Jake Lewis Gets His First Daytona SportBike Win

Paul Carruthers | July 13, 2014

Jake Lewis won the first Daytona SportBike race of his career today at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Photography by Brian J. Nelson
MONTEREY, CA, JULY 13 – MotoSport.com/Meen Racing Yamaha’s Jake Lewis won the first Daytona SportBike race of his young career today at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the lanky youngster getting the better of a four-rider battle for victory in the final laps.

Lewis ended up crossing the finish line stripe with the lead in each of the 20 laps, the Princeton, Kentucky, rider ultimately topping fellow Kentucky resident and training partner JD Beach by 1.5 seconds after 20 laps of Laguna Seca. The battle for third place went to the finish with Riders Discount Racing Triumph’s Danny Eslick besting the RoadRace Factory/Red Bull Yamaha of championship leader Jake Gagne by .135 of a second.

Then came a gap to another race that went to the end, with Yamahalube Westby Racing’s Dane Westby beating Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff to the line. Pole sitter Jason DiSalvo was never in this one, the New Yorker riding to a lonely seventh. Behind DiSalvo came a race-long battle between veterans Blake Young and Jake Zemke, with Young taking eighth on his GN Gonzales Racing Yamaha R6 over the GEICO Honda of Zemke.

Benny Solis rounded out the top 10 on his Team H35 Yamaha R6.

Daytona SportBike Final

1. Jake Lewis (Yamaha)

2. JD Beach (Yamaha)

3. Danny Eslick (Triumph)

4. Jake Gagne (Yamaha)

5. Dane Westby (Yamaha)

6. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)

7. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph)

8. Blake Young (Yamaha)

9. Jake Zemke (Honda)

10. Benny Solis (Yamaha)