MotoAmerica at PittRace has come to an end. New champions were crowned in three classes but not without a bit of controversy. Here are the events as they unfolded. You can check out Day 1 results here: MotoAmerica PittRace Race Day 1 Recap
Medallia Superbike
The Superbike class participated in three races this weekend. 75 points were up for grabs and there was one man who had the opportunity to clinch the championship. That man was Jake Gagne and he did exactly that. Gagne had a dominant performance at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. After missing out on pole position Gagne found his form when it mattered most. Two races occurred on Day 2 of racing.
In the first race (Race 2) Gagne built up a 2.383 second lead before the race was red flagged due to an incident involving Ashton Yates and Cameron Beaubier in the chicane. Yates suffered from loss of power on the exit of the chicane severely falling oof of race pace and Beaubier ran into the back of Yates with no where to go and ended up crashing. Beaubier also made incidental contact with Hayden Gillim but Gillim was able to keep the bike up and avoided a potential crash. The race was restarted with 8 laps on the schedule. The restart allowed PJ Jacobsen to gain a position and finish P2 ahead of Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Ducati).
Beaubier’s Championship Hopes Were Eliminated
Unfortunately for Beaubier, he suffered a head laceration and was not able to continue the race. Beaubier also sat out of Race 3 rendering his fight for the championship over after not scoring points in 4 of the last 5 super bike races. Beaubier has had an unfortunate end to what seemingly felt like a promising season for the Tytlers Cycle Racing rider. The majority of the DNFs this year were out of his control. Based on these short comings Jake Gagne was able to clinch the national title for a third time in Pittsburgh.
Gagne had the following words for the MotoAmerica media referring to the Champions winning finish, “To do it with a couple wins here at a place this Yamaha loves is awesome. I just didn’t expect it. We didn’t really do any math. The team didn’t talk about it. Nobody talked about it. I just had a feeling if I won and I didn’t exactly know what Josh (Herrin) had to do, but I knew sure as hell Josh was going to put up a fight to bring it down to one more round, and I knew he was right there.”
Gagne continued
Congrats to Matty (Scholtz). Doing Yamaha a favor, doing me a favor today. It’s cool to get it done early. Again, kind of unexpected. I haven’t been the fastest guy all year, but I guess kind of luck has been on my side. We finished almost every race, besides one. It’s going to be a hell of a fight for that championship run with a lot of guys in it next year. I’m looking forward to going to the last couple rounds and just duking it out with these guys with nothing else to worry about.”
Supersport
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Tyler Scott secured a very hard fought victory aboard his GSXR750. The win delayed Xavi Fores the ability to clinch the Supersport champions in Pittsburgh. Scott wont the race by 2.8 seconds. He had the following words for the media after the race. “Yesterday I got a decent start the first time, starting from the second row on the grid. Couldn’t get a clear lap in qualifying, so right off the bat it was hard to lead the race and try and set the pace.”
“Overnight we thought about it. This morning we made some changes to be able to push the pace. In the race today, I got a pretty similar start to yesterday, but I saw an opening to pass Xavi (Forés) and I took it. I wanted to see if I could lead the race and start pulling a gap. It was .0 for what felt like an eternity, and then .2, .4, .6, one second, one second, one second, two seconds. I just kept pushing the pace every lap and was able to create that gap.”
Rev It Twins Cup
Th race for the title tightens with Gus Rodio and Rocco Landers (Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering) and Black Davis separated by a total of 14 points. at the top of the table. In race 2 the three exchanged a back and fourth battle from start to finish. All three riders led the race at different times. The margin between the 3 was just over one tenth between P1 and P2 and the same margin for P2 to P3. The competition is heating up and will make for an incredible winner takes all scenario with just 2 races left in the season to decide the championship winner. A winner will be crowd in New Jersey at the final MotoAmerica Round of the season. Gus Rodio currently leads Blake Davis by 8 points and Rocco Landers by 14 points.
Junior Cup – Avery Dreher Crowned Champion
Avery Dreher was crowned champion due to the findings of a post race technical inspection of Rossi Moor’s KTM RC390R. The stewards found Moor’s bike to have an illegal wheel bearing and he was disqualified from maintaining his P3 finish in race two. The disqualification ended all chances of Moor being able to fight for the title at the final round. There were mixed feelings on the matter as to whether the material of a wheel bearing has any performance advantage and why this finding has come up now at such a pivotal point in the season. As much as we’d like to have seen the championship won on track rules are rules and the Junior Cup has been decided. Dreher had th following words after the race.
“It worked yesterday [referring to his bike setup], so I just figured I’d go with the same strategy today. The team and I worked on a few things this morning with the bike. Got that sorted out. I knew it would be a little hotter today than yesterday. Our race was three hours later, so I knew that would play a factor. Lost the grip on the rear on the last lap. Thought I would lose the draft on the front straightaway but ended up pulling it together. I’m just super happy with the results this weekend. I don’t know how many points I have left to clinch the title, but I’m just going to keep working hard between rounds and hopefully get that jersey.”
Royal Enfield BTR – The Queen Reigns Supreme
Mikayla Moore completed a perfect finish to the season. Moore won every race in the class and finished perfect with maximum points in the competition. The BTR season ended in Pittsburgh with Moore winning the championship, Sonya Lloyd secured second place and Crystal Martinez secured third in the competition.