AMA Pro Road Racing
News
Puerta and Pascarella
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (October 18, 2009) - LTD Racing's Tomas Puerta earned his first podium finish of the season on Sunday in Daytona's National Championship Shootout, taking third place in a thrilling battle for position with teammate Joey Pascarella. Huntley Nash earned a solid ninth and Jake Gagne's machine retired with mechanical problems.
The 12-lap race to determine the National SuperSport Champion came down to four racers. Leandro Mercado, Josh Day, Joey Pascarella, and Tomas Puerta made up the group at the front, with Mercado, Day, and Pascarella leading the race.
Day made a break near the end and he was followed by Mercado as this duo eased out a slight gap over the LTD Racing teammates. As Mercado passed Day for the win on the final lap, Puerta drafted by Pascarella to take third.
"This is my best finish of the year," said Puerta. "One of my goals was to earn the podium and we finally were able to do it in the last race of the year. It was a fun race battling with Joey and I was able to make the pass at the end. I want to thank my LTD Racing team for giving me such a good bike to race here at Daytona."
Pascarella narrowly missed the win at Daytona in the spring and this time saw his Daytona luck come up a little short again. "I can't help but be a little disappointed with how the race turned out. I led and was in line for a podium but it didn't turn out the way I wanted and Tomas passed me there on the banking at the end," said Pascarella. "I got an okay start and I rode really conservative the first couple of laps, I don't really know why. Then I got going and caught up to Leandro and Tomas and actually led the race for a little bit. I was pushing real hard in that part of the race and my tire went off some. I was third for most of it and then Tomas got me at the line. Still, it's a good way to end the season but I wanted a little more."
Huntley Nash was contested eighth place with Kris Turner, who was able to re-take the position on the final lap and relegate Huntley to ninth.
"It was a good race. I had a battle with Kris Turner, who is an experienced rider that qualified third", said Nash. "I gambled on gearing early in the weekend. In the race, it showed up. When it came to the race, I was going faster and I was on the rev limiter on the banking. Despite that, I think I rode pretty well this weekend and the team worked great to help me improve. In the past, I've finished ninth and been unhappy but this was a positive weekend and I feel good about how I am progressing."
Gagne wasn't able to race due to issues with his machine. "I was a little happier after the morning practice and felt like we figured some stuff out but on the warm-up lap, we had a problem and I wasn't able to race. It's a bummer but sometimes you have bad weekends and sometimes you have good ones."