Day Wins His First SuperSport Race at Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 19, 2009) - Josh
Day marched away from the field on the No. 4 Team E.S.P. Yamaha YZF-R6 to claim
his first career AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei victory Sunday at
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Day started from second position and led all but
the first of the contest's 17 laps, passing Ricky Parker's No. 96 Graves Yamaha
YZF-R6 on the second lap and leading the rookie to the stripe by 8.895 seconds
at the end of the race.
"It
was definitely a good race for us today," said Day. "The Evans Steele Performance guys have been
working hard all weekend trying to get the setup really good. I couldn't
believe it when I was watching the board, that I was pulling a gap on Ricky
Parker with how fast he is and how fast everyone else is out there. I just kept my head down the whole race and
just ended up with the win."
The
battle for the final two podium spots were more difficult to secure, with
Parker holding off a hard-charging Garrett Carter. Carter started from 11th position and took
second briefly with a tight pass in Turn 4 on the final lap of the race, but
was unable to hold the spot. Parker
powered back past Carter's No. 31 Ridersdiscount.com/Woodcraft Yamaha YZF-R6 as
the two rounded Turn 6 and held the position to claim his fourth podium in four
attempts.
"The
setup on the front of the Yamaha was a little off, besides that everything was
pretty cool," said Parker. "I have to
admit that I didn't have it for Josh today. He was just too fast for me. He is
just a great rider, but I am happy to podium and end up with three Yamahas (on
the podium)."
After
starting 11th, an early racing incident threatened to end Carter's day early,
but he was able to keep his composure and control of his bike and surged to the
front.
"It
was pretty good," said Carter. "I got
involved with a little Turn 1 accident at the first lap, first corner. Someone crashed and hit me pretty hard, and I
had to run off the track a little bit and quite a few guys got by me. So really
I'm lucky to be here right now. (Parker)
was really good on the brakes today, and it's such a hard track to pass on, I
just couldn't do it."
Day
now leads the AMA Pro SuperSport East standings by 13 points over Leandro
Mercado (No. 92 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R), 94-81.
Highlights from Sunday's SuperSport race can be seen later
this evening at 1 a.m. ET (9 p.m. PT). The
next round for AMA Pro SuperSport will be held at Tornado Nationals at
Heartland Park Topeka on the weekend of July 31-August 2.
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