KurveyGirl.com brings you the results of this weekend’s events.
Josh Herrin came back from a massive crash in Friday practice that left his Warhorse HSBK Ducati Panigale V4 R on top of the inflatable barriers to take a narrow win over Bobby Fong on a Attack Performance Progressive Insurance Yamaha. Fong was relentless, even taking a shot at Herrin in the final corner, but Herrin rode defensively where he had to and his bike was faster on the top end. Cameron Beaubier crashed, losing the front end of his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW again, but remounted to finish sixth. Sean Dylan Kelly was running third when he lost the front of his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki entering the Corkscrew and launched it into the air. That handed third to Attack’s Jake Gagne. Honda’s JD Beach was fourth on a Stock 1000-spec machine, and Vision Wheel’s Richie Escalante took fifth.
Blake Davis took advantage when PJ Jacobsen left the door open going into Turn Two, stood the Championship leader up at the exit and was untouchable for the remainder of the Supersport race.
More, from a news release issued by MotoAmerica:
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin won his fifth straight MotoAmerica Superbike race on Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, taking full advantage of a miscue by his championship rival Cameron Beaubier to extend his eight-point championship lead to 23 points.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Beaubier led from pole position but gave way to Herrin on the third lap. From there, Herrin used his slow-the-pace strategy and led for three more laps before Beaubier went to the front again. Just when it looked like Beaubier was ready to pull the trigger, he tucked the front in turn two and crashed. The five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion was able to remount and finish sixth, scoring 10 points that may prove valuable at season’s end.
If Herrin thought he was going to have it easy after watching Beaubier crash out, he had another thing coming in the form of Bobby Fong. Fong hounded Herrin for the duration but failed in his attempt to take victory with a last-lap, last-corner pass that came up just .367 of-a-second short at the finish line. It was Fong’s fifth second-place finish of the season.
Fong’s teammate Jake Gagne finished third for his sixth-podium finish of the season. Gagne knew he was a bit lucky with Beaubier’s crash in turn two and Sean Dylan Kelly’s crash in the Corkscrew.
Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach turned in a solid performance to finish fourth on his Stock 1000-spec Honda CBR1000RR-R SP, which also earned him victory in the MotoAmerica Superbike Cup Championship.
A beaten and bruised Richie Escalante was fifth on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki after a second practice crash in two days. Escalante was less than a second behind Beach at the finish and well clear of Beaubier.
BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau was seventh, a few seconds ahead of Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Danilo Lewis. Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders was ninth with Edge Racing’s Jason Waters rounding out the top 10.
Notable among the non-finishers was Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim, who went out with a mechanical issue, and crashers Kelly, Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, and FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith.
After nine races, Herrin leads Beaubier, 184-161, and Gagne is third with 141 points. Fong gained some ground on his teammate and now trails him by four points. Escalante rounds out the top five in the series standings with 92 points.
Superbike Race 1
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (Honda)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Bryce Konbau (Yamaha)
- Danilo Lewis (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Jake Gagne – Third Place
“Ridge went pretty well. We were closer to Josh (Herrin), Cam (Beaubier), Bobby (Fong), and those guys. I’ve just kind of been a little off pace here all weekend. We’ve been trying to find something to make me a little more comfortable. I was definitely hoping to be closer to those guys. Like I said, I got lucky with those guys going down. Beaubs (Beaubier) going down, and then SDK (Sean Dylan Kelly) went down in the Corkscrew. Then I was just kind of rolling around, trying to think about what we could do, how we could close the gap to these guys because they’ll be rolling. Two races tomorrow, so we’ve got a long day. I want to be in the fight with those guys, but thanks to the team. It’s always good being at Laguna. The crowd is sick. Let’s go racing tomorrow.”
Bobby Fong – Second Place
“Could have, would have, should have. You look back at the race and you’re like, ‘maybe I should have passed here, or I should have passed there.’ But Josh (Herrin) rode a good race. I couldn’t get the job done today, but tomorrow we have two more shots. I think we have a direction on what I want to work on a little bit for tomorrow. It got a little greasy out there, for sure. Once we lose our roll speed on this thing, I’m kind of a sitting duck. I think we can improve on that tomorrow and see if I could put my head down tomorrow and see what we can do. I know Beaubs (Beaubier) will be up there tomorrow. Everybody is going to take another step tomorrow and we’ve just got to do the same.”
