Rennie Scaysbrook | May 22, 2022
Sunday
MotoAmerica Superbike
Last year at VIRginia International Raceway, Jake Gagne not only won both races, he dominated them, winning race one and two by 11.8 and 13.9 seconds, respectively. The two VIR races were his biggest margins of victory in a season that saw him win 17 races.
Gagne again leaves Virginia with two MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike wins at one of his favorite racetracks, but this time, the margins of victory were much closer – 2.9 seconds on Saturday, 3.2 seconds on Sunday. And he freely admits that his rivals have gained a bit of ground on him. He also admits that he’s in favor of it and likes the fact that 2022 looks to be a 180 from last year in terms of the speed of his competition.
“There’s no such thing as those big eight-second leads anymore,” Gagne said, post victory. “Every half-10th or 10th, I’ll take it. These guys are all stepping it up this year. I’m excited. I think we’re all excited. It’s going to be some good battling. I think we’ll put on a show. It will be a little bit more exciting than some of the races last year. As much as I love cruising around at the front, I love battling, too. I love racing these boys.”
With Gagne and his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 winning race two on Sunday to complete his perfect weekend, Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz finished second. Again. This time Scholtz wasn’t overly upset with his fifth runner-up finish of the year. After all, he’d destroyed his A bike in a morning warm-up crash, forcing his crew to try and replicate the setup on the second bike.
Third place went to MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship leader Danilo Petrucci, the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC-backed Italian crossing the line just .020 of a second behind Scholtz as the pair raced to the finish line together. What happened next is still a bit of a mystery [see the update with MotoAmerica’s statement below], but Petrucci crashed the Panigale V4 R in the fast turn one after the finish line and suffered a laceration on a leg that required stiches. Petrucci was in the medical center and missed the podium ceremonies.
UPDATE MAY 24, 2022: MotoAmerica’s Statement On Petrucci Incident From VIR
IRVINE, CA (May 24, 2022) – MotoAmerica has issued the following statement regarding the single-bike incident at the completion of the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike race on Sunday, May 22, at VIRginia International Raceway, round three of the MotoAmerica Championship.
On Sunday afternoon at VIR, there was an accident at the end of the Medallia Superbike race in which Danilo Petrucci crashed after crossing the finish line in third place. Unfortunately, the crash itself occurred off camera. Race Direction witnessed the end of the crash and immediately acted. As appropriate, a yellow caution flag was deployed. By this time, eighth-place finisher Ashton Yates had crossed the finish line, 27 seconds behind Petrucci. Roughly 17 seconds later, race direction could see that Petrucci was on his feet and appeared to be not seriously injured. Although Petrucci’s crash occurred in a fast section of the racetrack, it’s also an area with the most run-off of any track at which MotoAmerica rounds are held. A sliding Petrucci also struck a single lightweight sponsor sign that consequently gave way as it is designed to do. Petrucci was up and continued walking and stood trackside until he deemed it was safe to walk across the track. He was then met by MotoAmerica staff and escorted in a vehicle to the trackside Medical Center, which was some 200 yards from the site of the incident. At that point, roughly three minutes had passed, and Petrucci was treated for his injuries.
“Attention to detail is paramount when it comes to safety and the safety of our riders is our number-one priority,” said MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey. “That’s where we start, and our process goes forward from there. In MotoAmerica’s eight years of racing, we have never neglected a rider who was injured. I have nothing but respect for Danilo (Petrucci) and his safety and the safety of all our riders is of the utmost importance. We will never minimize a rider’s injury nor their views of the incident that took place. We needed to get to Danilo more quickly and we will study the incident and will make changes where necessary. The situation was made even more difficult in that, although the crash was after the checkered flag, the track was still hot with riders still at speed and thus mobilizing workers becomes more difficult. Additionally, Race Direction places a lot of emphasis on what they witness of a rider’s actions following an incident. Petrucci was standing and walking under his own power and that quickly lessens the severity of the response. We hope Danilo’s injuries are healing and he’s feeling better. And we look forward to seeing him at Road America.”
