Rennie Scaysbrook | June 27, 2021
2021 The Ridge MotoAmerica Results – Sunday
Jake Gagne took his seventh straight MotoAmerica Superbike win during race two at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Sheldon, Washington on Sunday, June 17th. The most positive of the wannabe challengers to Jake Gagne in the 2021 MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike Series can take a smidgen of hope to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in two weeks that the Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha rider only beat his teammate Josh Herrin by 4.4 and 5.6 seconds, respectively, in the two races at Ridge Motorsports Park.
Gagne won his seventh straight HONOS Superbike race on a flaming -Sunday in the Pacific Northwest as record, triple-digit temperatures scorched the area, making the racing a survival of the fittest.
At least on track, Gagne (“the gnarlier the better”) was definitely the fittest and he led into turn one only to find his teammate Herrin too close for comfort as the two very nearly came together.
Once the turn-one melee sorted itself out, it was clear sailing for Gagne as he established his normal lead and then maintained it to the finish.
“I didn’t get the best jump,” Gagne said. “I didn’t get a jump like I did yesterday. I saw his (Josh Herrin’s) wheel coming up around the outside of me. He threw it in one, and I threw it in there, too. It was good to see a wheel and do some racing, because it was kind of a lonely one yesterday. I knew these boys would step it up today. We made a couple changes today. Made the bike a little bit easier to ride. With how hot it is, you can’t just go down there and try to throw down the first couple laps. You just got to ride and just put the bike in a place where it’s comfortable and not use up these tires too much. Once on my pit board I see just a (plus) .5 or something, I know probably Josh (Herrin) can’t stick it in from a half a second away, so that just allows me to kind of run my lines, relax. So, it was nice. I enjoyed the heat out there. It was hot. It was probably one of the hottest races I ever remember, but I feel really good. The gnarlier the better. I like it. Again, hats off to the Fresh N’ Lean Attack Yamaha. The boys work hard and no matter how much we win by or if we barely win, we’re going to keep working harder to try to do what we know we can do, so hats off to those guys and all the fans. It was good to have fans back here in Washington after being alone here last year, especially in this heat. They stuck it out in record-breaking heat up here. Roll on to Laguna. I love that track. Let’s do it.”
Herrin gave it his all and ended up second for the second straight day, the 2013 AMA Superbike Champion, giving a lot of the credit for his newfound speed to new riding coach Josh Hayes.
“We all talked before the race, me, Richard (team owner Stanboli) and Jake (Gagne),” Herrin said. “He’s like, if you’re there, let’s not do any dumb moves until you guys get a break. It all went out the window. I just saw an opportunity. I knew Jake was going to be going fast today. I just wanted to honestly try and get in his head a little bit and just do something to stir up the mix a little bit. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t. I don’t know. I got lucky that I didn’t get passed by more guy. It was just a bonehead – not bonehead. It wasn’t a dumb move. I was in control, but it just could have cost me a lot more than it did. I’m overall super happy with the weekend. I think we’ve turned my year around. This is the best I’ve been riding since ’18. Jake is just a little bit better right now. I’m definitely going to go back, keep working. Good thing is I wasn’t tired in the race physically. Mentally, it was just draining from the heat. That’s the biggest plus to me other than obviously the finish. I’m super happy with how everything has been going with Josh Hayes this weekend. It’s pretty insane how much one person can help your program.”
Third place went to Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York’s Loris Baz, the Frenchman struggling to ride a difficult Ducati Panigale V4 R in the heat around the 2.47-mile racetrack. It was Baz’s third podium finish of the season.
