The Suzuki GSX-8R might not have been competing in the main Supersport class, which was won by Josh Herrin on a Ducati Panigale V2 (if you can believe it), but it found success of its own in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup at Daytona.
Although it was ultimately completely dominated by Gus Rodio, who took his Aprilia RS 660 to 11-second wins in both races and a 19-point championship lead, the Twins Cup also featured a decent battle for the two lower podium spots in Race 2.
Rocco Landers came out on top of that battle on the GSX-8R, confirming its first-ever MotoAmerica podium in only its second start. Landers beat Alessandro Di Mario, another Aprilia rider, to the line by a margin of only 0.044 seconds.
Landers, riding for the RevZilla Motul Vance & Hines Suzuki team, said: “It’s incredible to put the GSX-8R on the podium in just the bike’s second race.
“The bike is brand new, obviously, and I first saw it on Wednesday. But I told the team, ‘I think we have a podium on our hands’. The team and Suzuki have been working hard, and we’ve been making consistent improvements. This is a really good debut, and once we get some more development, this will no doubt be a consistent, race-winning bike.”
Rossi Moor - who won the 2022 Northern Talent Cup as part of the Road to MotoGP before moving to the US in 2023 where he finished second in the Junior Cup (SSP300 equivalent) class - finished Race 2 in fourth place, just over one second behind Landers on his Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki.
Moor said: “In one regard, it was good to battle for the podium [in Race 2]. We didn’t have the pace in Race 1, but the team worked hard and made the bike even better for me. I made a small mistake on the last lap and that cost me a shot at the podium. The team did a great job here of closing the gap. We will keep working hard and see what we can do from here.”
The Suzuki GSX-8R is set to make its BSB debut later this year, where it is set to compete in the new National Sportbike Championship.
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