Damian Jigalov takes 5 wins in WERA season opener at Talladega Grand Prix
It was a warm weekend in Alabama which had dry conditions on Saturday and rain on Sunday and which set the scene for a hugely impressive series of wins for Damian Jigalov.
Across Saturday and Sunday Damian competed in the 10 lap races in the E Superstock, D Superstock and Clubman classes on the BIOTHERMAL Yamaha R3, tuned by HFD1, Thermosman.
Damian was able to use some of his race craft learned from racing over seas in Europe, and showed a lot of consistency in the races without any mistakes from start to finish.
On Saturday in dry conditions Damian was able to win E Superstock and D Superstock, the 300 specific classes. In Clubman he finished 2nd after falling back at the start against the larger displacement bikes that typically race in this class. Damian closed the gap to the leader within half a second but the shortened race (6 laps) meant he had to settle and finish a strong 2nd.
Sunday brought rain with it. Race 1 was E Superstock. Damian had a great start in full wet conditions, starting from middle of second row and was instantly in the top 3. By end of first lap he took the lead and kept it the entire race, finishing 10 seconds clear of 2nd place controlling the race from the lead. Race 2, D Superstock and Race 3, Clubman were also raced in full wet conditions. Damian was able to win both races and was able to control the lead with second place at a large distance behind. The youngster kept his head down and was consistent without a mistake the entire race.
Jigalov is now headed to Europe for a 3 day PreMoto3 test with the RMU MOTO VR46 Riders Academy team on February 23-25 at Valencia in Spain.
“I want to say thank you to WERA,” said Damian. “I want to say thank you to my mom and dad, my manager, and everyone for their support, and all my sponsors because without them I would not be racing. Thank you to Biothermal and Edwin Cosme, team owner, Thermosman suspensions, HFD1 for building this bike, Podium Motorsports Pirelli for the grippy tires. And all our sponsors. Barton Construction, Dainese/AGV, Arch Motorcycle, WERA, Apex Mfg, Lionize Delivery Solutions, Gabitoy, Sportbike Track Time, and Sportbikes4hire”