UPDATE: AMA Pro Racing revised the results of the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series race Saturday. It moved P.J. Jacobsen back of lap group for causing the red flag situation that resulted in six riders crashing. That moves the riders on the lead lap up one position and gives the win to Kyle Wyman. Jacobsen is now listed as finishing 24th.
P.J. Jacobsen found himself suddenly sliding on the ground while leading the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series race Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was the victim of oil on the track in Turn 10 on the sixth of 10 scheduled laps. Before Jacobsen even came to a stop the carnage had begun. A slew of other riders crashed in the same oil, six riders in all including series contender Kyle Wyman, bringing out the red flag.
After 15 minutes the race was called and Jacobsen – who is on break from the 1000cc Superstock class of British Superbike Championship – was declared the winner in his one-off Indy appearance aboard the MOB Racing-K-Tech-Orient Express-Moroney’s Harley Davidson-backed machine. The scoring was based on the lap before the red flag.
But several hours later, at 8:54 p.m. EDT, AMA Pro Racing issued a press release revising the results and taking the win away from the New Yorker who they claim caused the red flag on the sixth lap.
Wyman, whose KLR Group/Spyke’s Harley-Davidson XR1200 was wiped out in the crash, and who’d originally finished second, was given the win. Former AMA Supermoto Unlimited champ Benny Carlson, the original third place finisher, his first podium in the XR1200 Series, moved up to second. Michael Corbino (XP Motorsports/Rossiter`s Harley-Davidson of Sarasota) went from fourth to third.
Wyman’s margin of victory after five laps was 4.423 seconds. The next five riders were covered by less than 1.2 seconds.
Tyler O’Hara (JCR/Scrubblade/Bartel’s Harley-Davidson), another key contender in the series, crashed a few laps before the red flag while battling for the lead. He remounted to finish 13th.
The first race in Indy’s doubleheader was also the first race in the five-round XR Showdown. The top 10 riders in the championship prior to Indianapolis basically started even with 1000 points each, so Wyman is the early leader in the Showdown, which determines the class champion.
Jacobsen, who had dominated qualifying, found himself in a dogfight early on. He said a conservative start was part of his plan.
“With the Dunlops I wasn’t sure how it was going to feel,” Jacobsen said. “After that on the second lap I started trying to catch Tyler and we were battling.”
But then O’Hara crashed leaving Jacobsen clear out front.
Wyman said when he saw O’Hara go down he knew he was in a good position in the championship. “P.J. is not in the (championship) race, so since I had a gap on third and P.J. was just out of the draft, I figured we’d settle in. I looked up in Turn 10 and saw P.J. down and before I knew it I was down too. It’s not the way you want to end a race, but I can’t say enough about my KLR Group Harley.”
Carlson continues to make good progress in his transition from a Supermoto specialist to a road racer.
“I rode pretty tight in the beginning,” Carlson said. “Every single race it seems like I ride a little bit tight. I got drafted by (Michael) Barnes and got held back from the leaders. Hopefully I have the pace. I was riding keeping it on two wheels and then everything cut loose.”
Carlson was the only one of the podium riders who didn’t crash in the oil.
It will be a busy night for several crews trying to make repairs for Sunday’s race. No one was injured badly in the pileup.
Results
1. PJ Jacobsen
2. Kyle Wyman
3. Benjamin Carlson
4. Michael Corbino
5. Michael Barnes
6. Steve Crevier
7. Bobby Fong
8. Michael Beck
9. Travis Wyman
10. Shane Narbonne
