Superbike Race Two
OrangeCat Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly claimed his first Quad Lock Superbike victory of the season on Sunday at Road America, capitalizing on the misfortune of Strack Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz to leave Wisconsin with a one-point championship lead.
With Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law rider Cameron Beaubier sidelined by a shoulder injury suffered in Saturday’s race one, Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL’s PJ Jacobsen started from the pole position with his Ducati Panigale V4 R and led the opening lap ahead of JD Beach’s Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 and Sean Dylan Kelly’s BMW M 1000 RR.
The front of the field quickly formed into a high-speed freight train of six riders, while Beach briefly took the lead on lap two before Jacobsen responded. Just two laps into the race, the riders running first through sixth were separated by less than half a second, creating a clear gap to the riders behind.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Cameron Petersen was one of the race’s biggest movers, charging from 14th on the grid to join the tail of the lead group by lap three on his Ducati Panigale V4 R.
The race took a dramatic turn on lap four when Scholtz’s Yamaha YZF-R1 suffered an engine failure in the Moraine Sweep. White smoke poured from the machine as the championship leader coasted to a stop near turn five and retired from the race while running sixth.
At the front, Kelly, Jacobsen, Beach and his teammate Bobby Fong, and Petersen broke away from the field, consistently turning laps in the low 2:10 range while building an eight-second gap over Mission Foods M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Richie Escalante aboard his Suzuki GSX-R1000R who was running sixth.
With four laps remaining, Kelly and Jacobsen created a small cushion over the riders behind them. The battle for the final podium position was decided in the closing laps when Fong made an aggressive pass on his teammate Beach in the chicane before Canada Corner.
The order remained unchanged to the checkered flag, with Kelly earning his first Superbike victory of the season ahead of Jacobsen in second and Fong in third.
Notably, each of the podium finishers is not 100% healthy. Kelly is nursing a fractured fingertip on his braking hand, Jacobsen has a mangled finger on his clutch hand, and Fong has a torn rotator cuff from a crash while he was training aboard his motocross bike a few weeks ago.
Beach finished fourth, while race one winner, Wrench Motorcycles Cameron Petersen, completed an impressive ride from 14th on the grid to finish fifth on his Ducati Panigale V4 R.
Behind the lead group was a heated battle for sixth between Escalante and Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim aboard his Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. As Escalante led Gillim out of Turn 13, it appeared he had the advantage but backed out of the throttle as the bike wheelied at the crest of the Road America front straight, curtailing just enough of his momentum to hand sixth to Gillim at the line by just two one-thousandths of a second.
The Quad Lock Superbike Championship now takes a four-week break before resuming June 26-28 at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, with a new points battle at the top of the standings. Kelly now leads Scholtz by a single championship point with Fong 26 points back in third, effectively resetting the championship after Scholtz’s early domination.
Real Steel Honda’s Andrew Lee finished first in Superbike Cup for the fourth straight race and tightened his stranglehold on the points lead aboard his Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. He now holds a 63-point lead over Super Carl Racing 57 Rider Development’s Carl Soltisz, also aboard a Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.
Supersport Race Two
It’s early days for South African rider Darryn Binder racing in America, but he has certainly taken to U.S. racetracks like a Cape Shoveler to water (that’s a South African duck, by the way).
At Road America, Binder set a new race lap record aboard his Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse Ducati in Saturday’s race one, then he broke it in Sunday’s race two and reset it yet again on his way to getting his second win of the weekend, third win in a row, and fourth race victory in seven races so far. He has also reached the podium in every race this season except the DAYTONA 200.
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott, who set the overall Supersport lap record in Saturday’s Qualifying 2 session, got a great jump off the line in race two and grabbed the holeshot going into turn one.
Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila rider Josh Herrin managed to overtake Scott for second, and he and Binder got into a prolonged skirmish for the lead. Unfortunately for Herrin, however, with five laps to go in the 11-lap event, he suffered a tipover. He was unhurt, but the crash ended his day.
Finally free of Herrin and with Scott battling against Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight’s Kayla Yaakov and Strack Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hayes, Binder was able to run clean, fast laps and build a gap, which extended to more than eight seconds by the time the checkered flag flew.
Scott emerged from the fray with Yaakov and Hayes, and he finished as runner-up with Yaakov and Hayes following close behind in third and fourth, respectively. How close? Scott beat Yaakov to the stripe by just .032 of a second, and Yaakov rounded out the podium by just .076 of a second. Incidentally, Strack Racing Yamaha’s Blake Davis also got himself in the mix for that third podium spot, and he was a scant .005 of second behind Hayes.
