THE 80th Daytona 200 took place last weekend, with Brandon Paasch taking his second consecutive win at the famous American race.
While it was Paasch’s second win in a row, for the Triumph Street Triple RS it was a win on debut, after the 765cc machine made its racing debut last year in the British Supersport Championship.
Paasch was part of Simon Buckmaster’s Dynavolt Triumph team in the 2021 BSS championship, and therefore part of the racing development of the bike from its competitive debut.
In that respect, and combined with his previous victory at Daytona, he was the ideal candidate to pilot TOBC Triumph Racing’s Street Triple RS as they sought victory on the weekend.
On his way to victory, Paasch set the fastest lap of the race, going sub-1’50 on his recovery after the final pit stop. Upon reaching the leading group, he was able to position himself well on the final lap to draft to the front by the line, beating Attack Performance Yamaha’s Cameron Petersen by 0.007 seconds in a thrilling finish.
Completing the podium was Syntainics Racing Team’s Sheridan Morais, while fourth-placed Josh Hayes was only 0.126 seconds adrift of Paasch at the flag; and reigning MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne was forced to pull out of the race following a crash in morning warm-up.
After the race, Paasch said in a Triumph press release, “It’s unbelievably surreal to be a two-time Daytona 200 winner, but I can’t say this race didn’t play out exactly as I imagined it.” He added, “After last year’s win, I knew I had a winning strategy, and after a full season on the Street Triple RS, I had complete confidence in the bike and in the preparation of the TOBC Racing team, to execute it.”
Triumph’s Global Racing Manager, Jeremy Appleton, said, “[Brandon] had the race pace, race craft and great maturity today and this win was greatly deserved.”
