Page 41 - GRID4

JAKE LEWIS
N
THEGRID!
LEWIS
JAKE LEWIS | BAZZAZ SUPERSTOCK 1000
The M4 Ecstar Suzuki rider showed his pace and stuck with the Meen Motorsports Yamaha of Josh Herrin for the entire race, proving that he has the speed to run with some of the top Superbike competitors. Things got even closer as the final laps approached as Lewis began to come under pressure from Mathew Scholtz and Bobby Fong. The two of them were determined to challenge Lewis for the Superstock 1000 victory, but ‘the Snake’ had other ideas as he managed the race to relative perfection, maintaining his advantage all the way until the checkered flag. He crossed the finish line under half a second behind Josh Herrin at the end of the race, shortly thereafter erupting into a full- body celebration on the approach to turn one. It was an emotional win for Lewis following the recent passing of his close family friend, Nicky Hayden, as he was sporting the Kentucky Kid’s replica helmet throughout the entire weekend of racing. He went on to dedicate the win to the entire Hayden family on the podium, remembering all of the hard laps at Sunset Downs when the checkered flag began to close in. Lewis deployed the same strategy in the second race as he executed another blinding start, placing him within the top five on the opening lap. He grabbed a bit too much throttle coming out of the fifth corner and ended up suffering a vicious high side that caught out multiple riders, causing a red flag. He was able to remount his machine and get it back to the pits just in time to make the warm up lap
of the restart, demoting him to the back of the grid. Lewis controlled the damage as best as he could, salvaging eleven points in the championship in order to stay in third place, just eight markers out of the lead heading into the fifth round of the series.
WWW.GRITMOTO.COM
41