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WESTBY EARNS SECOND IN 2012 AMA PRO DAYTONA SPORTBIKE POINTS

October 7, 2012

Team Hammer wrapped up an outstanding 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing season in fine fashion on Sunday at New Orleans Motorsports Park.

M4 Suzuki's Dane Westby waged one last thrilling battle at the front for the season in the day's AMA Pro Daytona SportBike finale. While he ultimately came up just 0.196 seconds short of adding to his tally of ten podium results at the checkered flag, his fourth-place finish was more than enough to secure the runner-up ranking in the season's standings.

'The Wolverine' ended the season placed second with 382 points, ten podiums, and a second career victory.

"We got to dicing and I changed up my lines and the leaders were able to get away at that point," Westby explained. "I was just trying to ride a defensive line and another rider and I came together. I didn't really like it but that's racing.

"I'm really glad that we wrapped up the championship in second. That's amazing in this class. I'm really happy -- it's not easy against this field. I was there consistently in the last half of the season. I've been trying to put more tools in the toolbox all the time. There was a certain point where all of our hard work to improve paid off. I became better with my starts and was more confident when I was up there that the guys aren't going away from me.

"I thought that maybe this year was going to be my year but there can only be one number one. I'm really looking forward to next year, compiling all our knowledge and coming back even stronger."

M4 Suzuki's Chris Ulrich and Team Venezuela's Robertino Pietri also concluded the '12 AMA Pro Superbike season with excellent efforts. For the second time in as many race weekends, Ulrich matched his career-best Superbike result with a sixth-place finish on Sunday. He was followed to the flag by Pietri, who took seventh.

The two turned it on late in the season as Ulrich was in the top ten six times over the season's second half while Pietri finished the year with a run of sixth, fifth, and seventh-place finishes.

Californian Ulrich ended the season ranked tenth in Superbike with 186 points.

Suzuki SportBikeTrackGear.com'sElena Myers finished out the AMA Pro SuperSport season with a ninth-place result.

She concluded the season highlighted by a spectacular Daytona victory ranked third in the West Region standings.

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