Qualifying for MotoAmerica Speedfest weekend has concluded. In pursuit of the lap record the Medallia Superbike headed out this morning in optimal morning conditions. The track was cold but there was no moisture while allowed the riders to run full race pace earlier in the session. The sun came out about 1/3 of the way through the session. Cameron Beaubier (Tytlers Cycle Racing) beat out Jake Gagne (Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha) and a flying Richie Escalante (Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki) to secure pole in Medallia Superbike. Cameron Petersen (Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha) finished p4 and Mathew Scholtz (Westby Racing) finished P5.
Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati) secured a hard fought P6. Herrin is riding in pain through a broken foot he suffered at the Ridge Motorsports Park two weeks ago. Herrin is 7 tenths off of the leader Beaubier.
Supersport
Josh Hayes (Squid Hunter) secured pole for the upcoming 38 lap endurance race that will occur this evening. Championship leader Xavi Fores (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati); who has won every Supersport race this year finished P8 after crashing during the qualifying session. He appeared to avoid major injury and was up walking after the crash. Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammates Teagg Hobbs and Tyler Scott complete the top 3. Stefano Mesa finished 4th fastest ahead of Disrupt Racing’s Jake Lewis. Lewis is pulling triple duty this weekend with King of the Baggers, Super Hooligans and Supersport. We will determine if this has an effect on his performance in the 38 lap race.
One challenge the riders in the endurance race face is rapidly changing track temperatures. We will see if this is a factor in tonight’s race.
REV IT Twins Cup
Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering teammates Gus Rodio and Rocco Landers locked out the top spots in Twins Cup. Dominic Doyle secured P3 ahead of Blake Davis and Jackson Blackmon. Two riders in the class didn’t post lap times in Qualifying 2.
King of the Baggers
Kyle Wyman (H-D Screamin’ Eagle) secured pole in KOTBs ahead of rival Tyler O’Hara (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods) and Bobby Fong (Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian). Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson riders Hayden Gillima and James Rispoli rounded out the top 5 in class.
Super Hooligans
After a controversial disqualification during the last MotoAmerica round at the Ridge Motorsports Park Jeremy McWilliams (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods) secured pole ahead of Andy DiBrino (DiBrino Racing KTM) and teammate Tyler O’Hara (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods). The Super Hooligans class had over 45 bike entries for the weekend. Due to the volume MotoAmerica ran two separate groups for qualifying and practice to circumvent safety issues related to an overcrowded track.
Racing kicks off this afternoon starting with Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Race 1. For live coverage check out MotoAmerica Live+.
The MotoAmerica Superbike Championship makes their second and final West coast stop of the year at a newly improved WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Laguna Seca recently finished a complete repaving. A select few MotoAmerica Superbike riders were invited to participate in a testing day. Overall despite earlier reports from other orgnaizations the feedback appeared to be positive. MotoAmerica Speedfest weekend will indeed move forward and we will have a full schedule of events for the weekend.
This weekend is a special occasion because it marks the first triple header for the Medallia Superbike championship. The rider will part take in 3 races totaling to 60 laps of racing action. In addition, the second Supersport endurance race of the season is set to take place on Saturday evening. The race is set for 38 laps and will require at minimum, one pit spot. The previous endurance race at Barber Motorsports Park was event filled with multiple track incidents, adverse weather and record pit stop times. You can find the full event schedule below.
Laguna Seca Facts
Laguna Seca was established in 1957 and has since hosted a number of prestigious races and events. The name “Laguna Seca” translates to “dry lake” in Spanish, referencing the track’s location in a natural dry lakebed. The circuit is 2.238 miles (3.602 kilometers) long and features 11 turns. It is known for its challenging and iconic corners, such as the Corkscrew, a blind left-right combination that drops sharply downhill. The most famous section of the track, the Corkscrew, is an extremely challenging sequence of turns that requires precise vehicle control. It involves a steep downhill drop with an abrupt left-right chicane. The Corkscrew has become an iconic feature of Laguna Seca and is recognized all around the world.
The MotoAmerica broadcast schedule is below.
Check out MotoAmerica Live+ for streaming options.