Josh Herrin – Winner
“I knew today with my neck being as sore as it is, it was going to be a hard race for me. I knew Cam (Beaubier) had pace. It’s his home track. He’s going to push hard. Lately I’ve been approaching the races different. This guy’s (Beaubier) been my main competition for the last two years and I want to kind of find out what I need to do to try to beat him. Coming into this race, I knew it was going to be hard, but I know that he’s all or nothing. I don’t know if it’s his bike or if it’s just the way that he is, but he’s got to be pushing to the limit the whole time. He can’t slow the pace down and then go back. He’s got to be out there charging from the back or charging from the front. My goal was to just disrupt him a little bit, slow the pace down, throw him off his game a little bit. I knew he’d come back around and try to go hard. That’s when I was counting on the mistakes. As soon as he made the pass, he made the mistake. If you can’t beat him straight up, you got to figure out how to beat him mentally. I think I’ve figured that out. I’m just going to keep playing that as long as I can whenever I need to. We go to tracks where I’m just not as strong as him. That’s just how it is. Sometimes you’ve just got to play that mental warfare and try something a little bit different. Instead of me just taking all the risk and blowing wide all the time, I’m just trying to be smart. It comes with age. It comes with being a father and being patient, I guess. Today it worked out in our favor. It’s not going to always go like that, but today it worked out.”
Still more, from a news release issued by MotoAmerica:
Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman continued his dominant season of Mission King Of The Baggers racing with his fifth win of the season coming on a sunny Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim led off the start with Wyman in tow, but Gillim’s effort went for naught when his Road Glide expired, spewing oil on the racetrack and bringing out the red flag.
After a delay, the race was restarted, and Wyman led from the start and was never headed. S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Loris Baz kept Wyman honest throughout, coming up a tick over two seconds behind the 23-time King Of The Baggers race winner.
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers was third, taking over the spot when Baz’s teammate Troy Herfoss made a last-gasp effort to pass his teammate going into the Corkscrew. The defending series champion, however, ran wide, which allowed Landers to scoot through to finish third.
Herfoss held on to fourth with the Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glides behind him, ridden by Bradley Smith and James Rispoli.
Saddlemen Race Development’s Cory West, Lyndall Brakes/M3’s Max Flinders and S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Tyler O’Hara was the final finisher in ninth place.
“I definitely expected him to be there, just like last year,” Wyman said of Gillim. “He just goes good here. He had pace all weekend. I was able to pull something out this morning in qualifying, but the conditions in the morning are so much different than the afternoon. I knew that we weren’t going to do any 27s this afternoon. I really didn’t expect that. Obviously, we pretty much did high 28’s most of the race because of the oil dry situation. It wasn’t a surprise to me when I made a mistake on the first lap and Hayden (Gillim) got by. Then to me, I guess I was in front of him for half a lap, so I didn’t really notice the oil until turn five, coming out of three and four. Then it seemed to get worse very quickly. That’s when I was like, ‘I’m out.’ I don’t want any part of this. Sure enough, he nearly went down. Glad he’s all right. Glad nobody went down. It could have been really bad. Then made for a pretty tricky race, with the oil dry and trying to figure out where you could actually put your tires. On the warmup lap, I got out on the curb out of six and almost crashed on the warmup lap there. Just was able to kind of lock in and focus on where you can’t put your wheels. Once I figured out kind of what I could do, then I could try to make a rhythm out of that, and I was able to dip into the 28’s. That’s when I was able to start bridging the gap.
Motovation Supersport – Davis Does It
Strack Racing’s Blake Davis has been looking forward to racing at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and now we know why. The teenager beat two veterans, his veteran teammate Mathew Scholtz and Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s PJ Jacobsen, in winning his second Motovation Supersport race of the season and the third of his young career.
At the end of the first of two 17-lap races, Davis was .756 of a second ahead of Scholtz with Jacobsen 1.9 seconds behind after the three battled for most of the race.
Jacobsen’s championship points lead shrunk to just six points over his rival Scholtz, 182-176, with Jacobsen not overly pleased with some of Scholtz’s on-track antics and complaining of such in the post-race press conference.
Davis is a solid third in the title chase with 132 points, 25 more than Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott, who was ninth in Saturday’s race.
Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati’s Cameron Petersen was fourth, .6 of a second behind Jacobsen and some 10 seconds ahead of Altus Motorsports’ Maxi Gerardo.
