2014 Mid-Ohio AMA Daytona SportBike Results
The points battle tightened up top in the 2014 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike series following round five this past weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Both races occurred on Sunday due to Saturday being a washout, providing further challenges for the SportBike grid due to a crunched schedule.
Splitting wins at the Mid-Ohio were Motorsport.com/Meen Yamaha’s Jake Lewis and Castrol/Triumph/Sportbike Track Time’s Jason DiSalvo.
With one round remaining at New Jersey Motorsports Park in September, Gagne leads RoadRace Factory/Red Bull Yamaha’s Jake Lewis.
Following are race recaps from Mid-Ohio AMA Pro Daytona SportBike:
AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike Race 1
Motosport.com/Meen Yamaha’s Jake Lewis won the first AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike contest of the day, making a last-lap pass of Jake Gagne to win his second race in a row.
Lewis shadowed RoadRace Factory/Red Bull’s Gagne until the white flag then made his move at the end of Mid-Ohio’s long straight. Gagne fought back, but Lewis was able to hold his line and held the lead until the flag.
“It’s huge to get two wins in a row,” said Lewis. “I was planning my strategy for the end of the race. I made a pretty good pass on the brakes and blocked from there. There are only a couple of other spots to pass from there.”
After the race, the two Jakes were tied for the series points lead.
Riders Discount Racing Triumph’s Danny Eslick won the battle for third. The Oklahoman had a good battle with Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff and Dane Westby.
Westby rose up from seventh to take third on the Yamalube/Westby Racing machine by the middle stages of the race, but Eslick rallied to take the position back.
Garrett Gerloff also passed Westby to earn fourth.
Gerloff’s teammate JD Beach was sixth, having led the first lap before dropping down the order.
AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike Race 2
DiSalvo won the second AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike race at Mid-Ohio. Castrol Triumph’s Jason DiSalvo topped Jake Gagne for the prize in the red-flagged race, showing great form as he earned the win by being the strongest at the end of the race.
“The team has their heart and soul in this,” said New York-born DiSalvo. “They are trying to make the best bike they can. It was great to see all the Northeasterners up here cheering me on.”
Gagne now leads the points, earning two second place results on the day. The Californian is seven points ahead of Jake Lewis, who took fourth in race two after winning the opener.
Gerloff was third after trying to hang with the leaders and aggressively moving by Lewis in a bid to hang onto the lead duo. Ultimately, he took the checkered flag almost four and a half seconds back.
Bobby Fong earned an excellent fifth place on his Latus Motors/Castrol/Triumph Racing entry, holding off another former class race winner Blake Young on the GN Gonzalez machine.