The scrap for second lasted the entire race and featured Scholtz, Petrucci and Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen. Petersen was dropped from the battle in the closing laps and finished fourth, 1.5 seconds behind Scholtz/Petrucci.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen finished fifth on his BMW M 1000 RR and was challenged to the end by the pair of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzukis ridden by Richie Escalante and Jake Lewis. Escalante ended up .270 of a second behind Jacobsen in sixth and .257 of a second ahead of seventh-placed Lewis.
Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates ended a solid weekend with an eighth-place finish, ahead of the second Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW ridden by Spaniard Hector Barbera. Tenth place went to a lonely Travis Wyman on his Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW.
With three rounds (and six races) complete in the 2022 season, Petrucci’s lead has shrunk to 4 points over Scholtz, 104-100. Gagne, meanwhile, has vaulted himself to third in the championship chase, 13 points behind the Italian. Petersen is fourth, 13 behind Gagne. Barbera sits fifth – and is still the only rider in the top five to have scored points in every round.
Jake Gagne – Winner
“I think, in the beginning at least, the pace was a little quicker. I think all of us, at least me, for sure. I was a little surprised that the pace yesterday wasn’t what I was hoping. We didn’t make a lot of changes. We were a little off on tire pressure yesterday, I think. We definitely knew that. So, with that little bit of a tire pressure adjustment, I was able to run the times I wanted to a little bit easier in the beginning. Those first five, six, seven, eight laps were pretty strong. I didn’t make any mistakes. I could see I was just inching out on those guys. Going through turn four or five or whatever you’ve got that big screen and sometimes I could go through there and I saw Mat (Scholtz), Danilo (Petrucci), Cam (Petersen), all in a good battle there for second. So, I just tried to keep an eye on my pit board. Just like yesterday, mistakes can happen easily when it’s that slick out there towards the end, but these Dunlops held up good and this Yamaha… I’m just stoked that I get to ride this bike every weekend. I’ve got the best team that I could ask for behind me. I’m happy we made a little progress today because I knew we needed it. Everybody would be stepping it up. It’s good to get another win.”
Mathew Scholtz – Second
“If you had told me last night I would take another second today, I probably would have punched you in the face. I’m tired of getting seconds. But after this morning’s crash, I’ll happily take it. The bike was totaled. We have a totally different tank, which I had to get used to. We haven’t done a single lap on the bigger tank with the weight over the front tire. It’s just a completely different bike, really. Just the first couple laps, I was sensitive out there. We were pretty similar in most of the corners, but there were two or three corners where he would pull out probably one and a half tenths just in those corners. For the rest of the track, I felt we were similar in maybe one or two corners. I would catch him by a bike length, but for the most part on those parts where he was strong, he was a lot stronger. Just really happy to take second after battling and seeing the board with plus 0.1 for 15 laps straight and just hearing Cam’s (Petersen) bike, Danilo’s (Petrucci) bike. Danilo passed me one time and kind of pushed me a little bit wide, which I wasn’t the happiest with because we were upright braking. I passed him back and started riding my own pace to make sure I got out of the corners well and broke late. I was kind of hoping with braking late and kind of parking the bike that Danilo and Cam would start fighting and help me a little bit. A massive thank you to the Westby team. The bike was totaled, so for them to bring out the second bike and put the settings on it and for me to finish second, I couldn’t be happier. To Tryg (Westby) who runs this whole team. He’s the main guy behind this whole project. He’s put his heart and soul into this team and me for the last five or six years now. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be back home waiting tables or something. I’m just living the dream here. Happy to be up here with Jake (Gagne) and battling with Danilo, a world-class rider. It’s just incredible stuff. I’m really happy. The next race, Road America, I have struggled there previously so we need to try to figure something out there and hopefully I’ll be challenging Jake.”
Medallia Superbike Race 2
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Danilo Petrucci (Ducati)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Hector Barbera (BMW)
- Travis Wyman (BMW)
Yuasa Stock 1000 – Gillim Does It Again
The final day of Superbikes at Virginia kicked off with Yuasa Stock 1000 race two, and Disrupt Racing Suzuki rider Hayden Gillim made the most of the weekend. The Kentuckian won both Yuasa Stock 1000 races in an impressive performance for the veteran rider who has returned to MotoAmerica in 2022 as a full-time racer after an extended hiatus. Gillim overcame a few bike “gremlins” during the early part of the race, but the technical issue resolved itself, and he was able to go to the front and stay there.