The MotoAmerica paddock rumors are confirmed. Team Hammer has revealed that Brandon Paasch will indeed join the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team in a bid for Medallia Superbike. Speculative rumors for this move have been the chatter of the paddock after Paasch had a successful outing at the Loudon Classic. Paasch has sat out most of the 2023 season due to a back injury he suffered at the beginning of the year during Motorcross training. He will join the team for the remainder of the 2023 season.
In a press release form Suzuki Paash stated, “Obviously, I’m very excited and grateful for this opportunity. This was a great surprise to me. My goal has always been to get into Superbike, but coming off an injury some may have been skeptical of my return. Doing the Loudon Classic allowed me to prove I’m still the same guy before I was injured.”
“I’ve been working hard every day to return to fitness, probably more so than before Daytona, but I also know I’m playing catch up. I also realize I have a transition ahead of me as far as learning to ride the Superbike, but I’m ready for it. My only goal is to get a little faster and a little more competitive each time I go on track.”
Medallia Superbike action returns this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca July 7-9 in Monterey, CA.
If you missed it check out our Day 1 Recap of the MotoAmerica Super bike Championship race. Round 4 at The Ridge Motorsports Park. In the Medallia Superbike Championship Cameron Beaubier (Tytlers Cycle Racing) finally put an end to Jake Gagne’s (Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha) win streak at the Ridge. Beuabier won Superbike Race 2 after crashing out of race1 on lap 14. The two traded stents leading the race, but towards the end of the race Gagne seemed to fall off of his early pace. Beaubier made the pass on lap 10. Beaubier would not give up the lead again and won the race by just over 2 seconds. The two spoke with the MotoAmerica media after the race,
Cameron Beaubier – Tytlers Cycle Racing – Race Winner
“Yesterday the race was a really good confidence boost for us because, let’s be honest, Jake (Gagne) was setting the pace all weekend and also (Josh) Herrin was really fast on Saturday morning. So, I felt like going into the race we could do a couple of those laps, but I didn’t think we could sustain them. The guys have not stopped working on the thing and we came up with a good race bike yesterday and they made it even better overnight for today. I was feeling really good. Herrin and I were going back and forth there at the beginning. I feel like we were honestly both kind of making a couple mistakes. I was running wide here and there and so was he. Once the race kind of settled down, I put my head down and I was really surprised how good my bike felt.”
Beaubier continued
“It was a pretty amazing feeling. I was able to run Jake down, but he was really strong getting off the last corner onto the front straight. I was struggling…I was spinning out of there pretty good. But I knew I had some spots that I was better than him in. Same for him, he had some spots that he was better than me in. I was able to get the lead and just kind of kept my head down but kept a little in reserve just so I didn’t throw it away like I did yesterday. I was honestly really surprised to see a little gap on my board. Feels great for the team.”
“It’s a bummer yesterday, falling down like that, but it feels really good to cap a weekend off like we did. Plain and simple, the Superbike class is just pretty gnarly this year. To have three different manufacturers on the box and all the incredible riders up in the top 10, it’s tough but it’s pretty fun.”
Jake Gagne – Fresh n lean Progressive Yamaha – Second Place
“I got off to a clean start and kind of made that gap from him, but once Cam (Beaubier) made his way through yesterday, he just reeled me in. Same thing today. At one point, I had a second gap on my pit board, and then by the top of the chicane I could hear him right behind me. That’s probably the lap he did a 39.6. At that point, I was struggling a little bit. I thought we kind of made the bike a little bit better today, but I was struggling a little more to even run the 40s that we ran yesterday.”
“I knew Cam was going to make his way by at some point, and then once he made his way by, I tried to latch on a little bit but there was nothing I could do. At that point, I knew Josh (Herrin) was back there and I knew he was going to be strong until the end, so I just tried to do what I could to bring it home in second. Either way, I think we learned a lot. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to race with these guys really for this full race distance and kind of see what the bikes are doing differently. All three of these bikes really have different strengths and different weaknesses. So, we got some good data. Know what we need to improve. I think we’re still in the points lead, so that’s always a good day.”
Supersport
Xavi Fores (Warhorse HSBK Ducati) continued his dominance aboard his Ducati V2 to win his 7th race of the season. Fores has won every race in Supersport this season. Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki Teammates Tyler Scott and Teagg Hobbs finished second and third respectively.
