MotoAmerica heads to Road America for round three of the championship, May 31-June 2.
This is a press release from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (May 29, 2024) – The cream of the MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike crop generally makes one, possibly two race mistakes a year. Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier has made his, yet he leads the championship by 13 points as the championship moves to inarguably its most popular round—Road America—after two rounds and five races. Predictable? Not entirely. Race fans with short memories? Definitely.
When Beaubier crashed out of the lead at Barber Motorsports Park a bit over two weeks ago in race one, there was plenty of groaning as it handed Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne a 20-point lead over the BMW M 1000 RR-mounted Beaubier. The championship was over, blah, blah, blah.
A day later and Beaubier was on the top step of the podium twice after winning both races on Sunday while Gagne struggled mightily with arm pump that left him eighth and seventh in the two races.
Thus, Beaubier will start the first of two Steel Commander Superbike races at Road America, May 31-June 2, with a 13-point lead after two. But if we learned anything from the three-race Barber round it’s that bad days by the cream of the crop no longer result in podium finishes. Instead, a stacked field of Superbikes can mean that a bad result is now seventh or eighth. Or worse.
Which brings us to the age-old Yogi Berra quote of “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” This is far from over.
Beaubier was the fastest rider at Barber. Everyone knew it, including race-one winner Cameron Petersen and his teammate and defending series champion Gagne, both of whom took advantage of Beaubier’s miscue to take the top two spots in race one.
Fortunately for Beaubier, and unfortunately for the rest, Barber was one of two rounds (WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is the other) that will feature three Steel Commander Superbike races. So, although Beaubier started Sunday 20 points behind, he was able to end it with two wins and a 13-point lead heading to Road America.
Gagne’s plight as the series heads to Wisconsin will revolve around his forearms. Arm pump slows the best of them, and Gagne is battling with it now. The long straightaways of Road America should be easier on him than the previous two rounds.
But this championship isn’t just about Beaubier vs. Gagne.
TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly has already proven to be a factor in his rookie season of Superbike racing and he’s only going to get better. Kelly earned the first two Superbike podiums of his debut season on Sunday at Barber with a second in race two and a third in race three. Kelly sits third in the championship, 22 points behind Beaubier and just nine behind Gagne, with the Floridian finishing all five races so far with two fourths and a fifth to go with his two podiums.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong is another who has shown speed in the opening races of the season and he arrives in Wisconsin 13 points behind Kelly and two in front of Petersen. Fong earned a podium in the series opener at Road Atlanta and another in the third race at Barber when he finished second to Gagne.
Petersen is the other rider in the field to win a race in 2024 as he joined Beaubier and his teammate Gagne as Superbike race winners when he held off Gagne to win race one at Barber after Beaubier’s third-lap crash. Petersen is just two points behind Fong.
Although the season has had a few bumps in the road so far for Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin and his French teammate Loris Baz, counting them out of any race would be a mistake. Especially, at Road America where the pair will be able to take full advantage of their very fast Ducati Panigale V4 Rs. Herrin has one podium finish so far (third in race on at Barber), but his points total suffered with a crash in race two in Alabama. However, he’s a proven race winner and will be looking to chase bags of points on the fast four-mile Road America.
Also, remember that Herrin was on pole for last year’s races at Road America and he finished third in race one prior to winning race two.
Baz is just two points behind Herrin in the championship after a consistent start to the season. Baz’s big however came in race three at Barber when he was hit from behind by a lapped rider and crashed. Baz should also find solace in the fact that the Ducatis work well at Road America.
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim, meanwhile, is tied with Baz for seventh after five consistent races on his Superstock-spec Honda CBR1000RR R SP.
Beaubier’s Tytlers Cycle Racing teammate JD Beach had a Barber round that he would like to permanently erase from his memory banks as he scored just nine points from the three races after two crashes. Beach will get a fresh start at Road America this weekend.
Another who expected way more to the start of his season is Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch. Paasch is 10th in the title chase with a best finish of sixth thus far as he tries to make up ground from a miserable opening round at Road Atlanta where he failed to score a point.
Paasch will be joined again at Road America by Spaniard Xavi Forés, who is replacing the injured Richie Escalante. Forés was sixth in two of the three races in his debut with the team at Barber, but race two in Alabama was a DNF for the non-defending 2023 MotoAmerica Supersport Champion.
Just seven points separate Paasch in 10th from BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince, who sits 14th. Between the two are FLO4LAW Racing’s Benjamin Smith and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders. Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates and Visit Indiana/Tom Wood Powersports’ Nolan Lamkin are tied for 15th in the series standings.