VisionWheel/DiscountTire/KWS Honda’s Geoff May finished second, a little over five-and-a-half seconds behind Gillim. The surprise of the day was Uruguayan rider Maximiliano Gerardo, who made the first podium visit of his MotoAmerica career after finishing third aboard his PDR Motorsports Kawasaki.
“It was a pretty good start,” Gillim said. “I was right there with the guys and made a couple passes on the first lap. I don’t know what happened when we were coming down the front straight on lap two or something. I started coming through the kink, and the bike just shut off on me. I was giving it gas, giving it gas, trying to get it to go again. I was worried that the guys were going to smoke me from behind. Then, all of a sudden, it took off. Then, I made it another lap around, get into the kink, and it shuts off again. It did it a couple laps in a row, and then one lap, it did it to me coming down the little short-chute down into seven. I ended up breaking the windscreen with my helmet. All of a sudden, I started short-shifting into sixth going into the kink. I don’t know why. I don’t know what was going on. Once I kind of got it sorted out, I knew just from having to catch up in the infield that I had a little bit of pace. Bike was feeling really good. Yesterday, I had a little bit of front-end chatter and we ended up going to the hard front tire today, the 7455 that Dunlop has. That fixed a lot of it for us. It just felt more stable under braking. That’s where I felt really good, was under the brakes. I ended up getting out front and just tried to push. I dropped the lap times a little bit, and then all of a sudden, the pit board showed plus three. I could see the screen over here in turn five or whatever and I came through there the next lap, and I saw Michael (Gilbert) walking. I ended up seeing that he had crashed. From there, I just tried to manage it and make sure to bring it home. It’s a long season, and to bring home two wins is awesome for the team.”
Royal Enfield’s Build. Train Race. – Buyck Wins In Debut
Royal Enfield’s Build. Train Race. program had its first road race of the 2022 season, and Kayleigh Buyck was the standout of the weekend. The Central New Yorker led every practice session, both qualifying sessions, and she won the race by just a little over eight-tenths of a second over runner-up Crystal Martinez who made great strides in her riding over the course of the weekend. Third-place finisher Chloe Peterson also lowered her lap times dramatically over the weekend, and she was delighted to make it onto the podium.
“From day one in Roadracing World, they were all just posting articles about pole position,” Buyck said. “It does add a lot of stress. I know so many people here that came out to watch. That’s added stress. It just makes you that much more nervous. I’m grateful to have that many people behind me, supporting me, cheering me on, but at the same time just don’t talk to me until after the race weekend. It’s cool to see all the postings and everything. This whole program is going to make females in the sport. I feel like a lot of people don’t understand that we built the bikes ourselves. We put so much into this that some of the other racers don’t. We get a bike stock delivered in the box and we have to strip it down and build it to the race spec. So, I feel like a lot of people don’t understand the work that we have all put in to be here today. Sweat, blood, tears. Every single female here deserves to be up on the podium. They’ve worked so hard to get here today. My crash this morning was pretty rough. That took a toll. My elbow is hurting pretty bad. It set in like halfway through the race that I started to get sore. Eric busted his butt with me to get the bike back together, so it’s not as pretty anymore but it got the job done. All the mechanics, we had someone blow a motor this weekend. They deserve way more credit I think than they get, swapping motors during the day. We got my bike from trashed to being able to put it on the box within a couple hours. So, I’m so thankful for them. I know these girls are too. The whole program, thanks everyone for watching. Definitely helps and makes us feel a lot better about ourselves.”
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup – Van Wins, Then DQd
SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki rider Max Van is having a breakthrough season in the STG Junior Cup Championship. He won one of the Junior Cup races at Road Atlanta to start the season, and then, he followed that up by winning Saturday’s race one at VIR. In Sunday’s race two, he got the victory again, this time by just three-tenths of a second over Alpha Omega Kawasaki rider Cody Wyman, who came back from a crash in race one to land on the middle step of the podium on Sunday. Third place went to Calishine Racing Kawasaki rider Aden Thao, who reached the podium for the first time in his MotoAmerica career at Atlanta and repeated the feat at VIR.
