Team GMR gets a hard earned 7th place finish in the Daytona 200 With only a few weeks to put a Daytona effort together, Geoff May racing debuts with a 7th place finish on the GMR #99 machine after a rough week leading up to the Daytona 200 by Arai. May managed to salvage a hard earned 7th place after getting run off of the track in turn 1 during the restart of the race. With Daytona only a month away, May started putting together his own team, after other deals fell through. “Things started coming together so late we didn’t have much time to get everything done, a lot of our stuff that we needed had to be shipped to the track, and only arrived on Tuesday, including my leathers and many important parts for the bikes” said May “Everything was pretty hectic trying to get the bikes together in such a short amount of time, we pretty much have been adding new parts every time he comes in between sessions, we just took the kickstands off of these things before we left!” said Boyd Bruner, May’s new Crew Chief. All week long the team worked hard overcoming obstacles while shaking the bikes down. “As we finally got everything together a fuel pump failed, after that the transmission in the “A” bike decided to stop shifting into first during qualifying, we couldn’t catch a break.” said Bruner. The final blow came Friday morning as the team put the back up bike on the Dyno at a local shop to try to cure a flat spot, only to find out the bike was only putting out 104 hp! With a little tuning the number was up to 106, but this was nowhere near what was needed to get the job done, and this was the bike that would have to be used. As the flag dropped at 7:00 pm there were multiple incidents on track during the initial lap, including one that claimed PJ Jacobson occurring directly in front of May, prompting him to take evasive action and run off the track at the Armco turn. This combined with the leader falling in the Horseshoe eventually brought out the red flag. The restart was Deja vu’ as Josh Day and Fernando Amantini collided sending Amantini over the bars and almost doing the same to May. “I thought, here we go, my race is over” said May after being bucked out of the seat as the #99 machine was struck by Day’s rear wheel. “I was looking at the front wheel as I felt like I was going over the bars” May exclaimed while making a motion of crossed up handlebars. In order to prevent from going down, May ran straight at turn one, and after regaining control was able to rejoin the race in 40th (last) place. Throughout the race May steadily gained ground picking up positions almost every lap, this combined with two flawless pit stops using Vallely Racing’s Endurance equipment and experience allowed the Team GMR #99 machine to come home in 7th position. “Our bike was slow, but we got the job done, we’re going to return for the Road Atlanta round with some power and take care of business.” said May. Team GMR would like to thank their current sponsors, noting that without them this effort wouldn’t have been possible. They are: Dunlop Tires, Arai Helmets, Dainese Leathers, Sidi Boots, Leo Vince, Ohlins Supenson, Thermosman, Vortex, Pit Bull, Melbourne Sports and Allied Health Clinic, Fast Finish Paint, and Tom Vallely Racing.