Team Suzuki/Yoshimura's Digger Doug Dominates
Florida Speed Festival at Gatorback!
Suzuki Dominates Florida Speed Week
|
#55
Doug Gust piloted the new Suzuki LT-R450 to its
first Overall Pro Win |
Gainesville, FL - Digger Doug Gust ran
down John Natalie and passed him in the second moto for
the overall win at this weekend's Gatorback national GNC
in Gainesville Florida. A lot of pit pundits suspected
that "The Digger" might win Florida after dominating
the first moto at the last GNC event in Florida. This
overall win is the first for the awesome new Suzuki QuadRacer
LT-R450.
Doug himself felt confident going into this event,
"The last race in Texas I got tangled up on the
start or I'm pretty sure I would have won that one.
I felt really strong down there. This weekend it was
the same thing. I screwed up both starts, but still
managed to get
the job done."
Doug started the 1st moto in 6th place with his teammate
Jeremiah Jones in 7th. At the end of lap one they had
both moved up when all of a sudden Jeremiah's bike quit.
A rock had been thrown up from his front tire and broke
the ignition key housing right off the bike! This one
in million break forced Jeremiah to sit out the rest
of the 1st moto.
Later when asked about the problem, Jeremiah said "Well,
they say bad luck comes in threes. This is the third
weird thing that's happened to me so I guess I guess
it's behind me now and it's all up from here on out."
As the 1st moto wore on Doug kept moving up. Early
leader Joe Byrd suffered a suspension problem and dropped
off the pace a little past the halfway point. By the
three quarter mark Doug had moved up to second. Leader
John Natalie had a huge lead but Doug prodigiously closed
the gap. In the end, it wasn't enough and Natalie won
the moto, with Doug in second. The stage was set for
a moto two shoot out.
|
Doug
Gust and Jeremiah Jones charge their way to the
front in the second Moto |
The second moto was deja-vu as Doug started in 6th
again with teammate Jeremiah Jones right behind him
in 7th. This time however the bad luck cloud hanging
over Jeremiah was gone and he and Doug freight trained
forward through the field. Jeremiah was all over Doug
and helped push Doug forward. "I wanted to help
push Doug forward but at the same time he was going
for the overall win. I didn't want to do something stupid
and screw up our chance for the overall," Jones
said after the race. He added "The pace was pretty
quick and the two of us sort of worked together and
really pushed each other."
The pushing worked as a few laps after the halfway
point both Gust and Jones passed John Natalie. Gust
then went on to pass leader Joe Byrd. That's how they
finished with Gust taking the overall win with a 2 -1
over John Natalie's 1– 5. This win marked the
first of what will surely be many wins for the new LT-R450.
After the race Digger Doug was pretty happy, "Those
guys (Natalie and Byrd) started to slow down a little
after half way and I just charged up to them and got
into the lead. Joe hung tough till the end but I hung
tight and brought the win home." Doug went on to
say, "This is the first win for the LTR and concludes
a Suzuki sweep for the Daytona Bike week. Suzuki/Yoshimura
riders Mat Mladin and Ben Spies went 1- 2 in the Daytona
Superbike race, Ricky won Supercross, Team Suzuki won
the Flat Track (1 -2) and now we capped it off with
Gatorback today! A lot of my friends from Japan are
here today and I'm really happy to win this for them.
Those guys built a heck of a quad with this LT-R450.
I think this is the first GNC Pro win for a fuel-injected
bike. Maybe the first win on stock tires (Dunlop) too."
Jeremiah was happy with his second moto, third place
finish. "I've had this crazy run of bad luck, ever
since Glen Helen. It's just nice to actually get to
race a moto! That was like the first full moto that
I've run all year… To be able to get out there
and run with those guys was great. It was just like
running my first race today." Jones is really looking
forward to next weekend's Macon race, a track where
he historically runs really well.
Next weekend: Donny Banks' Macon, Georgia round.
Discuss
this in ATVriders.com Forum
|