“I felt like I had really good pace throughout the race,” Van said. “Towards the end, I started to make a couple mistakes because I was figuring out where do I want to be on the last lap. I tried a couple things and there were a couple laps coming across the line when I was leading out of the last corner that Kayla (Yaakov), Cody, nobody could draft me, then there were some times that I could. So, I knew I had to get a good drive. Towards the end of the race, I made a mistake. I almost high-sided twice. I felt like that set me back a little bit, but who knows? It could have done me good. I had a good drag coming out of the front straightaway. Going into the kink, I saw Cody try to come around the outside of me. I was like, ‘All right, let’s get a little close and see what we can do,’ and that’s what we did. I just want to say thank you to my whole team for putting a great bike underneath me all weekend. It handled great. This morning I had a little get-off. I didn’t even make a lap in warmup. My dad threw the bike together. Same with my crew member, Dave. Threw it together in less than two hours. I’m very thankful for them. I can’t wait for Road America.”
UPDATE: Following a post-race technical inspection, Max Van’s Kawasaki was found to be illegal, and he was subsequently disqualified. As a result, Cody Wyman was declared the winner of Sunday’s Junior Cup race two, Aden Thao was moved up to second, and Gus Rodio was credited with third.
Supersport – Herrin’s Redemption
After an eventful Supersport race one on Saturday, in which Squid Hunter Yamaha’s Josh Hayes notched his 84th all-time AMA win after battling with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin, the two combatants were back on Sunday for race two. This time around, Herrin and Hayes swapped positions at the front without incident. Herrin prevailed over his former teammate Hayes and took the checkers just three-tenths of a second over Hayes. Sixteen-year-old phenom Tyler Scott, meanwhile, had another great result, finishing on the podium for the second day in a row aboard his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki and raising a few eyebrows about the level of talent in the young man.
“Yesterday, I think I just was mad at myself for the mistake that I made going into one. I was bummed at Josh (Hayes) in the moment for the pass going into one,” Herrin said. “I felt like he came over to the left on me. That, to me, is the hardest thing to do to somebody. I would only do that to him whenever I’m really angry. In his eyes maybe he didn’t, but maybe he backed into me. I thought it was like that. I said some stuff in the moment that I shouldn’t have said. Josh is a legend of the sport, and I should just show respect for him and know that he wasn’t doing anything malicious, because he’s never done that to me before in the last ten years. Then when I got back to the hotel, I was just getting blown up by stuff on social media about the pass on (Sam) Lochoff, and Brandon Paasch running his mouth like he does nonstop all the time. Lochoff posting stuff about me. Got people texting me. It’s impossible for me to ever put my phone down. I really need to work on that. Today I just used it to fuel the fire a little bit, and it seemed like it paid off. It was good seeing him as far back as he was. It’s not fun coming to Race Control and having to deal with stuff like that in the morning right before the race. It’s funny. The team that was complaining about it is the same team that, 15 years ago, was purposely T-boning me all the time on the track, and now they’re the ones that are complaining when I think it was a safe pass. MotoAmerica removes the announcing of Pridmore talking about how clean the pass was just to get a reaction out of the fans, and it frustrated me. But, today was great. I’m super happy that we were able to get to win because yesterday was tough. Like I said on the podium, Josh has been somebody that’s waxed me my whole career. It’s been a lot of lucky wins for me. No matter what anybody says or no matter how close we got last year, it’s just something that fuels me all the time. When he’s here, especially when I listened to his podcast on Friday and he said that the lap times weren’t impressive at Road Atlanta, it just got me bummed out and wanted to come here and get a fight. We got one today. I’m happy that it was clean and fun. I hope these guys keep coming because it’s good for the series, it’s good for the class. Josh is a fan favorite for sure and brings a lot of people out to the races. Thank you to my team and thank you to KATO fasteners for being a big support for us. This is their local race. I’m bummed they didn’t get to make it out. Can’t wait to go to Road America.”
