Tooele, UT, just outside Salt Lake City, hosted the 3rd round of the AMA Pro Road Racing series.
Josh Galster finished with an outstanding 8th place finish in the rain at Miller Motorsports Park where he was in a race-long battle with Danny Eslick, Tommy Aquino, and Joey Pascarella.
Saturday morning’s practice session was cold and Galster had 40 minutes to get the bike set up for the fast flowing track before qualifying later that day. In practice, the bike was handling okay, but Galster still had some issues in the fast, high speed corners with getting the bike to feel planted, and he had not yet found the best tire combination. With a different tire selection and a warming track Galster was able to get more comfortable with the bike but was still chasing the instability in the front end. At the end of qualifying Galster was only able to come away with a 1.59.8 which placed him 21st in provisional qualifying. Not satisfied with how the bike was handling and after consulting Barry Wressel at KFG Racing, Galster and Sean Bratt, who was helping Josh in the pits, made some big front end??? changes to help settle the front end???? of the bike.
On Sunday morning the weather was quite different then the day prior and the riders were greeted with rain and cold weather. After throwing a set of rain tires on and making a few adjustments to compensate for the rain, Galster set out to see how the bike felt and to see what the track conditions were like. With just a quick20-minute session Josh started out easy and with every lap he was able to knock seconds off his time and was getting more and more confident with the grip levels.
With the weather staying the same all day the Daytona Sportbike race was deemed a wet race and the whole field was going to be riding on rain tires. Starting in 21st, Galster knew he had to get a good start, which he did, and he was able to make up quite a few positions by running right alongside the pit wall before he had to slot his way back on the track before he hit the very slick Astroturf in the braking zone of Turn 1. With Galster taking a chance running on the outside of the field in a wet Turn 1 he was able to make up more ground and slotted himself well ahead of where he started. Galster, Eslick, Aquino, and Pascarella made up the second group of riders and were dicing it out lap after lap. With the long 3500 ft long straightaway and Galster’s EDR-built Yamaha R6, Josh was able to draft up to and pass riders in front of him to make for an eventful race with many position changes. With the laps counting down and the track drying out, the rain tires were being pushed to the limit and started losing traction. With just a couple laps left Galster put down his fastest times of the race with a 2:06.640 trying to pass Eslick and missed out by .4 of a second to finish 8th.
Galster would like to thank his sponsors, Grandprix Motorsports, EDR Performance, California Superbike School, Slednecks, Dunlop, Bazzaz Performance, Arai, LeoVince, KFG Racing, gpguns.com, Scorpion leathers, Attack Performance, EBC, GPR, Lockhart Phillips
If you are interested in helping, supporting, or sponsoring Josh Galster with his racing for the season, contact him at josh_galster@yahoo.com for more information.
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