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 tyre wear. I saw Cam had a pretty big gap, so I was just sitting behind Sheridan and Josh, and I was just like, ‘I see them closing. I don’t know if we’ve got enough time. I’m going to do what I can do and hopefully I can just draft these two the line.’ Then I see Cam coming closer and closer and closer and I just wait, just wait. Keep saving the tyres as much as I can through that last lap.

“Honestly, when Sheridan and everybody started rolling out of the gap, I was a little bit like, ‘I don’t know where to put myself,’ but I saw Hayes was up high, so I kind of cut below him. I was like, ‘I’m in a prime spot. I’m behind the front two boys’. Once they went, I was like, ‘game time’.

“The Triumph pulls really hard when you go to the gas. So, I knew I was maybe going to have a chance at picking up mile per hour a little bit quicker than them guys. 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. Just perfect. Just like last year.”