Sunday
Superbike
After finishing second eight times a season ago, Jake Gagne finally won his first career MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike race and he did so in style, working his way through to the sharp end of the field from his third row starting spot and pulling away to a 4.712-second victory.
Gagne was fast all weekend and qualified on pole position for Saturday’s race, but his race only lasted for a lap as his Fresh N’ Easy Attack Performance Yamaha suffered a mechanical failure that put him out of the race. With Sunday’s race gridded by Saturday’s race results, Gagne started from the middle of the third row. Once he’d adjusted the play out of his slipping clutch, Gagne went on a rampage and his pace was unmatchable.

It was Gagne’s first win of any kind since his Superstock 1000 Championship-winning season in 2015.“Yeah, it feels good to get something like that off the back,” Gagne said of ending his winless drought. “Obviously, last year (there was) a lot of second places and it wears you down. We came here wanting to win. We came off the truck really firing. After yesterday’s disappointment, this team, the Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha work so hard. Those guys were up late last night throwing in one of last year’s motors. So just hats off to those guys. It feels good to get one off my back. Sorry, I didn’t even figure out, two hours before the race they told me I was on the third row, so I didn’t hear about that new fun little rule. So, I knew I had to get off to a good start because I knew Mat (Scholtz) was going to go, and Bobby (Fong) was going to go. I tried so hard to get a good start, I slipped and slipped the clutch. I thought I was in a situation like last year. The first couple laps my clutch was slipping. Luckily, from the experience last year, I knew which way to adjust the clutch. I was going down the straightaway trying to figure it out, and then once I got that dialed in, I knew the bike would keep rolling. I tried to make some passes. Mat was tough. This track is tough to make passes. Turn 10 is one of the main areas and that was where Mat was really strong, even Bobby too. Happy again, we got her done. Looking forward to VIR. I really, really love that place. I know this bike can be a rocket around there.”
The man who came closest to matching Gagne’s pace was Saturday’s race winner Mathew Scholtz on the Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1, the South African sticking with Gagne for a few laps before realizing he didn’t have the speed of the race winner. Scholtz held on for second, however, well clear of Gagne’s Fresh N’ Easy Attack Performance Yamaha teammate Josh Herrin, who was third for a second straight day.

“When he (Gagne) passed me, I tried to hang onto him for about three or four laps afterwards and I was pushing super hard,” Scholtz said. “I nearly tucked the front in a couple corners. He was stronger in some of the corners, I was stronger in some of the other sections. But we were just going backwards and forwards and it kind of seemed to just wear my tires out pretty quickly. It kind of helped me to see where his bike is definitely better than where ours is. We need to just work on getting off the corner, but otherwise I’m just happy to be back up here. Well done to Jake. Well done to Josh. It’s really awesome to have a Yamaha sweep. VIR is the next round for us and it’s one of my strongest tracks, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Herrin’s pace was faster than his identical third-place finish on Saturday, though he was slowed in the latter part of the race with arm pump.
“Today for me, performance-wise, was a lot better,” Herrin said. “I think Mathew’s (Scholtz) time was the same, as fast as me. Jake (Gagne) obviously didn’t make the whole race yesterday. So, I was happy to improve my lap time. I was closer to the guys in the beginning of the race. I made a lot of improvements overnight and from this morning. We were able to get a lot of laps in. Richard (Stanboli, his team owner/crew chief) really put his head down and made a lot of improvements to bike to get me a lot more comfortable. That one was just on me. I struggled with arm pump throughout it. I don’t think I would have been able to hang with those guys, but I would have been a little bit happier with how close I was if I didn’t have the problem. So, I’ve got to go home and work on that. Other than that, I’m super happy. It’s been only about a year since I was on the podium. I guess I lucked out on that one, too. I’m waiting for the legit podium when nobody is out. That’s when I’ll be happy. But I’m super happy leaving here with two podiums, good points. Stoked that Jake (Gagne) was able to get his first win. I didn’t know it was his first win. I know it’s a great feeling.”
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen completed a successful debut weekend with the team, the South African finishing fourth, some 10 seconds clear of his teammate Bobby Fong, after finishing fifth on Saturday.
Fong’s day was made more difficult as he was deemed to have jumped the start and was forced to do a ride-through penalty that put him well back in the pack. He persevered though and was rewarded with fifth and the 11 championships that went with it. Prior to the penalty, Fong was battling with Gagne and Scholtz at the front.
Sixth place went to Panera Bread Ducati’s Kyle Wyman, the team owner/rider some three seconds ahead of Scheibe Racing BMW’s Hector Barbera. Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman was eighth and the top Superbike Cup rider with Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis and FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ Jayson Uribe rounding out the top 10.
Scholtz leads the championship as the series heads to VIRginia International Raceway, May 21-23, chase after two races, 45-32, over Herrin.
For the second straight race, Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati of New York’s Loris Baz failed to score a point. The Frenchman, who was making his MotoAmerica debut at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, crashed out of race one and was halted by a mechanical problem in race two.
Superbike Race 2
1 | Jake Gagne | (Yamaha) |
2 | Mathew Scholtz | (Yamaha) |
3 | Josh Herrin | (Yamaha) |
4 | Cameron Petersen | (Suzuki) |
5 | Bobby Fong | (Suzuki) |
6 | Kyle Wyman | (Ducati) |
7 | Hector Barbera | (BMW) |
8 | Travis Wyman | (BMW) |
9 | Jake Lewis | (Suzuki) |
10 | Jayson Uribe | (Suzuki) |
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup: Gloddy’s First!
In SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup, Ben Gloddy finally broke through with the race win that he’s been coveting for the past couple of years. A frequent visitor to the podium, but never on the top step, Gloddy, who races a Kawasaki for Landers Racing, took the checkers in Sunday’s race two by a scant .127 of a second over Scott Powersports KTM rider Tyler Scott. Third place on Sunday went to KERmoto Kawasaki’s Cody Wyman.
Incidentally, Wyman’s podium result completed a rare road racing trifecta, with all three Wyman brothers finishing on the podium: Travis winning in Stock 1000, Kyle finishing second in King Of The Baggers, and Cody coming home third in Junior Cup.

