Rennie Scaysbrook | July 31, 2022
Sunday
Superbike Race Two
Just when everything was rolling along nicely for Jake Gagne and he looked to be on his way to a ninth MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike win of the year, his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 was cartwheeling down the racetrack at Brainerd International Raceway, destroying itself more and more with every bounce. Fortunately, Gagne escaped uninjured, but his championship points lead took a hit.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Danilo Petrucci was the rider to pick up the pieces when Gagne crashed, and the Italian reaped the rewards for it. With his fourth win of the season, and his first since Road Atlanta in April, Petrucci moves back to the top of the championship point standings, 253-240, with three rounds and six races remaining.
Petrucci and Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen did a better job of putting in quick laps early to keep the pressure on Gagne and, despite a mistake when he was within two seconds, Petrucci was keeping that pressure on when the defending champion crashed. Ironically, Petrucci said after the race that he was about to throw in the towel on trying to keep the pace on the very same lap that Gagne crashed.
With Gagne down and out, Petrucci finished 7.1 seconds ahead of Petersen with the South African earning his 11th podium of the year and his seventh in a row.
PJ Jacobsen matched his best finish of the year with his second podium of the season on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR, the New Yorker finishing third some 10 seconds behind Petersen.
Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim was fifth on his Suzuki GSX-R1000. 3.6 seconds ahead of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera. Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates continued his quietly impressive season with sixth at Brainerd, eight seconds ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis.
Cycle World/Octane/Chuckwalla Racing’s Andrew Lee put in a solid ride as the replacement for the injured Michael Gilbert to finish eighth.
Altus Motorsports Brandon Paasch and Triple M’s Jeremy Coffey rounded out the top 10 finishers.
In addition to Gagne, Max Flinders and Ezra Beaubier also crashed out of the race. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, meanwhile, opted not to race with the wrist injury he suffered on Saturday morning.
Petrucci’s championship lead is now 13 points of Gagne, 253-240. Petersen is third with 215 points with Scholtz fourth on 183 points. Barbera remains fifth with 133 points.
2022 Brainerd MotoAmerica Results—Race Two
- Danilo Petrucci (Ducati)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
- Hector Barbera (BMW)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Andrew Lee (Suzuki)
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
- Jeremy Coffey (Suzuki)
Stock 1000
The weekend’s only Stock 1000 race kicked off the final day at Brainerd International Raceway, and Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing Kawasaki rider Corey Alexander won his fifth race in a row and sixth out of eight races so far this season. The race was red-flagged and restarted with a five-lap sprint to the checkered flag, and Altus Motorsports Suzuki rider Brandon Paasch notched his first-career Stock 1000 podium with a runner-up result. It was an emotional accomplishment for Paasch, who drew inspiration from his girlfriend’s father Scott Briody. Also, a Stock 1000 competitor, Briody tragically passed away in an on-track incident on Friday.
Third place went to Cycle World/Octane/Chuckwalla Racing rider Andrew Lee, who is filling in for the injured Michael Gilbert.
Supersport
Landers Racing Yamaha rider Rocco Landers had a breakthrough weekend in Supersport. The former Twins Cup and two-time Junior Cup Champion followed up his race one Supersport win with another win in race two. In both races, Landers won by a significant margin, but his gap was gargantuan in race two. Finishing second and more than 13 second behind Landers was Josh Herrin aboard his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale, the current championship leader never getting comfortable with the Minnesota race course.
Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha’s Josh Hayes. All told, the Supersport podium in race two was exactly the same as the Supersport podium in race one.
Mission King Of Baggers
In the penultimate Mission King Of The Baggers race of the season, which was red-flagged and moved from the second race of the day to the second-to-the-last race of the day, Roland Sands Design Indian rider Bobby Fong won his first Big Twin feature race of the year. And he did it by making an incredible inside pass on Mission Foods/S&S Cycle/Indian Challenger Team’s Tyler O’Hara, who was in the lead. After Fong threaded the needle – a very large needle – H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Travis Wyman followed him through, also overtaking O’Hara, who was quickly shuffled from first to third, with Wyman ending up second.
Defending class champion Kyle Wyman was disqualified after a technical infraction, and his teammate and younger brother Travis now leads the championship by three points over O’Hara with only the race at New Jersey Motorsports park in September to decide it all.
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup
The MotoAmerica Superbikes at Minnesota weekend wrapped up with SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race two, and as is customary in the class, the frontrunners raced in a large pack for most of the five-lap event. Max Van led four of the five laps, and most importantly, the final lap as he took the checkered flag aboard his SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki.
