Cycle News Staff | September 10, 2023
Sunday Superbike
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin made up for a dismal Saturday at Circuit of The Americas with a straight-fight win over three-time Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne in Sunday’s finale in the MotoAmerica Superbikes at Texas.
A day after his Ducati Panigale V4 R failed him in race one, the bike was perfect on Sunday and so was Herrin. After all, you don’t beat Gagne and his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 unless you’re at the top of your game.
Herrin led off the start and stayed out front for all 10 laps of the red-flag-interrupted race with Gagne on his tail the entire time. At the finish it was Herrin four seconds ahead with Gagne giving up the chase on the final lap. The pair were the only riders to lap in the 2:09s with Gagne getting the fastest lap of the race with his 2:09.746 to Herrin’s 2:09.776.
Third place went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen with the New Yorker some five seconds behind Gagne.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong was a come-from-behind fourth and closing on Jacobsen, ending up some six seconds adrift of the BMW.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch ended up fifth, five seconds ahead of Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates, who had Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa nipping at his heels and just .341 of a second behind at the finish line.
Mesa’s teammate Corey Alexander was in the fight for seventh when he made a great save of what looked like a certain crash on his BMW M 1000 RR. Alexander was well clear of Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis with Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounding out the top 10.
Among the non-point scoring riders were two of the three podium finishers from yesterday – Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha’s JD Beach and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante with both riders crashing. For Beach it was his second crash of the day as he also crashed in the first portion of the race, prior to the red flag. Escalante, meanwhile, crashed out of third place while right behind Gagne.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was collected by the sliding Beach. None of the riders suffered injury.
There were three different manufacturers on the podium and four different makes in the top five: Ducati, Yamaha, BMW and Suzuki.
With just the two races from New Jersey Motorsports Park remaining on the schedule, Gagne and his insurmountable 382 points have wrapped up the championship with Herrin solidifying his hold on second place. Herrin is 28 points ahead of Jacobsen, 261-233.
Superbike Race 2
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Stefano Mesa (BMW)
- Corey Alexander (BMW)
- Danilo Lewis (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Steel Commander Stock 1000
The 2023 Steel Commander Stock 1000 Championship was decided on the final day of the class’s season, and even though Disrupt Racing Suzuki rider Hayden Gillim didn’t need to win the race to the win the title, the Kentuckian got the victory anyway, which was his sixth race win of the year.
Gillim started from the pole, but he had to withstand an early challenge from Travis Wyman Racing BMW’s Travis Wyman. At about the halfway point of the race, Gillim overtook Wyman for the lead, and he kept it all the way to the checkered flag. Meanwhile, Wyman crossed the finish line in second.
Third place went to PDR Motorsports Kawasaki rider Diego Perez, who was competing in his first Steel Commander Stock 1000 race weekend of the year.
Mission King Of The Baggers
The city of Austin goes by the credo of “Keep Austin Weird.” Well, Sunday’s Mission King Of The Baggers race two definitely filled the bill.
The race was ultimately won by Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson’s James Rispoli. It was Rispoli’s second victory of the season and his first since the very first race of the year back in March at Daytona International Speedway.
Weird? Well here goes: Tyler O’Hara led the first lap before his Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods Challenger expired. By this point, championship points leader Kyle Wyman had crashed, but would remount and ultimately finish ninth. Then Bobby Fong led for a lap before his Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian blew up. Rispoli was then back in front, a spot he held on to until the finish of the six-lap race. Behind him, however, things still changed with H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Travis Wyman crashing out of second place on the last lap, which handed the spot to Rispoli’s teammate Hayden Gillim. Wyman’s crash also elevated Roland Sands Design/Indian Motorcycle’s Kyle Ohnsorg to his first career podium.
Phew.
Fourth place went to Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ Jeremy McWilliams, despite a five-second penalty for jumping the start, with Team Saddlemen’s Jake Lewis rounding out the top five.
