Photography by Brian J. Nelson
MILLVILLE, NJ (Sept. 14, 2014) – Jake Gagne celebrated his new Daytona Sportbike Championship by going out and winning Sunday’s race in a runaway. Gagne took control early and gradually pulled away to a healthy 2.562-second margin of victory and that was after backing off in the final lap. He had he lead to nearly five seconds earlier in the race. Second was Garrett Gerloff Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha. He won out in a great fight for the position with Dane Westby and Jake Lewis.
Gagne split from the start. With the championship already secure he was free to go all out for nothing, but a focus on winning. Gerloff and Lewis battled hard early for second, with four other riders – Bobby Fong, JD Beach, Dane Westby and Jake Zemke – stacked up behind them.
On lap five Tomas Puerta fell out of tenth. He was able to re-enter the race. Meanwhile his RoadRace Factory/Red Bull teammate Gagne was still leading, but Westby and Lewis were on the charge, moving the battle for second ever closer to the leader.
At one point Westby appeared to be signaling to Lewis for them to try to work together to chase down Gagne. At the 10-lap point Gagne’s lead was 1.5 seconds. But no matter how hard they tried to use the draft to their advantage Gagne seemed to be able to respond and raise his pace whenever the gap closed. He was managing the race well from the lead.
In the closing laps Gagne continued to build on his lead. Gerloff moved up to pass both Lewis and Westby for second. The trio battled all the way to the flag with Gerloff taking the runner-up spot from Westby and Lewis.
“What a way to finish off the weekend,” Gagne said. “There were no points on the line, so I really wanted to go for it. To get the championship yesterday and the win today is really unbelievable.”
Daytona SportBike results from New Jersey Motorsports Park – Sept. 14, 2014
1 32 Jake Gagne RoadRace Factory/Red Bull Yamaha YZF-R6 21 Laps
2 8 Garrett Gerloff Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Yamaha YZF-R6 2.562
3 00 Dane Westby Yamalube Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 3.255
4 85 Jake Lewis MotoSport.com/Meen Yamaha Yamaha YZF-R6 3.391
5 6 JD Beach Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Yamaha YZF-R6 23.166
6 69 Danny Eslick Riders Discount Racing Triumph Triumph Daytona 675 28.373
7 98 Jake Zemke GEICO Motorcycle Racing Honda CBR600RR 28.548
8 40 Jason DiSalvo Castrol/Triumph/Sportbike Track Time Triumph Daytona 675 36.045
9 56 Shane Narbonne GN Gonzales Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 36.094
10 33 Kyle Wyman Millennium Technologies/KWR Yamaha YZF-R6 36.677
