KurveyGirl.com brings you the results of this weekend’s events.
Showers drenched the Road America circuit on Friday afternoon, and with dry weather forecast for the rest of the weekend, many of the MotoAmerica premier-class riders opted to stay in the pits. There was little to gain, most felt, from riding on a wet-but-drying track, and the potential for an expensive-to-fix crash was high. Rahal Ducati Moto/Xpel’s PJ Jacobsen was second in the morning Supersport session, with teammate Kayla Yaakov sixth, but the entire Rahal team decided to sit out the afternoon’s provisional qualifying session. “We made some changes for Q1, but with the amount of rain, it was a bit pointless to go out because the rest of the weekend is supposed to be dry and sunny. We’re looking forward to Q2 and potentially putting it on pole,” Jacobsen said.
One person who did put in a long run in dicey conditions was Attack Performance rider Bobby Fong. Fong ran 10 laps in a row, grinding his way down into the 2:34 range on a set of Dunlop rain tires, completing nearly a full race distance on a largely empty track. Prior to the season’s start, Fong said his plan for training was riding a lot of motocross, in part to sharpen and maintain his ability to adapt to changing track conditions. Friday afternoon’s Superbike provisional qualifying session provided ample opportunities to do just that, as water on the pavement evaporated visibly between each lap and varied from corner to corner.
Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach is making the most of the ride he nailed down just before the season started. Beach, an accomplished flat track racer who is used to going sideways, put his head down in the wet conditions and on a Stock 1000 machine went two seconds a lap faster than the best Superbike time in similar conditions.
Thunderstorms at the Elkhart Lake track are not to be dismissed lightly.
