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A! ATLANTA!
JAKE GAGNE
ROAD ATLANTA
Gagne
spent the first day of practice coming to grips with the two and a half mile road course and getting the bike acclimated to the technical terrain. Once Saturday came around, the Honda rider had found his rhythm and managed to put himself into Superpole, eventually placing himself at the front of the fourth row of the grid. Gagne executed a speedy start from the middle of the pack as he moved up one position through the first corner, settling into ninth place behind Mathew Scholtz. He did his best to tag onto the back of the YZF-R1, but he immediately fell under pressure from Kyle Wyman behind him. The Californian was able to hold firm in ninth place until the sixth lap
of the race as he was forced to concede the spot to the Yamaha rider. From that point forward, Gagne kept his head down and rode his own race as he fended off a slight attack from the TOBC Racing Yamaha of Danny Eslick. The two of them were close at the midway point of the race,
but Gagne was able to find another gear as the laps wound down and he secured the final spot
in the top ten until the finish line. He was able to make some strides with bike setup in Sunday’s morning warm up and looked much more comfortable in the second race. The Californian held his starting position on the opening lap, but he immediately began prying at the riders in front of him in the early stages. The Honda rider had moved all the way up to seventh position by the fifth lap due to some carnage further up the pecking order. Nonetheless, he was able to track down the
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki of Jake Lewis in the latter stages of the race, clinging to the rear tire of the Kentuckian all the way to the finish line -- it was a grandstand finish between the two as they were separated by just half of a second at the finish line, but it was Gagne that got the short end of the stick, subsequently finishing in seventh position.
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