LEEDS, AL, JUNE 23 – Riders Discount/Vesrah Suzuki’s Jake Lewis chased down Dustin Dominguez (Latus Motors Racing Castrol Triumph) in heavy traffic, passing him on the run to the white flag, then pulling away to win the Supersport West race on a hot and sunny afternoon at Barber Motorsports Park.
Pole-sitter Dominguez had gotten a horrible start, his Triumph Daytona 675R lurching and wheelying as a number of riders swallowed him up on the run to the first turn.
Lewis led the first lap, but Dominguez was the fastest rider on the track and passed Lewis out of the final corner to complete lap two. Lewis stayed close, followed by Celtic Racing/Orient Express Racing/Army National Guard’s James Rispoli and Road Race Factory/Red Bull Yamaha’s Hayden Gillim, the top four making an early and clean break.
Gillim was first out with a mechanical on lap three as Dominguez started to make his break. The Triumph rider finished the seventh of 17 laps with a lead of 1.769 sec. before it started to shrink. Lewis was coming, but not Rispoli, who would soon drop off the pace of the leaders to finish a secure third.
Lewis cut the lead by more than half a second on the tenth lap and more on the 11th. Then they hit traffic and Lewis lost .8 sec. from the 12th to the 13th laps.
The next lap ended with Lewis much closer and he was on Dominguez on the 15th. The pass for the lead came in Turn 4 on lap 16, Dominguez fighting back, then Lewis forging ahead on the run to the downhill Turn 6 sequence. Dominguez took another run at Lewis out of the final corner, though that move was also rebuffed and Lewis led across the stripe.
Going into Turn 1 on the final lap they came up on another gaggle of slower riders, but both were through cleanly. In a one-on-one fight to the flag, Lewis emerged the winner-it was his third this season-by 1.598 secs. Rispoli was third at 12.376, then came Stefano Mesa, the Kneedragger.com Yamaha rider who came out the best of a three-way fight. National Guard/Fairhills Group/Celtic Racing’s Corey Alexander was fifth followed by Tomas Puerta (American Supercamp/Road Race Factory Yamaha).
Both East and West Supersport riders earn points at Barber. Lewis padded his Supersport East Points lead to 112, with Mesa second at 85. Rispoli stretched his Supersport West points lead to 202 over Gillim, whose DNF left him at 155. Elena Myers, the seventh place finisher, is third with 127.
Barber Supersport Results:
1. Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
2. Dustin Dominguez (Triumph)
3. James Rispoli (Suzuki)
4. Stefano Mesa (Yamaha)
5. Corey Alexander (Suzuki)
6. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha)
7. Elena Myers (Suzuki)
8. Tyler Linders (Yamaha)
9. Ryan Matter (Yamaha)
10. Ryan Kerr (Kawasaki)
