ASRA/CCS Heads to Summer Cyclefest at Summit Point Raceway This Weekend
Fort Worth TX – This weekend Summit Point Raceway will host the Summer Cyclefest where American Sportbike Racing Association/Championship Cup Series brings all three of its Championship Series together for another huge event on August 15-16. Along with CCS Mid-Atlantic Championships on the line, the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge by Michelin Tire will contest round 3 of their series while the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprints by Pirelli Tire compete in round 5 of their 8 round series.
In the chase for the 2020 Mid-Atlantic Overall Championship, “Young Gun” Gus Rodio will try to hold off the resurging veteran Arnold Hastings with just 3 events left in the season for the sportsman series. For the Amateur Overall Championship, it’s Kyle Carrington of Alexandria VA battling Alex Yampolskiy from Totowa NJ for the 2020 Championship. These riders will face off during the 22 CCS Sprints over the 2 day event hoping to secure their position In CCS Racing history as an Overall Champion!
Saturday will feature CCS Sprints starting at 11:00am followed by the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge series in a 75 lap contest of man and machine with 11 of the front running teams already entered for the contest, setting up a challenge for Grease Monkey Racing (Stephen Hoffman, Eric Helmbach) and LB Sports (Lloyd Bayley) for the 2020 GTO title with a scant 5-points between the 2 teams, while the perineal GTU front runner Fast Lane Racing (Rick Beggs, Jason Gibbens) will be facing down challengers Birch Racing/B&D House (Dorsey Birch, Chris Rodriguez, Arthur Aznavuryan) and TsT industries (Gabriel Wingard, Adam Wingard) within 6-points of their championship lead.
The action continues on Sunday with ASRA Qualifying sessions at 9:30am then right into CCS races before the ASRA Sprints take the track after the lunch break. The afternoon will finish off with the remaining CCS races and the ultra-fast Unlimited SuperBikes with Mark Heckles and Frank Babuska Jr. will close out the event in what should be epic fashion if past history is an indicator.
Please keep in mind that this event is subject to COVID-19 restrictions and is open to racers, family and crew members only.
The American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA) is the parent organization to the Championship Cup Series (CCS), the largest amateur motorcycle road racing organization in the United States issuing over 2800 licenses per year. ASRA promotes eight AMA sanctioned Sprint Series and six AMA sanctioned Team Challenge road racing events for 2020. The CCS Series sanctions 40 events at popular tracks around the United States, including Daytona International Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Road America, New Jersey Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway among other fine venues. In 2020 ASRA and CCS will provide riders with access to millions of dollars of sponsorship awards through participation in its sanctioned events.
For more racing information visit www.asraracing.com or www.ccsracing.us or call us at (817) 246-1127. Join CCS and ASRA in the greatest road racing experience available today!
The FIM, IRTA and Dorna Sports recently announced the addition of a fifteenth Grand Prix to the 2020 FIM MotoGP™ World Championship calendar, with the event set to take place from the 20th to the 22nd of November and become the season finale.
The venue for the event can now be revealed as the incredible Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal. The reserve track for MotoGP™ since 2017, the circuit will now make its debut on the calendar.
The Autodromo Internacional do Algarve is truly unique, with its characteristic elevation changes and undulating layout earning it a reputation as a high-speed rollercoaster – a thrill ride for fans and competitors alike. The track will now welcome MotoGP™ back to Portugal for the first time since 2012, and the event will see Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) racing on home turf in the premier class for the first time.
Autodromo Internacional do Algarve CEO Paulo Pinheiro: “It is a great achievement for our team to finally have MotoGP at our racetrack! MotoGP is the pinnacle of two-wheeled motorsport, and we are so excited to have it.
“It has been a long process with Dorna, we had an agreement in place since 2017, and finally all the hard work paid off. On top of this to have Miguel Oliveira on the MotoGP grid, being able to fight for the podium will be an amazing add on for this race, and hopefully the Championship will be decided here.
“We are working to have the fans in our race, and we will start with a capacity of 30.000 fans for the race weekend and then we will decide with Dorna and the sanitary authorities the following stages.
“We can’t express how happy we are to have this race.”
Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta: “It’s big news for us, we signed an agreement in 2017 with Portimao to be the reserve circuit for any kinds of cancellations, and we’ve been in contact with them all this time. We’ve been to Portimão with Superbike and we think it’s an amazing possibility for us, and also in the agreement is that the track will be resurfaced after the Superbike round. When we explained this to the riders they were excited because they’ve seen the track on TV, but we’ve never been there.
“Portugal has a long history in our sport and there have been some historic battles in Estoril. It’s something very good for us to have the possibility to go back to Portugal, especially with Miguel Oliveira participating as it’s great to have a Portuguese rider able to compete in his own country. We are extremely happy to be racing in Portimão at the end of the year.”
FIM President Jorge Viegas: “I am very proud that MotoGP will return to my country eight years after the last Grand Prix, which took place at the Circuito do Estoril in May 2012. I would like to warmly thank Dorna, the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve and the Motorcycling Federation of Portugal for having managed to meet the necessary conditions for the organisation of the finale of the 2020 FIM Grand Prix World Championship to take place in Portugal.”
Westby Racing’s Scholtz Is A Superbike Double Runner-Up At PittRace, While Wyman Rolls A Pair Of Sixes In Junior Cup
Wampum, PA – At first glance Westby Racing’s results on Sunday at Pittsburgh International Race Complex (PittRace) appear to be a carbon-copy of Saturday’s results. Superbike rider Mathew Scholtz raced his #11 Yamaha YZF-R1 to a second-place finish just as he did on Saturday, and Junior Cup rider Cody Wyman finished sixth on Sunday aboard his #34 Yamaha YZF-R3 to match his sixth-place result on Saturday. But, for both riders, their Sunday races were very different from their Saturday races.
For Mathew, who started from the middle of the front row, he was pounced on in the first lap by fellow Yamaha rider Jake Gagne. Jake had improved his setup from Saturday’s race, and it showed in Sunday morning’s warmup with him going second-fastest in the session compared with Mathew being third-fastest.
With Cameron Beaubier in the lead and Jake in second, Mathew knew he had his work cut out for him in running down the pair. Undaunted, Mathew put his head down and focused on doing fast, consistent laps. His efforts, combined with Jake experiencing a technical issue, enabled Mathew to catch Jake, pass him, and create a gap of more than 13 seconds over Jake, which enabled Mathew to secure a runner-up finish for the second day in a row.
“I kind of figured that something happened to him,” Mathew said about Jake. “Looking at the morning warmup times, we saw that they had upped their pace. I was a little bit disappointed in the warmup that we didn’t break into the 40s. My whole game plan was just to kind of follow Cameron and Jake and just sort of hang onto them and try to see, maybe from the halfway point, if I could consistently run low 41s and try to catch up to Jake, but something happened and he fell back. I’m just really happy to be back up on the podium and finish second for the Westby Racing team again today. We’ve been working hard. I feel like we’re getting better every time we go out. Just when we kind of think that we’ve caught up to Cameron, he pulls something out. So, we’ll just carry onward and find something more.”
Cody started fourth on the grid in his race and rode a consistent race in a pack of closely bunched riders, which has been the recurring theme this season. He ran no lower than seventh due to the shuffling of positions within his group, and he was in sixth place and planning his strategy for the finish line when the red flag was displayed due to an incident on the track that didn’t involve Cody. The race was declared final instead of being restarted, which spoiled Cody’s plan to move up in the results.
Cody Wyman (34) leading a group of Junior Cup riders at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Westby Racing.