Mission King Of The Baggers Race Two
What a weekend it was for Hayden Gillim, who also races in Quad Lock Superbike, but it was the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship where he had a Road America round that he won’t soon forget.
Gillim, who was baptized on Friday night by Chaplains Raymond Rizzo and Mark Merical, broke the track record in Saturday morning’s Qualifying 2 and the race lap record on his way to getting the win in Saturday afternoon’s race one, racked up the double win with his victory in race two on Sunday for his J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian team.
Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s defending class Champion Kyle Wyman tried to hang with Gillim for a while, but the Kentuckian was just too strong. Instead, Wyman and his teammate Bradley Smith enjoyed each other’s company as they pretended their Big Twin Road Glides were flat trackers and parried for position with their rear Dunlops sliding around with authority.
Smith ultimately got the best of Wyman, and finished second behind Gillim, while the rider of the #1 Road Glide, Wyman, had to settle for third.
Twins Cup Race Two
In the Twins Cup Championship, a little home cooking paid off for the pride of De Pere, Wisconsin, Hank Vossberg, who finished out the weekend on his home track with a narrow, and very exciting, victory on Sunday.
The race started out with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bodie Paige getting an incredible jump off the start to put him at the front of the pack. Vossberg chased down Paige and overtook him after two laps, but then, Karns/TST Industries Racing’s Isaac Woodworth got around Vossberg on lap three.
Vossberg fought back and regained the lead, but then, it was Paige’s turn to lead as he overtook Vossberg.
On the penultimate lap of the seven-lap race, Vossberg put his Aprilia back in the lead and rode defensively, but he couldn’t keep Paige at bay. The Australian took the lead and, on the run up to the checkers, Vossberg slipstreamed past Paige to take the victory, Paige ended up second, and Woodworth completed the podium in third.
Vossberg, Paige, and Woodworth all finished within .165 of a second of each other.
Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. Race Two
Bryanna Everitt started from the pole position with a plan to repeat her flag-to-flag winning performance from Saturday’s race one. New Mexico rider Jasmine Noelle, however, had plans of her own.
Getting the holeshot into turn one, Noelle took the lead with Everitt following close behind. Both riders raced in close formation, but on lap two, Everitt ran a little wide and slid off the track unhurt. That left Noelle uncontested at the front, and she held her lead all the way to the checkered flag to take her first win of the season. Brazilian rider Tati Paze, who also podiumed in Saturday’s race one, finished as runner-up, just .177 of a second behind Noelle. Third place went to Emily Dickson, who is from Canada. Dickson and Paze both had a good race and got to battle against each other for the majority of the five-lap event.
Superbike Race One
America’s Dairyland witnessed a barn burner of a show in Saturday’s Quad Lock Superbike race one. An abbreviated race produced a bar-to-bar battle to the finish with just over a second separating the top five.
At the start, Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law rider Cameron Beaubier jumped out to an early lead of over one second, but on lap six, he lowsided in the chicane before Canada Corner. The six-time Superbike Champion quickly got back on his feet, but he appeared to have injured his arm. With his motorcycle laying in a hazardous position just off the racing surface, the race was red-flagged and restarted from the last completed lap’s running order. Beaubier was unable to make the restart.
At the time of the red flag, Wrench Motorcycles’ rider Cameron
Petersen had charged from 15th all the way up to second, thus upgrading his starting position to the middle of the front row for the restart.
Two laps into the restarted race, Petersen took the lead from OrangeCat Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly, with Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong following closely in third.
The trio raced in a close pack for the remaining laps, and Petersen and Kelly swapped the lead twice between Canada Corner and Turn 13 on the final lap, racing so close together that they made contact at one point. Meanwhile, Fong stalked the two frontrunners in third. As the lead three approached the final turn, Petersen led a drag race up the hill to the finish line. Kelly and Fong flanked the South African but came up just short. Petersen took the win over Kelly by .067 of a second, and Fong finished third, just .099 of a second adrift of Kelly.
Just behind the lead group in fourth was Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL rider PJ Jacobsen, who led the first three laps during the pre-red flag portion of race one but dropped to seventh after encountering headshake down the long straightaway leading to turn five. After the restart, he apexed turn one in fourth and finished ahead of Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s JD Beach in fifth.
Points leader Mathew Scholtz brought his Strack Racing Yamaha home in sixth, a little over four seconds off the lead group, while Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim finished seventh. Gillim showed top-five speed before the red flag but ran wide in the chicane on lap two, dropping him down the order.
