Division7/Star Racing/Yamaha Daytona Report
The AMA Supercross series visited Daytona Motor Speedway and a massive crowd last Saturday for round four of the East Coast Lites championship. Division 7/Star Racing /Yamaha’s fielding of three riders, #41 Matt Lemoine, #159 Darryn Durham, and the return of #43 Broc Tickle was refreshing and positive leading to the entire squad stepping towards the forefront in the race results. Like every year, conditions at this race are extremely challenging and everything needs to lineup just right for a great finish. Preliminary action got underway in good fashion as Lemoine stood high up in the charts at 2nd and the rookie Durham clocked the 11th fastest Timed-qualifying lap, followed closely by Tickle in 17th.
Taking top honors of the team and once again riding exceptionally well on the night was Matt Lemoine. When Heat #1 got started, Lemoine sat deep in the pack at 14th. Riding patiently, smart moves allowed the Yamaha pilot to forge up to 6th, where he remained until the checkers. Moving to the Main Event, Lemoine rocketed out to the early lead and maintained the 1st position for nearly two laps. Slipping into 3rd, Lemoine would continue to hang tough throughout the majority of the race. With three laps until the finish, the FMF backed rider suffered his only falter when he couldn’t fight off an eventual pass. Never willing to settle, Lemoine bounced back to try and recapture 3rd, but he would have to wait for another night and take a seasons best 4th place.
Next in line would be Darryn Durham, starting Heat #1 up front in 5th, the Pennsylvanian showed good speed and raced on to a transfer position of 2nd. With a good start to the Main Event, 6th, Durham jumped to 5th on lap two and did one better the following lap by moving up in to 4th. However, while on the move he fell victim to jump section named “stairway to heaven”. Where his rear wheel clipped the top sending him into an endo which was followed by crash. Shaken, and with the wind knocked out of him, Durham remounted in 6th and held there until lap ten. Certainly feeling some effects of the crash, lap ten saw Durham relinquish another position, placing him in 7th where he’d finish at.
Also having a good go of things in his 2009 debut was Broc Tickle, slated into Heat #2; Tickle reeled off a good start only to get taken down in the first turn. Once back going again, Tickle put on an epic charge all the way to 10th by races end. Unfortunately, he just missed the transfer position, so in the dreaded LCQ, Tickle played it cool and took 2nd, securing himself into the Main Event. When the Main Event took to the track, Tickle’s #43 bike was mired back in 13th. Finding his grove, Broc steadily made his way through the field, and impressively on lap six he had reached 8th. Once there, Tickle put together consistent laps and got back into being in race mode, which carried him to the finish just behind his teammate in 8th.
Star Racing thanks our valued sponsors for their great assistance.
Division 7, Yamaha Motor Corp, No Fear, No Fear Energy, NCY , Bell, Easton, Fox Shocks, FMF, Smith, N-Style, Dunlop, Enzo, Vortex sprockets, DID, Yamalube, Ogio, Ride Engineering, Mechanix Wear, Twin Air, Lightspeed, ARC, Braking, MSD Ignitions, Cycra, CP pistons, Web Cams, ICW, JD Built, VP Gas, Orbea bicycles, Crank Works, Eibach, EVOMX fuel foam.
