The 2023 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship comes to its conclusion this weekend in its ninth state and its ninth racetrack—New Jersey Motorsports Park—for the final two races consisting of 41 furious laps and 92.25 miles around NJMP’s Thunderbolt Raceway.
**Scroll to end to see the updated racing schedule as of Friday, September 22, 2023
This is a press release from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (September 20, 2023) – After crisscrossing the country to eight different racetracks in eight different states and completing 292 laps and 782.872 miles of racing, the 2023 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship ends this weekend in its ninth state and its ninth racetrack—New Jersey Motorsports Park—for the final two races consisting of 41 furious laps and 92.25 miles around NJMP’s Thunderbolt Raceway.
The leader of the majority of those laps is newly crowned three-time MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne, who wrapped up the title on August 20 at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Wrapping up the title didn’t slow him down, however, as Gagne won race one at the very next round at the Circuit of The Americas on September 9 before finishing second the next day in race two.
Thus, Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Gagne holds down an astronomical points lead of 121 points as the series rolls into NJMP for the finale. Gagne earned his 382 points via 10 wins and five additional podiums. He only has one non-finish on his scorecard and that came via an engine failure in race one at Road America at the beginning of June.
Although Gagne won 10 races this year, he came under the most pressure of any of his championship-winning seasons with three others winning races, including Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier, who matched Gagne’s five race wins through the first 11 races and was a thorn in Gagne’s side until a spate of unlucky and horrendous crashes ended his season. The other two winners were Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin and Beaubier’s teammate PJ Jacobsen. While Jacobsen had one victory, Herrin had two, including in the most recent race a week and a half ago in Texas.
Gagne’s three-year reign is impressive with 17- and 12-win seasons preceding this one. If Gagne were to win both races this weekend at NJMP, he will have another 12-win season and a total of 41 wins in three years. In his three championship years heading into Jersey, Gagne has won half of the Superbike races held—39 of 78 races—or 50 percent. Again impressive.
Herrin’s victory in race two at COTA was his second of the season and the 10th of his Superbike career. He got out front and stayed there, despite relentless pressure throughout the race from Gagne. Herrin goes to New Jersey with a 28-point lead over Jacobsen in the battle for second in the championship.
With Beaubier fourth but sliding down the order with every race, it’s highly likely that he will end up sixth when all is said and done. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz is fifth and only eight points behind Beaubier, and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante is a further five points adrift.
With Beaubier likely slipping to sixth in the championship, the battle for seventh is going to be between Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander and Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim. Alexander leads Gillim by 12 points after Gillim suffered his first DNF of the season in race two at COTA when his Suzuki GSX-R1000 suffered a mechanical failure.
Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates is ninth in the series standings and coming off a solid weekend at COTA. He’s 18 points clear of the injured Cameron Petersen, who will likely be passed for 10th by Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders. Flinders is just five points behind the absent Petersen and only eight and nine points ahead of the late-starting Bobby Fong on the Wrench Motorcycles Yamaha YZF-R1 and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch, respectively.
NJMP Superbike Notes…
While this year’s race is the season finale in the 2023 MotoAmerica Championship, last year’s race was the penultimate round in the series.
Last year’s two Medallia Superbike races were won by Jake Gagne and Italian Danilo Petrucci. Gagne won race one over Cameron Petersen and Mathew Scholtz with Petrucci beating Scholtz and Gagne in the wet second race. Gagne left the Garden State with a four-point lead over Petrucci in the championship after nine of 10 rounds.
With his win in race two, Petrucci became the ninth different rider to win an AMA Superbike race in the 14-year history of the series visiting NJMP. Josh Hayes is the most proficient Superbike racer in the history of NJMP with his 11 AMA Superbike wins at the facility. Hayes also won the first two AMA Superbike races held at the track in Millville in 2009.
Hayes added to his New Jersey Motorsports Park legacy by winning both of the Supersport races last year on his Squid Hunter Racing Yamaha YZF-R6. Hayes is back this year to try and score victories in Supersport again.
PJ Jacobsen earned pole position for the two Medallia Superbike races at NJMP last year with his 1:20.103 lap. Although the lap put him on pole, it wasn’t enough to knock Cameron Beaubier off as the lap record holder at NJMP. Beaubier clicked off a 1:19.806 in Superpole qualifying in 2020.
Mathew Scholtz turned in the fastest race lap a year ago with his 1:20.796 coming in race one, but that was slower than Gagne’s race lap record of 1:20.076 from race two in 2021.