“It was good to get the monkey off the back,” Gloddy said. “Last year, we were finishing third. I think I finished third eighth times last year. Yesterday, we put it in second and the goal after that was just to keep making progress forward. We were able to do that today and get on the top step of the box. Me and Tyler (Scott) pulled a little bit of a gap there in the middle of the race. I was kind of hoping for me and Tyler’s sake, it would be me and him out front, but we got caught by that group again, and I was just trying to stay as far in front of that group as I could and not get tossed too far back. Doing that, I was able to draft Tyler down the back straightaway and cut him off in the last corner, so I was able to get the win.”
King Of The Baggers: The King Is Back
Round one of the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship featured an exciting battle at the front between Mission Foods S&S Cycle Indian Challenger rider Tyler O’Hara, who was last year’s King Of The Baggers invitational winner, and MotoAmerica Superbike rider Kyle Wyman, who was aboard his Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson Road Glide Special. O’Hara and Wyman each took turns at the front with Wyman getting the holeshot and leading the race until lap five when O’Hara took the lead and, ultimately, the checkers.
At the stripe, O’Hara’s margin of victory over Wyman was just under half a second. Meanwhile, third place went to Frankie Garcia, who raced his Roland Sands Design Indian Challenger to his second consecutive King Of The Baggers podium finish.

“Kyle (Wyman) is riding awesome,” O’Hara said of the newest addition to the King Of The Baggers rider lineup. “To have that full factory effort coming in here, it’s an awesome challenge. I love a challenge, and I think it’s great for the sport and it’s just going to elevate both of our programs, and our bikes are just going to get better and better. So definitely it’s good to have. Hopefully, we can get some more bikes. The Indian Challenger, you can go out and buy it and basically get all the parts that I’m running on my bike and come out and race. I’m looking forward to getting more bikes on the grid, but for sure there’s definitely more of a challenge this year.”
Supersport: Kelly Does The Double
The first double race winner of 2021 is M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly, who completed a perfect weekend in the Supersport class by earning the pole and winning both Saturday’s race one and Sunday’s race two. Defending class champion Richie Escalante salvaged what started out as a rough weekend when he crashed and destroyed his 2021 HONOS Kawasaki and had to race his 2020 bike in both Supersport events. Escalante made the best of the situation and finished second to Kelly on Saturday and again on Sunday. Class rookie Rocco Landers emerged on Sunday with a third-place finish after surviving a last-turn skirmish for the final podium spot.