It was another tough start to a race weekend for Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law’s Benjamin Smith, who was missing from the starting grid after an unfortunate, high-speed crash during qualifying that resulted in him being declared unfit for both of the weekend’s races.
With temperatures in the low 70s expected for tomorrow, and virtually no chance of rain, fans are in store for another Badger State brawl to the finish line at America’s National Park of Speed.
With his first-place finish in Superbike Cup, Real Steel Honda’s Andrew Lee continues his domination of the race within the Quad Lock Superbike race. He now holds a commanding, 51-point lead and appears to be on his way to another double win weekend.
Supersport Race One
Supersport race one began with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott starting from the pole after breaking his own lap record from last year at Road America. As the field established itself in the early parts of the race, Scott was in third place and chasing two Ducati Panigale V2s, who were having an intense, back-and-forth battle at the front.
As Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila’s Josh Herrin and Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse rider Darryn Binder diced for the lead, Scott was also feeling racy, and with two laps to go, he decided to try to break up the Ducati lovefest at the front. Unfortunately, the Pennsylvanian ran out of lean angle, lost the front, and slid off the track unhurt.
Meanwhile, Herrin’s teammate Kayla Yaakov, who was chasing Scott, moved up to third as a result of Scott’s miscue. On the final lap of the 11-lap event, Herrin made a spirited attempt to overtake Binder, but he ran wide and lost his drive.
That enabled Binder to pull a gap, and for Yaakov to close up to Herrin a little bit. Ducati produced a brand lockout of the podium, with Binder notching his third win out of five races, Herrin finishing as runner-up, and Yaakov getting her fourth podium result so far this season.
Mission King of The Baggers Race One
MotoAmerica’s uniquely American race class—the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship—is always a spectacle to see as the riders hustle highly modified Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycle touring bikes (complete with fairings and hard saddlebags) around the road course at a feverish pace.
At Road America, the riders really get to explore the space, with long straightaways that enable their “big dogs” to eat.
After J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian rider Hayden Gillim earned the pole position earlier on Saturday, and Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman won the two-lap Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge, along with the $5,000 winner-takes-all purse that goes with it, the stage was set for what looked to be a race one result that had Gillim and Wyman in the mix.
True to form, it was Kentucky native Gillim who got his fourth victory out of five races so far this year, and he won by a margin of more than two seconds over second-place finisher Wyman. For the New Yorker, it was his fourth podium result as he defends the #1 plate he earned by winning the championship last year. Farther back was Wyman’s teammate Bradley Smith, with the British rider grabbing his second podium finish of the year so far.
Twins Cup Race One
Twins Cup race one wrapped up the first day of racing at Road America, and it was M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bodie Paige who took the win, his first victory in the class and third podium result this year.
For runner-up Jody Barry, it was a poignant result for him and his Righteous Racin’ team. Barry, who has not raced in MotoAmerica for the past couple of years, returned to the series to not only race his former Aprilia RS 660, but also to honor Righteous Racin’s team owner Ray Hofman, who passed away last year.
Wisconsin rider Hank Vossberg, who is only 15 years old and has another week of high school next week before summer vacation begins, brought his Robem Engineering Aprilia home in third. For Vossberg, he extended his string of consecutive podium results to seven.
Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. Race One
The ladies of Royal Enfield’s Build.Train.Race. program kicked off Saturday’s racing with their five-lap feature event. South Carolina rider Bryanna Everitt started from the pole position and led every lap to take her first win in the one-brand spec-racing series.
New Mexico’s Jasmine Noelle finished as runner-up, just as she did in this season’s previous two races, and São Paulo, Brazil’s Tati Paze improved on the two fourth-place results she got at Road Atlanta to complete the podium in third at Road America.
The race was red-flagged after Virginian Brianna Cutler unfortunately crashed out of fourth place with one lap left to go, and the race was declared complete.
Friday Superbike
The Quad Lock Superbike Championship completed day one at Road America under sunny blue skies and temps in the high-70s. With cooler conditions expected on Saturday and lap times reset ahead of qualifying, the starting grid could look considerably different before race one gets underway tomorrow afternoon.
Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law Ducati Panigale V4 R rider Cameron Beaubier spent the majority of the session atop the leaderboard. The six-time and defending Superbike Champion set the pace early and continued to whittle his lap time down to a 2:09.756 to lead the group into tomorrow’s qualifying.