Stefano Mesa (Tytlers Cycle Racing) was able to recover after a brutal crash out of race 1. Mesa finished 5th in Race 2 and also competed in the Super Hooligans class after his crash. He did not appear to sustain any inhibiting injuries.
Xavi Fores secures his 7th win of the 2023 season for Warhorse HSBK Ducati. Photo By Ramon Jones/Chroma VisualREV IT Twins Cup
Rocco Landers wins race 2 after having his win in race 1 stripped. Landers was given a 2 place penalty for passing a back-marker rider under a waving yellow on the final lap. Landers was not availabel for comments regarding the incident. Instead he let his work on the track do the talking about won race 2 in dominant fashion. Landers stated, “The bike was working amazing, Robem Engineering/Rodio Racing worked really hard to make the thing work as good as possible. I don’t even think we made a change since qualifying one. The thing has just been on rails all weekend. I felt good. The thing felt like it was just doing whatever I wanted. The wind was a bit gnarly. Felt like it was kind of screwing with the front end, especially long corners. But on the track, we’ve been undefeated this season on paper though some would say different. But I see no reason why we can’t continue this momentum into Laguna.”
In second was last years champion Blake Davis and in third Landers’ teammate Gus Rodio.
Royale Enfield BTR
Mikayla Moore continues to display dominance over the field winning both races this weekend by a large margin. The podium in both races included Moore, last year’s champion Kayleigh Buyck and Sonia Lloyd. The wins this weekend push Moore’s win count to 4 on the season as she remains perfect in the points.
Super Hooligans
From MotoAmerica: “After Sunday’s race two of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, the Indian FTR1200 motorcycles of race winner Jeremy McWilliams and second-place finisher Tyler O’Hara were protested by another team. Upon inspection, the ends of the handlebars were found to be below the top plane of the triple clamp, which is a violation of the class’s technical rules.” The breach effectively saw Andy DiBrino to P1 in the race. He was followed by Team Saddlemen Harley-Davidson rider Cory West, and Roland Sands Design/Indian Motorcycle’s Bobby Fong.
Day 1 of the MotoAmerica Championship at The Ridge Motorsports Park is complete. There were a number of on track incidents throughout the day across the all 5 classes competing this weekend.
Medallia Superbike
Jake Gagne (Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha) continues his dominance at the Ridge with a win in Race 1. Gagne took the race by a margin of 8.6 seconds. Ahead of Mathew Scholtz (Westby Racing) in second and Josh Herrin in third. Cameron Peterson had another dreadful day after crashing in Qualifying. Peterson was able to recover in the race but had two incidents one where he ran off the track and a second crash wish ushered him to the back of the grid falling 2 laps behind the race leader.
Gagne stated to the MotoAmerica media, “I was keeping an eye on my pit board. I got off to a great start. The Yamaha gets off to a good start. I went inside because I know Josh (Herrin) is always going to be deep on the brakes. Then, somehow, he runs around the outside of me. I’m like, ‘I don’t even know how he got there.’ Fortunately, it’s tough to make that line so I squared him up and put my head down. I was really happy with the bike. Everything was working good.”
Gagne Commented on Herrin’s Drop Off in Pace
“I was a little bit surprised to see, I know Josh was hurting and I was a little bit surprised to see the gap just kind of going a couple tenths a lap, and then it was up to a second and a half about halfway, and then it started dropping. Honestly, I thought it was Josh. I didn’t know with how fast he was going earlier. I thought it was him, I couldn’t see who was behind me…I could hear the lap before the red flag up over the top chicane, I’m like, ‘Whoever is behind me is on me now.’ It was not a half second, or whatever it was. So, I was ready for a banger for the last three laps. I was going to try to put my head down. I was kind of riding everything I had to keep it on.”
“Trying to get a couple more tenths a lap would have been pretty risky, I think. Unfortunately, it was a bummer to see Cam (Beaubier) go down and the red flag come out. I didn’t know until I got back who had crashed and who was second. A little luck on our side points-wise, but it would have been nice to bring that thing down to the last couple laps. I think that would have been fun racing. Tomorrow it will be ‘the same.”
