2020 MotoAmerica
Round 6 – New Jesersy
Images by Brian J. Nelson
Cameron Beaubier leaves New Jersey Motorsports Park and heads to Barber Motorsports Park this week with a massive 84-point lead in the 2020 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship after what was another walk-in-the-park victory for the four-time series champion. While it’s too early to hand him the number-one plate with three rounds and eight races remaining the series, it’s about time to fire up the engraver.
1. Cameron Beaubier
2. Jake Gagne
3. Mathew Scholtz
After six rounds, Beaubier leads Gagne by 84 points, 275-191, with Scholtz third on 185 points. Fong is fourth with 138, 22 clear of Elias and 26 ahead of Wyman.
The Supersport class saw Richie Escalante take the Race 1 victory from Brandon Paasch and Sean Dylan Kelly, while Kelly claimed the Race 2 win ahead of Paasch and Escalante in an inversion of the first race’s placings.
Escalante now holds the championship lead by 30-points on 261, to Kelly on 231, while Paasch is a more distant third on 172-points.
The single Stock 1000 race saw Cameron Petersen take a clear win from Corey Alexander and Michael Gilbert, mirroring the current standings. Petersen leads on 165, to Alexander’s 148, while Gilbert is third on 96-points.
In the Twins Cup it was Rocco Landers continuing his domination, winning the first race from Teagg Hobbs and Hayden Schultz, while in the second race Schultz moved up to second, with Dominic Doyle completing the podium.
Landers leads the standings on 177-points to Kaleb De Keyrel on 158, while Hayden Schultz is a distant third on 98-points.
Landers also dominated the Liqui Moly Junior Cup, winning from Samuel Lochoff in Race 1 and Joseph LiMandri Jr in Race 2. Benjamin Gloddy completed the podium in both races.
Rocco Landers now leads the Junior Cup standings by 90-points, to Lochoff on 195, while Dominic Doyle is only a single point behind in third.
Superbike Race 1
On a sunny Saturday in New Jersey, Beaubier won his 10th race of the 2020 season to extend his championship lead to a yawning 79 points over teammate Jake Gagne. The win was also the 48th of the four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion’s AMA Superbike career and is closing in on his former teammate Josh Hayes (61 Superbike victories) for second on the all-time win list. The victory, however, didn’t come without a bit of pre-race stress.
As has been the norm so far in 2020, Beaubier’s win was dominant with the Californian taking victory by 9.599 seconds over Mathew Scholtz, who took full advantage of Gagne’s first-lap crash to close in on the Californian for second in the championship point standings. Third place went to a revitalised Toni Elias, the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider ending a podium-less drought that dated back 11 races.
Kyle Wyman bounced back from a disastrous round in the Pacific Northwest two weeks ago to finish fourth on his Ducati Panigale V4 R. Wyman was challenged early on by Bobby Fong but was able to pull clear of the rider to beat him to the flag by almost seven seconds.
Sixth place went to Corey Alexander, the New Yorker matching his previous best HONOS Superbike class result after barely holding off Cameron Petersen in the final laps. Petersen ended up seventh. David Anthony and teammate Bradley Ward finished eighth and ninth with Josh Herrin rounding out the top 10.
Superbike Race 2
Sunday’s win at NJMP came in a shortened race after a red flag was thrown on the second lap when Bradley Ward crashed his FLY Racing ADR Motorsports Kawasaki, putting debris on the racetrack. As he did on the first start, Beaubier grabbed the holeshot and never looked back, opening up a lead and maintaining it to the finish. At the completion of the 14 laps, Beaubier was 2.884 seconds ahead of his pursuers.
Two of those pursuing Beaubier raced to the bitter end with his teammate Jake Gagne drafting past Mathew Scholtz at the finish line by .014 of a second with the two fighting it out for the duration. In addition to the battle on track, that pairing is also fighting it out for second in the title chase. Gagne now leads Scholtz by just six points.
Soon after Scholtz took over second in the final laps, both he and Gagne were baulked by lapped traffic but Scholtz may have gotten the worst of it which allowed Gagne to claw his way back for his last-lap attack.
Bobby Fong was next, the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider finishing some four seconds ahead of his teammate Toni Elias, the Spaniard failing to match the pace that earned him his first podium of the season on Sunday.
Kyle Wyman was sixth after finishing fourth on Saturday, the New Yorker getting the better of Altus Motorsports’ Cameron Petersen on Sunday. FLY Racing’s David Anthony rode his Suzuki GSX-R1000 to ninth with Travis Wyman rounding out the top 10 on his BMW.
Source: MCNews.com.au