Jason DiSalvo was the big Daytona Sportbike winner at Infineon Raceway, walking away with a win, a runner-up, and pole.
AMA Pro Racing
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Posted May 10, 2012
Daytona Beach, FL
Cory West, Bobby Fong, and J.D. Beach comprised the next group. West (Riders Discount Vesrah Suzuki) put in a good ride and won the battle to take sixth over the resurgent Fong (Meen Motorsports) and young rider Beach (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull).
DAYTONA® 200 winner Joey Pascarella ran up front early but finished ninth on the SGA Yamaha. Veteran Jake Zemke earned a top ten for Ducshop Ducati, making it four brands in the top ten.
On Sunday, DiSalvo ran away with a 9.532-second win. His biggest challenger, Cardenas, crashed out in the closing laps.
Polesitter DiSalvo got a great launch on both starts of the red-flagged race. With Cardenas mired in the pack, the New Yorker got away and earned his lead with solid laps on a clean track.
Pascarella and Hayden gave chase. Hayden was able to work past Pascarella on lap five, but couldn't close the gap to DiSalvo and settled in.
Further back in the field, Cardenas was working his way towards the front after a disappointing restart. Cardenas was able to turn the same lap times as DiSalvo, but the Colombian could not work his way up to second place until midway through the 22-lap event. When he made it to second, Cardenas trailed DiSalvo by 5.2 seconds to start lap 14.
Cardenas was unwilling to concede victory to DiSalvo and was able to cut into DiSalvo's lead, but crashed at the Esses with 4 laps to go. Hayden, who finished second to DiSalvo, was able to close within 12 points of Cardenas in the points.
After the race, DiSalvo said, "We made some adjustments to the bike. They were small but critical. It gave me the comfort to push all race long. I backed it down at the end because I knew I had a big gap."
Hayden was able to earn his best result yet in his fill-in ride for Y.E.S/Graves/Yamaha's Garrett Gerloff. He was a major beneficiary of the first red flag. When Zemke crashed, Hayden ran off course and returned to the track as one of the last riders in the field. When the race began with riders in their original grid positions, he was able to take advantage of a tire compound switch from Saturday to improve his pace.
"Jason had his head down and wanted to get away. I tried to latch onto him but he was in his own league today," said Hayden. "It feels good, though. It was a big points turnaround for us. I'm still getting used to the 600 but I'm enjoying it."
Pascarella was able to finish third despite a hurt shoulder.
"We had a crash Friday in first qualifying. I've had a shoulder that's messed up and I landed on it," said Pascarella. "It was super sore. I knew I had the pace to do it. I just didn't know if it could last."
West won a dogfight for fourth, passing Fong for the position in the last corners. Beach also snuck past Fong in the run the checkers to earn fifth.
Dane Westby (M4 Suzuki) had a bizarre run to seventh. He had tangled with Cardenas in turn 11 early and fell, but remounted and passed numerous riders. Westby is now third in points, 19 behind Cardenas.
Zemke crashed before the red flag, but was able to get repairs and restart from his original grid position. He finished eighth.
Michael Beck (Full Tuck Racing) showed well for his small team. The Californian garnered his best result of the year and second top ten of the year.
Benny Solis (Riders Discount Vesrah Suzuki) rounded out the top ten, topping Huntley Nash (LTD Racing) who gained four positions from Saturday's race.
Jake Gagne (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull) was second early on Sunday before clutch issues forced him to retire. That followed on the heels of his Saturday crash in what was a bad luck weekend for him.
Heading to Miller Motorsports Park, the championship tightened up with Cardenas' crash. Tommy Hayden will continue on as Yamaha's best hope in the championship, and Martin's teammate Dane Westby lurks just a few points behind Hayden as the weather and the championship continue to heat up.