“Everybody is going to step it up, so we got to step it up a little bit too. But I think we learned a lot from today’s race. I’m just stoked. Of course, after the last couple years, it’s nice to win all these races but I’m a racer and it’s awesome to see the class so stacked and so close. Practice here this weekend, all these guys within a couple tenths. So, it really comes down to figuring out how to do it consistently in the race. Just keep doing our job and look forward to more good racing.”
Superbike Race One
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Corey Alexander (BMW)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Supersport
Xavi Fores (HSBK Warhouse Ducati) continues his win streak. Fores has won every Supersport race this season and he has not showed any signs of slowing down. Its clear how valuable his lengthy career of experience has helped him adapt to new tracks in the MotoAmerica series. Veteran Josh Hayes secured a hard fought second place ahead of Teagg Hobbs. Stefano Mesa (Tytlers Cycle Racing) and Jarett Nassaney (Altus Motorsports) did not finish the race. The riders will have an opportunity for redemption today in race two.
REV’ IT Twins Cup
Dominic Doyle (Team Iso) received the win after Rocco Landers (Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering) finished in first but was handed a 2 place penalty for passing a back marker rider under a waving yellow. Landers was visible displeased with the ruling. We do not yet know if he will protest it but its clear the rider was well off of race pace so there may more to the investigation if he chooses to appeal. Blake Davis (N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto) finished second place and Landers was demoted to third.
Super Hooligans
Tyler O’Hara denies pole sitter Andy DiBrino the win in race 1. It was a 1-2 for Indian riders O’Hara and Jeremy McWilliams. DiBrino will start on pole again for race 2 and will look to capitalize to improve his points standing in the class. Stefano Mesa was disqualified from the race.
Royale Enfield BTR
Mikayla Moore continued her dominance in the class winning race one by a margin of over 16 seconds. Last years champion Kayleigh Buyck finished second with Sonia Lloyd finishing in third. Moore appears to be on cruise control this year in the class. She had the follow comments for the media regarding a moment where she seemingly lost control of the bike, “I caught a false neutral and instead of going to the higher gear, I thought it maybe didn’t get into gear, so I went into a lower gear, and it got a little out of hand. So, I just shifted quick and then just get back on track without making the bike any more upset than what it was. This morning [Yesterday], I made some suspension changes, and I made some tire pressure changes, and I went out on freshies and gearing changes. So, all those combinations definitely helped for this race.”
The MotoAmerica Superbike championship pays a visit to The Ridge Motorsports park in Shelton, WA for round 4 of the season. 5 classes will race this weekend, Superbikes, Supersport, Twins, Super Hooligans and Royale Enfield BTR. The Ridge is a 2.47 mile track featuring multiple technical turns and elevation changes through out the course. Each class will have 2 races this weekend for plenty of opportunity to see the bikes in action.
Currently the top spot in Medallia Superbike is within reach for Cameron Beaubier (Tytlers Cycle Racing). He currently sits 12 points behind championship leader Jake Gagne.
The Ridge has brought in plenty of entertainment for fans with a carnival and games, Go-Karting, mini golf and local vendors. The weather appears to be sunny for the whole weekend. The event can be streams on MotoAmerica Live+. The weekend race schedule is below.
Some elements of this article were not written by Speed Trap Magazine Staff.
Bobby Fong began his racing career at a young age and quickly displayed his talent and passion for motorcycle racing. Over the years, Bobby Fong continued to make a name for himself in various road racing championships. He competed in the MotoAmerica series, which is the premier motorcycle racing championship in the United States. Fong has raced in different categories within MotoAmerica, including Superstock 1000 and Supersport.
Bobby Fong’s breakthrough moment came in 2020 when he achieved his first-ever MotoAmerica Superbike race win at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex. He went on to win three more races during the season, finishing fourth in the championship standings. His performance established Fong as a top contender in the Superbike class.
Fong to Re-join Medallia Superbike Class
Bobby Fong’s racing style is characterized by his aggressive and determined approach on the track. He possesses exceptional skill in cornering and has demonstrated his ability to push the limits and make daring overtakes. As reported by MotoAmerica an opportunity presented itself and Fong has decided to take it for the Medallia Superbike Round in Shelton, WA.