Cody said, “This morning, we tried new gearing, and I thought that was the right move for the race. I knew we were in our own battle for fourth place. I tried to study the other riders, and I thought I was in a good spot. But then, a red flag ended our race early. I was bummed because I really wanted a short sprint race to the finish. Two sixth-place finishes aren’t the worst, though. I really wanted a podium yesterday, but it’s a long season. Thank you to my team, family, and friends who came out to PittRace. On to a brand-new track on the West Coast. I’m always stoked to learn a new course, and I can’t wait to get out there.”
Next up for Westby Racing is round five of the MotoAmerica Championship, which will take place (without spectators in attendance) at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, on August 28 through 30.
Also, follow “Westby Racing” on your favorite social media sites.
More, from a press release issued by Ducati North America:
One up for Kyle Wyman in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship after PittRace 2020
Kyle Wyman (33). Photo courtesy Ducati North America.
Mountain View, Calif. – Kyle Wyman (OneCure/KWR Ducati Team) jumped up one place in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship to fourth following two hard-fought races at round four of the series, held at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex this weekend.
After qualifying in fifth after Superpole, Wyman raced to an excellent fourth in Saturday’s race one behind winner, Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier.
Sunday’s race two was a gloves-off affair, as Wyman recovered from a bad start to be eighth into turn one, clawing his way back to fourth and engaged in a race-long scrap with Suzuki’s Toni Elias and BMW’s Josh Herrin.
Struggling with grip issues from lap two, Wyman was on the limit throughout the 17-lap race but had to settle for sixth at the flag, with Beaubier again taking the win.
Jake Lewis (85). Photo courtesy Ducati North America.
Jake Lewis (Celtic HSBK Racing Ducati), filling in for the injured PJ Jacobsen, collected eighth in race one and eleventh in race two for his Ducati debut at Pittsburgh this weekend.
MotoAmerica Superbike Standings — Top 5
P1 — Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 175
P2 — Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 138
P3 — Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 116
P4 — Kyle Wyman (Ducati) 89
P5 — Bobby Fong (Suzuki) 82
15 — Jake Lewis (Ducati) 20
Kyle Wyman (OneCure/KWR Ducati Team — Ducati #33)
“Saturday was really good,” Wyman said. “We were happy with fourth, considering we didn’t have a lot of pace. I wanted to replicate that today (Sunday) but I got a terrible start. I had to fight back to the top five but I got there relatively quickly, and up to fourth. I tried to put in laps and get a gap but I only saw +.5 as the biggest gap and I was pretty hosed early on.
“I had no grip from the beginning and a bunch of chatter in the esses. I was at my limit by about lap seven. We missed the set up, but I did everything I could by going from eighth to fourth and eventually sixth. We came into the weekend fifth in points, and left fourth. It’s not where we want to be but we have to take the positives.”
Jake Lewis (Celtic HSBK Racing Ducati — #85 Ducati)
“It was lot more difficult than I thought,” said Lewis. “I was stuck at a certain pace and couldn’t go much faster than that. Both my starts were terrible. Five people passed me each time, and today I ran off track early. I got a few places back but it wasn’t nearly as good as I expected from this weekend.
“The team’s great to work with, but it’s a struggle going fast. I didn’t have a great feeling with the rear and couldn’t feel the tire biting into the tarmac. The torque in second gear wasn’t what we hoped and we lost ground on corner exit. The bike’s easy to ride but you have to charge to go fast. It wasn’t an easy week, for sure.”
More, from a press release issued by Jason Aguilar Racing:
Plenty of Supersport points in the bag at Pitt Race for Jason Aguilar
Jason Aguilar (96). Photo courtesy Jason Aguilar Racing.
Jason Aguilar produced arguably his best races of 2020 at Pittsburgh International Race Complex this past weekend, finishing fourth in the two sixteen lap Supersport encounters.
Starting from the second row of the grid, the RiderzLaw Yamaha rider was in podium contention throughout Race One, making some aggressive overtakes, clearly at home banging bars whilst in the midst of a six-rider battle. Dropping to sixth, Aguilar dug deep, recovering to fourth at the flag on Saturday, a whisker away from third.
Sunday’s race saw Jason lose touch early on with the top three, the #96 using his head to launch an attack for fourth in the closing stages, crossing the line to add another thirteen championship points to the thirteen he added twenty four hours earlier.
The double fourth position finish consolidates Jason’s place in the overall standings, keeping him well in contention for P3 as the series heads to a new venue – The Ridge – in a couple of weeks.
Jason Aguilar: “We made some pretty significant changes on the bike this weekend, just to try a few things. The first session on Friday we found something that didn’t work but the second session (qualifying one), we found something that actually worked really well. We didn’t do the usual strategy of coming in and using two tyres, we focused on the race and I left the same tyre on for the whole session. I was able to run my fastest lap on the last lap, on a tyre that had done sixteen laps. The race distances are sixteen laps, so it was encouraging, and we had a new tyre in the bank for final quali. I got off to a fairly good start in Race 1 and pushed hard to hang with the lead guys. Ben Smith passed me, I passed him back and we got into a bit of a scrap. I hit a false neutral and tagged him but luckily stayed upright. I have no idea how I saved it. I lost quite a bit of time, but I regrouped, caught the guys, and managed to grab P4 on the final lap. I showed a good pace and it was the closest I’ve been to the podium this year so on one hand I was satisfied but on the other I was pretty bummed. Race 2 honestly didn’t go as I wanted. Some personal stuff messed with my head a little and I felt like I wasn’t really there come race time. I did go faster than Saturday, but something was definitely off. The top three got away, so I used my head and took fourth on the last lap. Another fourth, which I guess is better than fifth, but we will regroup, and I am looking forward to Washington – a new track for us.”
For more information go to www.aguilarracing.com
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:
Beaubier Perfect in Pittsburgh
Cameron Beaubier (1). Photo courtesy Yamaha.
Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Beaubier capped off a perfect weekend at Pittsburgh International Race Complex with a win in race two to further strengthen his title defense in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship. His teammate Jake Gagne held onto a third-place finish to give the team a sixth-double podium of the season.
Beaubier led every session and set about leading the final one by grabbing his second holeshot of the weekend. The reigning Superbike champ tried to pull another disappearing act but his teammate was moving along right with him. Holding up to the pressure, he focused on putting in some fast, consistent laps in the 1:40s and ultimately crossed the line nearly 10 seconds ahead of the competition to score his seventh win in eight races. As the series nears the halfway mark, Beaubier holds a 37-point lead in the championship.
Gagne got off to a good start in third and quickly moved into second a few turns later so that he didn’t give up too much time on his teammate. He was able to stay with Beaubier for the first half of the race, but unfortunately, a technical issue arose, costing him time and his healthy gap on fellow Yamaha R1 rider Mathew Scholtz. Just after crossing the finish line with four laps to go, he got shuffled back to third. From then on, the Californian did everything he could to salvage a podium, his second third-place finish of the weekend.
The Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing Team heads to the Pacific Northwest in two-weeks time for round four of the championship at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, on August 28-30.
Richard Stanboli – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing Team Manager
“Once again the team came together to improve the performance of the machines for race two. Impressively, Cameron has won every race that he has finished and Jake has shown pace that is at the same level. We will digest what we learned and go to the Ridge race with an even better package.”
Cameron Beaubier – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“It was an amazing two weeks for me racking up some wins. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Our team has given Jake and I some amazing bikes this year and we are putting them to use. Jake was pushing me hard today up until about the halfway mark where he had a little problem. I just kept my head down to get to the checkered flag. I’m looking forward to Ridge!”