Race one winner Kayla Yaakov finished second aboard her Altus Motorsports Kawasaki, and Alpha Omega Kawasaki rider Cody Wyman rounded out the podium in third.
Saturday
Superbike Race One
Plain and simple, Jake Gagne is on roll, the defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion winning his fifth race in a row and his eighth of the year in race one today at Brainerd International Raceway.
It’s really a case of déjà vu all over again.
On a sunny and warm day in Minnesota, Gagne was Gagne. As always, the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing-backed Californian, who now calls Colorado home, led from pole position, quickly gapped his pursuers and maintained a lead that resulted in a 5.338 margin of victory in what was the 25thAMA Superbike win of his career.
Next best to Gagne was his teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African battling with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Danilo Petrucci for much of the race. With just a few laps to go, however, Petrucci hit a false neutral and ran off track, handing second place to Petersen. By the time Petrucci got back on the black stuff, he’d lost any hope of second place, and was some six seconds behind Petersen.
Still, the Italian former MotoGP star ended up on the podium in third, his 11th podium in 13 races as he continues a season of consistent podium finishes.
Petrucci ended up 9.3 seconds ahead of Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the South African riding with an injured left wrist after a big crash in Q2 on Saturday morning. Scholtz was in survival mode from the get-go and did well to finish fourth.
Fifth went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen just a second ahead of Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim with Gillim having his best Superbike finish of the season.
Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates was seventh, three seconds behind Gillim and four seconds ahead of Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis returned to action after thumb surgery to finish ninth with ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony rounding out the top 10.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera had a rough day at the office, the Spaniard running off track on the opening lap before eventually crashing out of the race.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was a non-starter after suffering an ankle injury in his Q2 crash on Saturday morning.
Gagne now leads the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship by 12 points over Petrucci, 240-228. Petersen is third with 195 points, 12 points better than Scholtz. Barbera remains in fifth with 122 points.
2022 Brainerd MotoAmerica Results—Race One
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- Danilo Petrucci (Ducati)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Corey Alexander (BMW)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- David Anthony (Suzuki)
Supersport
Rocco Landers is used to winning. Despite only being 17 years old, he’s already won 39 MotoAmerica races in his young career. He’s also conquered two race classes by winning championships. The Supersport class has been a tougher nut for him to crack, however. Halfway through his sophomore season in Supersport, Landers got his first pole position in MotoAmerica’s middleweight class. And now, two rounds later, he notched his first win in Saturday’s Supersport race one at Brainerd International Raceway.
And he won with authority. Starting from the pole (his second one of the year), Landers led all but one of the 16 laps aboard his Landers Racing Yamaha and took the checkered flag by more than four and a half seconds over runner-up Josh Herrin aboard his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC machine. Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha rider Josh Herrin, who filled in for Kevin Olmedo, who is recovering from illness.
SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup
“Running with the pack” is a continuing theme for the riders in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup Championship. In virtually every race, the key is to be in the group of riders at the front, and then make your move for the lead in the closing laps.
Such was the case for Altus Motorsports Kawasaki rider Kayla Yaakov in Junior Cup race one. She battled hard with a group of five riders at the front, and on the final lap, the 15-year-old put her head down, took the lead, and created a gap to ensure her second victory of the season. Yaakov bested SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki rider Joseph Limandri Jr. by just over one second, who, in turn, beat third-place finisher and Alpha Omega Kawasaki rider Cody Wyman by almost the same margin of just over one second.
REV’IT! Twins Cup
In the only REV’IT! Twins Cup race scheduled for the weekend, MP13 Racing Yamaha’s Cory Ventura won his second race in a row after getting his season off to a bit of a slow start earlier in the year. Ventura survived a late-race skirmish with the other two riders who finished on the podium. Second place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto rider Blake Davis, who was runner-up for the second race in a row after winning the first race of the season at Daytona. Finishing third was Rodio Racing/Warhorse HSBK Racing Aprilia rider Anthony Mazziotto.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race
Day one of MotoAmerica Superbikes at Minnesota event concluded with the women of the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. program competing in their feature race. Kayleigh Buyck emerged as the winner for the third race in a row but keeping her undefeated streak alive wasn’t easy. Chloe Petersen hung with Buyck for the majority of the race until Buyck managed to pull a small gap on the final lap to take the checkered flag by just over a second. With Petersen finishing as runner-up, third place went to Jennifer Chancellor.
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