Hayden Gillim (#69) earned his first ever victory after a close battle with James Rispoli.
RM Racing’s Hayden Gillim took top honors during a crash-filled
Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport contest. Under a hot sun the 16-year-old made a final-lap pass on Ant-Racing
Suzuki’s James Rispoli to record his first ever victory by just 0.209 seconds. LTD Yamaha’s Tomas Puerta rounded out the podium in third, the Colombian finishing more than a second adrift of the leader.
Puerta shot to the front at the beginning of Race 2, but it was Rispoli who emerge from the first turn with the lead ahead of Latus Motors Racing’s Dustin Dominguez, LTD
Yamaha’s David Gaviria, Puerta and SuzukiScoopFans’ Elena Myers. Dominguez, eager to rekindle his win from the previous day, began hounding Rispoli for the lead early on. For the second time this weekend Rispoli wasn’t able to hold off the
Triumph rider as he shot ahead for the lead. Just then Gaviria went down back in third, ending his run at the podium.
“I was hoping to get a better start,” said Gillim. "But on the back straight I got drafted by two people, went back to sixth, and stayed there for a little bit. James [Rispoli] and Dustin [Dominguez] weren’t getting out front very far, so I figured I could make my move at the end."
James Rispoli (#43) was overtaken in both races at Mid Ohio despite leading the most laps.
In another shocking turn of events Dominguez crashed while leading. The 21-year-old was just beginning to stretch his lead ahead of Rispoli and looked capable of taking another win in the series, but his mistake erased all hopes. More crashes took place toward the front, leaving Rispoli in the lead by more than five seconds ahead of Puerta. Behind Puerta were Gillim, Vesrah Suzuki’s Corey Alexander and Myers, all of who were fighting for third as Stefano Mesa crashed out.
With 10 laps to go Gillim had made it by Puerta for second and was within two seconds of Rispoli. The top-four riders began pulling ahead of Myers, who was running back in fifth and dropping off the pace. In the final laps of the race Gillim continued to chisel away at Rispoli’s lead, closing right behind him on the penultimate lap. With the white flag out Gillim attacked and flew by for the win on the final straight.
"I barely made the corner and held it real tight in the last corner and was able to make it stick," said Gillim. "Man, I am so happy go be up here on top of the box today.”
Despite leading for nearly the whole race Rispoli had to settle for another runner-up finish, with Puerta improving on his seventh-place finish in Race 1 with a podium finish.
"I got a really good drive out of Turn 11 and thought I was going to make it [past Gillim], but dirt-trackers don’t really let off," said Rispoli. "It was great, two dirt-trackers going at it.”
AMA SuperSport Mid Ohio Race 2 Results:
1. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)
2011 AMA SuperSport Mid Ohio Race 2 podium (from left to right): James Rispoli, Hayden Gillim and Tomas Puerta.
2. James Rispoli (Suzuki)
3. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha)
4. Corey Alexander (Suzuki)
5. Elena Myers (Suzuki)
6. James Dellinger (Suzuki)
7. Miles Thornton (Yamaha)
8. Eric Stump (Yamaha)
9. Jeff Wrobel (Yamaha)
10. Ben Young (Yamaha)
11. Frank Babuska (Suzuki)
12. Rocco Horvath (Kawasaki)
13. Allan Pett (Yamaha)
14. Jacob Arch (Yamaha)
15. Alexander Guilbeault (Yamaha)
