Classic Win For Classic Marque At Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

As the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course celebrates its 50th year of
competition, a legendary name in motorcycling won the AMA Pro
Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport race today. Dustin Dominguez,
riding the Team Latus Motors Triumph Daytona 675, took the iconic
brand's first win in AMA Pro Road Racing since 1999 when Curtis
Adams won at Willow Springs Raceway in California. Second-place
finisher James Rispoli, riding his Ant-Racing.com Star School
Suzuki, maintained his East Division points lead and is in
contention for the $25,000 season-end points fund from
Motorcycle-Superstore.com.
Although Dominguez started today's race from the pole position, he
suffered a sluggish start. Even so, he went on to win the 17-lap
race by a margin of 8.080 seconds. Although Dominguez had won an
AMA Pro road race back in 2009, he was particularly ecstatic over
this victory on the Triumph.
"I just put my head down and said, 'I gotta catch (Rispoli),' "
said Dominguez. "I knew it was a pretty big gap, but I just started
creeping up a little bit and started to set him up. I followed him
for a lap, ended up passing him, and figured we would have a race
-- James had been on the gas all weekend. I just put my head down
and tried to go as quick as I could. I got a little bit of a gap
and started conserving tires, because I didn't want to throw
anything away. We had a bad points weekend last round and we're
just trying to get all the points we can, and this definitely
helps... We got everything put together right and tried to ride a
smart race, and everything just came together."
Although Rispoli led the first four laps, he settled into second
place after Dominguez swept by him on the inside of turn eleven. He
knew he'd have to work hard to hang on to that podium spot because
he was under assault from Hayden Gillim on his Bell Helmets Yamaha.
Despite this, Rispoli rode a smart ride to second position and
maintained his points lead.
"I led the first four laps, and I thought I was running pretty
good," said Rispoli. "I looked back once and saw (Dominguez) right
on my butt, and I pretty much thought it was going to be a nice,
clean race between me and him. He made a good move and for a couple
laps there, I was able to hang. Then I had a little moment going
through the Keyhole and tucked the front. I saw that we had a
pretty substantial lead [over third], and it was going to be hard
to reel him back in. I just had to conserve my tires and bring it
home in second place for the points, and that's what we did. I saw
those lappers at the end and knew [Gillim] was going to be on my
back wheel and I was waiting for a move. I tried to get by the
traffic in weird spots where he couldn't get by, and it looks like
it worked. It was a good race, it just is what it is."'
Third-place finisher Gillim overcame a poor start that had him
battling with the likes of quick-off-the-line Elena Myers
(SuzukiScoopFans Racing Suzuki), LTD Y.E.S Racing Yamaha teammates
David Gaviria and Tomas Puerta, Ohio rider Ryan Kerr (RFC-Digital
Impressions Kawasaki) and Cory Alexander (Vesrah Suzuki). Gillim
picked his way through the field, though, and was closing on
Rispoli as the race wound down.
"I started third on the grid and didn't get a good start," said
Gillim. "Then, going down the back straight, I lost a couple more
positions, but eventually I got in a rhythm and started making
passes. It was a hard run; it took me three or four laps to get
from sixth to third, but after that I just tried gapping Gaviria
and slowly reeling in James. Then on the last lap I thought I might
be able to get him, but he was able to get by some lapped riders on
the back straight and I wasn't really able to, then he just held
his line the rest of race. It was a good race. I'm happy with how I
finished, considering how I started. I was just going for it, [but]
these guys did an awesome job."
Race 2 of the doubleheader Honda Super Cycle Weekend Presented by
Dunlop Tire Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport series will be
tomorrow at 1:15 p.m. ET.
For ticket and event information, visit www.midohio.com. To learn
more and be a part of AMA Pro Racing, please visit amaproracing.com
and join us on facebook.com/AMAProRoadRacing and
twitter.com/AMAProSBK.