by Bernat Marti- nez on the last lap of Sunday's race cost him a position in the champion- ship. It boils down to Anthony came up .002 of a second short of earn- ing fourth in the final standings. The Australian will have to settle for fifth, but still the top privateer in the se- ries. "I caught him [Martinez] on the last lap," Anthony said. "It's a shame for me because had I passed him it would have given me fourth in the championship. I missed out by one point. To be side by side at the line and miss out on that one position is kind of tough. If I'd known I needed that position (to get fourth in the se- ries) I probably would have made it happen." Anthony said his plans are up in the air for next year, dependent on finding sponsorship to keep his team going. Spaniard Bernat Martinez opened some eyes at New Jersey. The for- mer Moto2 rider acquired a customer Graves Yamaha R1 Superbike backed by Proto-Tech Spain for the first time, Martinez battled for the lead in Sat- urday's rain race before going down, and then took a very strong fourth in the dry on Sunday. Martinez speaks no English, so his words were kindly interpreted by Martin Cardenas after the race. "It was a good race for me in spite of not having too much time to set up the bike," Martinez said. "I had a good race, especially at the begin- ning, but what I thought would hap- pen did happen. I couldn't maintain the pace. I was starting to get a little tired fighting with the bike. And then I lost concentration and went straight on one corner, but besides that I was Jake Gagne wrapped up the Daytona SportBike title on Saturday and then went out and dominated on Sunday. continued on next page