Twins Cup – Barry Perfect
Veloce Racing Aprilia’s Jody Barry was another rider who had a perfect weekend. The Illinois-based rider won Twins Cup race one on Saturday, and then, he repeated the feat with another win on Sunday despite being punted off the track by Teagg Hobbs after the race was red-flagged by another incident. Barry shared the podium with the same two riders as he did in race one, but the order of finish was swapped. Cycle Tech teammates Hayden Schultz and James Rispoli finished second and third, respectively, after Rispoli was second and Schultz was third on Saturday.
“First race stint, I didn’t have a quick shifter, so I completely botched the start, which caused me to get caught up around the fifth-place area. Everybody was drafting and out-braking each other. It was a blast. Going into turn one, James came up the inside of a couple guys, so I let him do his thing, and then next thing you know, I just got taken out by Teagg. Kind of a bummer. I was super fortunate. I hope everybody is okay from the red flag, but I was super fortunate that they threw the red flag so I could get the bike back in and the crew could get it back going. We only really got one lap in the first stint, but as far as front-end grip goes, the track was really greasy. Front end grip was a little different for me. Whether that had anything to do with the crash, I couldn’t really say right now. But it all worked out for the best, I guess.”
Saturday
MotoAmerica Superbike
The Defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion Jumps Up To Third In
The 2022 Series Standings
DANVILLE, VA (May 21, 2022) – With the debacle that was the opening round of the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship at Circuit of The Americas and race one at Road Atlanta now a distant memory, Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne has most definitely righted the ship with his second win a row coming in race one on Saturday at VIRginia International Raceway.
Gagne led the pack into turn one from his fifth pole position in succession (and the new VIR lap record that came with it), withstood early-lap pressure from Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s championship leader Danilo Petrucci, then did the same with Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz.
When all was said and done, Gagne had his 19th career MotoAmerica Superbike win in pocket, his second win in a row in 2022, and a jump all the way up to third in the championship point standings.
Scholtz ended up second, his fourth runner-up finish out of the five races held thus far in 2022 and sits second in the championship – just eight behind Petrucci.
Third place went to Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African fighting his way past Petrucci and hooking up with Scholtz until losing a bit of touch in the closing stages. Petersen ended up almost two seconds behind his countryman Scholtz at the finish line, giving Yamaha a sweep of the Medallia Superbike podium on a blazing hot day in Virginia.
Petrucci was a lonely fourth, some 10 seconds behind Petersen and 10 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Jake Lewis on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki.
Lewis also had a rather lonely ride, but the same couldn’t be said for the three riders behind him in the fight for sixth. That spot went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera by .149 of a second over his teammate PJ Jacobsen with Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Aston Yates eighth on his BMW and just half a second behind the two Tytlers BMWs.
Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim ended up ninth with Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Travis Wyman rounding out the top 10 finishers.
With five races complete in the 2022 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship, Petrucci leads Scholtz by eight, 88-80, with Gagne third on 66 points – just one point ahead of Petersen. Barbera rounds out the top five with his 56 points.
Notable non-finishers included Richie Escalante with the Vision Wheel M4 ECTAR Suzuki rider crashing out of the race early.
Jake Gagne – Winner
“Cam (Petersen) got a great start. I thought he had the holeshot, but I just barely snuck up in there and won. Even from my first flying lap, it was a lot slicker than I anticipated, I think for most of us guys. Front, rear… First, second lap it already felt like we had 10 or 15 laps on the tire. So, right away my goal was just knock it back a couple percent and just do a pace where I couldn’t make mistakes, because mistakes could happen really easily today when it’s this slick and this hot. I could hear the Ducati (Petrucci’s) behind me. I figured it was him because you can hear that thing. In the slow turns, you hear that thing revving behind you. I figured Mat (Scholtz) and Cam were right there too. I just wanted to get through the first half of the race with no mistakes, and then just see where we end up. I just had a little over a second or whatever it was around halfway. It got tougher and tougher. Those last couple laps the tires were really tearing up and it was getting hotter and hotter and hotter. So, I’m happy to bring this thing home. Like I said, it was a tougher race than I really anticipated. I think just the heat and the tires. But this Yamaha rode really, really good. I think the name of the game was just to be smooth and not make mistakes, because mistakes can happen easily out there when it’s this tough. Hats off to the team. We’ve got work to do tomorrow. Everybody’s going to be going faster. I think everybody can learn from today. Looking forward to tomorrow.”