Jake Gagne – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“We made some great progress with the bike this morning in the warm-up and smoothed out some of the issues that were holding us back yesterday. I got off to a good start and got in behind Cam right away. Our pace today was much faster. We managed to keep Cam pretty close to us until about the halfway point and unfortunately ran into some technical problems that got worse and worse. I’m really happy with the crew and the progress that we’ve made throughout the weekend. Thankfully we kept it on the podium. I’m looking forward to the next one.”
More, from a press release issued by Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.:
KELLY AND DUMAS FIGHT TO THE PODIUM FOR M4 ECSTAR SUZUKI IN PITTSBURGH
Sean Dylan Kelly (40) fought bravely for two second place finishes on his GSX-R600. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Brea, CA (August 10, 2020) – Suzuki Motor of America, Inc. and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki followed up last weekend’s abundant trophy haul at Road Atlanta with three additional podium finishes this weekend as the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing championship completed Round 4 of the 2020 season at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in Wampum, Pennsylvania.
And like at Road Atlanta, it was the team’s two 18-year-old prodigies who registered the weekend’s highlight performances for the squad.Sean Dylan Kelly continued his consistent excellence in MotoAmerica Supersport action, hustling his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R600 to a pair of runner-up finishes. The twin seconds upped the Floridian’s impressive string of first- or second-place finishes to seven.
On Saturday, ‘SDK’ battled for the lead over the race’s opening half before settling into a clear runner-up position. On Sunday, he had to fight for second right down to the checkered flag, losing the position on the final lap only to reclaim in the race’s final corner and then win the sprint to the checkered flag.
Kelly said, “In today’s race, I knew where he wanted to pass me because I could hear him there every lap. I tried to block it but went a little wide and he got me on the switchback. He then tried blocking me in the last corner, but he went a little wide, so I said, ‘Okay, perfect.’
“We’re here to fight for the win, and I gave it my 100% in both races but it just wasn’t enough. Everyone with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki is pushing their hardest. I wish I could have given them another win this weekend, but it wasn’t to be.
“Overall, I’m happy because I gave it all I had, but I’ll admit it was a struggle because we really want to win — that’s our goal — and we just didn’t have enough to do it. It’s not easy fighting a displacement disadvantage but we’re going to keep on working and we’ll come back at Washington and do what we can. I’m looking forward to getting to an even more technical track and we’ll look to bring home a couple wins.”
Alex Dumas (16) nearly won the first Stock 1000 race and made his Superbike debut. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Fellow teenage sensation Alex Dumas extended his meteoric rise with his best showing yet since throwing a leg over the fire-breathing M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 in the Stock 1000 class.
While Dumas was expected to take some time coming to grips with a literbike after coming off back-to-back national titles in the MotoAmerica Junior Cup and Twins Cup classes, the French Canadian was fast from the start and only continues to get faster as he gains experience.
After improving from seventh to fourth to third to second in his first four races in the class, Dumas very nearly finished off the run with a win on Saturday. He slashed up from fifth to first only to narrowly lose out on the win on the final lap and ‘settle’ for another second.
“I had a really good race,” Dumas said. “I didn’t get a great start but I got through almost everybody. I was catching the lead little bit by little bit and then I got through in Turn 7 thanks to getting a really good run in 6.
“I gave it everything I had but just came up short on the last lap. I was pretty fast coming out of Turn 14 and coming onto the back straightaway, but I almost highsided. After that there was nothing I could do.”
Dumas followed that up with a fourth in Sunday’s Stock 1000 race before making his MotoAmerica Superbike debut later in the afternoon. There he proved to be a quick learner as well, picking up a top-ten finish with a ninth in his maiden premier-class attempt despite running a considerably more stock-spec machine than the established class’ frontrunners.
Toni Elias (24) delivered a pair of top five finishes in Pittsburgh on his GSX-R1000. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
The team’s decorated Superbike regulars had a more difficult weekend. Road America race winner Bobby Fong battled for second in Saturday’s main event before a crash took him out of contention at mid-distance.
Unfortunately, the Californian injured his left thumb in the fall. While he made a brave attempt to collect some points on Sunday, he was ultimately forced to retire from the race due to the pain and lack of grip strength.
2017 MotoAmerica Superbike champion Toni Elias scored a pair of top-five finishes on the weekend. The Spaniard took over fifth on the final lap of Saturday’s race and backed that up with another fifth on Sunday, taking the checkered flag on his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 with a podium finish less than two seconds up the road.
Lucas Silva (23) continued his run of top-ten finishes in Supersport. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Finally, Lucas Silva extended his perfect season’s run of top-ten finishes in MotoAmerica Supersport competition. The young racer notched up his third consecutive sixth-place finish on Saturday and then backed that up with a strong seventh on Sunday.
Additionally, Cameron Peterson (Altus Motorsports Suzuki) and Rocco Landers (SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki) won on bikes built by Team Hammer.
The team will return to action on August 28-30 when the ‘20 season resumes at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington.
More, from another press release issued by Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.:
Petersen Dominates in Pittsburgh
Cam Petersen (45) delivered the perfect race weekend on his GSX-R1000. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Brea, CA (August 10, 2020) – Altus Motorsports rider Cameron Petersen completed the perfect weekend at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex by taking pole position, winning both races convincingly and claiming the championship points lead in the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 class. Petersen started the weekend strong by taking pole position with a blistering time of 1:43.824 on his Altus Motorsports GSX-R1000. Starting from pole position, Petersen battled all race long and traded positions with fellow Suzuki GSX-R1000 rider Alex Dumas until the final laps when he took the lead for good and secured the win on Saturday.
The young South African rider then continued his success on Sunday in race two, taking the lead from the very first lap and continued to ride tenaciously for the remainder of the race taking another hard fought win over a field of strong contenders in the class.
“That was a better race for sure,” said Cam Petersen after race two, “ We found something this morning and we were able to push throughout the whole race. The pace was way quicker than it was yesterday, but I’m not going to let those wins go that easily.”
Cameron Petersen takes his Stock 1000 championship points lead to the fifth round of the MotoAmerica roadracing championship at the Ridge Motorsports Park August 28-30 in Shelton, Washington.
More, from a press release issued by Altus Motorsports:
MotoAmerica: Round 4 Results from Pittsburgh for the Altus Motorsports Tucker Hagerty Rangeline Team
(Wampum, PA) After a tough Round 3, the goal of the Pittsburgh race weekend was to regain lost momentum, get back to winning and show why Altus is a significant player in the MotoAmerica paddock.
Cameron Petersen (45). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Honos Superbike & Stock 1000: The Altus Team showed up in Pittsburgh cautiously optimistic that they had solved the brake fade issues that have plagued Cameron Petersen’s Suzuki GSX-R 1000 since the beginning of the season. Over the course of the weekend, they did manage to find a fix and Cam was able to achieve his goal of “regaining some of the points we left on the table in Atlanta.” Once again he topped the Stock 1000 timesheets on Friday and locked in pole position for the races.
Petersen had a great start in the Saturday race and was building a commanding lead when the race was stopped due to a red flag. In the eight-lap restart, Petersen had to fight for the win. After multiple lead changes over the duration of the race, the Altus rider made a last-lap pass to take the win.
The Sunday Stock 1000 race was another hard-fought battle. The last two laps were a nail-biter with Petersen’s tenacity and skill again leading him to the top step of the podium.
“I love races like that,” said Cameron Petersen, “The pace was quicker on Sunday. The competition is really stepping up. I can’t thank the team enough for all of the hard work. It looks like we conquered our brake issue and now we can start working on some set-up adjustments to go even faster.”
