Motorcycles are in Dane Westby’s blood. His grandfather, the late Gerald H. Westby, Sr. was a famed geophysicist who used a Harley-Davidson Model 24 JD to search for oil in Algeria in 1924. And his father, Tryg Westby, was a Honda-supported AMA Pro Superbike racer in the 1980s.
Dane Westby rode off-road bikes with his father and friends near his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, until his father offered him the opportunity to try road racing at age 16. Dane excelled at the sport and progressed from the club level with CMRA to the semi-pro level with AMA Sports and WERA, winning several Championships along the way, including the SV650 Suzuki Cup Championship in 2006 and 2007, four AMA Sports National Championships, four WERA National Challenge Series Championships and two WERA National Endurance Championships in the Mediumweight Superbike class.
In 2008, Dane made his AMA Pro Road Racing debut by placing 12th in Supersport and 12th in Superstock at Mid-Ohio. Later that year at Road Atlanta he backed that up with a 10th in Formula Xtreme and a 10th in Supersport, when he finished just 26 seconds behind Supersport winner Josh Hayes.
The next year, 2009, Dane took a break from his studies at the University of Tulsa to join the AMA Pro ranks full-time, and that season started off well. Dane ran as high as fifth and finished eighth in his very first Daytona 200. But a big crash midway through the season resulted in a broken bone and nerve damage in his right arm, and Dane struggled in the following races. To help regain his form and confidence, Dane started also racing in the AMA Pro Moto-GT1 class, and he co-rode to three race wins, including the 8 Hours at Daytona.
In 2010, Dane joined his first professional team and finished runner-up in the Daytona 200, America’s biggest motorcycle road race. Unlike the previous season, however, Dane kept going strong, grabbing his second podium finish at the second event and earning a total of five podiums and 12 10-top finishes and taking fifth-place in the Daytona SportBike Championship. Had it not been for two mechanical DNFs at Mid-Ohio, Westby may have finished even higher.
Dane joined the Team Hammer organization in 2011 and forever etched his name in the AMA Pro record books by winning a Daytona SportBike race at Mid-Ohio. He backed that up by finishing on the podium three other times and placing seventh in the final Championship standings.
The 2012 season started off well for Dane. Racing again in the Daytona SportBike class, Dane led several laps of the Daytona 200 before trouble during a pit stop relegated him to fifth. And he finished on the podium in both races at Road Atlanta, and backed that up with a pair of second place finishes at Barber. Dane showed his mastery of the demanding Mid-Ohio circuit by winning there again, and notching a second as well. With the exception of Laguna Seca, where a crash took him out of contention, Dane was on the box every weekend through the rest of the season, and finished 2012 in second in the final Championship standings.
Preseason testing for the 2013 campaign aboard his new Geico Honda CBR600RR left Dane smiling; "We are ready for this fight,” Dane said. “I’m really excited and honored that I’ll be carrying the GEICO flag this year and beyond."
