2013 AMA SuperSport Results
After finishing on the wrong end of a couple of photo finishes in the Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport class earlier this season, Tomas Puerta wasn’t going to let anyone around his RoadRace Factory Yamaha on Saturday at the Buckeye SuperBike Weekend presented by Dunlop Tire at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Tomas Puerta (RoadRace Factory Yamaha YZF-R6 SuperSport) says: “Some other races like Daytona and Barber I was thinking more about what the other riders were doing than what I was doing. This time I just put my head down and ran my race instead of anticipating what might go wrong.”
Puerta held off the competition to win the first race of this weekend’s event. It’s the second SuperSport win of the GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing Series season for Puerta. Hayden Gillim was second and Miles Thornton rounded out the podium.
Tomas Puerta says: “It was a tough race. I knew that they were right behind me, so my focus was on running clean laps. The last four or five laps I was going hard. I wasn’t worrying if I might crash; I wanted to get this win.”
Gillim said his RM Racing Yamaha was weak during a crucial stretch of the course, which caused some concern as he was battling for position.
Hayden Gillim (RM Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 SuperSport) says: “I wasn’t able to get a good drive off the backstretch, so I was losing time through there. We’re going to have to work on that for tomorrow. But as the race progressed I felt better and better. Tomas got ahead of our group, and we just weren’t able to track him down.
“Once I got into second I tried to catch up to Tomas, but I mainly focused on keeping the other guys behind me.
Thornton said that after running consistent laps throughout most of the race on his TOBC Racing Suzuki, he had to make a mad dash at the end to claim his spot in the top three.
Miles Thorton (TOBC Racing Suzuki GSX-R 600 SuperSport) says: “I tried to keep a steady course for a while after the start,” Thornton said. “This place is so tough to find places to pass. You either have to get a really good drive or outbrake them.
“I really had to push hard on that last lap to pass Travis Wyman to get on the podium.”
Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport riders will line up again at 10:15 a.m. EDT on Sunday morning for their final race of the Buckeye SuperBike Weekend.
