March 9 - Blake Young blog: Daytona

My first race with the Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki team was a success. Working with a new team, new tires and a new bike didn't make the weekend easy but the team really pulled through for me. I was really excited to get on the bike when the week started off Wednesday morning with an hour-long practice session. We really learned a lot and made up some ground. Thursday morning we went straight into qualifying, and an 8th position that then qualified us for super pole. It was my first super pole and I qualified for a 5th place starting position which put us first on the second row. I really just tried to go out there and not over think it and just put together a good clean lap.

The race started out well and I got into the first turn, maintaining my position. After the first lap everyone sorted out so I just put my head down and tried to do some good lap times. The front pack was running a little quicker pace and the draft was broken. I knew if I didn't have anyone to draft with, the front pack would start pulling away. With about four laps to go Ben Bostrom and I started battling for fifth and getting into some lappers. I knew I needed to put together a really good last lap in the infield and get close enough to Ben coming out of the chicane. Trying not to spin the tire up the banking and drafting him to the line to take home a 5th place finish.

The overall weekend went well and we came out of Daytona with 5th place points and a good bike set up for California Speedway. I want to thank my crew for all the hard work.