Now that the dust has settled. MotoAmerica Weekend: Monterey Speedfest has come to an end. This weekend was full of racing action as 5 classes took to the track and put it all on the line. Speedfest at WeatherTech raceway Laguna Seca featured 3 Superbike races and a sole 38 lap long extended Supersport race for fans from all over he country. Here we discuss the Speed Trap Magazine Race day 2 Recap. You can check out the Day 1 Recap here: Speed Trap Magazine Day 1 MotoAmerica Recap at Laguna Seca
Superbike
The Medallia Superbike Championship hosted a triple header weekend this weekend at Launa Seca. Three superbike races meant there were 75 Championship points up for grabs. In Race 1 Jake Gagne (Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha) took the win after Cameron Beaubier (Tytlers Cycle Racing) crashed out without logging a single lap. However, Cameron Beaubier came back with a vengeance and won both race 2 and race 3. The double win puts Cameron Beaubier 34 points behind Gagne.
Honorable mention goes to Josh Herrin who fought tooth and nail through injury to secure two second place and one third place finish with a broken ankle and shoulder injury. These results could only be bested by race wins but given the circumstances Herrin will walk away happy to score podium points while injured. The feat really speaks to his determination to remain competitive in the championship race.
Josh Herrin Spoke to the Media
Herrin stated to the MotoAmerica media, “I wanted to try to catch those guys. I keep thinking about earlier in the year. I don’t know if it’s tires on the Ducati or fitness, or something comes into play middle of the race today where I’m able to kind of get a little bit on them. So, I didn’t want to give up. Obviously, normally you never want to give up, but especially this year I have felt good in the second half of the race. So, I just wanted to make sure I kept plugging away in case I was able to get them to come back. It seemed like for a little while I was a tenth here, two tenths here maybe catching up. So, just wanted to get as close as I could just in case I got an opportunity at the end.”
“Then I saw Richie (Escalante) behind me, so that definitely scared me into going a little bit faster. I’m just starting to get really comfortable on this thing. It seems like every weekend I get a little bit stronger in the second race, so I’m glad we got three this time. I feel like I can capitalize on that. I’m just having fun on the bike and really enjoying spinning laps out there. The beginning of the weekend it wasn’t going so well for me. I wasn’t feeling comfortable. Today in the race I felt really good. Just having a lot of fun and trying to plug as many laps away as I can and get as much confidence as I can for race three.”
Words from Cameron Beaubier; Tytlers Cycle Racing
Beaubier stated the following to the MotoAmerica media after his crash on Saturday, “I woke up pretty sore this morning, for sure, but it wasn’t too bad once I got riding. After the first few laps it was okay. But we destroyed a bike pretty good yesterday. The boys were here until 10:30, 11:00 making sure the second bike was ready to go.”
“To be honest, coming into today I didn’t really know what to expect just because we made some good strides on that new frame and the new bike that we’ve been riding the last round. Went back to the other one, but it honestly felt really good. I felt like it absorbs some of the bumps that I was struggling with earlier in the weekend. So, hats off.
Beaubier Continued
“Thank you so much to the Tytlers guys. They’ve been working their butts off all year and especially this weekend. There at the beginning I felt like I had some places I was stronger than Jake (Gagne), and then vice versa. He had some good spots too. I felt like they really made a good step on the brakes. It was pretty tough to get around him.”
“I was trying to just be patient. There with five or six, I was struggling a little bit off the last corner compared to him and I felt like I finally got out of there pretty good one lap and I was able to sneak up the inside with the BMW power up over one and just tried to put my head down from there and see what happens. Felt really good. It’s hard to be too excited because I know we’ve got another one of these coming up in a couple hours, but I’m super happy and move on to the third race.”
REV IT Twins Cup
Twins cup was all Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering. In race 1 Gus Rodio and Rocco Landers secured the 1-2. The pair looked to repeat the result in Race 2 and had it sealed but Landers made a mistake and suffered from an early crash which forced him to retire from the race. The win handed Rodio a 3 point lead over last years champion Blake Davis (N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto). The finish means that Davis, Landers and Rodio are all in title contention. The three are currently separated by 18 points at the top of the table. 4 riders did not finish race 2.
Mission King of the Baggers
On day two of King of the Baggers Kyle Wyman redeemed himself with a iwn in race 2 for H-D Screamin’ Eagle. Vance and Hines Teammates James Rispoli, and Hayden Gillim rounded out the podium in second and third respectively. Gillim previous won Race 1 earlier in the weekend.
Kyle Wyman had the following words for the MotoAmerica media, “Today, I tried to pull the trigger the last few laps. I thought I had a bit of a gap, but we caught a lapper in turn 11 on the last lap. It feels good to get a win today. We all want to win. We all have, maybe, a little bit different approach in trying to do it. Today, fortunately, I was able to do it my way, which is control the pace and try to manage and see if I can dig a little deeper in the end.”
Super Hooligans
Jeremy McWilliams (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods) pulled the double at Laguna Seca this weekend. McWilliams came back with a vengeance after being disqualified due to a technical breach in the previous MotoAmerica round. McWIlliams had the following words for the MotoAmerica media, “We’ve been fastest in every session (this weekend). I think maybe that was a lap record on the last lap…I could see the back markers were approaching. The problem is here that you get a trip-up with the back markers, as I believe happened to him maybe going onto the last lap. It’s so tight at the Corkscrew that you get tripped up and unfortunately your lap just goes away. So, I did need to be at the front so I could try to control the back markers. That was the plan.”
McWilliams Continued his Thoughts on the Race
“Even if I got passed, whether it was Andy or my teammate, I had to be able to get back past again as soon as possible. I wasn’t fast everywhere. I wasn’t as strong in some parts of the track as Tyler, and I kind of knew that. Which would make it very difficult to make a pass again because I think Tyler could have gapped me quite easily. Then I would have had to fight really hard to get back at him.”
“But I needed the points and I needed to do this for our guys that are working so hard. They didn’t get back last night until 12:00 or something yesterday evening, and they’re up at 5:00 every morning. They’re not getting any time to relax and it’s hard on them, so we’ve got to repay that with the best results we can give them. We’ve got the hardest-working team and we’ve got a factory behind us.”