“Credit to Cam’s experience to put that last round behind him and trust that the team would do what it takes to give him a bike he can win on,” said team-owner George Nassaney.
In the Superbike Race 1, Cameron started from the middle of the 4th row and finished in 13th. In the Sunday Superbike race, Petersen managed an 8th place finish on his Stock 1000 legal motorcycle.
Kevin Olmedo (16). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Supersport 600: Kevin Olmedo continues to impress. His practice and qualifying times were good enough to put the Supersport 600 rookie on the front row of the starting grid in 3rd. Unfortunately, he missed the sighting lap for the Saturday race and was forced to start from the back. Olmedo didn’t want to let the lead group get away and wasted no time getting through the pack. Kevin crossed start-finish in 7th at the end of the first lap. With three laps to go, Olmedo powered his GSX-R 600 into third place. A position he held off-and-on during a 3-bike battle for the last three laps. Ultimately, he finished the race in 5th.
On Sunday, Kevin started the race from his proper grid position on the front row. He spent much of the race battling for 4th place and took the checkered flag in 5th
“I am getting more comfortable on the GSX-R 600. I am able to run with the front guys and continue to finish in the top five. I am very happy with these results for my first year on a 600,” said Kevin Olmedo.
Jaret Nassaney (59). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Jaret Nassaney had a tough weekend. He was unable to get comfortable on the bike on Friday and was off his previous pace. A clutch issue ended his Saturday race before it started. During Sunday’s warm-up things started to look up. After a set-up change, Jaret’s lap times were close to his previous best. Unfortunately, a massive crash on lap 5 of Race 2 ended his weekend.
Daniel Kinard (33). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Liqui Moly Junior Cup: PittRace is yet another brand new track for Daniel Kinard. His goal for the weekend was to learn the track and improve every session. And he did. He dropped a couple of seconds between first practice and Qualifying 1. Shaving a few more seconds in the second qualifying session put him 15th on the grid for the race starts. Kinard continued to improve and get faster in each race. He finished Race 1 on Saturday in 13th and Race 2 in 15th.
“This weekend was really good for the team. We’ve really started to gel and communicate better. Getting the two wins in Stock 1000 was a fantastic boost. We will take that momentum to the west coast in a few weeks,” said George Nassaney.
The Altus Motorsports team is supported by our great family of sponsors: Altus Motorsports, Tucker Powersports, Hagerty, Suzuki, The Rangeline Group, VP Lubricants, RS Taichi, Arai, Moto D, Bonamici, Hotbodies Racing, SBS Brakes, Vortex, Motion Pro, Law Tigers Oklahoma, Arata Exhaust, Dunlop, Team Hammer, and Altus Factory Racing.
MICHELIN GOES TO AUSTRIA FOR A SPIELBERG DOUBLE-HEADER
Michelin has made the short trip from Czechia into Austria as MotoGP™ sets-up camp for back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring at Spielberg with firstly the running of the myWorld Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich followed seven days later by the inaugural staging of the BMW M Grand Prix von Styria.
The 4,318m circuit is located within the picturesque mountains and forests of the Styrian region, but that is where the calmness ends, as it is one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar for tyres. With just two distinct left turns and a fast left-hand curve, it is the remaining seven right-hand corners which present the huge stresses and heat build-up that the MICHELIN Power Slick tyres will have to contend with. Due to these demanding requirements Michelin has a special rear tyre construction, designed specifically for these conditions. The use of these tyres will mean that the new rear construction, with its improved grip and performance that has been so successful so far this season won’t be used at Spielberg. The tyre designed especially for these situations also gets used at Buriram in Thailand, but due to the changes to this season’s calendar because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the double-header at Spielberg will be its only outing in 2020.
For such a demanding track the MICHELIN Power Slick range – in soft, medium and hard compounds – will have an asymmetric finish on the special rear construction, with a harder right-hand-side ideally suited to manage the high temperatures which can build-up over a lap of this unique track. To complement the rears, the front MICHELIN Power Slick tyres will see the soft, medium and hard compounds in a symmetric finish, with compounds designed to give the riders the turning and stopping power they need and to instil the confidence over the fastest track that MotoGP visits in this, or in a regular season.
Michelin can also expect the possibility of wet weather, as the Red Bull Ring has demonstrated several times since MotoGP returned to the circuit in 2016. With this prospect in mind, the allocation will feature MICHELIN Power Rain tyres in soft and medium compounds. The fronts will have a symmetric finish, whilst the rears will be asymmetric and feature a harder right-hand side like the slick equivalents. For both races the tyre allocation that the riders have at their disposal will be the same for both slick and rain versions.
Michelin and the MotoGP field will take to the track for the first instalment of what promises to be a two-part Spielberg blockbuster on Friday 14th August, for the first two free practice sessions, these will be followed on Saturday by more practice and then the all-important Qualifying. Sunday 16th August will see the 28-lap myWorld Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich get underway at 14.00hrs local time (14.00hrs CEST, 13.00hrs BST, 12.00hrs GMT/UST), with the following week’s BMW M Grand Prix von Styria – also over 28 circulations – seeing the same schedule with the lights changing to signal go on Sunday 23rd August.
“The races are certainly coming along at a fast rate, as this double-header will make it five races in six weekends since the start of the season, but this one is a little bit different as we have to change the construction of the rear tyre. Spielberg is a very fast and demanding and the tyre builds up a lot of heat, so we use a tyre that can cope with that and give the riders the control from the rear that they need. We have witnessed some exciting races here at Spielberg in the last few years and hope that this season, with two ahead of us, it will be a similar result. We have supplied the tyres that will ensure that the riders have the best grip and performance at their disposal, so now we wait to see what they can produce.”
Andrew Irwin strikes twice then gets struck out at Donington Park season opener
Andrew Irwin sensationally doubled up on victories during a dramatic opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park this weekend; however it took a dramatic change in race three when he was involved in an incident with Josh Brookes, which later saw him disqualified from the result.
The Irwin brothers had been formidable all weekend with the new Honda Racing Fireblade, and after their one-two finish in the opening race of the season when Andrew pipped Glenn on the final lap, the pair were shaping up for another intense battle in today’s two races.
Glenn Irwin had been holding the lead throughout race two, but yet again Andrew Irwin struck on the final lap, putting the brakes on his brother to double up his achievement for Honda Racing in an incredibly close battle for the victory.
The pair looked set to reignite their sibling rivalry in race three, and after fighting their way up the order, they were in the battle for the podium positions in the closing stages after Tommy Bridewell delivered a dominant performance. The Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider led from the start and edged an advantage to become the second different race winner of the season.
By lap 24 Glenn Irwin was into second and Brookes split the Honda Racing teammates, however disaster struck as Andrew Irwin made contact with the VisionTrack Ducati rider at Hollywood sending him crashing out at high-speed and into the safety fence. The Australian was able to walk away from the incident but he was out of contention. The race result was then subsequently under investigation by Race Direction.
As they crossed the line Bridewell won by 2.064s ahead of Andrew and Glenn Irwin. However following a long deliberation by the Race Direction panel it was announced at 19:30 that Andrew Irwin would be disqualified for his part in the incident for avoidable and unfair contact causing a collision and crash with Brookes. Irwin also receives six penalty points and by virtue of his total penalty points accumulated, he will start his next Bennetts BSB race from the last grid position.
The result means that brother Glenn Irwin leaves the opening round of Donington Park leading his brother by ten points in the championship standings ahead of Snetterton.