Mathew Scholtz – Second
“We knew that the morning practices, obviously the lap times seemed to be quicker. Maybe I was just a little bit eager and tried to set up the bike more for those cooler conditions with less spinning, because from the first lap out I was getting that thing sideways, spinning up in every single corner, which kind of made my forearms swell up slightly. Not to sound like I’m moaning about a couple things, but it just was a very difficult race for me. Danilo (Petrucci), looking at the practices, I kind of knew that he only had a couple laps, and he would drop off, but he hung in there a lot longer than what I thought. I kind of closed up to Jake (Gagne) and Danilo slightly, but once he started dropping off and I kind of got caught up with him, Jake opened up. I got past him and tried to catch up to Jake. I had a few pretty big moments spinning up, so I just had to settle for second. I thought it was going to be a pretty easy second, and then looking at the board I could see that somebody was catching me at a drastic pace. I thought it was Danilo maybe finding his groove again. Then I looked back, and I had this guy (Petersen) chasing me down. From maybe lap eight to lap 16, I was pushing as hard as I could, but maybe the last four laps or so Cam kind of dropped off slightly which definitely helped me because I was under the limit there. I thought that we would have something for Jake today. Obviously, he still has something more. So, I just have to go back to the pits now and figure out how to get off the corners better without spinning so much. Overall, it’s really awesome to be up here with Jake and Cam. Really good, good friends. We’ve been through some things together, so it’s awesome.”
Cameron Petersen – Third
“It really was a tough race. Hot and greasy out there. I got off to a great start and then the front three guys came past me pretty quickly. I kind of got a little bit erratic. I was out of the seat, running wide everywhere. Even in the last turn, I ran so wide I almost went off the track onto the curb on the outside. I just took a few laps to regroup, take a couple breaths and then just started trying to hit my marks from there. I think I got a little bit lucky because (Danilo) Petrucci was dropping back. So, that kind of held Matty (Scholtz) up and gave me the chance to close in with him. Then once I had that carrot to chase him, I was able to latch onto Matty a little bit. I think with about four laps to go, five laps to go, I started having a few moments. I was really good onto the brakes into one. The right side of the front tire, with a few laps to go, I could feel every time I tipped in. I had some moments. Just tried to do the sensible thing, the smart thing and bring the bike home. I just want to progress from race to race. I feel like we’re doing that. Actually, really stoked with my ride today. I know what we need to work on for tomorrow. Hopefully, if I’m in the same position, I’m not going to let it go that easy and push all the way to the end. Congrats to these two guys, once again. These are some of my best buddies and being up here on the podium with them is pretty cool. Let’s just keep this train going for the rest of the year and hopefully switch up some positions here and there, but let’s keep it like this.”
Medallia Superbike Race 1
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- Danilo Petrucci (Ducati)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Hector Barbera (BMW)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
- Travis Wyman (BMW)
Supersport
Old age and treachery may not always beat youth and exuberance, but it certainly did on a scorching hot Saturday at VIRginia International Raceway when 47-year-old Josh Hayes beat 16-year-old Tyler Scott and 17-year-old Rocco Landers to win the Supersport race for the 84th win across all classes of the four-time AMA Superbike Champion’s stellar career.
It was the seventh Supersport victory of Hayes’ career and it puts him just two behind all-time win leader Miguel Duhamel and it took every bit of his experience to win the race. Will he do more races this season and take a shot at breaking Duhamel’s record? Who would be stupid enough to bet against it?
Supersport race one at VIR was also red-flagged and restarted with 18 laps instead of 19. The event was quite literally one for the ages, as 47-year-old road racing legend Josh Hayes showed that he’s still got something left in the tank. The four-time AMA Superbike Champion went up against riders who are a third of his age, and he battled throughout the 18-lap event to emerge as the winner by a little over .7 of a second.
