Henny Ray Abrams | May 15, 2011
SONOMA, CA, MAY 15 –
Benny Solis swept both SuperSport West races at Infineon Raceway, by adding a dominant victory in Sunday’s race to go with Saturday’s runaway win.Unlike Saturday, when Solis led from the front, today he had to work a little harder. First the Red Bull/Roadracing.world.com/Erion Racing Honda rider had to dodge the high-siding David Gaviria in turn 11 ending the fifth lap. Then he waited until the seventh of 18 laps to pass Tomas Puerta on the exit of the turn six Carousel. After which he vanished. And at a rate that was more impressive than Saturday’s.By the end of the race he had a 12.524 secs. cushion on Puerta. Saturday’s margin of victory was 8.825 secs.
“I got a good start and, again, Tomas (Puerta) got a better start,” Solis, the only Honda rider in the field, said. “My plan was to stay behind Tomas for a while and see what I can learn and see if I can win at the end. And then David (Gaviria) got by me right away so I just decided to follow both of them. And then once David crashed it messed me up a little bit because I almost hit. Tomas had somewhat of a gap, so I tried really hard to close it. Once I saw that he made a mistake, it was my time to go. Once I was in front I put my head down and I was able to pull a good gap.”Team LTD/Yamaha Extended Services’ Puerta was second for the second day in a row and able to maintain his championship lead. Leaving Sonoma, he has 106 points to 81 for Solis.GP Bike Parts’ Travis Ohge (Yamaha) improved on Saturday’s fifth to finish a distant third today, and take his first AMA podium.Vesrah Suzuki’s Corey Alexander recovered from an early crash to finish fourth, equaling his Saturday result.Fifth was Sebastiao Ferreira (GP Bike Parts Yamaha), the Brazilian improving on his Saturday ninth.
SuperSport Results:
1. Benny Solis (Honda)
2. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha)
3. Travis Ohge (Yamaha)
4. Corey Alexander (Suzuki)
5. Sebastiao Ferreira (Yamaha)
6. Jason Lauritzen (Yamaha)
7. Jett Chandler (Yamaha)
8. Nadr Riad (Yamaha)
9. Rocco Horvath (Kawasaki)
10. Sam Nash (Yamaha)
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