“I have to be very, very proud of the work and very happy with this weekend,” Kelly said. “Honestly, it’s been a tough road ever since the 2020 season. We already know how Richie was from the start of last year. It was definitely tough for me throughout the year and then throughout the off-season. I’ve just been really focused on my work, focused on what we have to improve. It’s been big teamwork between working on myself, working with the team. They made huge steps. I made huge steps. Our package is just much better, and here’s the results. We came in really well this weekend. I just focused on being better in the end of the races. That’s where we struggled last year. Here’s the result. I wasn’t expecting a pole position yesterday, but we got that. The pace in yesterday’s race was really, really good. We focused on some improvements for today. I didn’t go any faster in the race, but I think just certain things were a little different out there but still my pace was just as good. Really happy with my consistency with the gap that we made to second. Overall, just very proud of all the work. I just want to thank my whole team, thank my sponsors and everyone who was behind me, supporting me, and believing in me. We’re just going to keep on working. We have a long way to go. We’re just going to keep on going with this focus and go into every weekend working to dominate.”
Stock 1000: Wyman Gets It Done
In Sunday morning’s Stock 1000 race two, the middle Wyman brother Travis rode his Travis Wyman Racing BMW to victory one day after finishing third in race one. Wyman caught up to and overtook early race leader Geoff May, who finished second aboard his Geoff May Racing/VisionWheel.com Honda. Meanwhile, Jones Honda rider Ashton Yates rounded out the podium after finishing second in Saturday’s race one.

“I still didn’t get a very good start,” Wyman said. “But we made a pretty good change last night. We kind of gambled on something in the warmup to get a little bit more grip out of the bike in the long term, and we did. We improved it, for sure. But really the biggest change today was just getting through the pack of riders. Jake (Lewis) kind of really gave me an advantage. He hit a false neutral there or something. So, when I got out front and I had a little bit of a gap, I knew that I could click off some laps to catch Geoff (May), but it definitely wasn’t easy. I was pushing really hard. I was seeing 27 flat, 27 flat on my timer, and I wasn’t really making up a lot of ground. But I could tell that Geoff was struggling a little bit and the tire was starting to fall off. I think mine just held on a little bit longer. Towards the end of the race, I was able to close the gap. Definitely got to give it to my crew chief, Steve, for making that adjustment this morning to our rear end.”
Twins Cup: Hobbs Gets His First
Saturday’s Twins Cup race one winner Kaleb De Keyrel crashed his Robem Engineering Aprilia in Sunday’s race two, and the incident unfortunately also collected his teammate Hayden Schultz, who finished third on Saturday, along with two other teammates and Saturday second-place finisher Jody Barry. All told, four Aprilia riders were caught up in the incident, and thankfully none of the five were seriously injured. The race was red flagged, but none of the Aprilia riders who crashed were able to make the restart.
As a result, the podium after Sunday’s race two was completely different from Saturday’s race one podium. Polesitter and Innovative Motorsports/Mike’s Imports Suzuki rider Teagg Hobbs escaped the incident completely, restarted the race, and went on to win by just .264 of a second over second-place finisher Trevor Standish aboard his Pure Attitude Racing Suzuki. Third place went to GCP Suzuki’s Chris Parrish.

