***UPDATE (9:40PM CST)*** Upon further review after an appeal from Danilo Petrucci/Team, the five second penalty given to the Italian rider has been removed and his official result is third place. This makes the championship battle even closer for tomorrow’s race
Danilo Petrucci came into Medallia Suberbike race one struggling all weekend to find the right pace. Anxious to work his way up to the Yamahas ahead, he unfortunately jumped the start and saw his championship hopes start to slip away.
The HSBK Warhorse Ducati Racing rider pushed hard all race, managing 3rd position the entire time, but was eventually docked one spot for the starting grid infraction.
Jake Gagne put in a dominating performance, leading from pole all the way to the checkered flag with a five second cushion to South African, Matthew Scholtz, in a lonely second. The Fresh N Lean Yamaha YZF-R1 mounted Gagne has now extended the championship points lead to 16 points ahead of Petrucci.
With the penalty on Petrucci, PJ Jacobsen made his way onto the final step of the podium. And although this third place finish came in the form of Petrucci’s misfortune, Jacobsen was closing in hard on the former MotoGP pilot and nearly had him in the end.
Cam Peterson was blazing fast all weekend and looked to be the rider who could potentially cause his teammate, Gagne, an upset. Unfortunately, Petersen had a slight crash early on, but was able to remount and finish in ninth place.
The overall championship is still up for grabs, and race two is happening tomorrow afternoon. With a slight chance of rain in the current forecast, we could see some exciting moves and strategy going into the finale.
Ryan Yearwood is the motorsports correspondent for SoBros Network as well as the pioneer and visionary behind SoBros Outdoors. Follow on Twitter: @OutdoorSoBro.
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