‘Perfect’ Paasch triumphant in Daytona double

Brandon Paasch secured a sensational last-second victory at Daytona on Saturday night, claiming the legendary 200 race by just 0.007s at the flag.

Paasch’s second victory in succession at the Florida venue came with the factory-backed Triumph TOBC team, and with pin-point accurate strategy. The 20-year-old, who spent last season racing in British Supersport with PRT’s Dynavolt Triumph, came out of the final chicane in fourth place and at the back of the leading group before late moves saw him slingshot past South African duo Cameron Petersen and Sheridan Morais to secure the win.

TOBC Racing played its part in the celebrations by ensuring a speedy final pitstop, foregoing fresh tyres to get back in to the mix as quickly as possible and firmly on the back of Yamaha’s Josh Hayes.

At the chequered flag the final four were spilt by a mere 0.126s, with Britain’s Harry Truelove a minute back in seventh and pole sitter Josh Herrin completing the top ten. Second brother Matt Truelove came home 12th after the 50 lap battle.

“We did it!!!” double-winner Paasch confirmed after the podium celebrations. “It’s unbelievably surreal to be a 2-time Daytona 200 winner, but I can’t say this race didn’t play out exactly as I imagined it.


“Honestly, I wasn’t sure the whole time,” he admitted. “There were a few times I did try to draft them, and I couldn’t get past. I was a little bit nervous, and I was like, ‘well, as long as we’re in the fight at the end, there’s nothing you can do about it.’

“It’s Daytona. It’s a drafting game and sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. For me, honestly, it was just kind of sit there and wait, wait. We didn’t change the tyre at the second pit stop, so I was a little bit nervous about the