Since we can’t break tradition, we have to remind everyone that Roger Hayden, who won twice at NJMP during his Superbike career, finished second there five times. Included in those five runner-up finishes were a .044 of a second loss to Josh Hayes in 2015, a .156 of a second loss to Toni Elias in 2016 and a .039 of a second loss to Elias in 2017. Hayden is always a winner to MotoAmerica and its fans, however, as he provides color commentary of MotoAmerica’s races on MotoAmerica Live+, the series’ live streaming and on-demand platform.
Jake Gagne’s victory in race one at COTA was the 39th of his career, which puts him fourth in the all-time AMA Superbike win list behind Mat Mladin (82), Josh Hayes (61) and Cameron Beaubier (59).
History Lesson: 21 different riders have won the AMA Superbike Championship in its 48-year history with Jake Gagne the 21st to do so. Gagne is tied for fourth on the all-time AMA Superbike Champions list with three titles, joining Reg Pridmore (1976, 1977, 1978), Doug Chandler (1990, 1996, 1997) and Ben Spies (2006, 2007, 2008). The leader in AMA Superbike titles is Mat Mladin’s seven, followed by Cameron Beaubier’s five and Josh Hayes’s four. Three riders—Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson and Wes Cooley—are tied with two wins while nine racers have won a single AMA Superbike title (Bubba Shobert, Jamie James, Thomas Stevens, Scott Russell, Doug Polen, Troy Corser, Miguel Duhamel, Ben Bostrom, Nicky Hayden and Toni Elias).
Will Seven Different Manufacturers Win The Seven MotoAmerica Titles?
With Two More Championships To Be Decided At New Jersey Motorsports Park, September 22-24, Seven Could Be Heaven
Irvine, CA (September 21, 2023) – Two more MotoAmerica Champions will be crowned this coming weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park and there’s a chance that the end-result could be seven different manufacturers winning the seven championships in 2023.
With the Medallia Superbike Championship going to Jake Gagne (Yamaha), the Supersport title won by Xavi Forés (Ducati), Hayden Gillim (Suzuki) taking the Steel Commander Stock 1000 title, Avery Dreher (Kawasaki) earning Junior Cup honors and Tyler O’Hara (Indian) taking home the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, only the REV’IT! Twins Cup and Mission King Of The Baggers titles remain unclaimed.
The top three in the REV’IT! Twins Cup are separated by just 14 points and two of them are Aprilia-mounted (leader Gus Rodio and third-placed Rocco Landers) with Blake Davis (Yamaha) sitting second, just eight points out of the lead and ready to spoil the party.
Harley-Davidson is set to take the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship as the top three are separated by just 11 points and all three are racing Harley-Davidson Road Glides (Hayden Gillim, James Rispoli and Kyle Wyman). The closest Indian Challenger in the mix is Bobby Fong’s and he sits fourth and 85 points behind and there’s only 50 points left on the table.
Mission King Of The Baggers – V&H vs. The Factory
After the dust settled on a wild and crazy race two of the Mission King Of The Baggers series at Circuit of The Americas in Texas a week and a half ago, there’s a three-way fight for the championship that will certainly come down to the last lap in the very last race of the year on Sunday at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
As it stands right now, Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim leads his teammate James Rispoli by just two points in what will be a mano-a-mano intra-team battle. On the outside looking in is H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s defending champion Kyle Wyman.
Wyman is just 11 points back but doesn’t totally control his own destiny. If he wins both races, he can still lose the title if Gillim finishes second in both. Wyman can, however, take the title from Rispoli if he wins both and Rispoli finishes second. It should be interesting.
Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong will likely just be thinking about messing it all up by winning both races on his Indian Challenger. Ditto for Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ Tyler O’Hara with the defending class champion still trying to win his first race of the season. O’Hara is seven points behind two-time race winner Fong.
REV’IT Twins Cup – Rodio On Top
Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Gus Rodio will drive southwest from his home in Hammonton, New Jersey, to do battle at New Jersey Motorsports Park. The 21-mile drive home could be a happy one if Rodio and his Aprilia RS 660 can turn his eight-point lead into the 2023 MotoAmerica REV’IT! Twins Cup Championship.
With his three wins and six additional podiums, Rodio arrives at his home track with an eight-point lead over N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis with the Virginian winning once and landing on the podium on six other occasions.
The winningest rider in the class is Robem Engineering’s Rocco Landers with his six victories. Unfortunately for Landers, he trails by 14 points with two non-finishes on his scorecard. Also, remember that Landers didn’t even have a ride on the team until the second round at Road Atlanta, so he missed the first two races at Daytona entirely.