Racing for Squid Hunter Yamaha, Hayes held off the challenges of both 16-year-old Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Tyler Scott, who finished second, and 17-year-old Landers Racing Yamaha rider Rocco Landers, who was third.
“I’ll tell you what,” Hayes said. “About five laps in, I thought, ‘Well, I’m getting fourth today. I’ve got nothing. I’ve got nothing anywhere on the track.’ Honestly, I felt like there was a point in the race where it kind of started to turn my way. I just focused on making one pass. I finally got some position on Rocco (Landers), which was really, really hard to do. When I got through, it seemed like Tyler (Scott) kind of came back to me not too crazy hard, and Josh (Herrin) was still right there, too. I can’t remember if that was before or after Sam (Lochoff) went off the track. When he came back on, it was a little scary. I kind of just missed him. That next lap, there were a few key pieces of racetrack where I was maintaining my speed and was able to bring him back to me a little bit. Then it was just a matter of positioning. I would put myself in a spot where I thought it was the right spot for a few laps, and then I’d make a mistake and couldn’t get there. But, eventually, I kind of was able to get to all the right places and then lead. It seemed like, when I led, we got into the 27s and I was just knocking out 27s, which I felt like were pretty hard to do. I felt like anybody that could make a move, there was a decent chance of mistakes, and I’d try to take advantage of those. I’m ecstatic. Squid Hunter did an incredible job. I was laughing on the podium. I said, ‘Hunting was good today.’ These guys are riding incredible and really, at the beginning of the race, it was almost like panic, like, ‘This is my station in life.’ Talking before the race, I said the second half of the race will be the key, and it came true. It’s going to take a while to wipe the smile off my face. 2017 here, and I did race a few other races, and I really wasn’t even that close. Part of it was back then and 2019 I couldn’t do race distance. I did a little bit of work, and in coaching Rocco, I got to spend quite a few laps riding at pace in-between Daytona and Atlanta, which kind of helped keep me sharp. I’m still, I think, getting better. I still think I can perform a little better tomorrow.”
YUASA Stock 1000
Yuasa Stock 1000 race one started the day at VIR, and on-track incidents led to the race being red-flagged and shortened in length. With a nine-lap sprint to the finish line, Disrupt Racing Suzuki rider Hayden Gillim showed his prowess and racecraft by taking the victory in dominant fashion. The Kentuckian crossed the finish line more than four seconds ahead of second-place finisher Geoff May, who was aboard his VisionWheel/DiscountTire/KWS Honda. Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW’s Travis Wyman completed the podium in third.
“It was a good race,” Gillim said. “Like Geoff (May) said, everybody is going so fast. You have to be on top of your game every single weekend, every single session. Luckily, the Disrupt Racing guys are making me go really fast. They’ve given me a really good bike. Having the Stock 1000 bike and the Superbike to kind of compare data and notes from is helping a lot. We’ll just keep pushing. It’s going to be a long season. We’ve got 12 more races left, or something like that. It’s a lot of racing, a lot of laps, a lot of little mistakes that are going to be made. In the past, I’ve been one of those guys to make mistakes. I’ve just to keep those to a minimum and try to be here for the long haul.”
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup
As was the case with Yuasa Stock 1000 race one and Supersport race one, SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race one was also red-flagged and restarted, which created a five-lap dash to the checkered flag. Road Atlanta Junior Cup race winner Max Van won his second race in a row aboard his SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki. His teammate Joseph LiMandri Jr. finished second and just a little over .010 of a second behind Van. Bad Boys Racing Kawasaki’s Avery Dreher earned his first Junior Cup podium and became the first rider to move up from MotoAmerica’s Mini Cup and finish on the podium in one of MotoAmerica’s “full-size” race classes.
“It’s been a great start to my season,” said Van. “But to be honest, this has been a dream. I’ve worked so hard for this. I lost 25 pounds over the off-season. Working nine hours a day, trying to graduate high school, working out for three hours a night is really paying off. I can’t wait for the rest of the season. I’m happy because yesterday in qualifying one, I said I was going to be on top of the box and guess where I am? And I did it today. So, definitely a lot of momentum going for the rest of the season and tomorrow. I can’t wait for it.”
