Gaviria Takes Supersport

Paul Carruthers | March 12, 2011

DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MARCH 12 – Although it wasn’t a Colombian one-two-three like yesterday, today’s Supersport final was still dominated by the South American country with David Gaviria beating countryman and LTD teammate Tomas Puerta to the line by just .048 of a second. The third of the fast Colombians, Stefano Mesa, crashed out of the battle or the win on the final lap in the chicane.That left the two teammates to battle to the line and Gaviria got the best of the drafting duel to take the win in the Motorcycle-Superstore.com-sponsored final. With Mesa crashing out on the last lap of the 10-lap final, third went to Monster Energy/ANT Racing.com-backed James Rispoli, the Suzuki rider finishing well behind the lead duo after out-braking himself on the 7th lap to lose touch with the lead draft.

Canadian Emerson Conner finished fourth on the DucShop Ducati after coming out on top of a race-long battle with Hosue of Kawasaki’s Dustin Dominquez, Y.E.S-backed Sam Nash and M4 Suzuki’s Elena Myers.The race was red flagged after the first lap when chain of bizarre accidents could have been horrific. Two riders touched in the turn-two kink and one of the bikes ghost-rode itself to the exit of the International Horseshoe right as the leader Puerta was exiting the right-hander. The riderless bike narrowly missed Puerta and it was probably fortunate that Benny Solis (pictured) highsided out of second place, possibly saving him from being struck by the bike. Travis Ohge also highsided seconds later and the flag was brought out. Ohge was transported to the infield medical center with Solis uninjured in the incident but unable to make the restart.

Supersport Final

1. David Gaviria (Yamaha)

2. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha)

3. James Rispoli (Suzuki)

4. Emerson Connor (Ducati)

5. Dustin Dominquez (Aprilia)

6. Sam Nash (Yamaha)

7. Elena Myers (Suzuki)

8. Cory Alexander (Suzuki)

9. Ricky Parker (Yamaha)

10. Sebastiao Ferreira (Yamaha)