Pre-Race Road America Notes…
Last year’s two Superbike races at Road America were won by Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin. Beaubier beat his Tytlers Cycle Racing teammate PJ Jacobsen by 2.7 seconds with Herrin third in race one. In race two, Herrin took the win by a tick over two seconds over Jacobsen with Jake Gagne third. Oddly enough, Gagne had a DNF in race one and his championship rival Beaubier failed to finish race two.
Ducati Panigale V4 R-mounted Josh Herrin earned pole position last year with his lap of 2:09.111 of the four-mile-long Road America. Herrin was joined on the front row by the BMW M1000 RRs of Cameron Beaubier and PJ Jacobsen. The fastest lap of the two races was Herrin’s 2:09.025, which is the Superbike race lap record at Road America.
Five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier has won 11 Superbike races at Road America. That’s two more than Australian Mat Mladin and three more than Josh Hayes.
Active MotoAmerica racers with Superbike wins at Road America other than Beaubier include Josh Herrin, Jake Gagne, Cameron Petersen, Bobby Fong and Mathew Scholtz, who is now racing in the Supersport class.
With his three MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike victories this year, Beaubier now has 63 AMA Superbike wins—19 wins behind all-time AMA Superbike win leader Mat Mladin and his 82 victories.
Yamaha continues to lead the way in manufacturer Superbike wins at Road America with 26 victories. Suzuki is second with 18 Superbike race wins at the venue in Elkhart Lake, followed by Honda with 12, Ducati with nine and Kawasaki with four. Cameron Beaubier’s race-one victory was the first Superbike win for BMW at Road America.
Three-time World Champion Freddie Spencer won the first-ever AMA Superbike race at Road America in 1980.
MotoAmerica 2024 Road America Support Class Preview
Road America Set To Host Five MotoAmerica Support Class Races
Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen by no means breezed through the opening weekend of MotoAmerica Supersport racing, but he must have felt at least a bit comfortable after coming out of Road Atlanta with a clean sweep of the two races. But whatever comfort Jacobsen found in his Georgia domination may not be so cozy now as the series heads to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for round three of the series, May 31-June 2.
We can blame that on Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz.
Scholtz and his Yamaha YZF-R6 were third and fourth at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and both of those came after poor starts and a less than stellar qualifying performance meant he had to come from behind in both races. Scholtz cleaned that up, at least a bit, at Barber and he turned that into two impressive victories – the long-time MotoAmerica Superbike rider’s first wins in MotoAmerica Supersport.
Thus, with two rounds and four races in the rear-view mirror, Jacobsen (who was second in both races at Barber) has an 11-point lead on #11 Scholtz.
However, it’s much too soon to think of the series being a two-horse race. Far from it as a horde of riders are bunched together in the third through 13th spots in the series standings.
TopPro Racing Team’s Maxi Gerardo leads the bunch after his third- and fourth-place finishes at Barber after starting both races from pole position. Gerardo is 41 points behind Jacobsen and just two clear of N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis, who was fifth and third at Barber. Next comes Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis, five points behind Davis and three points ahead of Corey Alexander. Unfortunately, Alexander will miss the Barber round after breaking the wing portion of his ilium (the largest and uppermost bone in the hip) in the second race at Barber.
Equitea MV Agusta by MP13 Racing’s Roberto Tamburini had a solid outing at Barber, and he sits four points behind Alexander and nine head of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa. Then there’s TopPro Racing Team’s Alfonso Linares in ninth before we get to the young man many expected to fight for the title in 2024 – Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott. Scott finds himself 67 points behind Jacobsen after a big crash in race one at Road Atlanta and another big one in race two at Barber. They don’t come much tougher than Scott so don’t be surprised to see him at or near the front in Elkhart Lake.
Mission King Of The Baggers – Herfoss (Indian) vs. Wyman (Harley-Davidson)
Nine points is all that separates S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss from Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman in the battle for the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship. Nine points.
With both men winning three races apiece, the difference lies in fact that, in Wyman’s three race wins, Herfoss was second. Wyman was second in two of the Aussie’s three victories but struggled to fifth in the rain-struck second race at Road Atlanta.
Although it may be a bit early to call this championship a two-man battle, it resembles what a two-man battle would look like. So far.
Ironically, Herfoss’s teammate Tyler O’Hara and Wyman’s teammate James Rispoli are tied for third in the championship – 56 points behind Herfoss and five points clear of RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s defending class champion Hayden Gillim. Then comes Mad Monkey Motorsports’ Max Flinders and then the man who has proven in the past to have race-winning speed, SDI/Roland Sands Racing/Indian Motorcycle’s Bobby Fong.
Gillim’s rookie teammate Rocco Landers, Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson’s Cory West and RydFast Racing’s Kyle Ohnsorg round out the top 10 heading into Road America’s two races.
