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HAYDENgillim
Unfortunately, the 2017
GSX-R1000 that they had
planned to ride for the full season
wasn’t ready, so Gillim was forced
to compete on his bike from last
Despite the minor setback, the Kentuckian made some huge progress throughout the first two sessions, bettering his time by almost two seconds overnight, and then again by another second as he qualified in tenth place
as a result of Superpole. The
first race was a decent result for Gillim as he got off to a solid start, but he overcooked the brakes
at the end of the back straight, dropping him back through the order. He found himself in a closely contested battle with the TOBC Racing Yamaha of Danny Eslick for the majority of the race and he narrowly missed out on fourth place in the Superstock classification with a fifth place finish. In the second race, Gillim ran the softer-compound race tire which propelled him towards the front throughout the early laps. He battled back and forth with a few of the Superbikes in the opening laps and attempted to ride a mistake free race, but tire wear started to play a major role as the race continued. Gillim decided to play it safe and bring his Suzuki home for a sixth place finish in
the Superstock class, leaving him optimistic heading into the second round at Road Atlanta.
year.
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