McAMS Yamaha celebrated a podium finish in race two with Jason O’Halloran to be one of five different riders, representing four different teams, who celebrated top three finishes at Donington Park this weekend.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, race two result:
Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing)
Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +0.194s
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.288s
Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) +1.035s
Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +1.411s
Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +3.557s
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +3.817s
Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +4.156s
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +5.437s
Héctor Barberá (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +5.757s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, race three result:
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati)
Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +2.157s
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +2.403s
Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +6.510s
Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +8.657s
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +8.923s
Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) +9.067s
Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki) +13.265s
Lee Jackson (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +14.425s
Héctor Barberá (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +14.927s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after Donington Park:
Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) 60
Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) 50
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 43
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 40
Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 34
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 28
Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) 26
Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) 22
Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) 22
Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki) 20
For more information on the Bennetts British Superbike Championship visit www.britishsuperbike.com
Andrew Irwin
(Honda Racing)
Race 2 winner
“Even with the outcome this evening from the final race, this has been a great weekend, with two race wins at the first round on a brand-new machine.
“It’s been a good start to the season with Honda and the Fireblade, and I’m looking forward to the progress we can make. I’ll keep working hard, putting in the time and effort in the next two weeks, to arrive at Snetterton even better. But we have to be realistic there, we know it’s a different track and a different style to Donington, so we have to hope the bike is also competitive there, so I’ll go, try my best and hopefully we can do a good job.”
More, from a press release issued by Honda UK:
A further win and podium for the new Fireblade at Donington Park
Honda riders Glenn Irwin (2) and Andrew Irwin (18) at speed at Donington Park. Photo courtesy Honda UK.
It was another successful day at Donington Park for the opening round of the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship for the Honda Racing team, as Andrew Irwin took a second race win aboard the all-new CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP, bringing its tally of wins to three in its debut outing on British soil.
The second British Superbike race of the weekend was another nail-biting experience in the Honda garage as teammates and brothers, Andrew and Glenn Irwin held off the chasing pack across the 26-lap race. Glenn started from the first row of the grid in third place, with Andrew behind in fifth, and by the end of the first lap it was Glenn leading the race.
By lap six it was again a Honda 1-2, as Andrew made up places to join Glenn at the front. Holding off their championship rivals, Glenn led the way lap after lap, but brother Andrew was hot on his heels and coming into the last corner made his move to take his second win of the weekend, with Glenn crossing the line 0.194s behind in second place.
The final Superbike race of the weekend also didn’t disappoint, but with Andrew starting seventh and Glenn 12th, they knew they had a job on their hands. However, showing throughout the race the strength of the new Fireblade, both Honda men set about tracking down their opponents, and by half race distance Glenn was sitting third with Andrew fourth.
On lap 23 the brothers made their move into the podium spots with Tommy Bridewell leading the pack, but again on the final lap Andrew made his move on his brother to take second place, with Glenn completing the podium in third.
Following an incident in the final stages of Race 3, with Josh Brookes exiting Redgate, Andrew has since been disqualified from the race, as well as receiving penalty points for his involvement in the incident, which means he will start at the back of the grid for Race 1 at Snetterton. Glenn moves into second place in the results and takes the championship lead with 60 points, with Andrew in second place with 50 points. After Round 1 Honda is leading the manufacturer standings and is 24 points ahead of Ducati in second place.
Meanwhile Tom Neave made an outstanding comeback in the final Superstock race of the weekend coming from last on the grid to cross the line fifth, setting a new Superstock 1000 lap record in the process. The race was rescheduled to the end of the day after a red flag incident earlier in the day, where Tom should have started from pole position, but after missing the gate for the quick restart he was relegated to the back of the grid.
However, cutting his way through the pack he soon moved his Fireblade up through the order to finish in an impressive fifth place, and was only 2.295s from the win. After this weekend Tom is sitting joint first with Chrissy Rouse in the championship standings with 36 points. Meanwhile teammate Davey Todd continued to progress throughout the weekend, crossing the line 10th in the race.
The Honda Racing team will now look forward to Round 2 of the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship, which takes place in two weekends time at Snetterton on 21/22/23 August.
#18 Andrew Irwin: Even with the outcome this evening from the final race, this has been a great weekend, with two race wins at the first round on a brand-new machine. It’s been a good start to the season with Honda and the Fireblade, and I’m looking forward to the progress we can make. I’ll keep working hard, putting in the time and effort in the next two weeks, to arrive at Snetterton even better. But we have to be realistic there, we know it’s a different track and a different style to Donington, so we have to hope the bike is also competitive there, so I’ll go, try my best and hopefully we can do a good job.
#2 Glenn Irwin: It’s been an amazing weekend! Race 2, for sure I chucked away a win! The final race today was probably my favourite ride, even though we finished third, (then moved into second). I wanted to not do anything stupid and if Andy came past me then fair play, but to come from 12th, same for Andy he was 7th on the grid was a good job. That race was enjoyable I got to him and he was stuck behind the Ducatis and I felt I could pull him through, so was nice to overtake him and the others, to be honest I never give up and I stayed in 1.06s to try and catch Tommy [Bridewell]. I threw everything at that race and when you do that and come away with a podium, it’s the icing on the cake – a victory would have been sweet, but we never expected the results we had this weekend and we leave here as a happy team, with a really happy rider with his confidence back – a lot due to what I’ve been working on off the track. Thanks to Harv and everyone at Honda for this weekend.
#68 Tom Neave: We made a mistake not getting out on time, but that was probably the most solid and maturest race I’ve ever had, I learnt so much – it was character building for sure! I suppose sometimes you have to have a weekend like that to prove where you’re at, but anyone who knows anything about racing will know I should have won that race, the Fireblade was amazing and the team has worked so hard to be where we are now. We came through the pack from last to finish fifth, so I can’t be disappointed with that. Thanks to Marcus for coaching me and helping me with all my training, everything off the bike feels like it’s come together and with the bike I have the full package. Also thanks to everyone who is supporting me, it’s been such a great weekend to get my first race win! I cannot wait to get to Snetterton redeem myself, and continue my 2020 journey!
#74 Davey Todd: It’s been a bit of a crazy day all in all, with the red flag and incidents this morning. To be honest we had our work cut out for us at the start, it was always going to be difficult starting so far back on the grid with the times from Race 1, but we made some really good set-up changes and we were strong in warm up this morning, I knew we had the pace and made some good changes. In all honestly we had the pace, we had the pace to be at the front, we were running pretty much the same time as the race winner in fact – we had the pace to run at the front, but just that pack of riders in the top-10 is busy! We need to work on a few things but we’re making progress with the Fireblade and making progress with me, most of all, but we’ll be strong at the next round.
Team Manager Havier Beltran: We’ve had a fantastic start to the season, we arrived at Donington without any expectations and the results this weekend across the Superbike and Superstock classes show what a great bike the new Fireblade is. I’m proud of everyone in the team for what we’ve achieved this weekend and we’re now leading BSB with Glenn and also the manufacturer standings. We’ve learnt a lot across the weekend and have more of an understanding and more information of where we need to be stronger. Of course we can’t take anything for granted and Snetterton is such a different circuit to Donington, but we will refocus, set our goals and see where Round 2 takes us.
More, from a press release issued by VisionTrack Ducati:
Tough Times At Donington For Brookes And Iddon
VisionTrack Ducati riders Josh Brookes (25) and Christian Iddon (21) in action at Donington Park. Photo courtesy Paul Bird Motorsport.
Defending champions VisionTrack Ducati saw 2020 riders Josh Brookes and Christian Iddon have an eventful day at the opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park today with a fourth place for Iddon the best they had to show for their efforts, which undoubtedly deserved more.
