Team Hammer registered another standout performance across all three AMA Pro classes in Saturday’s maiden races at NOLA Motorsports Park.
M4 Suzuki’s Dane Westby notched up his tenth podium finish of the ’12 Daytona SportBike season following a race-long struggle for the position.
‘The Wolverine’ sliced way up from eighth on the opening lap to second by lap five. From there he jostled with a pack, ultimately holding strong in second on the final lap to secure a runner-up result.
The outstanding effort has Westby in strong position to lock down second in the SportBike championship as he heads into Sunday’s final holding a 17-point advantage over third. A win tomorrow combined with today’s second would also earn Dane the title of ‘Big Kahuna’ for the weekend and the surfboard trophy that comes along with it.
“It was a pretty good race,” Westby said. “I was trying to make inroads on the leader but I just couldn’t get it to work. I’ll figure something out for tomorrow. The bike was working really good. We made a change this morning that gave me a lot more front-end confidence. To hold some of those guys off, I had to make a change. We’ll keep working on that and keep on keepin’ on, and try to get a surfboard tomorrow.”
Team Venezuela’s Robertino Pietri put forth a stirring effort in the day’s Superbike contest, coming home with a top-five result despite being docked five seconds as a penalty for crossing a designated line near the wall in Turn 16.
The Venezuelan charged up from eighth to fourth before being penalized. Undeterred, he continued to push and made up the positions before finally taking the checkered flag in fifth.
M4 Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich, meanwhile, finished in 13th in the premier-class contest.
Suzuki SportBikeTrackTime.com‘s Elena Myers continued the theme, fighting her way forward from tenth in the opening stages of the day’s SuperSport race to work inside the top five. Myers actually slotted into fourth position on lap 12 of a scheduled 15, but the race was red flagged moments later. The race was called complete and the results were taken from the previous lap, leaving her fifth in the final order.
Team Hammer will look to match or better its triple top-five day in tomorrow’s final races of the 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing season.
In 2012, Team Hammer, Inc. is competing in its 32nd consecutive racing season and marks its sixth year of offering technical and logistical support through its Contract Services Department. Riders on Team Hammer-prepared racebikes have earned 54 AMA Pro National race wins; 132 AMA Pro National podium finishes; 5 AMA Pro Championships; 133 Overall National Endurance race wins; 13 National Endurance Championships and assorted other race wins and titles.
