Press Release | June 25, 2023
Sunday Superbike
The talk coming into the Ridge Motorsports Park round of the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike class was that the track is tailor made for Yamaha, as evidenced by six straight wins for the YZF-R1. In Saturday’s race one, Jake Gagne ran that streak to seven straight wins for Yamaha, but it ended on Sunday with a BMW M 1000 RR crossing the finish line first.
Ironically, that BMW was ridden to victory by the man who started Yamaha’s win streak at Ridge in 2020 – Cameron Beaubier.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Beaubier hinted at the possibility of a BMW win in Washington when he ran down Gagne and his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 on Saturday, only to crash out of the race on the 14th of 16 laps while on the R1’s rear wheel. On Sunday, Beaubier replicated the feat only this time he didn’t falter. He caught the fast-starting Gagne, took over at the front on the 10th lap and beat the championship points leader to the flag by a tick over two seconds.
For Beaubier it was his third win of the year and the 57th AMA Superbike win of his career.
Win number 57 for Cameron Beaubier in MotoAmerica Superbike.
When he was passed by Beaubier, Gagne knew he didn’t have the pace to match his former teammate and he opted to make certain of second place in the closing laps. At the finish Gagne was 2.045 behind Beaubier and 1.2 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Josh Herrin on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R.
Herrin was fighting the injuries suffered in a qualifying crash on Saturday morning, didn’t get much sleep on Saturday night, and limped his way through his Sunday and onto the podium for a second straight day.
With Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante getting the better of the rest to finish fourth, it translated to the top four featuring four different manufacturers – BMW, Yamaha, Ducati, and Suzuki.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander had his second straight day of Superbike success with a fifth-place finish on his BMW M 1000 RR. Alexander was some three seconds behind Escalante and 3.4 seconds ahead of Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Petersen.
Beaubier closed to within 23 points of the title lead after the win.
PJ Jacobsen was seventh on the third of the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMWs with Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim eighth. Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders and CW Moto Racing’s Benjamin Smith rounded out the top 10.
Among the non-finishers were Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Taylor Knapp with both riders crashing out in separate incidents.
After four rounds and eight races, Gagne leads Beaubier in the Medallia Superbike Championship by 23 points, 156-133. Herrin is third with 122 points, 21 more than Scholtz. Jacobsen rounds out the top five with 91 points.
The series heads to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, July 7-9, for round five.
Superbike Race Two
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- Corey Alexander (BMW)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
- Benjamin Smith (Yamaha)
Saturday Superbike
Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne won his fourth MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike race of the season on a sunny Saturday at Ridge Motorsports Park, but it wasn’t as easy as the misleading 8.6-second margin of victory would have you believe.
With 13 of 16 laps in the books, Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW’s Cameron Beaubier had tracked Gagne down, trailing the two-time and defending series champion by less than a second and setting up what looked to be a thrilling finish. But going into turn one to start the 14th lap, Beaubier lost the front of his BMW M 1000 RR and crashed with hay bales and other debris from the incident bringing out the red flag.
The race was called complete, and the win was Gagne’s by 8.6 seconds over Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz. Beaubier, meanwhile, was given a 20 second time adjustment and that dropped him to seventh in the final standings.
A brave third place went to Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin just hours after a big crash in Q2 that left him battered and bruised and forced to use his back-up Panigale V4 R. Herrin had briefly led Gagne in the left-right chicane off the start but ended up running wide a few laps later while trying to keep Beaubier at bay. The mistake put Herrin back in seventh place, but he battled through to fourth, which became third with Beaubier’s crash.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander had the best Medallia Superbike race of his career, the non-defending Stock 1000 Champion riding his BMW M 1000 RR to fourth and just .441 of a second behind Herrin.
Almost a second later came Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante with the Mexican barely ahead of the third Tytlers BMW ridden by PJ Jacobsen.
With Beaubier seventh, eighth fell to Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim with Aftercare Scheibe BMW’s Ashton Yates and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounding out the top 10.
Gagne’s win was the 33rd Superbike win of his career, and it moved him out of a tie with Miguel Duhamel and Toni Elias and into fourth on the all-time AMA Superbike win list. Gagne trails Mat Mladin, Josh Hayes and Beaubier on that list.
With his fourth win of the year and his fifth in a row at Ridge Motorsports Park, Gagne now leads the championship by 28 points over Beaubier, 136-108, with Beaubier now just two points ahead of Herrin. Scholtz is fourth, just five points behind Herrin with Jacobsen fifth and 54 points adrift of Gagne.
Notables not scoring points in the race were Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen, who crashed out of second place early in the race, and Wrench Racing’s Bobby Fong who was disqualified for ignoring a black flag.
Superbike Race One
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Corey Alexander (BMW)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Supersport
Xavi Forés is a long, long way from his home in Llombai, Spain. But, as he’s done at all four of the racetracks at which he’s raced in the MotoAmerica series so far this season, Forés acclimates quickly, learns the track fast, and speaking of fast, he gets up to speed in almost no time.
Riding his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati Panigale V2, and also a five-race unbeaten streak, Forés won Saturday’s Superport race one, which made it six victories in a row to start the 2023 season.
Fores to the fore in race one of Supersport.
Saturday started out even better than usual for Forés since he also captured his first pole position of the season in the morning’s final qualifying.
