Honda’s Jake Johnson put on a dominating performance, taking the lead on the first turn and riding onto a victory in the AMA Pro Flat Track Expert Main event on Thursday night at the new Daytona Flat Track located outside Turns 1 and 2 at historic Daytona International Speedway.
Johnson, who started on the pole, led all 25 laps of the main event onto his fifth AMA win at Daytona.
Jake Johnson Speaks…
"I got the hole shot and I said, ‘Be smooth, be smooth,’ " Johnson said. "I knew I had somebody close to me the whole race."
Kenny Coolbeth Jr. began to put pressure on Johnson in the closing laps of the race but Johnson remained focused and avoided any errors on his way to a 1.397-second victory.
"About four laps to go, I peeked back and saw that No. 2," Johnson said. "I just tried to stay smooth and try not to make any mistakes."
Sammy Halbert, who captured the Expert Main on Wednesday night and started second on Thursday, took a spill in Turn 2 on the opening lap on Thursday and ended up finishing 18th.
Coolbeth Jr. took runner-up honors and Jared Mees completed the Honda sweep of the podium with a third-place finish.
J. D. Beach, riding aboard a Honda, captured the Pro Singles main event. Jeffrey Carver, who captured the Pro Singles event on Wednesday night, took runner-up honors on a Yamaha. Brad Baker, last year’s Pro Singles champion, rounded out the podium on a Honda.
JD Beach Speaks…
"It was a good race, a lot better than yesterday," said Beach, who is also participating in the AMA Pro road racing events inside DIS. "It was a lot of fun."
After being previously held at Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium and the old Memorial Stadium, the AMA Pro Racing doubleheader was the first at the new Daytona Flat Track, a quarter-mile lime rock track.
Daytona 200 Week continues on Friday with a second round of SuperSport and American SuperBike events and the historic Daytona 200.