After claiming a podium in yesterday’s opening race of the season aboard the factory-supported VisionTrack Ducati Panigale V4 R for Paul Bird’s Cumbrian team, Brookes had been on course for a second podium finish in the final race of the weekend before a collision with Andrew Irwin resulted in a high-speed crash fortunately without injury to the Australian.
Earlier in the day, the opening 26-lap race started well as pole setter Brookes grabbed the lead off the line and although he was soon overhauled by Glenn Irwin, he was looking comfortable in second with Iddon one place further back in third having made a strong start from the second row.
2015 champion Brookes was forced wide on lap five and dropped back to sixth place and by half race distance, he’d dropped to tenth which left Iddon to fly the flag towards the head of the field as he slotted into third place behind the Hondas of the two Irwin brothers.
However, as the race entered its final third he too ran into trouble and fell back, eventually finishing in eighth place, two places behind Brookes who recovered some ground in the second half of the race to take sixth.
The second 26-lap encounter saw Ducati rider Tommy Bridewell disappear into the distance, never to be headed, but both Josh and Christian were in the hunt for a podium position for much of the race.
Indeed, both riders ran inside the top three at one stage and Brookes occupied second place for 15 laps before Glenn Irwin pushed him back to third on the 23rd lap. Moments later, Andrew Irwin attempted to overtake Brookes as they headed towards Craner Curves but as he did, the two riders touched, and last season’s runner-up Brookes crashed out at 130mph.
However, race stewards later disqualified Andrew Irwin for unfair contact which contributed to Brookes’ crash meaning Iddon, who crossed the line in fifth was elevated to fourth place, his second of the weekend.
The championship table sees Iddon in fifth place with Brookes in seventh as they head to the second round at Snetterton in two weeks’ time.
Josh Brookes: “What can I say? Despite a podium, I wasn’t happy with the bike in race one, so we made some changes overnight. They really didn’t make a lot of difference in today’s opening race and I ended up making a couple of silly mistakes, so I’ll take the blame for that one. We had to change the bike again for the third race and that worked as we were competitive and had I got a better start; I think I could have gone with Tommy. And then I encountered the situation with Irwin. Glenn got past me fine, but Andrew touched me as he went past and down I went. These things happen so we move on and hope for better results at Snetterton.”
Christian Iddon: “It’s been a big learning curve for me this weekend. Race one yesterday felt good and I was happy enough but in today’s opening race, I really struggled, especially in the last third of the race. The final race was better, and I was able to maintain a good pace. I was closing in on the leaders, but I made a minor mistake which let a couple of others past. From then onwards, I fell away and couldn’t manage a final push for the podium. Two fourths and an eighth isn’t what I want but we can work with those results. It’s three finishes, loads of data and no crashes so there’s room for improvement and my feeling with the bike is brilliant until the late stages of the race, so we just need to work on that and we’ll be somewhere near.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-Ordinator: “It’s been a disappointing weekend and we intend to look at where we need to improve before the next round. It was great to see Josh get a podium yesterday, but we struggled today, not helped by another rider causing him to crash at high speed. Luckily, he’s not injured but disappointing all the same that it happened. Christian continued to get to grips with the bike and with a pair of fourth place finishes, he was unlucky to miss out on a podium. Our aim is to bounce back at Snetterton so that’s our focus now.”
The next round takes place in two weeks’ time at Snetterton, Norfolk on August 21-23.
More, from a press release issued by Smiths Racing:
Challenging Weekend at Donington For Global Robots BMW
Peter Hickman (60). Photo courtesy Smiths Racing.
After a four month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship finally got underway this weekend with the opening round taking place at Donington Park but it proved to be a challenging affair for the Global Robots BMW team with 11th place for Alex Olsen their best finish across the three races.
Both he and team-mate Peter Hickman encountered issues during the weekend and crashes in both practice and qualifying put Hickman on the back foot going into race one on Saturday where he lined up in 14th place and the fifth row for the 22-lap race. Alex qualified two places further back although both riders were promoted up the order one place after Keith Farmer was forced to withdraw.
The race saw perfect conditions all round the 1.9-mile National circuit and a good start by the pairing enabled them both to make good strides forward, Hickman moving up inside the top ten on the opening lap. However, he soon began to encounter an issue under braking into the corners and although he was lying in eighth place at half race distance, from thereon in he fell back. Indeed, he eventually took 12th place with Alex overhauling him on lap 14 to take a solid 11th place.
It meant they started Sunday’s first race from 15th and 16th on the grid with each rider gaining a place at the end of the first lap. However, having moved up to 12th two laps later, Hickman’s hopes of points disappeared on lap 11 as he ran wide into the gravel at the Old Hairpin, eventually rejoining in 23rd place.
Olsen, meanwhile, found himself locked in battle at the bottom end of the top 15 as he exchanged places with Yamaha’s Jack Kennedy on more than one occasion. He crossed the line in 14th place for two more championship points with Hickman eventually finishing in 18th.
Fortunes for the pairing again differed in the final 26-lap race of the weekend but a good start for Hickman put him up to 11th and although he’d slipped back one place at the chequered flag, four more points and another finish could prove to be valuable come season’s end. On this occasion, it was Alex’s turn to be out of luck when he was forced to retire just after half race distance with a failed gear position sensor.
Peter Hickman: “It’s been a very disappointing weekend to be honest especially as the whole team has worked so hard from the very beginning. I had two unfortunate, and silly, crashes in practice and qualifying and then issues throughout with the brakes so it’s hard to know what to say. We changed so much to try and improve things but all to no avail so it was a hard weekend and the brake issue remained with me throughout. In the last race, I struggled with grip also so that kind of sums our fortunes up this weekend.”
Alex Olsen: “It hasn’t really gone our way this weekend and, like Pete, I struggled on the entry to the corners with the brakes too. We did improve things race on race but whilst we improved in some areas, we lost in others and I had to make lunges to overtake people rather than them being smooth, clean passes. The final race was the best in terms of how the bike performed but on this occasion a sensor failed and I had to retire. We’ve made a lot of changes for little reward this weekend but on the plus side, I was able to fight for the points in each race and 11th in race one is my best BSB finish to date so we’ll keep working hard and look to crack the top ten next time out.”
Darren Jones, Team Co-ordinator: “It’s hard to know what to say really as it’s been a really disappointing weekend to the beginning of the long-awaited series. We’ve still got some inherent problems under braking, problems which we had throughout all of last year, and whilst we thought we’d got to the bottom of them in pre-season testing in Spain, it’s now clear we haven’t. They were heightened in a race situation and led to a few issues but at least we came away with a few points even if they were far from the haul we had hoped for. I was pleased with both riders in terms of how they worked and how they remained calm throughout rather than getting wound up. It’s frustrating as we’ve done so much work to try and rectify the problem and we’ve thrown everything at it these last three days but all to no avail. Unfortunately, we’ve stood still without realising so we’ll get back to the workshop, get our heads together and come back stronger at the next round.”
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Service:
SUZUKI’S RYDE 4TH AS FARMER INJURED AT DONINGTON PARK BSB
Kyle Ryde (77). Photo courtesy Team Suzuki Press Office.
Team Suzuki Press Office – August 9.
Kyle Ryde: GSX-R1000 – DNF-4-7 (BSB)
Keith Farmer: GSX-R1000 – DNS-DNS-DNS (BSB)
Tim Neave: GSX-R1000 – 4-7 (Superstock)
Leon Jeacock: GSX-R1000 – 12-12 (Superstock)
Michael Dunlop: GSX-R1000 – 22-20 (Superstock)
Buildbase Suzuki’s Kyle Ryde enjoyed a positive opening round of the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship this weekend at Donington Park in the UK, securing two front-row starts and a fourth place in race two.