Second place went to Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes, who continues to chase the all-time AMA race wins record. Earning provisional pole on Friday afternoon steeled his determination, but it was a different story on Saturday afternoon because he just couldn’t match Forés’s torrid pace.
Third place went to Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Teagg Hobbs, who was especially happy that he notched his first career podium in MotoAmerica’s hugely popular middleweight class.
REV’IT Twins Cup
Robem Engineering’s Rocco Landers won Saturday’s REV’IT! Twins Cup race at Ridge Motorsports Park right up until the time that he didn’t.
Landers, who crossed the finish line first, was penalized two spots for passing under a yellow flag on the final lap of the race and that gave the victory to Team Iso’s Dominic Doyle.
Former champion Landers is making a mockery of the Twins Cup this year.
The win, Doyle’s first in the class, came over defending series champion Blake Davis and his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha YZF-R7. With Landers moved to third, Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Gus Rodio was fourth with Trackday Winner/Blackmon Racing’s Jackson Blackmon rounding out the top five.
When the dust had cleared on a day of change, Davis was still atop the point standings by nine over Rodio, 107-98, with Landers 16 points behind Davis in third.
Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz had plenty to be woeful about as he crashed out of the race early while running with the frontrunners. Schultz went from being just two points out of the championship lead to 22 points behind.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race.
The Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. program started off the first day’s races at Ridge Motorsports Park, and the group of a dozen female riders who each race-prep their own Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 motorcycles, train aboard them, and ultimately compete against each other at selected MotoAmerica rounds, put on quite a show for the fans.
Mikayla Moore, who won both BTR races a few weeks ago at Road America, emerged victorious again. Moore was recommended to the program by her friend Kayleigh Buyck, who ironically finished as runner-up to Moore. Sonya Lloyd, who was third in the first race of the BTR season at Road America, finished third again in race one at Ridge.
Moore took the checkered flag with a gap of over 16 seconds back to Buyck, but she was the first to admit that it was not a flawless race for her.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
The Mission Super Hooligan National Championship is holding their second round of the season at Ridge Motorsports Park, and after taking both wins way back in March at Daytona, defending class champion Tyler O’Hara chased down his Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods teammate and race leader Jeremy McWilliams in MSHNC race one at Ridge, overtook him, and went one to notch his third consecutive class win this season.
McWilliams lead but it was O’Hara (1) who would take the gold.
McWilliams, meanwhile, finished second and just under a second behind O’Hara. DiBrino Racing/KTM rider Andy DiBrino, who started from the pole position in the race, rounded out the podium in third. It was a good showing for Oregonian DiBrino who was racing on his home track and in front of his home crowd
Friday Superbike
Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne earned provisional pole position on a sunny Friday afternoon at Ridge Motorsports Park, the defending two-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion well off his lap record with tomorrow’s Q2 still to come.
Gagne, who has won the last four Medallia Superbike races at Ridge Motorsports Park, lapped at a best of 1:40.705 and that put him just .047 of a second ahead of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier, the only other rider to win Superbike races at Ridge.
Gagne only just pipped Beaubier for P1 on Friday.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin ended the day third to complete the provisional front row, the 2022 Supersport Champion knowing the importance of a front-row start at Ridge. Herrin’s best was .241 of a second off Gagne’s best and .140 of a second ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz and Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen, whose best lap came after an early session crash, rounded out the top two rows provisionally.
Supersport
Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes was the fastest of the fast in Supersport Q1 on Friday afternoon, the veteran leading a tightly knit group of five that was covered by just .3 of a second.
Hayes’s best was a 1:44.514 and that was just barely ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Teagg Hobbs (.008 behind), Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Xavi Fores (.131 behind), Hobbs’s teammate Tyler Scott (.174 behind) and Disrupt Racing’s Jake Lewis (.337 behind).
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
Defending series champion Tyler O’Hara led Q1 of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship class on Friday, the Indian Motorcycles/Progressive/Mission Foods-backed Indian FTR1200 rider lapping at 1:46.957.
DiBrino Racing KTM’s Andy DiBrino came the closest to matching O’Hara’s pace with the Oregonian turning in a 1:47.450. O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams ended Q1 in third, 1.4 seconds behind O’Hara.
REV’IT! Twins Cup
Robem Engineering’s Rocco Landers put his Aprilia RS 660 on provisional pole for the two REV’IT! Twins Cup races this weekend at Ridge. Landers ended up topping Team Iso’s Dominic Doyle, the South African ending up .452 of a second off Landers’s 1:46.546.
Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz ended the session in third – 1.7 seconds slower than Landers. Trackday Winner/Blackmon Racing’s Jackson Blackmon and Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Gus Rodio rounded out the top five on the day.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race
Maryland’s Mikayla Moore continued to hold the hot hand in Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. as she earned provisional pole position for the weekend’s races while keeping her perfect 2023 record intact. Moore, who won both races in round one at Road Atlanta, has led each and every session thus far on the two-race-old season.
Moore bested last year’s champion Kayleigh Buyck by 1.8 seconds with Aubrey Credaroli completing the provisional front row.
2023 MotoAmerica Ridge Results Superbike Q1
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:40.705
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW) 1:40.752
- Josh Herrin (Ducati) 1:40.806
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki) 1:40.946
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:40.977
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha) 1:41.043
- Corey Alexander (BMW) 1:41.197
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW) 1:41.197
- Ashton Yates (BMW) 1:42.365
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha) 1:42.411
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