2020 MotoAmerica

Round 7 – Alabama

Images by Brian J. Nelson

MotoAmerica at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama saw Cameron Beaubier continue his winning streak, taking two race wins, in the opening race from Jake Gage and Mathew Scholtz, and in Race 2 from Scholtz and Bobby Fong. The result saw his lead expand to over 100-points, now 325-points to Gagne’s 222, while Scholtz is third on 221.

Cameron Petersen was unstopped in Stock 1000, taking both race wins, with Stegano Mesa and Corey Alexander completing the podium in Race 1. Race two saw Alexander runner up, while Michael Gilbert claimed the final podium position. Petersen sits on 215-points leading the standings, from Alexander (184) and Gilbert (125).

Richie Escalante was untouchable in the Supersport races, winning Race 1 by over 13-seconds from Sean Dylan Kelly, while Jason Aguilar was third. Race 2 was similar with Dylan Kelly over eight-seconds behind, with Brandon Paasch third. Escalante leads Dylan Kelly 311-271, with Paasch third overall on 201-points.

Rocco Landers won the Liqui Moly Junior Cup championship over the weekend, with another two wins to his name, sitting on 335-points, to Samuel Lochoff’s 226, while Dominic Doyle is third in the standings on 217-points.

Lander’s victories extended to the Twins Cup, where he won from Hayden Schultz and Jackson Blackmon in Race 1, and Kaleb De Keyrel and Schultz in Race 2. Lander’s holds a narrower lead to De Keyrel in the Twins, 227-points to 178, while Schultz is third on 134.

Superbikes Race 1

Cameron Beaubier celebrated his 50th win in the premier class of the MotoAmerica series in what was his 105th start, in Race 1 at the Alabama MotoAmerica round over the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park . That translates to a winning percentage of 47.6. In other words, Beaubier has won nearly half of the Superbike races in which he has started. Like the majority of his wins in 2020, it was a dominant one.

Beaubier ran wide on the opening lap in turn five, allowing Mathew Scholtz to squeeze past. The four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion, however, wasted little time in re-passing the South African and from there he was never headed, winning his 12th race of the season by 4.5 seconds with a celebratory stand-up wheelie across the finish line.

Gagne ended up second in the 20-lap race, coming out on top of a battle with Scholtz and earning himself a 10-point lead over Scholtz in the battle for second in the championship. For Gagne it was his 11th podium of the year and his seventh second-place finish. For Scholtz it was podium number nine on the season.

Toni Elias finished fourth, 19.1 seconds behind Beaubier and 5.7 seconds ahead of Cameron Petersen, the South African impressive in putting his Stock 1000-spec Suzuki GSX-R1000 in the top five of a HONOS Superbike race.

Sixth went to Elias’ teammate Bobby Fong, some two seconds behind Petersen. Kyle Wyman was seventh behind Fong and well in front of Josh Herrin. Andrew Lee ended up ninth in his HONOS Superbike debut in his first ride on the team’s GSX-R1000 and his first ride of any kind on a Suzuki. Lee came out on top of a race-long battle with Travis Wyman by just 0.013 of a second.

Superbikes Race 2

Beaubier won his 13th race of the year on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park, and similar to the other 12 wins, the race saw with Beaubier jumping out front off the line, storming away at an unmatchable pace, and then maintaining that lead to the finish. At the line he was 5.125 seconds clear of second-placed Mathew Scholtz.

Cameron Beaubier

“I can’t even believe it. We’ve been on such a roll this season. I’m so grateful for the team that I have. My bike has been working awesome all year. It’s been on rails around this place. Obviously, my game right now is just to try to get out front early and try to take advantage of the good rubber and try to manage my gap if I have one. There towards midway I had a pretty good, I don’t know if they showed it or not, but I had a pretty good (front end) tuck. I almost crashed out of Charlotte’s Webb. The wind was kind of gusting. Some laps you’d go in there and you’d have a pretty big push, other laps you’d brake early. The wind was pretty tricky for me. I don’t know about these guys, but I was definitely getting blown around out there more than I was yesterday. After that happened, I just tried to kind of settle down. My gap started going down and Matty (Scholtz) started catching me a little bit. I just kept trucking along and brought it home. It’s been amazing. It’s just crazy. It’s crazy the year I’ve been having and just how fun and how hard the team is working. It’s so good to come in at the end of the session and you debrief with your guys and you take it seriously and all that, but then when they’re loading up the truck and leaving everyone’s just joking around. As a rider it’s so good to see those guys having a good time and enjoying their job like I am. It’s been an incredible year so far.”

Scholtz earned his 10th podium of the season and moved to just one point behind Beaubier’s teammate Jake Gagne in the battle for second in the HONOS Superbike title chase. Gagne was in the battle early but ran into clutch trouble that slowed him to an eventual fifth-place finish.