“Pretty tough weekend,” Hobbs said. “We were P1 almost every session we went out. That was harder for me because that was the most pressure I’ve ever felt. So going into yesterday’s race, we were running all right, then I got the sign for the jump start. I was gutted immediately. I knew I needed to put it past me today before today’s race. Learn from those mistakes. I went into today’s race, and we were running all right. There was a big pack up front. Kaleb went by me on the front straight, and I held my line on the outside of him and all of a sudden, I saw a bunch of smoke and he went backwards. I heard a bunch of noises. I looked back and there were three guys on the ground. Obviously, the red flag came out, and we came in. I thought they’d be back in the race, given how long the cleanup time was. Then I saw the starting grid and these guys were all behind me. I was like, ‘Oh boy. This isn’t going to be an easy one.” Just put my lines down and tried to focus for the race. Off the line I wanted to get a good start and try to lead, but also like Trevor was saying, I didn’t want to lead into turn one. Luckily my start was horrendous. The first few laps were a little hairy into turn one, but I took the lead and I knew I just needed to do whatever I could to stay up front. Trevor was putting a lot of pressure on me. Every time I went by the start/finish I saw on my board ‘plus 0.’ I tried my best to ride the best last few laps I could and finally won one of these things, so I’m stoked. I’ve got a lot of pressure on me now to chase down the points leader going into Virginia. I’m happy for Trevor, happy for Chris.”
Saturday
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz got the soaking-wet monkey off his back with his first dry-race HONOS Superbike victory today at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the South African leading 18 of the 19 laps for the perfect start to his 2021 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
Scholtz, whose previous two Superbike wins came in wet conditions in 2017 (Circuit of The America) and 2018 (Barber Motorsports Park), won this one from the front and under bright sunshine in Georgia. The victory also came in Scholtz’s first race since he suffered serious leg injuries at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October.

Scholtz led every lap but the 14th when he was passed by Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York’s Loris Baz, the Frenchman fast in his MotoAmerica debut. Scholtz, however, struck straight back and dove under the Ducati rider going into the chicane that is turns 10-A and 10-B. Baz didn’t brake until well after Scholtz after the run down the backstraight, Scholtz let off the brakes and both were in hot and wide, with Baz tucking the front and crashing.
“I got off of the line good for once, which kind of gave me confidence there,” Scholtz said. “It is definitely harder than it has been through the Friday practice and the morning Q2. I was sliding more than I had been previously, so I kind of wanted somebody to actually pass me so I could kind of latch onto them and be able to ride decent, like I’m feeling a groove. Jake (Gagne) passed me and then, unfortunately, I think his engine popped. So, I kind of knew that the next guy should be (Loris) Baz. I looked back with a couple laps to go, and I saw Baz following, and that kind of scared me a little bit. So, I kind of knew I had to pick the pace up. I could see that Baz was catching me slowly. He actually caught me a couple of laps sooner than what I thought, and I just knew that I had to pass him back as soon as I could.”

As for Baz’s crash…
“He kind of saw me coming,” Scholtz said. “He let go of the brakes, and so did I. Unfortunately, the track turns up in corner 10, and I think he might have tried to brake slightly harder knowing that we were both running pretty wide there. Then he crashed and I kind of knew that (Bobby) Fong would be the next one back. Then I think he kind of closed in on me to .7 (of a second) or something. I kind of put my head down for two laps after that. I opened it up to 1.2 seconds. That kind of gave me confidence that I could hold on. I think the last two or so laps, both of us just kind of settled in and took what we could. I’m just really happy to be back up here. The off-season was really difficult for me, kind of seeing that the first two or three months that the injuries had been healing up pretty good. Then for a while it didn’t seem to be actually getting better. The last two or three months I’ve been cycling a lot. It’s still not fully there, but I don’t think that hinders me too much while I’m actually riding the bike. It’s more just training purposes. It’s just nice to be up here for the first race of the season and to kind of get that dry victory off my back. All of the past times that I’ve had really good races, whether it be in the Rookies Cup, Spanish Championship, Moto2, the World Supersport… they’ve all been wet races. So that kind of gives me a lot of confidence that I can actually do it in the dry, too.”
Scholtz raced to victory, 3.044 seconds ahead of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong, the Californian having fought through to third place and within striking distance of the top two. Fong was there to capitalize on Baz’s miscue to finish second.

“I had to catch up from probably a second or two back, but I felt pretty strong in the first sector and the last sector,” Fong said. “In the middle sector, I don’t know what I was doing. We need to work on the wheelie control, traction control going onto the back straightaway because I could come out with the guys, but I have too much intervention going on. So, we’re going to work on that for tomorrow, but it was good. The bike didn’t feel bad at all. I kind of settled in at the end after seeing (Loris) Baz crash. Besides the 600 (Supersport), I never really thought about the championship so early. Usually, I always just try to go for it and try to get the win, but it’s a long season and second place is decent money and a decent amount of points. It’s good bringing it into tomorrow because now we have something to work for tomorrow.”
Fresh N’ Easy Attack Performance Yamaha’s Josh Herrin completed the podium, almost 13 seconds behind Scholtz, but was pleased considering his rough start to the weekend with mechanical problems wrecking his Friday.

