Tomas Puerta (#12) encountered little resistance during the opening round at Daytona and took a convincing win in Race 1.
LTD
Yamaha’s Tomas Puerta claimed the first victory of the 2011
AMA Pro Road Racing season, taking the checkers in the
Motorcycle Superstore AMA SuperSport Race 1 at Daytona. Starting from the second row, Puerta quickly took the lead ahead of Yamaha’s Hayden Gillim and
Ducati’s Sefano Mesa in the opening lap of the contest.
Further behind the leader ANT-Racing.com’s James Rispoli was in seventh with
Suzuki’s Elena Myers in hot pursuit. Mesa and Yamaha rider David Gaviria exchanged the runner-up position multiple times throughout the 10-lap battle. Meanwhile, Puerta used the struggle for second behind him to advance further ahead of the field, and halfway into the race Puerta was leading by nearly four seconds.
RoadRacingWorld.com
Honda’s Benny Solis picked up his pace near the end to crack into the top-five. While Puerta’s lead continued to soar, Solis jumped ahead of Mesa and Gaviria into second, but it would only last for a lap as Gaviria came back to retake his position in the final three laps. On Lap 7 Ducati’s Emmerson Connor crashed out while running eighth, handing Rispoli his position.
Puerta earned the first race win of the year after leading every lap.
Stefano Mesa (#37) won a last minute tussle with David Gaviria (#700) for runner-up in the first Daytona SuperSport contest.
“I’m really excited about it; I’m really happy with my first win," said Puerta. "I’ve been waiting for this since last year, and this year I think I will try to be the champion and try hard every time. For the first four laps I was trying really hard because I felt somebody was there…. When I saw a little gap, I tried to make it bigger because I know it’s really hard to win here.”
Following a last minute tussle between Mesa and Gaviria, Mesa sealed runner-up in Race 1 by a mere 0.008 seconds ahead of Gaviria.
“The bike is fantastic—really, really fast," Mesa said.. "You completely top out when you draft somebody. At the beginning I crashed really bad going into a turn and I fractured my hand, but I had to go out just to make my points and have fun. I made it, and I can’t believe I’m up here in my third race. I guess Colombians are excellent in bikes.”
“The beginning of the race was so difficult to ride," Gaviria said. "I was so concentrated and so focused on the race; I’ve never been here before and I tried to learn as much as possible during the race about the draft. [The draft] is weird to explain, because you get behind somebody and immediately the bike runs very fast, so you have to be fast also to get out of it and not crash with another—you have to be careful a lot with that; I have to learn more about that."
Solis and Suzuki’s Dustin Dominguez rounded out the top-five in fourth and fifth, respectively, while Myers finished sixth more than 16 seconds off the pace of Puerta.
RoadRacingWorld.com Honda’s Benny Solis (#35) was able to crack into the top-five near the end of the first SuperSport contest and finished fourth behind David Gaviria (#700).
1. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha)
2. Stefano Mesa (Ducati)
3. David Gaviria (Yamaha)
4. Benny Solis (Honda)
5. Dustin Dominguez (Aprilia)
6. Elena Myers (Suzuki)
7. James Rispoli (Suzuki)
8. Eric Stump (Yamaha)
9. Ricky Parker (Yamaha)
10. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)
11. Miles Thornton (Yamaha)
12. Ryan Kerr (Kawasaki)
13. Sam Nash (Yamaha)
14. Charlie Long (Suzuki)
15. Travis Ohge (Yamaha)
2011 AMA SuperSport Championship Points:
1. Tomas Puerta, 31
2. Stefano Mesa, 25
3. David Gaviria, 21
4. Benny Solis, 18
5. Dustin Dominguez, 16
6. Elena Myers, 15
7. James Rispoli, 14
8. Eric Stump, 13
9. Ricky Parker, 12
10. Hayden Gillim, 11
