Lucas Oil Roadracingworld.com RMR Suzuki's Elena Myers concluded the AMA Pro SuperSport West Region championship with a dramatic last-lap strike to take fourth position at Laguna Seca and secure the runner-up spot in the championship.
Elena once again elevated her game on raceday, climbing up from her second row grid position to take control of third position aboard her GSX-R600 early in the SuperSport contest. However, the race was red flagged while she held the spot in front of a hungry pack of challengers, resetting the grid.
After the restart, she found herself in fifth position fighting a back-and-forth battle for fourth. Waiting until the last possible moment to make the duel's decisive maneuver, Myers narrowly lunged ahead at the checkered flag, stealing away fourth place at the stripe by a mere 0.003 seconds.
The result was her fourth top five of the West Region season, including her breakthrough victory at Infineon Raceway.
Following the race, Elena said, "I was running up in third before the red flag and I felt that would put me in a pretty good spot on Row 1 for the restart. But I didn't get a great start and ran wide in Turn 2 and a couple of guys got past me.
"I had a great race for fourth position the entire way and I just couldn't get past fast enough to prevent the top three from getting away, but I got him at the line by three thousands. I passed him going up the front straight before getting a good exit out of Turn 11 so I just waited to the last lap to really take advantage of what I knew I could do. But I actually got a bad drive coming out on the last lap. He took the inside and I was on the outside and just kept going straight and barely got him at the line. I was a really great race and a close battle for sure."
Commenting on her runner-up placing in her rookie AMA campaign, Myers commented, "I'm pretty excited about finishing second in the championship. Of course I would have liked to win it but the three DNFs made it tough for the championship. But for my rookie season, I'd have to say not too bad."
Even though the AMA Pro SuperSport West Region championship is in the books, Myers still has three rounds remaining on her 2010 AMA schedule as she'll compete in the East Region races at Virginia International Raceway and New Jersey Motorsports Park before heading to the winner-take-all East/West shootout at Barber Motorsports Park to round out the season.
First up is the trip to Virginia on August 13-15. She's looking forward to the opportunity and will be well prepared for the weekend. "I haven't been to VIR, but I'm going to do the WERA Cycle Jam the week before, so I should be ready to go.”