The battle for fourth in the championship will also go to the bitter end with Trackday Winner/Blackmon Racing’s Jackson Blackmon just seven points ahead of Team Iso’s Dominic Doyle.
It will also be interesting to watch the Estenson Racing Yamaha YZF-R7 with the number 32 on its fairing. It will be ridden by former KTM RC Cup race winner Dallas Daniels, the flat tracker who recently finished second in the AMA Grand National Championship behind nine-time champion Jared Mees. It will be Daniels’ first road race since 2019.
Supersport – Forés vs. Scott?
With his nine wins on the season and the 2023 Supersport Championship in the bank, the goal now for Forés must be to keep this Tyler Scott kid from beating him. When Forés won the first eight races, the championship was for all practical purposes over. But since that winning streak ended, the Spanish veteran has only won one race out of the past six. Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Scott, meanwhile, has won three of those last six races as the two have separated themselves from the pack with Scott already locked into second in the title chase.
The key now, however, is how fit will Forés be after suffering a crash in the Bol d’Or 24-hour endurance race and injuring a knee and foot. Forés says he will be using crutches but is okay to ride.
Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes has also solidified third in the championship now that Stefano Mesa has made the jump to the Medallia Superbike class for the final two rounds (he made his Superbike debut at COTA a week and a half ago). Hayes is one of four riders to win in 2023 along with Forés (nine wins), Scott (three wins) and Mesa (one win) and Hayes is the winningest Superbike rider in NJMP history, so he definitely knows his way around the Thunderbolt racetrack.
Scott’s teammate Teagg Hobbs sits fifth in the championship in his rookie season in the class, a spot he has a lock on with just the two NJMP races remaining.
Junior Cup – The Fight For Second
A six-time winner in 2023, Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher has already been crowned as this year’s Junior Cup Champion, but the battle for second will be decided at NJMP.
Bicknese Racing’s Hayden Bicknese currently sits just five points ahead of SportbikeTrackGear.com’s Max Van, 12 points ahead of Fairium NGRT- Gray Area Racing’s Rossi Moor and 18 clear of Badie Racing’s Levi Badie.
Three riders have won Junior Cup races this year: Dreher (six), Moor (two) and Badie (two). Although he has yet to win a race, Bicknese has five podium finishes and is the only rider in the top five to score points in every race.
The NJMP Junior Cup races will also mark the debut in the class of former Mission Mini Cup By Motul racer Jesse James Shedden and newly crowned Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. Champion Mikayla Moore. Both will race for the Karns Performance Racing Team.
Mission Mini Cup By Motul – Gouker And Davis Lead The Way
The final Mission Mini Cup By Motul races will be held on Friday and Saturday afternoons at the New Jersey Motorsports Park karting facility with Stadler America’s Nathan Gouker and Alpha Omega’s Ryder Davis headlining the Ohvale 160 and 190 classes, respectively.
Gouker’s season has been nothing short of spectacular as he’s won 11 of the 12 Ohvale 160 races heading to the finale, which puts him 69 points clear of Reese Frankenfield Racing’s Reese Frankenfield and 100 points ahead of third-placed Connor Raymond on his American Racing-backed Ohvale 160.
In the 190 class, it’s Davis who leads the way by 55 points over American Racing’s Joshua Raymond and by 65 over Historic GP’s Mahdi Salem.
In the Stock classes, it’s Cory Texter Racing/Roof Systems’ Cruise Texter on top of the Stock 50 class while Ryan Clark Racing’s Ryan Clark leads the way in the Stock 110 class championship. Jacobsen Motorcycle Training/Bettencourt Racing’s Nathan Bettencourt is the points leader in the Stock 125 class.
Mini Cup racing action gets started at 3 p.m. on Friday and 2:20 p.m. on Saturday.
NJMP Support Class Notes…
The lone Mission King Of The Baggers race at New Jersey Motorsports Park last year was won by Kyle Wyman over Tyler O’Hara. It was the series finale for the Baggers and, with his second-place finish, O’Hara was crowned champion.
Josh Hayes won both Supersport races a year ago at NJMP, his second and third race wins of the season. Hayes beat Josh Herrin in race one and Stefano Mesa in race two.
Only one REV’IT! Twins Cup race was held last year at NJMP, and it was won by Blake Davis over Ben Gloddy and Teagg Hobbs. Davis went on to earn the 2022 championship in the class.
Gus Rodio and Kayla Yaakov split wins in the two Junior Cup classes a year ago. Rodio beat Joe LiMandri Jr. and Spencer Humphreys with Yaakov topping Rodio and Cody Wyman.
