Road Atlanta: Taylor Knapp event report

Knapp Declares Success at Road Atlanta

Taylor Knapp found himself off to a good start when he put his RidersDiscount.com Suzuki GSX-R1000 in the first spot on the second row of the starting grid in the Suzuki Superbike Showdown at Road Atlanta. Despite a ride-through penalty at the start of Saturday's AMA Superbike race, the 22 year old Michigan native worked his way up from dead last to finish eighth in the field, almost thirty seconds ahead of ninth place and less than four seconds behind seventh.

Sunday proved even more exciting for Team RidersDiscount.com, with Taylor getting a good start and then running down and battling with Larry Pegram for the latter part of the race. Taylor put his Yoshimura-prepared Suzuki GSX-R1000 through its paces over the first section of Road Atlanta's undulating course to get past Pegram and build a comfortable gap on the Italian bike. All was going to plan until Taylor was balked by a lapper - allowing first Pegram and then also John Hopkins to make their way past on the closing laps of the race, leaving Taylor with no time to mount a counterattack.

"I knew Pegram's bike was fast from following him, but I was faster than him in the first section of the track so, when I got by him I put my head down and built a little gap on him" Knapp said. "But then I hit a lapper just enough to check me up and Pegram caught my draft and passed me on the straightaway. I had him set up where I wanted but then Hopkins came from nowhere. I'm happy with the way I rode, and we're happy with the way the bike was set up. We made tons of progress over the weekend."

Despite the events on the last few laps, Taylor finished a very respectable seventh place in Sunday's race. Coming away from Atlanta, Taylor holds seventh place in the overall Championship Points Standings and looks forward to building on his results at Infineon Raceway in three weeks time.

-source: taylor knapp sponsor