Bobby Fong will race a Yamaha YZF-R1 in round four of the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, June 23-25. Fong provided the following comments to MotoAmerica, “Dave (Anthony) called me to see if I wanted to ride it and I agreed to it for the Ridge and we’ll see how that goes moving forward. I’m excited. Attack has been helping him out and I will have Robbie Petersen for a crew chief. Dave bought Jake Gagne’s bike from last year and Richard Stanboli helps him out and gives him the setups for the weekend and gives him the maps that they started last season with. He has the electronics and the swingarm so it will be good.”
“I’ve always wanted to ride a proper Yamaha. Dave has told me that it’s the bike, so I figured I’d give it a shot and see how I do. I have to be realistic. Everybody’s up to speed and I haven’t ridden a Superbike in over a year. Obviously, I’m going to do my best. Realistically, I would like to be in the podium battle or just on the cusp of that podium battle in my first ride back, but who knows? I might be better, I might be worse, but either way I’m excited to be back and we’ll do the best we can. I’m really happy that I can ride a Yamaha with the proper stuff on it and want to give big thanks to Dave and his crew for making this happen.”
Round 3 at Road America has concluded. The weekend was full of blistering lap times, broken records and surprises. After a disappointing Race 1, Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Ducati) came out flying in race 2 with the look of determination. Herrin had a scuffle with second place championship point sitter Cameron Beaubier (Tytlers Cycle Racing). Beaubier ultimately retired from the race after a mechanical failure. Herrin won Race 2 with Tytlers Cycle Racing rider PJ Jacobsen securing second behind by 2 seconds.
After a troublesome start to the weekend for the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha team. Championship leader Jake Gagne and Cameron Petersen mustered the pace to squeeze out a P3 and P4 finish respectively. The Yamahas had multiple engine failure issues this weekend. Fifth place finisher Tony Elias (Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki) announced his retirement in surprising fashion directly after the race.
After the Race
Talking to the MotoAmerica media Herrin had the following comments after winning Race 2, “It was just for the haters, man. It just felt good. It felt right. But it was all in good fun. That felt really good. Like I said on the podium, I think this just motivates me to do more. I know that this is for sure one of our strongest tracks, but we’ve got to figure out how to make tracks like Barber not be such a weakness for us. I think just getting more time on the bike and a little bit more confidence will for sure help with that. I’m so happy that I’m a part of this team. It’s been really like a family these last two years. It’s a bummer that the DeNaples couldn’t be here for this one, because I know that they wish they could.”
Herrin Continued His Thoughts
“It just feels good. It feels good to be 33 years old winning Superbike races on a bike like I’m riding right now and just having fun. This track has always been one of my favorite tracks, but today it really felt like… I’ve been racing here since 2006. This is my 18th season racing at this track. It felt like ’06 with the crowds that we had today. It was just really special going around the track afterwards and seeing everybody cheering on the fence. It’s really motivating as a racer to be out there and see a crowd like that. So, thank you to everybody for showing up. Thank you to the whole team for everything that they do for me. I’m ready to keep going.”
Cameron Beaubier retired from Medallia Superbike Race 2 due to a mechanical failure. Photo courtesy of Brian J. Nelson/MotoAmericaComments from Second Place Finisher PJ Jacobsen
PJ Jacobsen provided insight on the race from his perspective, “Josh (Herrin) rode really, really well today. My starts just suck, and they’ve been sucking all year. So, that’s one thing that I need to figure out how to get off the line better. In the race, I feel like we were doing pretty consistent lap times, into the nines and stuff like that. I caught up to him and Cam (Beaubier), and then Cam had the problem. Then I felt like I was catching Josh a little, and then it stayed like that. Then the last few laps it felt like we were going pretty fast. I think I did 2:09.2 with two laps to go. Then there was pretty decent gap. I don’t know if it was a gap enough to go and try to challenge for the win.”
Road America features multiple long straights which allow riders who get goo starts to take off early on the race.