The bottom line: With two races left to run in the season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Gillim leads the title chase by just two points over Rispoli with Wyman third, 11 points behind Gillim and nine adrift of Rispoli.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ Tyler O’Hara wrapped up the 2023 Mission Super Hooligan National Championship on Saturday and continued his party with a second victory on Sunday at COTA. The win was O’Hara’s fifth of the season and it came after a rough and tumble win on Saturday that saw his teammate Jeremy McWilliams crash out on the final lap in the last corner with the two basically locked in combat.
A banged up and bruised McWilliams finished second for his sixth podium finish of the season and it earned him second in the championship point standings.
DiBrino Racing KTM’s Andy DiBrino earned his sixth podium of the season and that placed him third in the final championship standings. DiBrino and McWilliams went into Sunday’s series finale tied in points with Ulsterman McWilliams coming away with the runner-up spot in both the race and the title chase.
Supersport
Old age and treachery was defeated by youth and enthusiasm in Sunday’s Supersport race with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott besting Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Xavi Fores in a race that featured a thrilling last lap.
After a heated last lap that saw both riders on COTA’s expansive run-off areas at certain times, Scott withstood the constant pressure of Forés with the cool head of a rider well beyond what you’d expect of a 17-year-old.
The win was Scott’s third of the year and what he called the best of his young career. For Fores, it was his 11th podium of his championship-winning year.
Scott’s new Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammate Torin Collins finished third in just his second ride ever on a Supersport bike – a day after he finished fourth in what was his debut with the team and in MotoAmerica.
Saturday Superbike
Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha’s Jake Gagne won his 10thMotoAmerica Medallia Superbike race of the year at Circuit of The Americas on Saturday, but he was just as happy for the two who joined him on the podium – podium first timer Richie Escalante and Gagne’s teammate JD Beach.
Gagne, who wrapped up his third MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship two weeks ago, won the 39th AMA Superbike race of his career on a steaming hot Saturday in Austin by 2.5 seconds over Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Escalante, the Mexican earning the first podium of his Medallia Superbike career after his near-picture-perfect race that was a popular result with the entire paddock.
Ditto for JD Beach’s third-place finish with the season-long flat tracker reaching the podium in his just his second race as the replacement rider for the injured Cameron Petersen. The podium was Beach’s first in the Superbike class since he finished second to Cameron Beaubier at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2019.
Beach ended up just .172 of a second behind Escalante after hounding him in the closing laps and 4.38 seconds ahead of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was fifth, 18 seconds behind Gagne and 8.4 seconds ahead of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander, the New Yorker righting the ship after a tough couple of rounds.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong was just a few seconds adrift of Alexander in seventh with Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates was eighth, matching his best finish of the year.Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa was ninth in his Superbike debut on Cameron Beaubier’s vacated BMW M 1000 RR with Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounding out the top 10.
Notable among the non-finishers were Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin and Vision Wheel M4 Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch. Herrin battled with Gagne early, then slipped back into the grasp of Escalante and then Beach and Jacobsen. While running fifth, Herrin’s Ducati suffered a mechanical problem that took him out of the race.
Paasch, meanwhile, crashed out of the race uninjured in the early laps.
Superbike Race One
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- PJ Jacobsen (BMW)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Corey Alexander (BMW)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Ashton Yates (BMW)
- Stefano Mesa (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Supersport
After Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Xavi Forés started the season with a record-breaking eight wins in a row, which set a new record in the Supersport class, the Spaniard’s victory tally suddenly came to a halt at Brainerd where he finished both races off the podium. And then, at Pittsburgh, he finished second in both races. Well, on Saturday at COTA, Forés returned to his winning ways with a championship-clinching victory.
Starting from the middle of the front row, Forés got a good jump off the line and led the first two laps of the race. Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott, who earned the pole position, overtook Forés on lap three, but then Forés was able to get past Scott two laps later, and he held on to the lead for the remainder of the race. Forés took the checkered flag by a little more than a second over Scott, and Scott’s teammate Teagg Hobbs completed the podium in third.