“We’ve been the fastest we’ve ever been on this bike since Thursday,” Baz said. “I felt so comfortable on the bike every day. We still have to work. It’s obvious. I was really thinking that I could be faster in the race, especially yesterday. I had a good feeling on the right side, but we had the rough tire, and the left side was so hot I nearly highsided 10 times. I just tried to bring it home in fourth place yesterday. Today, I started not too bad, but I was hoping to be able to come back at the end because we had such a great pace all weekend. I rode all weekend with 10, 15, 20 laps tire, even 25 laps front tire and I was able to do some low 40s. It was just impossible in the race. I just had no feeling. I think the setup window on this bike is just so narrow. It’s the first time we raced this bike in that heat. We’re just too slow at the moment compared to Jake (Gagne) and Josh (Herrin) today. I’m lucky Cam (Petersen) had a DNF (actually, he was slowed by an issue but still finished sixth) and I could finish on the podium. We’ll continue working hard with the team. We work harder than ever. This bike was hard to ride today. I had arm pump mid-race, but I never gave up. Try to come back and find a solution. I tried all the maps that the guys gave me, and it was not enough. We try again in Laguna.”
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz improved to fourth from his fifth-place finish on Saturday, the South African just two seconds clear of Scheibe Racing BMW’s Hector Barbera. It was the Spaniard’s best finish thus far in his debut season of racing in the MotoAmerica Series.
Yesterday’s third-place finisher Cameron Petersen was fighting with Baz for third again when he was slowed by a technical issue that pushed him down the order to sixth. He ended up some 20 seconds ahead of his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammate Bobby Fong.
FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ owner/racer David Anthony got the better of HONOS HVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander and Anthony’s teammate Jayson Uribe to finish eighth. Alexander and Uribe rounded out the top 10 finishers with Alexander winning the Superbike Cup for racers armed with Stock 1000-spec motorcycles.
2021 The Ridge MotoAmerica Superbike Race Two
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
- Loris Baz (Ducati)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Hector Barbera (BMW)
- Cameron Petersen (Suzuki)
- Bobby Fong (Suzuki)
- David Anthony (Suzuki)
- Corey Alexander (Kawasaki)
- Jayson Uribe (Suzuki)
Supersport Sunday Results
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki Supersport rider Sean Dylan Kelly was unstoppable at Ridge Motorsports Park as he followed up his race one win on Saturday with a race two win on Sunday. Kelly started from the pole, and as has been the case for the better part of a couple of seasons now, HONOS HVMC Racing Richie Escalante was his staunchest challenger. Unlike race one, however, where Kelly won by a fairly comfortable margin, the gap in race two was far from comfortable as Escalante kept gaining on Kelly as the race neared its conclusion.
At the finish line, Kelly took the checkers by a scant .107 of a second over Escalante. Third place again went to Kevin Olmedo, the Altus Motorsports Suzuki rider matching his podium finish from Supersport race one.
“It was a great weekend,” said Kelly. “We got pole again which is always great but it’s not the objective of the weekend. The objective is to fight for the wins and to win races. So, to be able to do both, do pole position, track record and win both races is definitely a great job. We have to be proud of the work that we’ve been doing. We’ve just been chipping away. We know we have racetracks that we’re better at. We know we have racetracks that (Escalante is) better at. This is clearly a good step. Last year, we struggled more against Richie and this year we were able to pull the double, so that’s really important for us. Overall, I’m just really happy with the work. We have to keep our feet on the ground. We’re going into Laguna, and I feel like that’s a track where we just have to keep on doing the same work, step by step, every session outdo our maximum. I feel really good with the package and I’m really grateful for how we’re feeling.”
Stock 1000 Sunday Results
In Stock 1000 race two, Altus Motorsports Suzuki rider Jake Lewis started from the pole, but a mechanical issue took him out of the race before he completed the first lap. Ridge Motorsports Park/DiBrino Racing Kawasaki’s Andy DiBrino took over the lead for two laps until HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Corey Alexander moved to the front. As the laps wound down, Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates moved into second place and put a serious challenge on Alexander for the lead. Alexander held off Yates, however, and got the win by a little under half a second over Yates. Travis Wyman Racing BMW rider Travis Wyman, who had started second on the grid, was shuffled back in the pack, but he fought his way forward during the 13-lap race and finished third at the checkered flag.
