Leading road racer qualifies and finishes Utah mx

What was awesome!

Did he actually finish? I didn't think he lined up for the second moto?

^This. He didn't finish.

Well his first moto was pretty damn impressive I thought. Now I'm curious how well Dungey or Roczen would do on a road course with a little bit of practice?

What is particularly impressive is that the kid has not ridden an MX race since 2007. And as far as I know, he last raced a mini bike and has never formally raced a full size MX bike. To come out and race a national and qualify just outside the top 20, then to finish in the same realm is pretty amazing.

As for the second moto, he did not line up. He tweaked his knee in one of the big ruts and was pretty stiff / tore up from the first moto. He still has one race to go to wrap up his superstock championship, and his team manager Danny Walker and Keith McCarty decided there was little to nothing to gain by doing the second moto. So he sat it out.

I think he accomplished most of what he wanted to, and it is a pretty neat deal, given how long it has been since he raced MX....

I wonder what it feels like to a guy that is normally going 160 MPH

I know it's rougher but to his mind it's got to be almost like slow motion

He just made a new fan here. Very impressive

Ya, not a lot of guys are gonna even try that kind of stuff, for the very reason of what happened to him.

He tweaked a knee, now his road racing deal may be affected.

I kinda miss them.

Guys like Bayle, who at least tried winning in different venues, and the AMA Grand National Champions that raced
both pavement and dirt to get the Number 1,

Ya. a 10 race series, all at National events, 2 MX, 2 GNCC, 2 Observed Trials, 2 Dirt Track and 2 Road Races, one of which would have to be at Daytona Bike Week.

You'd have the best motorcycle rider in the USA.

He dominates his class but I don't see his name in Superbike...

He races Superstock 1000...

http://www.motoamerica.com/jake-gagne-return-form-indianapolis-motor-sp…

Very cool. I'm impressed. Takes a lot of skills to do that.

Not comparing these guys but look what Steve Wise did when he went road racing.

What has been most impressive this season is that he's been threatening the factory supported superbike teams in all of the races on a Superstock bike. Actually, he's been kicking the crap out of a few of them and usually just behind Hayes, Beaubier, and Hayden who are on factory kitted missiles.

Very impressive to be that fast at both. RR came very easy to me, but I have ridden dirt bikes my whole life and I'm still slow

He did freakin awesome. Way harder to go from pavement to national level mx than the other way around IMHO. Quite a few, probably most roadracers raced mx before going pavement.

And for those who may be thinking roadracing is easy, Jeremy McGrath got the use of a factory Yamaha 600 and did some testing in an attempt to go roadracing at the end of his mx career, and he was WAY off the pace from what I read at the time, around 8-10 seconds a lap if I remember correctly, and that's an eternity in roadracing.

Very impressive indeed, I really like this kind of transfers / special guests.

It would be too cool to see other guys coming like that:
Imagine Kimi Raikonen racing the Finish GP
Or Rossi racing the Italian GP.
Maybe 20.000 more fans would come !!!!

Steve Wise. Stamp it

Jake was a promising 85 rider on a KTM. We used to see him and his Dad at all the local So Cal tracks. Great kid and Dad. Pumped to see him have success on the pavement and the dirt.