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – Five Different Winners
Five racers have won the first six races of the BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship: Gus Rodio, Rocco Landers, Alessandro Di Mario, Dominic Doyle and Avery Dreher. Those five are racing three different brands of motorcycle: Aprilia (Rodio, Di Mario and Dreher) Suzuki (Landers) and Yamaha (Doyle).
It’s not going out on a very big limb to call that parity.
The fast-starting Gus Rodio and his Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660 is leading the title chase by 15 points after two wins and three podiums to start the series at Daytona and Road Atlanta.
Rodio leads Landers in the championship by nine with the all-time win leader in the class taking his lone victory in race one at Road Atlanta. Eight points behind Landers is Rodio’s teammate Di Mario with the youngster taking his first career MotoAmerica win in race two at Barber Motorsports Park.
Doyle sits fourth in the championship, 35 points behind Rodio. Doyle’s win came in race two at Road Atlanta, but his points tally has taken a hit with two DNFs, including his race two crash at Barber two weeks ago.
TopPro Racing’s Avery Dreher won his first Twins Cup race in Saturday’s race one at Barber. He is fifth in the championship, 40 points behind Rodio.
Junior Cup – A Year Of Firsts
All three of this year’s Junior Cup winners have been first-time victors.
It started in the series opener at Road Atlanta when Bartcon Racing’s Matthew Chapin won the first race of the season for his very first MotoAmerica victory. That continued in race two when New York Safety Track Racing’s Yandel Medina scored his first-career MotoAmerica victory.
At Barber Motorsports Park, the trend continued but also ended as Speed Demon Racing’s Logan Cunnison not only won his first-ever MotoAmerica race, but he also enjoyed it so much he did it again the next day.
The point standings show that one of those race-winners has been more consistent than the others and that is Medina, with the New Yorker standing on the podium in all four races with a win, a second and two thirds.
That show of consistent speed puts him 14 points ahead of Cunnison, who has the only DNF of those in the top five. Cunnison, meanwhile, is eight points ahead of Chapin, who has been off the podium in all of the races other than the win he opened the season with. Wolfe Racing’s Ryan Wolfe hasn’t won a race yet, but you get the feeling he’s going to. Wolfe had two runner-up finishes at Road Atlanta and he followed that up with fourth in race one at Barber. A DNF in race two, however, has him 24 points behind Medina.
BARTCON Racing’s Eli Block is fifth overall with his 44 points 10 better than BPM’s Isaac Woodworth.
Two-time Junior Cup race winner Levi Badie is up to seventh in the championship despite missing the opening round in Georgia. Badie was third and second in the two races at Barber.
The biggest surprise thus far in the series is the fact that defending series champion Avery Dreher sits 10th in the series standings after the first four races. Dreher crashed out of the lead in the very first race of the year at Road Atlanta, had a DNF in race one at Barber and has a best finish of fifth in race two at Atlanta. He has 20 points to show for it and is now 57 points behind Medina and four points behind his sister, Ella, who has been a positive surprise in 2024.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. – Two Words
Build. Train. Race. Those are the three words that accurately define Royal Enfield’s MotoAmerica racing program.
Two words more accurately describe the past nine Royal Enfield races. Mikayla. Moore.
After the first two races of the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. series, Moore is undefeated. Still. With nine straight race wins dating back to her first race in the championship at Road America last year, Moore is the benchmark for the rest of the women in the class to shoot for.
And the opening round of the series two weeks ago at Barber Motorsports Park was no different as Moore ran away to two victories while the others scratched and clawed behind her to see who second best would be.
In the opener it was Emma Betters and Camille Conrad who fared the best with Conrad finishing second in race one and third in race two while Betters was third in race one and second in race two. Both came out of the weekend with 36 points, 14 behind Moore.
Miranda Cain and Cassie Creer were consistent with Cain fourth both times and Creer likewise with her two fifths.
Pre-Race Support Class Road America Notes…
Xavi Forés won both Supersport races at Road America a year ago en route to earning the series championship. Forés beat Stefano Mesa in both races with Josh Hayes and Tyler Scott swapping third in the two races.
Avery Dreher and Rossi Moor emerged victorious from the two Junior Cup races in 2023 in Elkhart Lake. Dreher beat Moor in race one with Moor topping Max Van in race two.
In the third round of the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship a year ago at Road America it was Kyle Wyman and Bobby Fong taking the two race wins. Wyman beat Tyler O’Hara and James Rispoli with Fong besting Rispoli and Wyman in race two.
The Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. season got its start at Road America last year with Mikayla Moore winning both races en route to her perfect season in the class. Crystal Martinez was second in race one with Sonya Lloyd third. In race two it was Kayleigh Buyck finishing second with Aubrey Credaroli third.
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