Ryde put his GSX-R1000 on the front row for the opening race of the season after qualifying third and grabbed the holeshot as the lights went out to lead the way early on. Sadly, the dream start was shattered when a stone flicked up from a bike in front – as he battled for the lead – put a hole in his radiator.
Starting from ninth on the grid, he spent race two carving through the field to claim fourth, less than a second off the podium, and another front-row start for the final race of the weekend after setting the second fastest lap of the race in the process. Race three saw Ryde struggle early on as he dropped out of the top-10, but he recovered to eighth with lap times akin to those fighting for the podium. He was promoted to seventh after Andrew Irwin was disqualified post-race.
Kyle Ryde:
“To be honest I didn’t expect that from the weekend. In FP2 we changed the front tyre we were working with and that made a huge difference and I managed to pull a lap time out in qualifying that I didn’t think we’d get near this weekend. Leading race one I kept waiting for people to pass me but it took about 10 minutes, but then a stone put a hole in the radiator and that was that. It was obviously a real shame but there were plenty of positives to take from it.
“I was happy with race two, to come through to finish fourth and get on the front row again for the final race but I just struggled early on with the full fuel tank, as the pace was pretty hot from the start. But then it clicked midway through and I managed to start moving forward again and with another lap or two we could have had sixth and our pace was good enough for the podium at that point. I was disappointed to cross the line in eighth, but if someone had offered me that before the weekend I’d have taken it, which shows what a good weekend we’ve had. We just need to work on that early race pace and hopefully we can be fast for the full race distance, starting at Snetterton.”
It was not the weekend his teammate Keith Farmer was hoping for; the luckless former Superstock 1000 and Supersport Champion, on his return from injuries sustained in 2019, crashed in qualifying injuring his shoulder, ruling himself out of the weekend’s races.
Keith Farmer:
“It’s so frustrating because we really found something this weekend and the bike started to really feel like my bike. We worked with the clutch and the engine-braking, as that has such an effect on the whole balance of the bike, and we could then work on the chassis. In the qualifying session we made some changes as we went and after putting in a new rear tyre I set my fastest lap of the weekend but going into Redgate the rear came round and I lost the front and I had a pretty big crash. I’ve got what they’ve called a phase two injury of my ACJ which can be six weeks recovery time, but I’m hoping to see a specialist this week and hopefully we can get that down. The team were doing a good job and it’s a real shame, but hopefully we can get back on track soon.”
In the National Superstock 1000 Championship Tim Neave came away with two strong results, finishing fourth and seventh, with Lean Jeacock collecting a brace of 12th-place finishes.
The team was also joined by Michael Dunlop for the weekend, as the TT winner – who won the 2017 Senior TT with the team and the GSX-R1000 – enjoyed two outings in the National Superstock Championship. With the major road races cancelled for 2020, Dunlop picked up a 22nd and 20th from the two races, using the opportunity to gain track time and remain bike-fit.
Superbike race one result: 1. Andrew Irwin, 2. Glenn Irwin, 3. Josh Brookes, DNF: Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000) , DNS: Keith Farmer (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superbike race two result: 1. Andrew Irwin, 2. Glenn Irwin, 3. Jason O’Halloran, 4. Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), DNS: Keith Farmer (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superbike race three result: 1. Tommy Bridewell, 2. Glenn Irwin, 3. Jason O’Halloran, 7. Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), DNS: Keith Farmer (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superstock race one result: 1. Tom Neave, 2. Damon Rees, 3. Danny Kent, 4. Tim Neave (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 12. Leon Jeacock (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 22. Michael Dunlop (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superstock race two result: 1. Chrissy Rouse, 2. Billy McConnell, 3. Damon Rees, 7. Tim Neave (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 12. Leon Jeacock (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 20. Michael Dunlop (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Four-Time Champion’s 45th Win Comes At Pittsburgh International Race Complex
Cameron Beaubier (1) leads Jake Gagne (32), Mathew Scholtz (11), Toni Elias (24) and the rest of the field at the start of MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike Race Two at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
WAMPUM, CA (August 9, 2020) – Cameron Beaubier celebrated his 100th AMA Superbike start in the best way possible. With a victory. The win, Beaubier’s seventh of his near-perfect season, was the 45th triumph of the four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion’s career.
As the others have been in 2020, Beaubier’s win was decisive, though he wrongly downplayed it as “a bit lucky.” Challenged early by his Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha teammate Jake Gagne early on, Beaubier ended up 9.59 seconds ahead at the finish after clutch problems dropped Gagne back to third. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was the beneficiary of Gagne’s problems, the South African ending up second for the second straight day at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.
“Just going to try to keep this ball rolling as long as I can,” Beaubier said after his start-to-finish victory in the HONOS Superbike race. “Like Jake (Gagne) said, the Monster Attack Yamaha guys have been working so hard. It’s been great. It’s been so much work all year so far. Just going to try to keep it going. I’d say I got a little lucky in that race. Jake has been improving all weekend, and same with Matty (Scholtz). Lining up today after how fast he (Gagne) was in warmup, I knew it was going to be pretty tough. At the start of the race, I put my head down and got a good start, which I’m really happy about because I’ve struggled with starts pretty bad in the past, and this year it’s been going really good. I get off the line really good and I think that’s a little key to our success as well. I saw .5 on my board lap after lap after lap. I’m like, ‘man. Jake is riding really good.’ I missed a shift and kind of almost put my face through the windshield with maybe 11 to go, something like that. I knew he had probably stuck on me pretty good. I came by, and I saw plus two seconds gap. I was like, ‘oh man. Maybe he ran off or something like that.’ Turns out it was a little clutch issue, which is a bummer for him because I knew it was going to be a pretty tough end to the race. All in all, I’m just really happy with where we’re at. Me and Garrett (Gerloff) had a really good battle last year, to finish second. I had a lead and ran off the track with a few laps to go to finish second to Toni (Elias) last year here. So, it was really, really good to get a couple wins here. Hats off to all my guys.”
Scholtz knew after the morning warm-up that he was in a bit of trouble as the other two had stepped up with faster lap times.
“I kind of figured that something happened to him,” Scholtz said when he saw Gagne coming back to him near the end of the race. “Looking at the warmup times we kind of saw that they had upped their pace. I was a little bit disappointed in the warmup that we didn’t break into the 40s. My whole game plan was just to kind of follow these two and just sort of hang onto them and just try to see maybe from the halfway point if I could just consistently run those low 41s and try to maybe catch up to Jake (Gagne), but something happened and he fell back. Just really happy to be back up on the podium and finish second for the Westby Racing team. We’ve been working hard. I feel like we’re getting better every time we go out. Just when we kind of think that we’ve caught up to Cameron, he pulls something out. So, we’ll just carry onward and find something more.”
Gagne said he was fortunate to finish third because he wasn’t sure he could nurse the bike to the finish.
“First off, we made a lot of improvements,” Gagne said. “Today the bike felt better than we have all weekend, obviously. At least to be able to run those times we wanted to run in the beginning in the first couple laps. We didn’t let Cam (Beaubier) get totally out of sight. We kind of just sat around a half second or so and was able to learn a lot. The first time I’ve been that close to Cam all year, especially on the starts because he’s been taking off. Unfortunately, there was that one lap, I think I just roasted the clutch a little too hard on the start. Then obviously it just kind of got worse and worse and worse. Like Cam said, he came by one lap and already pulled some seconds. I was messing with the adjuster, trying to get it to at least survive. For a second I didn’t think I would have done 10 more laps or whatever we had to go. Just rode a gear high and just kind of putted around there. I knew Mat (Scholtz) was coming. Luckily there was a big gap there behind Mat. For a while there I definitely didn’t think we’d still end up on the podium. The bike just kind of got slower and slower after the clutch. We got on the podium. We got a sweep again. Hats off to my team. They’re working so hard. I’m happy that we made some improvements and went faster today.”