“For me, this is one of the tracks on the calendar that I just wanted to get through, honestly,” Alexander said. “After last year, I couldn’t figure the place out. Fortunately, the new pavement is really, really great. It makes it honestly a lot more safe, I feel. That was probably the biggest thing last year. I just wasn’t confident overall. Otherwise, my bike is so much better than it was even last round. Every time I get on it, it just keeps getting better. That’s really due to the guys at Graves Motorsports and just everybody on my team. We’re throwing everything at it to be in this championship hunt. Unfortunately for Jake, he made that a little bit easier for me to make up what we lost in Atlanta. Otherwise, it was a hot race. I pulled a little bit of a gap, and I could kind of pull out a rhythm like mid 43’s. I knew I had a little bit left in the tank if I needed it, but I was hoping not to have to go there. Then, all of a sudden, I could hear somebody, and I thought it was Andy (DiBrino). I looked behind me one lap, and it was Ashton (Yates). Of all the guys late in the race that I wouldn’t want to be behind me would be him because I know how good he is with the bike sliding around and stuff like that. Watched my lap board come down to zero, then I had to make a last push there the last few laps. I don’t know if they showed it on TV, but it was a little hairy there. Just happy to walk away with it safe.”
Twins Cup Sunday Results
Ridge Motorsports Park is a long way from Jackson Blackmon’s home in South Carolina, but the track is now near and dear to Blackmon’s heart after he did the double aboard his Blackmon Racing Yamaha with two wins in Twins Cup this weekend. On Sunday, Blackmon overtook polesitter Anthony Mazziotto on the opening lap, and he was never headed despite facing a very strong challenge from Mazziotto aboard his Veloce Racing Aprilia. At the checkers, Blackmon nipped Mazziotto by just .181 of a second. Third place went to Robem Engineering Aprilia rider, who crossed the finish line a little over three and a half seconds after Mazziotto.
“I couldn’t have dreamed for this weekend to go so good,” said Blackmon. “I’m always so nervous going into every race. I just never know what can happen. We made, I wouldn’t say a risky move, but we tried something different in warmup. I didn’t really have any major complaints in the race. We were just trying to make it a little better, and sure enough, I loved it. We put it on for the race. I wanted to get up front and put my head down. Yesterday, lap two, when Kaleb (De Keyrel) got by, I got to the front and then I took a breath in, and I felt like I was instantly off the back. Today I was like, ‘I have to keep charging. I can’t wait up.’ I think that was the difference today. It took a lot and I dug deep. I kept seeing the group drop smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller on the pit board. I knew (Anthony) Mazziotto wasn’t going nowhere. He’s been fast all weekend. I saw the 516 on my pit board. The last lap, I tried to pick it up and try and kind of play defensive. It just worked out. All these guys were rolling. Even in the beginning of the race doing those 48s is insane. I’m going two seconds a lap faster than I did on my Suzuki and that just shows how well this Yamaha is handling, because we know how technical this track is. Along with that Yamalube in the bike keeping that thing running cool all weekend. No overheating issues. My dad has been killing it. I can’t thank everybody enough that has been behind me. It’s been a long time coming, but we got the momentum going. The bike feels great. I’m ready for more.”
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup Sunday Results
The final race of the weekend at Ridge Motorsports Park was in SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup, and it was a race that polesitter and Scott Powersports KTM rider Tyler Scott absolutely dominated from start to finish. The only rider to hang with Scott, at least for a little while, was Landers Racing Kawasaki’s Ben Gloddy. At the finish line, Scott won with a gap of more than three and a half seconds over Gloddy. With the win, Scott took over the championship lead by just two points over Gloddy, so it looks like the title will go right to the end of the season. Third place went to Veloce Racing Kawasaki rider David Kohlstaedt, who survived a scary moment right before the checkered flag when Rodio Racing Kawasaki’s Gus Rodio made contact with Kohlstaedt’s rear tire. Thankfully, neither rider crashed and Kohlstaedt was happy to finish o. the podium for the second straight day.
