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Suzuki/Yoshimura's Digger Doug Dominates Florida
Speed Festival at Gatorback!
Suzuki Dominates Florida Speed Week.
 March 12, 2006 - Gainesville, FL - Digger
Doug Gust ran down John Natalie and passed him
in the second moto for the overall win at this
weekend's Gatorback national GNC in Gainesville
Florida. A lot of pit pundits suspected that
"The Digger" might win Florida after dominating
the first moto at the last GNC event in Florida.
This overall win is the first for the awesome
new Suzuki QuadRacer LT-R450.
Doug himself felt confident going into this
event, "The last race in Texas I got tangled up
on the start or I'm pretty sure I would have won
that one. I felt really strong down there. This
weekend it was the same thing. I screwed up both
starts, but still managed to get the job done."
Doug started the 1st moto in 6th place with
his teammate Jeremiah Jones in 7th. At the end
of lap one they had both moved up when all of a
sudden Jeremiah's bike quit. A rock had been
thrown up from his front tire and broke the
ignition key housing right off the bike! This
one in million break forced Jeremiah to sit out
the rest of the 1st moto.
Later when asked about the problem, Jeremiah
said "Well, they say bad luck comes in threes.
This is the third weird thing that's happened to
me so I guess I guess it's behind me now and
it's all up from here on out."
As the 1st moto wore on Doug kept moving up.
Early leader Joe Byrd suffered a suspension
problem and dropped off the pace a little past
the halfway point. By the three quarter mark
Doug had moved up to second. Leader John Natalie
had a huge lead but Doug prodigiously closed the
gap. In the end, it wasn't enough and Natalie
won the moto, with Doug in second. The stage was
set for a moto two shoot out.
The second moto was deja-vu as Doug started
in 6th again with teammate Jeremiah Jones right
behind him in 7th. This time however the bad
luck cloud hanging over Jeremiah was gone and he
and Doug freight trained forward through the
field. Jeremiah was all over Doug and helped
push Doug forward. "I wanted to help push Doug
forward but at the same time he was going for
the overall win. I didn't want to do something
stupid and screw up our chance for the overall,"
Jones said after the race. He added "The pace
was pretty quick and the two of us sort of
worked together and really pushed each other."
The pushing worked as a few laps after the
halfway point both Gust and Jones passed John
Natalie. Gust then went on to pass leader Joe
Byrd. That's how they finished with Gust taking
the overall win with a 2 -1 over John Natalie's
1– 5. This win marked the first of what will
surely be many wins for the new LT-R450.
After the race Digger Doug was pretty happy,
"Those guys (Natalie and Byrd) started to slow
down a little after half way and I just charged
up to them and got into the lead. Joe hung tough
till the end but I hung tight and brought the
win home." Doug went on to say, "This is the
first win for the LTR and concludes a Suzuki
sweep for the Daytona Bike week.
Suzuki/Yoshimura riders Mat Mladin and Ben Spies
went 1- 2 in the Daytona Superbike race, Ricky
won Supercross, Team Suzuki won the Flat Track
(1 -2) and now we capped it off with Gatorback
today! A lot of my friends from Japan are here
today and I'm really happy to win this for them.
Those guys built a heck of a quad with this
LT-R450. I think this is the first GNC Pro win
for a fuel-injected bike. Maybe the first win on
stock tires (Dunlop) too."
Jeremiah was happy with his second moto,
third place finish. "I've had this crazy run of
bad luck, ever since Glen Helen. It's just nice
to actually get to race a moto! That was like
the first full moto that I've run all year… To
be able to get out there and run with those guys
was great. It was just like running my first
race today." Jones is really looking forward to
next weekend's Macon race, a track where he
historically runs really well.
Next weekend: Donny Banks' Macon, Georgia
round.
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