Bobby Fong rode his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki to third place, the Californian getting back on the podium after a three-race hiatus from the top three. Fong closed on Scholtz at the end of the race, eventually finishing less than a second behind the South African.

Fong’s teammate Toni Elias ended up fourth, some 10 seconds ahead of the struggling Gagne, who in turn was some 22 seconds ahead of Josh Herrin. Corey Alexander was seventh with David Anthony ending up eighth. Travis Wyman was ninth, one spot better than his brother Kyle. Kyle Wyman was running in fifth when he had an off-track excursion.

Source: MCNews.com.au

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.

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

Superbike Race 1

In three of his four championship-winning seasons, Cameron Beaubier won eight races. Today, in just the ninth race of the season, Beaubier won his eighth HONOS Superbike race, this one coming in the MotoAmerica debut event at the Ridge Motorsports Park. The four-time and defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion led from start to finish to win the 46th Superbike race of his career.

The race was restarted after a multi-rider crash on the opening lap that brought out the red flag, but after that it was clear sailing for Beaubier as he rode to an 8.1-second victory over Mathew Scholtz. Beaubier’s race got a bit easier when his teammate Jake Gagne was forced to slow near the end of the race with a badly worn tire, the San Diegan slipping back to fourth at the conclusion of the shortened 13-lap race. Beaubier also benefitted from the red flag restart after he botched the initial run through the chicane.

Scholtz came out the better of a near-race long scrap with Bobby Fong, the South African battling back after running off track midway through the race. Fong battled through the pain from his injured left wrist/hand to finish third after the South African passed him on the final lap. Gagne was fourth, some six seconds ahead of Toni Elias, the Spaniard well clear of Josh Herrin.

Italian Lorenzo Zanetti ended up seventh in his MotoAmerica debut, the Ducati rider dropping down the order in the beginning of the race with an off-track excursion. Jayson Uribe ended up eighth in his first MotoAmerica race of the year on his Honda CBR1000RR. Uribe bested Cameron Petersen by two seconds with Bradley Ward rounding out the to 10.

Superbike Race 2

To say that Cameron Beaubier is on a roll would be a gross understatement, after winning his ninth superbike race of the season, his sixth in a row and the 47th of his career at the Komatsu MotoAmerica Superbikes At The Ridge on Sunday.

In easily winning today’s 17-lap final, Beaubier eclipsed his season best of eight wins with his ninth of the season while extending his lead in the 2020 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship to 54 points.

Cameron Beaubier

“Yeah, man. It was really good to be able to get nine wins in a season and be able to pass my record that was a few years ago.That just feels really good for me. Everything’s going so good right now. Like I said yesterday, sometimes I feel like I need to get pinched. But at the same time, it’s weird to say but right now that I have the most experience in the Superbike class other than maybe Toni (Elias) or something like that. I’m just dialed in on my R1. I’ve been riding this thing for five or six years. I feel really, really good. Everyone’s working really, really hard at the Monster Attack Performance Yamaha team. It feels so good to put this up on the top of the podium multiple races throughout the year, and also having a great teammate in Jake (Gagne). Being able to go one-two today feels really good to just reward them for all their hard work. It’s just been fun so far this year. They’re slowly catching me. I’m just running for my life out there. Just hope to keep it going and really looking forward to going to New Jersey and seeing how this bike works around there. Hats off to everyone here at Ridge. They made the track a little safer with that chicane. They’re willing to change the track here and there to make it a little safer for when we come back in the future. I think it was a really fun track. So, hats off to them.”

Beaubier’s teammate Jake Gagne ended up second, a day after a front tire issue knocked him off the podium and into fourth place. Gagne’s 20 points stretches his advantage in the championship, and he sits in a solid second place, 22 points ahead of Mathew Scholtz, who finished fourth on Sunday.

Bobby Fong matched his result from yesterday with another third-place finish, the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider again racing with pain in his left wrist/hand from his crash at PittRace a few weeks ago. Fong closed on Gagne in the closing stages of the race, coming up .528 of a second behind the Yamaha rider. Scholtz, meanwhile, was another 3.1 seconds behind Fong in fourth place.

Fifth place on track went to Toni Elias, but he was docked a position which in turn handed the spot to Josh Herrin. Elias had passed Herrin on the final lap after a race-long battle between the two veterans.

Stock 1000 Championship points leader Cameron Petersen had a strong ride to seventh, the South African chasing down Lorenzo Zanetti for the entire race with the Italian crashing out on the final lap. Jayson Uribe had his second straight top-10 finish in his first MotoAmerica event of the year, the Californian riding to eighth some two seconds clear of Bradley Ward. Travis Wyman salvaged a difficult weekend with a 10th-place finish on his BMW.

Source: MCNews.com.au