“Off the start I got a little gap and tried to keep it,” Scott commented. “I was looking down at the (lap) times, and we were kind of going really slow compared with what we usually do in qualifying. But I kept my head down and kept pushing. I saw on the board that (Gloddy) was four seconds back. Then, right at the end, he started making up some ground, so I just had to put my head down and push to the finish line. Amazing race, and thanks to my team.”
2021 The Ridge MotoAmerica Results – Saturday
Superbike
Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s Jake Gagne’s plan doesn’t change from race to race. And why would it? It’s simple, really. Qualify on pole position, get the jump on everyone off the start and put the race out of reach in the first handful of laps. Such was the case again on a scorching hot Saturday at Ridge Motorsports Park, the Californian winning his sixth-straight MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike race after leading from start to finish.
Gagne, who broke the track record during Q2 on Saturday morning, was unstoppable again. He led every lap and if it wasn’t for the oppressive heat, it could have been classified as a walk in the park.
Second place went to Gagne’s teammate Josh Herrin, the 2013 AMA Superbike Champion finding something in his setup that made him faster and more comfortable than in previous races. The second-place finish was Herrin’s best thus far in 2021 and he was 4.49 seconds behind Gagne after 17 laps.
Herrin’s first few laps were a bit daunting, and he came very close to crashing after losing the front at one point.
Herrin had his hands full for the majority of the race with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen with the South African hounding Herrin until giving up the chase after running wide in the turn one chicane. He ended up some four seconds behind in third place.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York’s Loris Baz ended up fourth and 14 seconds behind Gagne after qualifying second and looking like he might have a challenge for Gagne in the race.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz crossed the finish line some five seconds behind Baz in fifth place, well clear of HONOS HVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander. Alexander put in a solid ride to finish a career-best sixth in the HONOS Superbike class while winning the Superbike Cup for racers riding Stock 1000-spec motorcycles.
FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony finished seventh, which matched his best of the season. Then came M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong, who managed to finish eighth despite a mechanical problem.
Anthony’s FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ teammate Jayson Uribe and Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis rounded out the top 10.
Gagne is blowing the championship up at this point as he now leads Scholtz by 32 points, 150-118. Herrin is a further 15 points behind and just five points ahead of Petersen. Fong is fifth and 80 points behind Gagne after seven races.
2021 The Ridge MotoAmerica Superbike Race One
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
- Cameron Petersen (Suzuki)
- Loris Baz (Ducati)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Corey Alexander (Kawasaki)
- David Anthony (Suzuki)
- Bobby Fong (Suzuki)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Jayson Uribe (Suzuki)
Supersport
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Sean Dylan Kelly started from the pole in Supersport race one, and as anticipated, the usual battle that Kelly has with defending class champion Richie Escalante quickly materialized. Escalante, aboard his HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki, tried to overtake Kelly, but he was never able to get close enough to finish the move and, in fact, Kelly not only maintained the lead from start to finish, but he built a gap of over a second at the checkered flag.
Altus Motorsports Suzuki’s Kevin Olmedo, who missed the first two rounds of the season due to a shoulder injury suffered while training, finished third for his first podium result since the first Supersport race of the season last year.
Stock 1000
In Stock 1000, which was the first race of the day on Saturday, Altus Motorsports Suzuki rider Jake Lewis started from the pole in the 13-lap race, and he looked to have the measure of the field. With less than three laps to go, HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Corey Alexander, who was gaining ground on Lewis lap by lap, overtook the Kentuckian and made it stick.
Alexander crossed the finish line a little more than one second ahead of Lewis, who finished second. Third place went to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway/Octane Lending Kawasaki rider Michael Gilbert.
Twins Cup
The air temperature approaching 100 degrees had a varying effect on all of Saturday’s races at Ridge, but in Twins Cup, where the bikes are modded more than in any other class to extract maximum horsepower from the twin-cylinder engines, there was a lot of attrition in race one with nearly half of the riders unable to finish the race.
