The MotoAmerica Superbike Championship’s first regular season stop was in Atlanta at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Superbike, Supersport, Twins, Junior Cup and King of the Baggers competed in mixed conditions. Here is how the action happened.
Superbike
The MotoAmerica Superbike Championship had its first two races of the year in Atlanta which threw the riders multiple challenges to start the year off. Race 1 was in dry conditions and race 2 occurred in rainy conditions. In Race 1 Cameron Beaubier got the best of the 2023 Superbike champion Jake Gagne. The two traded lap after lap with Gagne leading with just three laps to go. On the penultimate lap Beaubier made a late lunge up the inside of Gagne to take the lead and would fight in a race to the line that saw the riders separated by one tenth of a second.
The race finish was reminiscent of race 1 in 2023 at Road Atlanta where Beaubier also beat Gagne. That time by 3 tenths. Cameron Beaubier “I am pretty happy coming out of Atlanta with a 1-2. My bike felt great all weekend with a good base from first practice. Sunday was the first day I rode the BMW in the wet and I didn’t get the best feeling in warm up. After a slow start to the race, I started feeling comfortable and was able to mount a challenge. A big thanks to the team for working as hard as they do. I am looking forward to Barber so see you all there.”
Jake Gagne Bounces Back
Similarly to Cameron Beaubier’s run in 2023 Gagne after finishing second in race 1 bounced back to win in race 2. Condition in race two were mixed with heavily rain fall at the track for most of the day. The track dried slowly as the race began leading to faster laps times as the race developed. This time around it was Gagne was held back until the final staged of the race. Given the on track conditions, passes needed to be decisive and clean to avoid a major collision. Gagne did just that matching Beaubier’s points total on the weekend. The pair are locked at 45 points each as the championship heads to Barber Motorsports Park next month.
Supersport
The super sport class received 44 entries at the start of the race weekend. Of those 44, 33 qualified for an opportunity to compete. However, it was PJ Jacobsen’s performance that topped the headlines for the class. Jacobsen got his Supersport debut with Rahal Ducati Moto off to a great start with two wins on the weekend.
Jacobsen expressed his gratitude regarding his new team, “First, I really want to just say thanks to the Rahal Ducati Moto Team, XPEL, and Roller Die,” Jacobsen commented. “Basically, Richie Alexander, everybody in the whole team for just turning things around since Daytona. It’s a brand-new team. Graham has done a great job, and so has Ben (Spies). I just really want to thank them for putting this whole program together and getting things even more on track from Daytona. So, it’s been really good to progress. We had some testing and stuff. The team is super organized. It’s a really good environment over there, so I’m really happy to be a part of what whole program.
PJ Jacobsen Leads the field in Supersport Race 2. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Tyler Scott who crashed from the lead in race 1 found some redemption in race 2 finishing P6 but was not able to catch Jacobsen who seemed to be a master of the wet track conditions. Elsewhere Matt Scholtz secured his first podium for Strack Racing while Jake Lewis (Altus Motorsports) again found himself on the podium after finishing third in race 2 as he did in the season finale in New Jersey last season.
Twins Cup
Fan favorite Rocco Landers secured a decisive win in race 1 of the weekend. Landers beat last years’ champion Gus Rodio by almost 7 tenths. however in race 2 Landers was no where to be found at the front. He dropped back in the pecking order finishing P8. Race 2 was the Domonic Doyle show. Supersport race 2 in the race threw the riders a curve ball. However, Doyle showed that he was no stranger to the elements and put on a masterclass that saw him lead second place finisher Jack Roach by 3.2 seconds. Behind in third was Gus Rodio who was comfortable earning points to pad his championship lead. After two podiums in Atlanta Rodio is currently 22 points ahead of Rocco.
Junior Cup
Unfortunately, for last years champion a mistake cost Avery Dreher a win in race 1 after he crashed from the lead of the race. As a result the No. 95 ridden by Matthew Chapin won the race. The victory was his first ever in his debut season. “I was stuck in the back of the pack the whole time,” Chapin said. “People were just dive-bombing me. I couldn’t really get anything done. But I knew if I was patient, I could get the draft because I’m a lot smaller than everybody else. I don’t weigh lot, so I knew I could draft into the line. I passed Ryan up the inside at the end. He came back on the outside, and I think it was in turn 11, I passed him back up the inside for the win. I’m so pumped right now. Words can’t even express it. I’m so pumped.”
Ryan Wolfe and Yandel Medina finished behind in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The pair however weren’t quite satisfied when it came to race 2. Chapin fell in track position in the wet but Medina and Wolfe held strong through the whole race finishing 1-2 respectively. Eli Block from BARTCON Racing joined Medina and Wolfe on the podium for race 2.
King of the Baggers
Troy Herfoss won the Mission King Of The Baggers race in his first visit to Road Atlanta. Herfoss overcame early weekend struggles and found the race pace to secure both race wins on the weekend. He said “I was very confident it would be slicks, but I was unsure of the ruling whether I could start from pit lane.” It was a weird race for me. I got a really big gap in the first two laps. The first lap especially, three seconds. Then it said five after lap two. I had already slowed down in my mind, and I assumed that everyone was on wets…I’ve never been in that situation where I’ve literally gone off the start and in my mind it was like, ‘okay, I’ve won the race. Just don’t mess up.’
You’ve got no idea how nerve-racking that is when you’re in that position. How good is this? Indian one, two, and three. It’s a perfect weekend for me. I never would have dreamed that. A perfect weekend in this championship at all, let alone third weekend in the championship. So, it’s a real credit to the team that they can give me a bike that I can just concentrate on racing on and learning tracks. That’s the reason I’m able to be so competitive. So, I want to say thank you to them.”