“I’m definitely happy to be up here just because of championship reasons,” Herrin said. “I’m no dummy. I know we’re super lucky and we wouldn’t be up here if it wasn’t for the two DNFs from the guys in front. Friday hurt really bad (with his mechanical troubles cutting his day short). Even this morning we were having problems with the wheelie control. It wasn’t on the whole session. I thought it was me the whole session, but it ended up being that. So, it’s just been an up-and-down weekend. But no better way to get the motivation for tomorrow than with a third-place finish today. Whether it’s lucky or not, we’re happy. We get to celebrate. We have a complete race of data to look at, so that’s the most important thing. That’s the most laps I’ve strung together the whole time I’ve been on this bike. The R1 to me feels like home, but the bike is a lot different than it was in 2018. It’s hard to tell Richard (Stanboli, his team owner and crew chief), ‘I want the bike to be like it was in ’18’ when Cam (Beaubier) was so dominant on it last year and (Jake) Gagne is doing so well on it this year. For me, and almost every other rider, it’s about how comfortable you are. Hopefully, we can keep working in a forward direction and get me comfortable like I was in ’18 to where I can just do whatever I want to do on this bike. That’s my goal. I think in ’18 we were struggling towards the end of the races because I had the bike set up to do one really fast lap, so if we can get it back to where it was in ’18 to do fast laps and then work on getting the consistency out of it, that would be great. So, hats off to the whole Fresh N’ Lean Attack Yamaha team for working hard all weekend. We had a lot of bad luck and they worked really hard to get the bike ready for today.”
M4 ECSTAR Racing’s Cameron Petersen’s debut with the team was a good one, the 2020 Stock 1000 Champion getting off to a good start and ultimately finishing fourth.
Kyle Wyman rode his Panera Bread Ducati Panigale V4 R to fifth well clear of Scheibe BMW’s Hector Barbera, the Spaniard making his MotoAmerica debut. Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman rode his Stock 1000-spec BMW S 1000 RR to seventh and was the top finishing Superbike Cup rider.
Tecfil Racing’s Danilo Lewis, Geoff May Racing/VisionWheel.com’s Geoff May and Michael Gilbert Racing’s Michael Gilbert, who won the Stock 1000 race held earlier in the day, rounded out the top 10.
The unluckiest rider in the race was fast qualifier Jake Gagne on the Fresh N’ Easy Attack Performance Yamaha. Gagne was at the front of the pack on the opening lap when his YZF-R1 imploded on the front straight ending his day and putting him in the same boat as Baz with 0 championship points to start the season.
MotoAmerica Road Atlanta Superbike Race One
1 | Mathew Scholtz | (Yam) |
2 | Bobby Fong | (Suz) |
3 | Josh Herrin | (Yam) |
4 | Cameron Petersen | (Suz) |
5 | Kyle Wyman | (Duc) |
6 | Hector Barbera | (BMW) |
7 | Travis Wyman | (BMW) |
8 | Danilo Lewis | (BMW) |
9 | Geoff May | (Hon) |
10 | Michael Gilbert | (Kaw) |
Supersport
The tight battles at the front of the Supersport field that were an every-race occurrence last year between 2021 Champion Escalante and title runner-up Kelly picked up right where they left off in Supersport race one at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Kelly, who started from the pole aboard his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki, got the holeshot twice in the red-flagged race and held off all but one of Escalante’s attempts to take the lead. The HONOS Kawasaki rider, who ended up having to race his 2020 HONOS Kawasaki after crashing his 2021 green machine in final qualifying, couldn’t match Kelly’s pace. Kelly showed that 2021 may flip the script as his margin over Escalante at the checkers was more than 2.6 seconds. Cycle Gear Racing Yamaha’s Nolan Lamkin survived the attrition that led to the red flag and successfully reached the podium for his best-ever result in Supersport competition.