Steel Commander Stock 1000
Travis Wyman secured his first win of the 2023 season over Kaleb Dekaryel (Orange Cat Racing) in P2 and Hayden Gillim (Disrupt Racing) in P3. Wyman stated that he had issues harmonizing with the bike this weekend. He provided the following comments to the MotoAmerica Media, ““It’s definitely where I wanted to be yesterday, but I think we were still missing a little bit of something. So, the guys put a great package underneath me today. I think just the little bit cooler temperatures gave me more confidence to just get out and push, because in Q2 yesterday morning it was about similar temperatures, a little overcast, and the bike felt its best.
Yesterday in the race when the sun was beating down, I didn’t have the confidence in the grip level. I knew if I got a wholeshot, I could put my head down and go to work. I saw the gap getting bigger and bigger, and then all of a sudden it was back down to the plus zero again.”
He continued, “Honestly, I thought it was Ezra behind me the entire time, and I just kept my head down for a couple more laps and I looked up and I saw on the monitor going into three and it was Kaleb. Kaleb has been strong at the end of the races, so I had to keep going. Just really never looked back. The bike was phenomenal. It was a huge step up from yesterday. It felt like it did in Q2. I got to give it all to my team. It’s been a long time coming. It’s been since Laguna 2021 when I won a Stock 1000 race.”
Supersport
Xavi Fores (Warhorse HSBK Ducati) secured his 5th win of the season aboard his Ducati Panigale V2 at Road America. Despite this feat it was second place finished in both races, Stefano Mesa had the fastest lap of the race. Stefano seemed to be on pace to make a challenge for the win towards the middle stages of the race. However, the deficit provided to be too much and despite hiding the fastest lap of the race he fell short to Fores by 4 tenths of a second.
Fores provided the following comments, “I realized already this morning in warmup I was not able to pass him on the draft. He is lighter than me and the bike is fast, but I wanted to see how was his pace. I ran wide in the chicane…lost the front a little bit, so I said, okay. I looked back and no one was coming close to us. I said, ‘okay, I’m going to let him pass and try to understand his pace.’ So after that, on the first split, I was a little bit faster than him and I was solid braking into turn five, so I passed again. I was quite okay doing 16 on my pace. I was pushing so hard.”
Junior Cup
Rossi Moor (Fairium NGRT- Gray Area Racing KTM) won the race on the sole KTM RC390 on grid. The win also comes during Moor’s first races at the iconic Road America. The feat was achieved by a margin of 3 tenths of a second. In a hard fought second place was Max Van (SportbikeTrackGear.com) followed by Race 1 winner Avery Dreher (Bad Boys Racing) in third. Moor had the following comments to the media after finishing P2 in race 1.
“Yesterday, I wanted to try and stay in second place and try to not lead the race because I remember when Avery was saying that on this track you really don’t want to lead, especially on the last laps since the draft is so important here. But I was analyzing the race yesterday and I thought that I had the pace to be able to break away. I just have to put my head down and sometimes you need a little bit of luck, like somebody making a mistake, to have that little breakaway. So, it was a really good race for me, after the bad luck I’ve had this season with two DNF’s. But finally, I got the win and I’m super excited.”
Rossi Moor (Fairium NGRT- Gray Area Racing KTM) celebrates the win as he crosses the finish line at Road America for Junior Cup Race 2. Photo by Ramon Jones/Chroma VisualBuild Train Race
Series newcomer Mikayla Moore dominated the competition in Race 2 by a margin of 11 seconds. This was her first race at Road America. Last year’s champion Kayleigh Buyck finished second place and Aubrey Credaroli finished third. Moore has proven she is no rookie to racing after securing maximum points this weekend at Road America. She will look to repeat this result at the Ridge in 4 weeks time.
Mission King of the Baggers
Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong led the Mission King Of The Baggers field by 5.7 seconds to secure the win. This was redemption for Fong at Road America after a disappointing P7 finish in race 1. Tyler O’Hara (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods) and James Rispoli (Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson) rounded out the top 3.
Day 2 at MotoAmerica Round 3 Road America features qualifying sessions in the morning followed by the first races of the weekend. Superbike kicked off with Josh Herrin (HSBK Warhorse Ducati) securing pole after a blistering morning Q2 session. Herrin beat out Cameron Beaubier by 2 tenths of a second. However, Beaubier had an answer in Race 1.
