MotoAmerica: JD Beach, Bryce Prince and Brandon Paasch all Saturday winners at NJMP
Cycle News Staff | April 30, 2016
There was plenty of racing action on Saturday at NJMP with the first of two Supersport/Superstock 600 and KTM RC Cup races running on a cloudy day at NJMP.
The Supersport victory went to a rider who was happy to turn his season around with a win: JD Beach. The defending MotoAmerica Supersport racer won his first race of the year after a dominating 2015 season in which he won eight races. Beach sped away at the start in front of his teammate Garrett Gerloff, the winner of three straight races to start the season, and increased his lead when the pack of four at the front encountered lapped traffic. That gave him a gap that he held to the finish, ultimately beating Gerloff by 2.834 seconds.
Third place in the Supersport class went to pole-sitter Joe Roberts on the Wheels In Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports Yamaha. It was Roberts’ first podium of the season as he moves full time to the Supersport class after winning the Superstock 600 Championship last year.
Team H35 Honda’s Benny Solis Jr. was fourth with M4 Sportbike TrackGear.com Suzuki’s Valentin Debise finishing fifth.
Sixth place overall went to Superstock 600 class winner and championship leader Bryce Prince. Prince was well clear of second-placed Conner Blevins on the EMR Excel Racing Kawasaki, the Oklahoman getting the better of HB Racing/Meen Motorsports’ Dakota Mamola, who was third in class and eighth overall.
The KTM RC Cup races at NJMP were expected to be a battle between New Jersey racers Brandon Paasch and Anthony Mazziotto III and that’s what it ended up being. With both riders coming into their home race with a victory apiece, they led qualifying and they led the pack at the finish of the 13-lap race. But it was Paasch getting the upper hand at the finish line, topping Mazziotto by just .166 of a second with Ashton Yates just as close in third – .186 of a second behind. Brandon Altmeyer, who finished third in the first two races at Road Atlanta, ended up fourth.
SUPERSPORT RACE 1: 1. JD Beach (Yamaha); 2. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha); 3. Joe Roberts (Yamaha); 4. Benny Solis Jr. (Honda); 5. Valentin Debise (Suzuki); 6. Bryce Prince (Yamaha); 7. Conner Blevins (Kawasaki); 8. Dakota Mamola (Yamaha); 9. Mike Selpe (Yamaha); 10. Shane Narbonne (Yamaha).
SUPERSTOCK 600 RACE 1: 1. Bryce Prince (Yamaha); 2. Connor Blevins (Kawasaki); 3. Dakota Mamola (Yamaha); 4. Gage McAllister (Yamaha); 5. Andy DiBrino (Yamaha); 6. JC Camacho (Yamaha); 7. Michael Gilbert (Yamaha); 8. Xavier Zayat (Suzuki); 9. Timothy Wilson (Kawasaki); 10. Melissa Paris (Suzuki).
KTM RC CUP RACE 1: 1. Brandon Paasch; 2. Anthony Mazziotto III; 3. Ashton Yates; 4. Brandon Altmeyer; 5. Jody Barry; 6. Jackson Blackmon; 7. Alejandro Gutierrez; 8. Christopher Kosan; 9. Nolan Lamkin; 10. Renzo Ferreira.