Joe Roberts Wins Again

Paul Carruthers | July 20, 2013

Joe Roberts won the Supersport final at Laguna Seca today.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREA WILSON
MONTEREY, CA, JULY 20 – Joe Roberts won the third AMA Supersport race of his career today at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. In his third AMA Supersport race. Call him Perfect Joe.

While he proved in his debut at the Barber Motorsports Park that he could win going away in a class that normally doesn’t feature runaway wins, today Roberts had to show that he had some race savvy as he battled to the bitter end with Tomas Puerta and Corey Alexander in the red-flag interrupted race.

It all came down to the final lap with Puerta leading Roberts with Alexander watching the proceedings from third place. When they headed up to the Corkscrew for the final time, Roberts drove it past Puerta on the brakes, ran deep, flicked his Honda back to the left and ran down the Corkscrew on the curbing. When he ran wide on the exit, Puerta had to check up because he was on the outside and the two ran down into Rainey Curve side by side. Roberts came out in front but Puerta shot past on the brakes into turn 11, the final left-hand hairpin that leads the front straight. Puerta went wide and Roberts was able to square him up and beat him to the flag. By just .117 of a second. Alexander was a shadow third – just .294 of a second behind Roberts.

Jeffrey Tigert, who ran with the top group prior to the red-flag that was brought out when Travis Ohge crashed in turn six, ended up having to fight back from a bad start, but he made it to fourth by the end of the race. He was 6.8 seconds behind.

Stefano Mesa rounded out the top five.

Supersport Final

1. Joe Roberts (Honda)

2. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha)

3. Corey Alexander (Suzuki)

4. Jeffrey Tigert (Honda)

5. Stefano Mesa (Yamaha)

6. Sebastio Ferrera (Yamaha)

7. Wyatt Faris (Yamaha)

8. Charles Weaver (Yamaha)

9. Ryan Matter (Yamaha)

10. Cameron Gish (Yamaha)