Rahal Ducati Moto w/Roller Die’s Corey Alexander was sixth and hot on Gerardo’s rear wheel at the finish, and some three seconds ahead of MP13 Racing’s Aiden Sneed, who had his best finish of the season.
Scott and Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s Kayla Yaakov rounded out the top 10.
“I love this place,” Davis said. “I couldn’t wait to get here, especially after the Ridge. I kind of struggled at the Ridge. I always do. I always have a hard time there. So, I was really excited to get out here to Laguna. I knew I could have pace this weekend. The race for me, it just went amazing. It was a little rough start. I wish I could have done better the first lap or two. But from there, I started making moves and got my way to the front. I agree, it was kind of a slow pace out there. I just felt like the track was really slick today. So, ready to get back out tomorrow. Do some more work overnight. Try and find some more pace for the race tomorrow. I felt amazing. Got to lead most of the race. It was just a great time for me.”
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – Rispoli’s First
A thrilled James Rispoli stood on the top step of the podium in Saturday’s Mission Super Hooligan National Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday, the New Yorker having won in the class for the first time in his first season on the KWR Harley-Davidson Pan America.
Rispoli took over at the front from Saddlemen Race Development’s Cory West when the defending class champion ran a little wide in turn two to start the third lap. Rispoli didn’t need much of an invitation and he made an inside pass on West. From there it was clear sailing as Rispoli rode to a 2.7-second maiden victory.
Third place went to Rispoli’s KWR Harley-Davidson teammate Cody Wyman after a race-long battle with his teammate Hayden Schultz. Saddlemen Race Development’s Travis Wyman ended up fifth, barely besting the first non-Harley Pan America in the race, ridden by Competition Werkes Racing’s Andy DiBrino.
Edge Racing’s Jason Waters rode his Triumph to seventh, well clear of ARCH Racing’s Corey Alexander. Fighting Charlie’s/HDR’s Hunter Dunham raced his Yamaha to ninth with Strack Racing’s Hawk Mazzotta 10th.
With championship points leader Jake Lewis knocked out of this weekend’s racing after suffering injury in Friday practice, West has moved to within four points of the Saddlemen Race Development rider who had won four of the past races coming into the Laguna round.
“Man, I’m absolutely thrilled,” Rispoli said. “I got the whole HD crew here. I got my teammate on the podium. We got the big dog, Kyle Wyman, at this one. I saw what he did in that challenge, and I was like, ‘I need to throw something, maybe a little 33 chatter on that bad boy. I tried to throw something down. (Cory) West had a great pace out there. He ran a little bit wide and maybe a little bit tight into turn two, but all clear. I just put my head down. It was just really good. My whole bike, the KWR Harley-Davidson, the Pan America is just amazing. Even slapping all this weight on, you just can’t stop us at the moment. We got some great people here. We got the head honcho from Alpinestars here. They support us and give us all these badass suits. The other thing I want to say is, Jake Lewis, I hope you’re healing up right now. I know you’d be up battling with us. So please heal up. Come back to the next race. We want to race you hard. Just heal up, man. Thank you so much to everybody. This one feels so good. The first win. They don’t come easy, but this one feels good.”
SC-Project Twins Cup – Who Else But Di Mario?
Robem Engineering’s Alessandro Di Mario is making a habit out of winning SC-Project Twins Cup races and that doesn’t bode well for anyone else in the class.
Di Mario won his fourth race in a row on Saturday at Laguna Seca, and it was again a runaway with the Kentuckian winning by a tick over nine seconds. Early in the season, Di Mario wasn’t winning, but he was second in those first three races. And he hasn’t lost since race two at Barber on April 4.
The battle for second went the distance with RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Matthew Chapin battling with fellow class rookie Hank Vossberg for the duration. At the finish line it was Chapin by just .124 of a second over Di Mario’s teammate Vossberg.
Karns/TST Industries’ Levi Badie was fourth after a battle with Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher.
“I got the holeshot and I was pretty happy about that,” Di Mario said. “I was like, ‘I’m just going to set the pace.’ But in the first lap, the bike was sliding everywhere. I think the tires were pretty cold. So, it took a lap or two to get up to pace, but I saw the gap increasing so I just tried to be as consistent as possible. I caught a false neutral going up at the Corkscrew, I think around lap seven or eight. Then I caught a lot of lappers, so I slowed down a little bit. I saw a nine-second gap or something. I was like, ‘I’m just going to manage.’ That’s what I did.”