Herrin got the whole shot off the start but Beaubier hunted him down by lap 6 and worked his way into some clean air allowing him to extend his lead. Herrin and Beuabier exchanged positions on lap 7 and back again on lap 8 for Beaubier to regain the lead. At this point the race was red flagged due to a mechanical failure that resulted in a major oil spill on track with 4 laps to go. MotoAmerica race control ended up calling the race and this handed Cameron Beaubier his 56th career win and 11th superbike win. The win moved him into first in the Medallia Superbike Championship.
Beaubier responds to the Media
When asked by the MotoAmerica media about his 11th win in Superbike Beaubier responded, “Yeah. Something about this track is just special for me. I love coming here. It seems like for the most part we always get pretty lucky on the weather here. Just staying by Elkhart Lake and going to have dinner at night. It’s just an amazing area. This track really suits my style, I feel like. It’s kind of crazy to think that I’ve got eleven wins here, for sure.”
This triumph came at the demise of prior championship leader Jake Gagne. Teammate PJ Jacobsen secured the 1-2 for Tytlers Cycle Racing ahead of Josh Herrin in P3. Gagne had mechanical issues all weekend with his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha R1. After multiple mechanical failures leading up to Qualifying 1 Gagne was only able to qualifying P6 and subsequently had an additional failure during the race which ended his hopes of extending his title lead. Five riders DNF’d in race 1. Teammate Cameron Petersen finished fifth in the race but also had mechanical issues all weekend leading up to race 1. Richie Escalante finished in fourth ahead of Petersen. Gagne will look forward to race 2 tomorrow to salvage the weekend.
Stock 1000
It was another successful weekend for Ezra Beaubier (Orange Cat Racing) who extended his championship point lead with a win in stock 1000 race 1. Ezra stated to the MotoAmerica Press, “I knew we would be really strong this weekend. Obviously, the BMW Alpha Racing package is really, really strong, especially here with all the long straightaways. Yesterday went really well. We found some more with the bike this morning. I wasn’t able to really put a clean lap together.”
He continued
“I kind of just got held up with some traffic and didn’t get to show what my full potential was this morning. But I knew going into the race that we were going to be just as strong as anyone. I was ready to bring the fight. I knew those first couple laps it was going to be tough with going with the hard-option rear tire. It was super-slick and super-greasy those first couple laps. I saw Travis almost go down in the second-to-last corner. I kind of felt like that was my chance to try to break away and slowly just tried to inch away and saw I was slowly building a gap. Just kept my head down and kept clicking off my laps and just hitting my marks and did what I could to bring it home in P1.”
Second place went to Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman aboard his BMW M 1000 RR. His younger brother Cody Wyman whom has never raced in the class carved out a third place finish in his debut.
Supersport
The top three spots in Supersport was decided by less than a 1 second differential. Stefano Mesa (Tytlers Cycle Racing), Xavi Fores (HSBK Warhorse Ducati) and Josh Hayes (Squid Hunter Racing) had some fierce competition on the track. These top three riders pulled away from the pack early on and were in a race of their own. Fores was able to find the pace to edge out Mesa by 3 tenths securing his 4 consecutive win in his debut MotoAmerica Supersport season.
Fores had the following commetns for the MotoAmerica media, “About the race today, honestly I think it was the race I enjoyed more because, especially at the beginning of the race, I didn’t expect Josh to stay with us because during all the sessions yesterday and today, me and Stefano had something else compared to the others. But you can’t forget Josh Hayes on the racing. He’s a dog. He has a lot of experience. You always have to count with him. So, when he passed me the first time on turn five, I said, ‘Oh, he’s here.’ He’s even strong on brakes, because I brake there really late, and he passed me. He was turning well. So, I said, okay, it’s going to be good fun today.”
Fores Continued on the level of Competition in Supersport
“I think all of us three have some strong points on our bike, so my bike is quite good on brakes and on the top of the power a little bit better than previously. Josh in the middle sector, the Yamaha is always amazing and he’s so fast on the long corners. It’s difficult to stay sometimes with him. When he passed me, he pulled some gap away two or three corners and I said, ‘I have to wake up otherwise he’s going to go.’ Stefano, he’s light. He’s quite aerodynamic. The bike is going fast. He showed a lot of potential this weekend and all the season. So, this means that every time we go out, we improve something, we learn something from each other. This is something that I think the fans are enjoying, as well, because we do some overtakes, clean overtakes always. A lot of respect.”
