The No. 19 DucatiToronto.com Ducati Multistrada of Matt McBride, Pat Barnes and Robert Trottier won the GST class at Daytona. (Photo: MOTO-ST/Brian Cleary) » More Photos

McBride, Barnes and Trottier Take BMW Grand Sport Twins (GST) Class Win

In BMW Grand Sport Twins (GST) action in the 8 Hours At Daytona, Matt McBride, Pat Barnes and Robert Trottier put together a dominating performance, riding the No. 19 DucatiToronto.com Ducati Multistrada to a 25-lap victory over the No. 70 James Gang Racing Buell XB12.

The No. 19 Ducati finished 14th overall, 21 laps behind the overall winner, and held the class lead for all but four laps in the inaugural SunTrust MOTO-ST Series event at the "World Center of Racing." The team avoided major difficulty and McBride, one of the top riders in the Canadian Superbike series, rode the No. 19 across the stripe to take the victory.

"After the first two stints that we did, after the first hour, we had a lap lead on them so we had a little bit of a cushion," McBride said. "But in this racing, that little bit of a cushion doesn't really help. It can do away pretty quickly. We had our head down the whole time. We stuck to the same game plan. We put our heads down every time we went out and tried to do consistent laps and we kept it to the end."

"It was a really good day," Barnes said. "Endurance racing has kind of fallen out for a while and it's come back with the (Sport) Twins. I think there's a great future with the Twins in racing. Today, they can last and go. Everybody has fun and we went fast."

"Pat Barnes was actually the creator of the team," Trottier added. "He called me and I came on board second and then we got a hold of Matt. This bike that we rode is actually a sprint bike for the Canadian Thunder Series that Ducati Toronto built. So I basically threw it together in a week and a half to get it ready for endurance racing. I didn't realize how much work it takes to prepare for endurance bike and how different they are from a sprint race bike."

The No. 42 Team Daffy Ducati PS1000LE of Adam Faussett, Aaron Barry and Jason Routhier crossed the finish line second in class but failed the post-race Dyno test and was disqualified. That moved the No. 70 James Gang Racing Buell XB12 of Paul James, John Fox and Greg Avello into second place in the BMW GST class. The No. 70 Buell was also the only other bike to lead the BMW GST class, running at the head of the class field for laps 13-16.