Jackson Blackmon Racing Yamaha’s Jackson Blackmon seemed almost completely unaffected by the heat. The South Carolinian won his first Twins Cup race by .215 of a second over Robem Engineering Aprilia rider Kaleb De Keyrel. Anthony Mazziotto, who started from the pole and looked to be headed for victory, was one of riders failed finish the New Jersian crashing out of the lead on lap eight. After Mazziotto went out, De Keyrel led the race for two laps until Blackmon overtook him with two laps to go. Third place went to Innovative Motorsports/Mike’s Imports Suzuki rider Teagg Hobbs.
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup
Saturday’s races at Ridge Motorsports Park wrapped up with SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race one, and MotoAmerica’s entry-level riders put on a great show. Veloce Racing Kawasaki rider Max Toth, who joined the MotoAmerica series for the final round of the 2020 season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, got the first win of his MotoAmerica career after recording a podium finish at both VIRginia International Raceway and Road America earlier this season.
Toth took the lead on the final lap of the 11-lap event and won by 1.527 seconds over Landers Racing Kawasaki rider Ben Gloddy, who inherited second place when polesitter Tyler Scott was penalized five seconds for cutting the track. With the time added to his result, Scott was moved back from second place to fourth in the results, and Veloce Racing Kawasaki’s David Kohlstaedt was credited with third place.
Mini Cup By Motul
American Racing Team’s Kensei Matsudaira had a good evening at Ridge Motorsports Park’s karting track, the Californian going four for four with victories in both 110 and 160 races.
The two 190 races were split between American Racing’s Travis Horn and Atlas Speed Factory’s Jesse James Shedden.
Friday
Superbike
You have to walk before you can run and today Loris Baz started to jog as he earned the provisional pole for the weekend’s two MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike races on a scorching-hot afternoon at Ridge Motorsports Park by out-qualifying Jake Gagne, a task that has proven to be virtually impossible thus far in 2021.
Frenchman Baz and his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York Panigale V4 R and Gagne and his Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha YZF-R1 both did their best laps on their seventh go-arounds of the 2.47-mile Ridge, with Baz lapping at 1:40.374 to best Gagne by just .169 of a second.
Gagne’s best in Q1 was slower than in the morning FP1 session, held in much cooler temperatures, when he dipped under Cameron Beaubier’s lap record with a 1:40.110. Baz, meanwhile, lapped at 1:40.621 in the morning session.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was the only other rider to dip into the 1:40s, the South African lapping at 1:40.989 on his 21st lap. Gagne’s teammate Josh Herrin was fourth fastest in Q1 with a 1:41.068, just ahead of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen’s 1:41.195.
Supersport
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly put his GSX-R600 on provisional pole for the MotoAmerica Supersport races, the Floridian .652 of a second faster than his rival Richie Escalante and the HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki. Kelly’s teammate Sam Lochoff ended the session in third.
Junior Cup
Ben Gloddy rode his Landers Racing Kawasaki Ninja 400 to provisional pole in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup class. Veloce Racing’s Max Toth was second fastest with Scott Powersports/KTM’s Tyler Scott completing the provisional front row.
Stock 1000
Ridge Motorsports Park/DiBrino Racing’s Andy DiBrino put his local knowledge to good use by earning provisional pole in the Stock 1000.
Twins Cup
Twins Cup had its Q1 session on a hot Friday afternoon and it was Veloce Racing’s Anthony Mazziotto leading the way over Robem Engineering’s Kaleb De Keyrel and Righteous Racing’s Jody Barry, who was returning to action following his big crash at Road America. Mazziotto was .600 of a second faster than De Keyrel.
Superbike Q1
1. Loris Baz (Ducati) 1:40.374
2. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:40.453
3. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:40.989
4. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:41.068
5. Cameron Petersen (Suzuki) 1:41.195
6. Bobby Fong (Suzuki) 1:41.439
7. Hector Barbera (BMW) 1:41.965
8. Jayson Uribe (Suzuki) 1:43.093
9. David Anthony (Suzuki) 1:43.618
10. Corey Alexander (Kawasaki) 1:43.666
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