Junior Cup
Junior Cup came down to the last 25 ft before the finish line. Rossi Moor seemingly had timed his draft on the leader perfectly to secure the win. However, Avery Dreher pulled an even stronger double draft to launch from 4th to 1st in the last 25 ft before the finish line. Moor took second and Levi Badie took third in a finish that had to be decided by finish line imaging. Dreher extends his championship lead with the win.
King of the Baggers
H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman won his fourth Mission King Of The Baggers race in a row on Saturday at Road America. The win came in dramatic fashion after Wyman made a pass on Tyler O’Hara (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods) on the final lap to secure the victory. Wyman said, “We played our cards right.” Referring to capitalizing on mistakes. Race 2 is tomorrow. Wyman will attempt to go for 5 in a row.
Build Train Race
It was all Mikayla Moore in BTR. Moore continues to show she is no newbie to racing as she dominated the BTR field. Her win came by a margin of 17.2 seconds over second place finisher Crystal Martinez. Sonya Lloyd secured third. Last years BTR champion retired from the race with a mechanical failure.
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Road America Weekend got kicked off in blazing fashion. On a newly paved track and perfect weather conditions riders were able to push their bikes in qualifying. In 2021 Jake Gagne (Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha) set the Medallia Superbike record at Road America. On Day 1 of race weekend Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier did not wait long to break it. Beaubier set a fastest 2:09.629 which was nearly 1 second faster than the previous record here. It was a good day for the Tytlers Cycle Racing side in Sueprbike. Beaubier’s teammate PJ Jacobsen ran second fastest in qualifying with a 2:10.296. Josh Herrin (HSBK Warhorse Ducati) rounded out the top 3.
It was a problematic day for the Fresh and Lean Progressive Yamaha riders Cameron Petersen and Jake Gagne. Bother riders had their days cut short due to mechanical issues and did not participate in qualifying 1.
Steel Commander Stock 1000
Ezra Beaubier topped the table in Qualifying 1 setting a 2:14.311. Beaubier was 0.392 seconds faster than Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman in P2 and 1.4 seconds faster than Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim in P3. Which conditions remaining great for Day 2 and Race 1 of qualifying we expect times to get faster as the weekend progresses.
Supersport
Stefnao Mesa (Tytlers Cycle Racing) took provisional pole ahead of Supersport championship leader Xavi Fores (HSBK Warhorse Ducati) by 6 tenths of a second. With Q2 in the morning we will determine if the afternoon pace we saw today will translate as track temperature will presumably be lower which will affect tire grip conditions for the riders.
Junior Cup
Bad Boys Racing’s Junior Cup Championship leader Avery Dreher rode his Kawasaki Ninja 400 to provisional pole with a fastest Q1 lap of 2:39.366. Dreher has had a phenomenal start to the season setting the benchmark in the class. Dreher was 0.795 seconds quicker than Hayden Bicknese (Bicknese Racing) in second. Max VanDebrouck (SportbikeTrackGear.com) settled for third fastest in the class.
King of the Baggers
Bobby Fong (Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian) topped the baggers field with a 2:20.817 which came on his 6 lap of qualifying. Fong has previous won here at ROad America so he is no stranger to the track. While true, the circuit has been completely repaved so this weekend all riders are gathering new data in a sense to adjust their race strategies to the new conditions.
Fong finished ahead of Tyler O/Hara (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods) by a margin of 0.497 seconds. James Rispoli (Vance & Hines /Mission/Harley-Davidson) finished P3 to round out the top of the table. King of the Baggers Q2 is the last qualifying session of the weekend before races begin.
Build Train Race
This weekend the Royal Enfield Build Train Race (BTR) program kicked off with their first round of the season. Seasoned racer and newcomer to the series, Mikayla Moore dominated qualifying 1 with a stunning 4 second lead over last years BTR champion Kayleigh Buyck. Crystal Martinez who also raced for BTR in 2022 finished third. This years roster features 12 women who will race at select rounds with the MotorAmerica series. You can find more information on the program here: Build. Train Race.
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