Elena Myers pulled off a photo finish, beating James Rispoli by three-thousandths of a second.
Huntley Nash won Saturday’s red-flagged AMA SuperSport race at Laguna Seca over Austin Dehaven and Scott Gilbert. At the start of the race it was Tyler O’Hara and Tomas Puerta out in front. But as Puerta accelerated out of Turn 3 the rear tire broke traction sending him flying over the handlebars in a highside-style crash. Miraculously he managed to bounce off track and avoided being run over by the pack of 600cc bikes behind him. Moments later Joey Pascarella threw it away as he maneuvered through Rainey Curve. He also appeared uninjured.
Into the second lap O’Hara had already started to break away from the field. He was followed by Nash, Elena Myers, James Rispoli, Dehaven, Gilbert, and Cameron Beaubier. A few laps later Beaubier lost control of his YZF-R6 as he entered the Corkscrew bringing out the red flag in order to clean-up the accident. Beaubier also appeared to be uninjured in the crash.
On the restart Nash and O’Hara jocked for position as they entered Turn 2. The two riders touched for a moment which spooked O’Hara and pushed him wide. This allowed Rispoli to sneak into the second spot. A few turns later O’Hara would pull a ballsy move at the entrance of the Corkscrew retaking second position.
Elena Myers got a mediocre start on the restart but pulled off an excellent pass on Rispoli for third position through Turn 1. However Rispoli would immediately counter with a late braking move into the next corner. With only a few laps remaining O’Hara had closed the gap on Huntley. In some spots of the track he looked faster but was considerably less comfortable in the Corkscrew which allowed Huntley to maintain his miniscule lead.
Huntley Nash (#75) took the win by a full 3.5 seconds ahead of Austin Dehaven.
On the 15th lap of the 18 lap race O’Hara would crash on the brakes through Turn 5 leaving Huntley to win the race by 3.5-seconds over Dehaven. Myers would barely eek out Rispoli at the finish line beating him by three-thousandth of a second.
AMA Supersport Laguna Seca Results:
1. Huntley Nash (Yamaha)
2. Austin Dehaven (Yamaha)
3. Scott Gilbert (Yamaha)
4. Elena Myers (Suzuki)
5. James Rispoli (Suzuki)
6. David Gaviria (Kawasaki)
7. Bryce Prince (Yamaha)
8. Matthew Sadowski (Suzuki)
9. Travis Ohge (Yamaha)
10. Michael Corbino (Yamaha)
2010 AMA SuperSport Championship Points:
1. J.D. Beach, 202
2. Cameron Beaubier, 167
3. Tomas Puerta, 153
4. Huntley Nash, 152
5. James Rispoli, 81
6. Miles Thornton, 75
7. Daniel Guevara, 74
8. Ryan Kerr, 74
9. Eric Stump, 65
10. Travis Wyman, 57
Ben Bostrom has truly rode his way to international stardom. After winning the hearts of American race fans, Ben took his show overseas.
