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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA DSB: Taming The Wild Westby
Dane Westby has made great strides in his game in 2012 by actively attacking the weaknesses in his game.
M4 Suzuki's Dane Westby (Photo: Evan Williams)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Pro Road Racing race action from New Jersey Motorsports Park will air on SPEED Saturday, September 8 at 9:00pm ET and Sunday, September 9 at 11:00pm ET.
Anyone involved will tell you AMA Pro Daytona SportBike is a tough class. There are about 15 riders that have the ability to run up front if everything goes right.
The bikes are generally simpler than in Superbike and the DSB machines have been around a long time and are fully developed. The mechanical secrets to racing a fast 600 aren’t that secret.
So it comes down to the rider.
Large fields also expose any weakness a rider has in his game. A poor qualifier or a bad starter? Slow on the first lap when the tires are cold? You’ll end up fighting it out in the pack. With other riders dive-bombing you in every corner, you’ll never see the front.
The key to improving is to eliminate your flaws. One rider who has done that this summer to become a legit DSB star is Dane Westby of the M4 Suzuki team. Westby is second in DSB points and has one win and three second place finishes of late.
The Oklahoman has shown promise before, including finishing second in the Daytona 200 in 2010. He also won at Mid-Ohio last year on a magic day where everything went right and he was not to be denied. But the great days didn’t come as often as he liked. Westby was raw and still learning the racing game.
He put his head down and improved his riding. Earlier in the summer, he worked with drag racer Ricky Gadson to improve his starts. He also went to the Champions School at Miler Motorsports Park to work on aspects of his cornering technique. The combined result was a startling improvement.
Longtime Westby wrench Chuck Giacchetto said, “We don’t really know how good Dane is yet, what his full potential is. He keeps getting better and better. If you watch Dane out there, note that he always seems to be moving forward.”
A free spirit, Dane got a little bit of a late start racing. He snuck up on being one of the elite DSB pilots, along with his teammate Martin Cardenas and Cameron Beaubier.
Westby’s early 2012 was rocked by a series of frankly terrible starts that meant his charges were spent passing guys he out-qualified. He finally said enough and hit the drag strip.
Anyone involved will tell you AMA Pro Daytona SportBike is a tough class. There are about 15 riders that have the ability to run up front if everything goes right.
The bikes are generally simpler than in Superbike and the DSB machines have been around a long time and are fully developed. The mechanical secrets to racing a fast 600 aren’t that secret.
So it comes down to the rider.
Large fields also expose any weakness a rider has in his game. A poor qualifier or a bad starter? Slow on the first lap when the tires are cold? You’ll end up fighting it out in the pack. With other riders dive-bombing you in every corner, you’ll never see the front.
The key to improving is to eliminate your flaws. One rider who has done that this summer to become a legit DSB star is Dane Westby of the M4 Suzuki team. Westby is second in DSB points and has one win and three second place finishes of late.
The Oklahoman has shown promise before, including finishing second in the Daytona 200 in 2010. He also won at Mid-Ohio last year on a magic day where everything went right and he was not to be denied. But the great days didn’t come as often as he liked. Westby was raw and still learning the racing game.
He put his head down and improved his riding. Earlier in the summer, he worked with drag racer Ricky Gadson to improve his starts. He also went to the Champions School at Miler Motorsports Park to work on aspects of his cornering technique. The combined result was a startling improvement.
Longtime Westby wrench Chuck Giacchetto said, “We don’t really know how good Dane is yet, what his full potential is. He keeps getting better and better. If you watch Dane out there, note that he always seems to be moving forward.”
A free spirit, Dane got a little bit of a late start racing. He snuck up on being one of the elite DSB pilots, along with his teammate Martin Cardenas and Cameron Beaubier.
Westby’s early 2012 was rocked by a series of frankly terrible starts that meant his charges were spent passing guys he out-qualified. He finally said enough and hit the drag strip.
AMA SBK Homestead-Miami
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