Day 1 of the MotoAmerica Championship at The Ridge Motorsports Park is complete. There were a number of on track incidents throughout the day across the all 5 classes competing this weekend.
Medallia Superbike
Jake Gagne (Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha) continues his dominance at the Ridge with a win in Race 1. Gagne took the race by a margin of 8.6 seconds. Ahead of Mathew Scholtz (Westby Racing) in second and Josh Herrin in third. Cameron Peterson had another dreadful day after crashing in Qualifying. Peterson was able to recover in the race but had two incidents one where he ran off the track and a second crash wish ushered him to the back of the grid falling 2 laps behind the race leader.
Gagne stated to the MotoAmerica media, “I was keeping an eye on my pit board. I got off to a great start. The Yamaha gets off to a good start. I went inside because I know Josh (Herrin) is always going to be deep on the brakes. Then, somehow, he runs around the outside of me. I’m like, ‘I don’t even know how he got there.’ Fortunately, it’s tough to make that line so I squared him up and put my head down. I was really happy with the bike. Everything was working good.”
Gagne Commented on Herrin’s Drop Off in Pace
“I was a little bit surprised to see, I know Josh was hurting and I was a little bit surprised to see the gap just kind of going a couple tenths a lap, and then it was up to a second and a half about halfway, and then it started dropping. Honestly, I thought it was Josh. I didn’t know with how fast he was going earlier. I thought it was him, I couldn’t see who was behind me…I could hear the lap before the red flag up over the top chicane, I’m like, ‘Whoever is behind me is on me now.’ It was not a half second, or whatever it was. So, I was ready for a banger for the last three laps. I was going to try to put my head down. I was kind of riding everything I had to keep it on.”
“Trying to get a couple more tenths a lap would have been pretty risky, I think. Unfortunately, it was a bummer to see Cam (Beaubier) go down and the red flag come out. I didn’t know until I got back who had crashed and who was second. A little luck on our side points-wise, but it would have been nice to bring that thing down to the last couple laps. I think that would have been fun racing. Tomorrow it will be ‘the same.”
“Everybody is going to step it up, so we got to step it up a little bit too. But I think we learned a lot from today’s race. I’m just stoked. Of course, after the last couple years, it’s nice to win all these races but I’m a racer and it’s awesome to see the class so stacked and so close. Practice here this weekend, all these guys within a couple tenths. So, it really comes down to figuring out how to do it consistently in the race. Just keep doing our job and look forward to more good racing.”
Superbike Race One
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Corey Alexander (BMW)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Supersport
Xavi Fores (HSBK Warhouse Ducati) continues his win streak. Fores has won every Supersport race this season and he has not showed any signs of slowing down. Its clear how valuable his lengthy career of experience has helped him adapt to new tracks in the MotoAmerica series. Veteran Josh Hayes secured a hard fought second place ahead of Teagg Hobbs. Stefano Mesa (Tytlers Cycle Racing) and Jarett Nassaney (Altus Motorsports) did not finish the race. The riders will have an opportunity for redemption today in race two.
REV’ IT Twins Cup
Dominic Doyle (Team Iso) received the win after Rocco Landers (Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering) finished in first but was handed a 2 place penalty for passing a back marker rider under a waving yellow. Landers was visible displeased with the ruling. We do not yet know if he will protest it but its clear the rider was well off of race pace so there may more to the investigation if he chooses to appeal. Blake Davis (N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto) finished second place and Landers was demoted to third.
Super Hooligans
Tyler O’Hara denies pole sitter Andy DiBrino the win in race 1. It was a 1-2 for Indian riders O’Hara and Jeremy McWilliams. DiBrino will start on pole again for race 2 and will look to capitalize to improve his points standing in the class. Stefano Mesa was disqualified from the race.
Royale Enfield BTR
Mikayla Moore continued her dominance in the class winning race one by a margin of over 16 seconds. Last years champion Kayleigh Buyck finished second with Sonia Lloyd finishing in third. Moore appears to be on cruise control this year in the class. She had the follow comments for the media regarding a moment where she seemingly lost control of the bike, “I caught a false neutral and instead of going to the higher gear, I thought it maybe didn’t get into gear, so I went into a lower gear, and it got a little out of hand. So, I just shifted quick and then just get back on track without making the bike any more upset than what it was. This morning [Yesterday], I made some suspension changes, and I made some tire pressure changes, and I went out on freshies and gearing changes. So, all those combinations definitely helped for this race.”