The MotoAmerica Superbike Championship made its second regular season stop at the legendary barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The weekend hosted a whirlwind of weather conditions and as thousands of fans fought through the early weekend weather to show their support. Here is the Speed Trap Recap.
Superbike: Beaubier Wins 2 of 3
The Supebike class had a full schedule with three races taking place this weekend at Barber. In race one Cameron Beaubier built an early lead but would crash out of the race from the lead. Beaubier led the race for the first 4 laps but Cameron Petersen was poised to pounce. After Beaubier crashed Petersen found himself in a battle with his teammate for the top spot. Jake Gagne applied pressure for the remainder of the race up until the final moment before Petersen claimed the win by just under a half a second.
Petersen said. “It feels good. I think this is three wins at this track. Got one in the dry, but honestly it feels so good. I know a lot of people know what I’ve gone through in the off-season and after the surgery. It’s been a tough off-season. The wrist is starting to feel really good on the bike. It just feels so good to get this monkey off my back.”
In race 2 and 3 however Cameron Beaubier came back with a vengeance. There was never a question that Beaubier had the pace to win at Barber. After running into a little bad luck in race one Beaubier bounced back to win both race 2 and 3 on the final day of racing. “With I’m just really happy with my bike, really happy with my team,” Beaubier said. “It’s a great group of guys. I’m just super honored to be partnered up with them. Like I said earlier, it just feels so good to start the weekend on the front foot at all these tracks we went to last year, not throwing new swing arms on in qualifying and practice and stuff, just searching for grip and chasing the Yamaha boys.
This race was really tough. Cam P. got a really, really good start. I was able to get by him going into turn one. Put my head down and I would pull away a little bit, but once I got to maybe 1.5, 1.2, it stuck there, and I was looking at my dash. I kept doing 23s and I was like, this is a really fast pace and I’m not pulling. He even pulled me back a couple tenths. Once we got to halfway, I was riding as hard as I could. Then I looked at the monitor and I saw him sitting up on the back straightaway.
I came by and I had whatever plus three or plus five on the board. I’m bummed for him because he was riding so good. He was making me push hard. He rode incredible this weekend, along with these guys. We keep saying it, but this Superbike field is just really stacked this year. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Supersport: Mathew Scholtz Reigns Supreme
Mat Scholtz second the double this weekend winning both Supersport races after intense battles with championship front runner PJ Jacobsen. Scholtz secured 50 points this weekend but Jacobsen stayed in the battle for the top claiming his fourth straight podium and a 16 point lead in the championship. After the pre season closure of Scholtz former posting at Westby Racing it was unclear if he’d even have a seat this year given the lack of time to the season start. However Scholtz seems to have settled in to his place with Strack Racing. He said, “I’m just really, really thankful to be back up here on the top of the box. Looking forward to the next couple races of the season. I’d just like to give a personal shout-out to the Redvanly family crew. They’ve been awesome helping us out.”
Stock 1000: Hayden Gillim is Perfect at Barber
To keep the theme consistent, Hayden Gillim kicked off his Stock 1000 title defense in proper fashion after winning both races this weekend by a decisive margin. Gillim was in a world of his own at the front; never really being threatened after building early leads in both races. With the win, Gillim became the most winning Stock 1000 racer in MotoAmerica history with his 13th victory moving him out of a tie with Andrew Lee and Corey Alexander.
Gillim said, The bike is working really good. Having the two bikes to run in Stock and Superbike, they’re identical bikes so I get to go out and try stuff on each bike to make the other bike better. So, it helps a lot. I’m getting a ton of track time, and that’s one key thing. I know what the track is going to be like most of the time throughout the weekend. The Steel Commander Southern Powersports Honda guys are killing it.” Gillim finished 14.5 seconds ahead in race one and 10.5 seconds in race two.
Hayden Gillim crosses the finish line in Stock 1000 Race 2 to secure maximum points on the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park. Photo by Ramon Jones; Chroma Visual.
Twins Cup
15-year-old Alessandro Di Mario secured his first class win in Sunday’s race after crashing out in extremely wet conditions in Saturday’s race. Di mario said, “I love this track. I was able to get a 28.2, which is a track record, in qualifying. My pace is really good. In yesterday’s race, I didn’t really think I was going to be that fast in the wet, but after Avery passed me, I tried to stay behind him. I was able to pass him again, and the sun came out.
I couldn’t see anything in the back section of the track. So, when we got to turn three, I thought there was a little dry line but there wasn’t. So, I just lost the rear, and I was able to pick the bike up and get seventh, which I’m happy about. Today, I was kind of managing the gap a little bit. I probably could have gone a little faster, but there was really no need to. The front was sliding a lot. So, I didn’t want to take the risk. I’d say it was a pretty good weekend.”
Junior Cup
The streak of double wins continued with Logan Gunnison in Junior cups after he bested Yandel Medina and Levi Badie in both races. The podium had the same participants for both races but Medina and Badie each took a second place finish. Yandel Medina took second place on Saturday and Badie on Sunday.
BTR
Mikayla Moore continued her win streak and started her 2023 title defense with two wins at Barber. Moore discuss how she is able to maintain her level of perfromance. She said, “Training during the off-season, I got to spend some time, as well, on the Royal Enfield. Then, before I came here, I actually spent some time with Evolve GT at Summit Motorsports Park in West Virginia on the ZX-6R. So, I feel like the training that led up to this point is what got me the win today.”