“I’m really happy with how this weekend is going so far,” Kelly said. “This is exactly what I came for. I prepared a lot this off-season – not only me, but also my team. We worked really hard together after a tough 2020 season. I learned a lot last year. I knew this year what I was coming into and I came prepared. I’m really happy with this. We’ve been working really hard since yesterday. We got the pole this morning. I really do think this race was if not the best, one of the best of my career just because of the pace I had. I’m sometimes not known for being able to go by myself and making fast laps with a really good pace like Richie. That was his strongest point last year. That’s exactly what I worked for this off-season. This is what we worked for all weekend, just to be able to pull really, really fast, consistent laps all week through the whole race, and that’s exactly what I did. I think three laps to go I set one of my fastest ever laps at this racetrack. Really proud of the work from my team. Really proud of believing in me and trying to make steps forward. It wasn’t only me; it was the package. I feel like the package we have this year is definitely better, and that’s the most important part. It’s a team effort at the end of the day. Really happy with the race. Definitely a hard battle at the beginning. I think we still have some work to do for tomorrow, some things that I saw compared to Richie (Escalante) and some things that I just felt throughout the race. Really happy with the feeling, happy with the start. This is only the start of the year, so looking forward to continuing and doing a good job.”
Stock 1000
In Saturday’s Stock 1000 race, long-time literbike road racer Michael Gilbert got the victory aboard his brand-new Kawasaki ZX-10R, and he prevailed over hard-charging Jones Honda rider Ashton Yates, who was also aboard a brand-new bike – the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. Both riders battled hard in the 13-lap event, as did third-place finisher Travis Wyman, who raced his trusty BMW S 1000 RR to a coveted spot on the podium.

“It has been a long time since we got a win and honestly, there was a point in December or January where we weren’t really sure we were going to be racing,” Gilbert said. “We got a few really key sponsors – Chuckwalla Valley Raceway back in Southern California being one of them, giving us an amazing place to train during the winter with JP43 Training. All the work that we do through the winter and then Octane Lenny came on board right at the last minute and really kind of sealed the deal to put us back in the MotoAmerica paddock and give us a strong package to work with. I’ve got to give it up to my guys, including Jason Aguilar. It’s a bummer to see him not on a Superbike. I know he was trying to put a program together, but I’m so, so happy that I snagged him to work for me this weekend. It’s been really fun just to have a good friend in the pits and someone who is really, really smart. Josh Merrill, as well. My dad back home, Graves Motorsports. Everyone that has just put an amazing motorcycle under me. To get back to it, it has been a long time. I could get used to this. I like hearing you say my name. So, we’re going to keep working hard and try and do it again tomorrow.”
Twins Cup
Coming into the Twins Cup season, the big question was, how would the brand-new Aprilia RS 660 fare in MotoAmerica’s rough-and-tumble “tuner class.” Very well, thank you very much. In Twins Cup race one, the new, twin-cylinder middleweight sportbike swept the podium with Robem Engineering’s Kaleb De Keyrel taking the victory over Righteous Racing’s Jody Barry – who has returned to the MotoAmerica Series after a few years away – and Hayden Schultz, who is one of De Keyrel’s teammates.

“It was super fun,” De Keyrel said about the race. “Really good battle for quite a ways through. Overall, I can’t complain. Showing up here never riding the bike before and being right on pace pretty much right off the bat just really proved to myself that I did my homework in the off-season. I did a ton of training at the go-kart track and been riding motocross a ton, making sure that I’m physically fit and ready. I knew we were going to kind of be a little bit under-prepared as far as getting testing in on the bike because we didn’t have enough time. The Aprilia came out so late in the year that we didn’t have a whole lot of time. Really, we’re just lucky to be here. I wouldn’t be here without Matt (Spicer) and Gene (Burcham) and all of (Robem Engineering) putting in so many hours on the bike and working through everything, turning it into a race bike. Just to even be here was a huge feat in itself. I just wanted to leave here with solid points. Obviously, I was involved in the championship hunt last year and I ended up losing, so I’m hungry to prove that I can be a frontrunner and win races. That’s what we did today. Just did the best we could, like we always do. It was a lot of fun.”
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup
The final race of the day on Saturday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta was in SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup, and a brand-new rider in MotoAmerica emerged with the victory in the red-flagged-and-restarted event. Tyler Scott raced his KTM to the win by just .271 of a second over Landers Racing Kawasaki’s Ben Gloddy. Veloce Racing Kawasaki’s David Kohlstaedt finished third, which was the first MotoAmerica podium of his career.

