MotoAmerica made its sixth regular season stop at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The series featured the Superbike, Supersport, Stock 1000, King of the Baggers and Super Hooligan classes.
Superbike
The clash of the titans in the Steel Commander Superbike Class continued at Laguna Seca as the fight for the time spot saw yet another change in championship leader. Josh Herrin took the lead in the championship after a P2 finish in Race 1 and a win in Race 2. Herrin said, “That was a super awesome weekend at Laguna Seca. It’s extra special because we have the Ducati Rider Experience (DRE) event here tomorrow, and it’s huge to go into that with a win. We did the same last year at COTA in Texas before the DRE there, and you feel a lot more welcome when you win!
I’m super happy to get this win and the championship lead. I had my family and the DeNaples family here, and I had two-time World Champion John Kocinski here helping me all weekend, so I’m pumped. We’re going to keep this ball rolling at Mid-Ohio.”
Supersport
Matt Scholtz and PJ Jacobsen continue to emerge as the dominant competitors in the MotoAmerica Supersport class. While Matt Scholtz still holds the lead ahead of PJ Jacobsen by 18 points after Laguna. Jacobsen cut 10 points off of Scholtz early season dominance as the riders head into the mid season break. With 6 races to go there are 150 points still up for grabs in the Supersport class so the championship is far from being decided.
Jacobsen had the following comments after the race weekend, “This racing thing, when two riders have the pace and they’re so similar with each other, you got to find a lot of spots that that person, you can overtake them.”
“So yesterday when I overtook him in turn six, I felt like that was a good pass and that was a weak point for him. I feel like when you sit behind somebody for so long, you end up studying them. You sit there and study, and study, and study. No offense to (Mathew) Scholtz, but last year he had a massive highside in that corner and he almost lost it again this year. So, I kind of knew that he was a bit weak there. Going over that rise, I just knew I had more pace sitting behind him and it was going to allow me to go into (turn) 10 with a more aggressive move. So, that’s what I ended up doing after studying like that. So, I’m not dumb. I feel like I made the pass in the right section that I had to, after watching him the whole race.
Stock 1000
Hayden Gillim secured the win on day one taking away the advantage Jayson Uribe gained starting from pole but on day 2 the story was different. Ashton Yates emerged as the beneficiary of mistakes made by both Gillim and Uribe in race two which allowed him to make a move earl and secure the lead for the rest of the race. Yates isn’t completely statistically eliminated from a run at the championship but with 50 points left up for grabbed the path to a title will be a difficult one. Gillim holds a 29 point lead over Yates and second place sitting Uribe holds a 22 point lead over Yates in third. There are two races left on the stock1000 calendar for 2024 and they wont take place until the closing weekend of the season at New Jersey Motorsports Park in September.
Gillim finishes the weekend gaining a 1 point advantage over Uribe on the weekend to bring his lead to 7 points as the Stock 100 class heads into it’s final round for the season finale round in September.
King of the Baggers
Hayden Gillim put himself back in the championship race after a few unfortunate outings in the KOTB class that made his repeat championship hopes seem out of grasps. After returning to the top of the podium today he said, “Whenever we get on any bike, it’s all or nothing,” said Gillim. “That’s why we’re on these things. That’s why we’re on the teams that we’re on. Nobody is coming out here to just show up. Everybody is coming out here to win. That’s how we are, too. That’s why not winning or not even being able to really fight for the win yesterday was so frustrating for me. Now we’re getting back to where we should have been at the beginning of the season. I’m able to actually fight and be there with these guys. It’s been challenging.
We’ve had some ups and downs. It’s good. This is the first time I’ve had to fight for the win. I’m really happy about it. This is the first time I’ve had to battle and actually take a win from somebody. At Brainerd, I was feeling really good and was able to kind of get away. It’s nice to have those wins, but these are a lot of fun. I’m really happy. The whole team is just working their butts off trying everything they can possibly do on the off weekends. I’m really grateful to be here and to be able to ride multiple classes and to be at the front in most of the classes I’m in. It’s going really good. I got some sleep last night, so I’m a little happier today.”
Super Hooligans
Cory West brings home a win for Harley Davidson cutting the deficit to Tyler O’Hara the current championship leader who rides for Indian. Cory commented on the victory on Sunday, “Yesterday getting second, that one stung, West said. “It was a little bit of a mistake on my part coming out of the front straightaway. We made a little change to the bike this morning that made it feel a lot better. This is my first time ever starting on pole position, and I just wanted to make the most of it. Put my head down, got a good start, and just had clear track and tried to get into a rhythm. I have a tendency to look back a lot, and I just told myself, just don’t look back. Hammered out a few laps. Looked at my lap timer once and saw 28.9 and was just like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s just keep this going.’ Was clicking off low 29’s consistent. Couldn’t help myself. About four or five laps in, I took a little peek back out of turn four and there was nobody there.”
MotoAmerica heads into the mid season break with the next round at Mid-Ohio one month away.