Steel Commander Stock 1000
It’s the final round for the Steel Commander Stock 1000 Championship this weekend at Circuit of The Americas, and Saturday’s race gave a little bit clearer picture of who might win the title. But it’s not quite decided yet.
Before the race even started, championship leader Ezra Beaubier was unfortunately scratched from the grid due to illness. Polesitter Hayden Gillim had one less contender to deal with, and he made the most of it. The Kentuckian led the race from start to finish aboard his Disrupt Racing Suzuki and won with a gap of more than eight seconds back to Travis Wyman whose runner-up result was the fifth podium finish of the season for the Travis Wyman Racing BMW rider. Third place went to Beaubier’s Orange Cat Racing BMW teammate Kaleb De Keyrel, which was his sixth podium result in 2023.
Gillim currently leads the championship by 13 points over De Keyrel, 17 points over Beaubier, and 24 points over Wyman. So, it all comes down to Sunday’s race two, the final race of the season to decide it all for the liter-bike riders.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
Tyler O’Hara was crowned as the champion of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship on Saturday at COTA, but not before a last-lap bash-fest in the final corner that left his teammate and championship rival Jeremy McWiliams on the ground and out of the race.
Championship over.
O’Hara won four races en route to the title and the last one was the most intense with him and McWilliams going back and forth all the way to the final corner on the last lap. With the two banging into each other repeatedly on the entrance and apex of the final corner, McWilliams spun his Indian FTR 1200 up and was highsided. The Ulsterman was fortunate to not suffer serious injury but is likely to miss tomorrow’s race and O’Hara had his second straight championship in the class.
History was made on Saturday when Stefano Mesa rode the electric Energica Eva Ribelle RS to second place, giving the company its first podium finish. Mesa ended up nine seconds behind O’Hara and a second clear of DiBrino Racing KTM’s Andy DiBrino, who earned his fifth podium finish of the season.
Zone 9 Racing/EDR Performance’s AJ Peaslee and Vigilante Racing’s Nate Kern rounded out the top five.
Mission King Of The Baggers
H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman was the fastest of the of the King Of The Baggers field when it counted most: in the race.
Wyman, who came into the Circuit of The Americas round trailing Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim by three points, took his sixth win of the season while leading a Harley-Davidson takeover of the podium spots and he emerged from Saturday’s scrum with a two-point lead over Gillim after topping the Kentuckian by 2.1 seconds.
Gillim’s teammate James Rispoli finished third, another two seconds behind but some 11 seconds clear of Kyle Wyman’s brother and teammate, Travis Wyman. Roland Sands Design/Indian Motorcycle’s Kyle Ohnsorg rounded out the top five and was the first of the Indian Challenger riders.
Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ Tyler O’Hara and Jeremy McWiliams failed to start the race. O’Hara’s bike, which he crashed earlier in the day when the chain broke, didn’t run right on the sighting lap while McWiliams was bruised and beaten from his highside crash in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship race.
Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong was on the move in the race and gaining ground on Rispoli when he crashed out with a lap to go. Fong had earlier shown the speed to be a potential winner when he won the winner-take-all Mission Challenge earlier in the day.
Friday Superbike
MotoAmerica champion Jake Gagne’s best lap in Q1 was his last lap on a blisteringly hot Friday at Circuit of The Americas and it resulted in provisional pole position for this weekend’s two Medallia Superbike races in Austin.
On his 11th lap and with time expiring in the session, Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Gagne slipped past Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin with his 2:08.818 a tick over half a second quicker than Herrin.
Herrin, meanwhile, was a full second ahead of third-placed Richie Escalante on his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000R. Herrin’s best lap came after a slow tip-over that came mid-session that he said actually helped his comfort level. Escalante, in turn, was just .141 of a second faster than Gagne’s teammate JD Beach, who was continuing to find speed in his second outing aboard the injured Cameron Petersen’s Yamaha YZF-R1.