“I got the start both times and I passed (polesitter) Gus (Rodio) on the first lap,” Scott said. “From there on I’m like, ‘I’m going to try to pull away.’ Every few laps coming out of turn seven, I would look back and there was always someone there. So, I knew I had to keep pushing and keep being consistent, otherwise they were going to overtake me. In the end, the last lap was a little stressful because I knew if Ben passed me anywhere past the halfway point in the lap, I was probably going to end up second. But I kept pushing and I got the win.”
Friday
BRASELTON, GA (April 30, 2021) – Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s Jake Gagne ended his Friday afternoon at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with his YZF-R1 in the gravel trap on the outside of turn 10-B. But he also ended it on top of the timesheets in the HONOS Superbike class as the MotoAmerica Series opened its season on an overcast day in Georgia.
Gagne’s best lap in Q1 was a 1:23.746, which was under the Superbike lap record of 1:23.844 set by Garrett Gerloff during Superpole in 2019. Gagne’s best came on his 16th lap and it was .359 of a second faster than Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the South African lapping at 1:24.105 on his 18th lap.

“It was a good day,” said Gagne. “The Yamaha came off the truck working really, really good. We got right up to a good speed this morning in the first practice and really only got one stint because we had some clutch issues and we had to bring the bike back. We didn’t get a lot of laps in that first session but in the second session we got going and tried some other tires and we threw down some pretty good times at the end there. Unfortunately, I ran wide in 10-A and was way too tight in 10-B and tried to hold it and lost the front. So, I threw it down, but it was easy for me. I scratched up the bike a little bit, but that’s racing. We learned a lot today and we can still fine tune some things for tomorrow and make things a little easier, but it will be a battle because these guys are all rolling good.”
As for setting a new lap record, Gagne said: “It’s good. For race tires, that made us happy. Obviously, it’s not as hot and greasy as it was last year so I think the tires are getting along a little bit better, but it was a good start.”
The provisional front row was filled by Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York’s Loris Baz, the Frenchman making his MotoAmerica debut and turning in a 1:24.269 on his first visit to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Next in line were the two M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000s with Bobby Fong besting his new teammate Cameron Petersen with the pair turning in bests of 1:24.810 and 1:25.571, respectively.
Panera Bread Ducati’s Kyle Wyman ended the day sixth with Gagne’s Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s Josh Herrin seventh. Herrin missed the entire morning session with mechanical issues bringing his YZF-R1 to a screeching halt.
Scheibe Racing BMW’s Hector Barbera, in his MotoAmerica debut, FLY Racing ADR Motorsports David Anthony and his teammate Jayson Uribe rounded out the top 10 on day one. Uribe, however, had a big crash at the close of the session.
In support class action, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly topped his rival Richie Escalante in the first qualifying session, the Floridian topping HONOS Racing Team’s Escalante by just .023 of a second. MESA37 Racing’s Stefano Mesa was third fastest and just over half a second behind Kelly.

N2 Racing’s Blake Davis came away with the fastest time in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup Q1 with the Yamaha R3-mounted Virginian lapping at 1:42.461 to best Veloce Racing’s Maxwell Toth and Rodio Racing’s Gus Rodio.
Geoff May Racing/VisionWheel.com’s Geoff May topped the timesheets in Stock 1000 during Q1, lapping at 1:27.470 to best Michael Gilbert Racing’s Michael Gilbert by .359 of a second. Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates ended the day third fastest.
In Twins Cup, it was Innovative Motorsports/Mike’s Imports Teage Hobbs leading the way with his 1:34.951 on his Suzuki SV650, putting him ahead of the Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660 of Kaleb De Keyrel. Righteous Racing’s Jody Barry ended up third fastest on his Aprilia RS 660.
Tyler O’Hara, the winner of last year’s King Of The Baggers Invitational, was the fastest of the big V-twins on Friday, the Californian riding his Mission Foods S&S Cycle Indian Challenger to the best lap of the first practice session for the Mission King Of The Baggers. Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman was second with DTF Performance/Hoban Brothers Racing’s Michael Barnes third.
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