The Final Round Of The MotoAmerica Championship In New Jersey Is Brimming With Fan Activity, September 22-24
This is a press release from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (September 18, 2023) – MotoAmerica, North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series, will throw out its “Welcome” mat to fans one last time in 2023 with the series visiting New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, New Jersey, for its finale, September 22-24.
Inarguably the most fan-friendly motorsport championship in the country, MotoAmerica spectators are given the opportunity to roam freely between the paddock area (which is home to the teams that make up the series), and the abundance of spectator areas that the popular 2.25-mile Thunderbolt Raceway provides.
The open paddock is a fan’s delight as it allows spectators to roam freely from team to team where they can watch crews doing everything from complete rebuilds to fine tuning the motorcycles that compete in all five of the MotoAmerica classes racing at NJMP – Medallia Superbike, REV’IT! Twins Cup, Mission King Of The Baggers, Junior Cup and Supersport.
It’s also in the paddock where spectators get the chance to mingle with their favorite riders as they are out and about throughout the weekend and happy to catch up with their fans. If you miss them on Friday and Saturday, you can most definitely find them for a photo and/or an autographed poster during the popular Dunlop Hot Pit Walk and Autograph session that’s held on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Although you won’t find closer on-track racing than in the MotoAmerica Championship, including a Mission King Of The Baggers title chase that will likely not be decided until the last lap of the final race of the year on Sunday afternoon, there’s also plenty of rapid-fire entertainment off the track, and the activities at NJMP are the most plentiful of the season.
Here’s a rundown of the off-track activities at NJMP for the season finale:
Off-track action promises to be every bit as exciting with everything from DJ Vader spinning vinyl all three days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which coincides with the Clutch Control Moto Show that will also be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on all three days.
Friday will kick off three days of the 1 Wheel Revolution Stunt Show with three shows scheduled for Friday (12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.), Saturday (11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.) and Sunday (10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.).
Beginning on Saturday, MotoAmerica’s youngest fans can check out the free carnival that opens at 10 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
Demo rides from Yamaha and CF Moto will also take place on both Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for licensed motorcyclists wanting to do more than just kick tires.
For those riding their own motorcycles to the track, the Harley-Davidson parade laps are scheduled for 11:45 a.m. on Saturday and 10:30 a.m. on Sunday with Cardo guests joining in on the Sunday ride. Staging for the rides will be at the turn-one end of the paddock near the medical center 45 minutes before the scheduled ride on Saturday (11 a.m.) and 30 minutes prior on Sunday (10:30 a.m.) at the same location.
The ShowoutBoyz Stunt Show gets rolling on Saturday with two shows scheduled for noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. On Sunday, the shows are slated for 10:30 a.m., noon and 2 p.m.
More kids’ stuff: the AllKidsBike Strider Zone will be open all three days, beginning on Friday from noon to 4 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, youngsters can ride the bikes again from Noon to 4 p.m.
Those wanting to check out the bikes in the V-Twin Visionary Show can do so throughout the weekend with judging taking place at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday with awards to be handed out an hour later at 3:30 p.m.
VIP Ticket Holders will get the chance to go out to the starting grid for the first of two Mission King Of The Baggers races on Saturday at 3:50 p.m. prior to the start of the race.
The mega Clutch Control Pool Party will take place at the Finish Line Pub from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday night and will feature music by DJ Vader. The party is open to the public and is hosted by the one and only Allen Lane.
The final day of racing on Sunday at NJMP will feature the Dunlop Hot Pit Walk and Autograph Session from 11 to 11:45 a.m.
VIP Ticket Holders will get another shot at a grid walk and this one will be held prior to Medallia Superbike race two at 2:50 p.m.
The weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park will conclude on Sunday afternoon with the series finale of the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship, and the race is scheduled to start at 4:05 p.m.
In addition to the five classes of MotoAmerica racing taking place on the big track, make sure you head over to the karting facility to watch the youngest of the MotoAmerica racers competing in the Mission Mini Cup By Motul races on Friday and Saturday afternoon. See if you can spot the next Superstar. Practice and qualifying takes place throughout the day with the youngsters starting their racing program at 3 p.m. on Friday and 2:20 p.m. on Saturday.
For the complete MotoAmerica fan-activity schedule, click HERE
For the complete MotoAmerica race schedule, click HERE
How To Watch MotoAmerica Superbikes at New Jersey
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MotoAmerica NJMP Racing Schedule
(Updated on Friday, September 22, 2023)
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