Fifth fastest on an opening day that featured triple-digit heat was Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen with the New Yorker 1.8 seconds off Gagne’s pace on the 3.426-mile Circuit of The Americas.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz ended up sixth after missing nearly the entire first session with a mechanical problem on his Yamaha YZF-R1. Seventh and eighth went to Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch with the New Jersey resident lapping at an identical lap time as Aftercare Scheibe BMW’s Ashton Yates.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander and Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim rounded out the top 10.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong didn’t make a lap in Q1 with his Yamaha blowing a motor on his opening lap, bringing out a red flag. Fong will get the chance to qualify in tomorrow morning’s Q2.
Steel Commander Stock 1000
Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman may be on the outside looking in at the Steel Commander Stock 1000 title heading into the season finale this weekend at COTA, but you couldn’t tell by the effort he turned in on Friday.
Wyman earned provisional pole position by lapping over a second quicker than championship contender Hayden Gillim with his 2:12.707 coming on his ninth lap on a blisteringly hot afternoon at COTA. Disrupt Racing’s Gillim’s best lap was a 2:13.877, but he was likely happy with that considering the man who leads him in the championship battle by eight points, Ezra Beaubier, was seventh fastest on day one.
The Steel Commander Stock 1000 Championship will be decided this weekend as the class is not part of the season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park in two weeks.
PDR Motorsports’ Diego Perez, meanwhile, ended the day with a spot on the provisional front row with Beaubier’s Orange Cat Racing teammate Kaleb De Keyrel fourth fastest. Benjamin Smith Racing’s Benjamin Smith completed the top five on Friday.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
Jeremy McWilliams and his Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods teammate Tyler O’Hara are tied heading into the season’s final two races of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, but it was McWilliams drawing first blood on Friday afternoon at COTA.
McWilliams lapped at 2:17.836 to lead DiBrino Racing’s Andy DiBrino in Q1 with O’Hara ending up third to complete the provisional front row.
Team Saddlemen’s Cory West and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa rounded out the top five.
Supersport
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott managed to squeak past Supersport Champion elect Xavi Forés and his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale V2 in the closing stages of Q1 on Friday at COTA.
Scott lapped at a best of 2:14.435 to better Forés’ 2:14.567 with the duo who are at the top of the championship standings separated by just .132 of a second.
Scott’s new teammate Torin Collins ended the day third fastest, 1.4 seconds off Scott’s best lap. Collins has been competing in the FIM JuniorGP series, a Moto3 feeder series, in Europe.
Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes and Wrench Motorcycles’ David Anthony rounded out the top five.
Mission King Of The Baggers
With just three points separating the top three, the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship will likely be decided in two weeks at New Jersey Motorsports Park. What happens this weekend at COTA, however, could play a massive role in how things transpire at NJMP.
In Friday’s Q1, it was H-D Screamin’ Eagle ‘s Kyle Wyman, who is tied for second with James Rispoli and just three points behind leader Hayden Gillim, with the upper hand as he ended the session on top and .947 of a second clear of Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ defending series champion Tyler O’Hara. Wyman was the only rider who lapped in the 2:16s with his 2:16.266.
Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong was third fastest and 1.6 seconds behind Wyman. Then came the two Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidsons of Gillim and Rispoli rounding out the top five in Q1.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ Jeremy McWilliams gave his competition plenty to think about tonight as he completely dominated Friday’s Q1 session in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship.
McWilliams’s 2:17.836 was 2.3 seconds faster than his nearest rival, DiBrino Racing KTM’s Andy DiBrino, and 2.4 seconds ahead of his teammate and the man he’s tied with in the series championship, Tyler O’Hara.
Team Saddlemen’s Cory West ended the day fourth on his Harley-Davidson Pan America with Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa rounding out the top five on his Energica Eva Ribelle RS electric motorcycle.
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