Twins Cup
The day concluded with Twins Cup race one, and as usual, MotoAmerica’s middleweight, twin-cylinder class did not disappoint. Polesitter Jody Barry won his second race in a row, but it was far from easy. The Veloce Racing Aprilia rider battled all the way to the finish line against a hard-charging James Rispoli aboard his Cycle Tech/Speed Weaponry/Mydigitalli Yamaha, and Barry beat Rispoli in a photo finish by just .020 of a second. Rispoli’s teammate Hayden Schultz finished a close third.
“Coming up to the last turn I was definitely all about it, because I knew I could get past him before the line,” Barry said. “Lappers were, like he (Rispoli) said, he was just stuffing them and they were getting in my way a little bit. We had to do what we had to do. Thankfully just put us in the right position. Coming up to the line, though, I was quivering in my boots a little bit. I was like, ‘Uh oh. Did I not play this right?’ The whole cooldown lap, I thought that he got it. I totally thought that. Amazing riding with these guys. All the passes were clean. The pace was fast. I am toasted. It’s definitely good racing out there.”
Friday
With two MotoAmerica pole positions from two races in his pocket already in 2022, Jake Gagne went out and put his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha on the provisional pole on a smoking-hot day at VIRginia International Raceway on Friday.
Gagne lapped at a best of 1:24.371 in Q1 and that was just .031 of a second ahead of Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, .105 faster than Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Danilo Petrucci, .357 of a second ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis and .584 of a second clear of his teammate Cameron Petersen as the top five were covered by a scant half a second.
The lap record at VIR is a 1:23.594, set in Q2 last year by Gagne who went on to dominate both races with his biggest margin of victories of his 17 race wins in 2022.
But thus far, this year’s two races promise to be much closer than that. At least if Friday is any indication.
“I still expected that,” Gagne said of the top five being ultra-close. “Especially at this track. It’s tight, it’s technical, it’s kinda short, but it’s close out there. It’s going to be a brutal race. Twenty laps in the heat like that. We just have to focus and do our job. We’ve got another qualifier in the morning, so we’ll see what happens. Just try to put it up there on the grid and go race in the heat. This track gets to a point where it starts to be pretty greasy in the heat, tire temps, tire pressures go up. We’re gonna have to have a smart race and understand what these tires are gonna do in the afternoon tomorrow. We’ll go for it and have some fun.”
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante ended the day sixth, just barely ahead of the first of the BMWs ridden by Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen. Scheibe Racing BMW’s Ashton Yates was eighth with Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera and Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim rounding out the top 10.
Class rookie Tyler Scott rode his Vison Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R750 to the fastest lap of the day in the Supersport class, his 1:27.898 besting his teammate Sam Lochoff by just .068 of a second. Landers Racing’s Rocco Landers ended up third with four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes fourth on the Squid Hunter Yamaha YZF-R6. Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin rounded out the top five in Q1 and was just .252 of a second off Scott’s best. Bicknese Racing’s Hayden Bicknese put his Kawasaki Ninja 400 on provisional pole in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup, besting SportbikeTrackGear.com’s championship points leader Max Van and his teammate Joseph LiMandri Jr. The top three were covered by just .082 of a second and the top seven were within a second of each other.
The first of two Stock 1000 qualifying sessions went the way of Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Cory Alexander, the New Yorker lapping at a best of 1:26.289 to lead Cycle World/Octane/Chuckwalla Racing’s Michael Gilbert by just .102 of a second. Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim filled the provisional front row, just .180 of a second ahead of VisionWheel/DiscountTire/KWS’s Geoff May.
Veloce Racing’s Twins Cup Championship leader Jody Barry put his Aprilia RS 660 on provisional pole with a 1:31.016 lap of VIR, just .205 of a second ahead of Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz with Robem Engineering’s Teagg Hobbs filling the provisional front row.
2022 VIR MotoAmerica Superbike Results—Friday
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:24.371
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:24.412
- Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) 1:24.476
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki) 1:24.728
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha) 1:24.955
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki) 1:25.599
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW) 1:25.627
- Ashton Yates (BMW) 1:25.972
- Hector Barbera (BMW) 1:26.013
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki) 1:26.058
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