Sean Dylan Kelly brought his OrangeCat Racing BMW M 1000 RR in just one-tenth of a second off the leader to claim P2. The Floridian is racing this weekend with a fractured finger on his braking hand, but he looks unfazed by the injury, and he seems poised to be a contender for the pole position in tomorrow’s qualifying.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Cameron Petersen made a significant leap forward in timed practice, slicing nearly a second-and-a-half off his free practice benchmark to secure third on the timesheets aboard his Ducati Panigale V4 R. The South African was the last rider to break into the 2:09 range, completing an all-European-bike front row.
Rounding out the top five in timed practice are Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing teammates JD Beach (fourth) and Bobby Fong (fifth).
Championship leader Mathew Scholtz and his Strack Racing Yamaha team ended the session sixth-fastest, followed by PJ Jacobsen aboard his Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL entry in seventh. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was eighth, with Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim ninth and Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law’s Benjamin Smith completing the top ten.
For tomorrow’s qualifying, the top 21 riders will take to the track for a 15-minute session that will set the final starting grid. With cooler temperatures forecast and a small window in which to lay down a heater, the pressure will be on to balance risk with the reward of a fast lap time.
Friday Supersport
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott earned the provisional pole from Friday’s Supersport qualifying 1 session. The Pennsylvanian turned in a 2:16.831 on lap eight of the 30-minute qualifying session and was the only rider to dip into “the 16’s” around America’s National Park of Speed.
Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila rider Josh Herrin finished the session second-fastest and four-tenths of a second behind Scott with a 2:17.234 lap time. The Ducati Panigale V2 rider led the session early and will certainly come out swinging for the top spot tomorrow.
Supersport points leader and Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse rider Darryn Binder third-fastest four-tenths of a second off the lead, and just a tick behind Herrin in second. The South African’s ability to quickly adapt to the Ducati Panigale V2, as well as American tracks, kept him firmly in the hunt for pole position tomorrow.
3D Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R750 rider Aiden Sneed continues to climb the ranks, logging a 2:17.604 lap time to grab fourth, provisionally, with Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight rider Kayla Yaakov completing the top five.
Friday Mission King of The Baggers
The Mission King Of The Baggers Championship resumed their series after a four-week break following Road Atlanta. J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian rider Hayden Gillim looked like he never stopped riding after round one. Gillim took the provisional pole by almost a full second, setting a new outright lap record of 2:16.842 in the process. The Kentuckian continues to move the bar higher, pushing his Indian Challenger and himself further ahead of the competition.
Defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Kyle Wyman put his Harley-Davidson Road Glide in P2. The 36-year-old New Yorker turned in a 2:17.724 and is the top H-D in the field, marking the first time this season that a factory Harley is ahead of a factory Indian after provisional qualifying.
Big Diehl x Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s James Rispoli followed his teammate’s lead and parked himself in third before tomorrow’s final qualifying session. The outspoken Floridian recorded a 2:18.792 lap time and will be looking to close the nearly two-second gap to the leader Gillim.
Friday Twins Cup
Robem Engineering rider and local hero Hank Vossberg put his Aprilia RS 660 on provisional pole after the first qualifying session. The 17-year-old De Pere, Wisconsin, native is the only rider in the 2:23 range, and he was just two-tenths of a second of the class lap record.
One second behind Vossberg is another Wisconsin-based team, Righteous Racin’ and their Aprilia RS 660 ridden by Jody Barry. Barry returns to the team’s home track in a moving, one-race tribute to the late team owner Ray Hofman. Barry is aboard the same Aprilia that he raced to multiple Twins Cup victories in past seasons.
Rounding out the provisional front row is M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bodie Paige with a 2:25.002 lap time. The Aussie teenager is looking to bounce back after sitting out the Barber round due to a concussion, but he appears to be getting right back up to speed.
Friday Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race.
The female racers of the Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. program began the second round of their four-round championship, completing free practice and provisional qualifying today. The top three riders ended the session separated by just three-tenths of a second, with Bryanna Everitt taking the temporary top spot. Everitt set a fast time of 3:01.035 aboard her Royal Enfield Continental GT 650.
Brianna Cutler’s improved results compared with last year are ongoing. She turned in a time of 3:01.171 on the eighth lap of the session, effectively keeping the pressure on the leader Everitt heading into tomorrow’s final qualifying.
Jasmine Noelle showed a solid jump in speed from round one, lapping within three-tenths of the leader to put herself in P3 at the end of the first qualifying session.
Based on the lap times in Q1, it is likely to be a close final qualifying battle among the top three fastest riders, as well as in both of the BTR races this weekend.