Josh Herrin survived an off-track excursion and fought his way back up to fourth place by the finish of the race, the Scheibe Racing BMW rider besting M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s
Toni Elias by a tick over a second. OneCure/KWR Ducati’s Kyle Wyman was also a part of what was an entertaining battle for fourth, the New Yorker ending up sixth.
FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony finished seventh, some six seconds clear of Altus Motorsports’ Cameron Petersen. Ninth place went to M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Alex Dumas, the 18-year-old solid in what was his HONOS Superbike debut.
Travis Wyman ended the 17-lap race in 10th place on his Travis Wyman Racing BMW S 1000 RR.
With four rounds (eight races) completed in the 2020 HONOS Superbike season, Beaubier leads the title chase by 37 points over Gagne, 175-138. Scholtz is third with 116 points and Wyman moves back to fourth in the standings with Bobby Fong forced out of the race early with too much pain from his big crash yesterday.
Editorial Note: The race was stopped by a red flag on lap eight of 10. The incident that brought out the red flag involved Isaiah Burleson and Gus Rodio. Rodio was seen on video feeds riding his motorcycle back into the pits, but Burleson’s condition was not known at post time.
Support Classes At Pitt Race Have Everyone Seeing Double
Escalante, Petersen And Landers Win Twice
WAMPUM, PA (August 9, 2020) – If you won on Saturday at Pittsburgh International Race Complex, then you also won on Sunday at PittRace. That’s how the support classes ended up with all the winners doubling up over the course of the two-day program with Richie Escalante, Cameron Petersen, Rocco Landers all doing the double in Supersport, Stock 1000 and Liqui Moly Junior Cup, respectively. Landers even went one better and also won the lone Twins Cup race on Sunday.
Richie Esclanate (54) and Sean Dylan Kelly (40) battle for the lead in Supersport Race Two. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Supersport: Escalante Rolls On
In Sunday’s Supersport race one, HONOS Kawasaki rider Richie Escalante won his seventh race out of a total of eight so far this season. Similar to yesterday, Escalante had to contend with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly in the early going. Kelly got the holeshot and led lap one until Escalante found a way past and never looked back.
Meanwhile, Celtic HSBK Racing’s Brandon Paasch had a battle of his own early on with Altus Motorsports rider Kevin Olmedo and then Kelly. At the finish line, it was Escalante winning by nearly seven seconds over Kelly, who had his hands full with Paasch right to the finish. Paasch, in face, led on the final lap but made a mistake that allowed Kelly to squeeze by. At the finish line the two were separated by just .024 of a second.
“Today, every day, we’re feeling better,” Escalante said. “Today I have a little bit more rhythm, so I could pass. Brandon (Paasch) , in the first several laps, was really good. I pushed my rhythm very consistently. I’m really happy to win with this gap and every lap the same. Just keep working. The championship is coming. The next race is a new track so new motivation.”
Cameron Petersen (45) leads Corey Alexander (23) and Travis Wyman (10) during Stock 1000 Race Two at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Stock 1000: Petersen Doubles Up
In Sunday’s Stock 1000 race two, Cameron Petersen, the rider with the most momentum this weekend at PittRace, did the double and won his second race in as many days aboard his Altus Motorsports Tucker Hagerty Suzuki. But it was far from easy for the South African, who faced a strong challenge from HVMC Racing Kawasaki rider Corey Alexander.
Petersen started from pole, and Weir Everywhere Racing BMW rider Travis Wyman slotted into second with Alexander in third. While Petersen set the pace, Alexander was able to pass Wyman and close the gap on the South African at the front. Alexander raced hard and managed to get around Petersen, but he ran wide and handed the lead right back to Petersen who held his advantage, albeit a narrow one, to the finish line.
Alexander finished second and was just .196 of a second behind Petersen. Wyman, who is recovering from an arm injury, faded towards the end of the race, but held on for the final spot on the podium, just under four seconds adrift of Alexander.
When asked if he knew who was hounding him for the lead, Petersen said, “No. Honestly, I thought it was going to be Alex (Dumas). Alex was showing some pretty serious pace all weekend. Every lap I came by and saw plus-zero on my board. At the beginning of the race, I was like, ‘I’m going to put my head down and see what I can do.’ I might have an opportunity to get away, and it just didn’t happen. These guys were on my butt the whole race pressuring me. I just tried to do everything I could, just hit my marks and not make any mistakes. That was a hell of a race. I enjoy races like that. That pressure and not really getting shown a wheel the whole race and then two laps to go here comes Corey. I’m like, ‘This is going to be a dog fight.’ I saw that moment he had in the last turn and I followed him in there. We both got there super deep. I did everything I could to get a good start. Once again, I can’t thank the whole team enough. We found some stuff for today. The pace was quick. I’m looking forward to going into the rest (of the rounds). We’ve got some stuff we can work on. We can actually work on chassis now because we don’t have to deal with all those other problems. Looking forward to the rest of the season. Hats off to these guys. They stepped it up big time. Should be an exciting year. Stay tuned and be ready for some tight racing.”
Rocco Landers (1) leads the start of Liqui Moly Junior Cup Race Two at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Liqui Moly Junior Cup: Landers Lights It Up
In Sunday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race two, which was red-flagged and cut short because of an incident involving Isaiah Burleson and Gus Rodio, defending class champion and Norton Motorsports/Ninja400R/Dr. Farr/Wonder CBD rider Rocco Landers carried on with his winning ways and grabbed his fifth race victory in a row. BARTCON Racing’s Dominic Doyle, who was slightly injured in Saturday’s race one melée, toughed it out on Sunday and finished second. Celtic HSBK Racing’s Samuel Lochoff, who finished second on Saturday, was third on Sunday.
“So, the first two laps, actually, I got a good start,” Landers said. “But I saw that Dom (Doyle) was right behind me from the first few laps. Then I looked back and I was like, ‘He must have run off in the chicane or something.’ In the next lap I saw some grass on the track, so I was like, ‘That’s definitely what happened.’ I just tried to run a smooth race and be consistent. Tried to run as smooth laps as I possibly could. I looked back and I saw Dom was there with Sam (Lochoff). I’m like, ‘Just relax.’ There were only a few laps left. At the end I saw the red flag and I was like, ‘They must call this just because there’s only a few laps to go.’ My team, KFG Motorsports, did a great suspension this weekend. It’s such an honor to be able to race these guys, especially Dom after his crashes today.”
Landers is heading to Austria for round one of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and, when he was asked about his expectations heading into the first race next weekend, he said, “As of right now just going to try to go as fast as I can from practice one and see if I can get up there during the race. I know that track is good for someone who hasn’t been to those tracks quite so many times. It seems somewhat simple.”
Rocco Landers (97) won the Twins Cup race at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Twins Cup: Landers Gets It Done
The final race of the weekend was in the Twins Cup class, and Rocco Landers raced his SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki to victory, which capped off the 15-year-old’s third win of the event and second win of the day (Landers also won both Liqui Moly Junior Cup races on the weekend). Landers started from the pole and was never headed in the 11-lap contest, winning by a margin of over four seconds. Second place went to 1-833-CJKNOWS Accident & Injury Law Yamaha rider Kaleb De Keyrel who crossed the finish line more than 10 seconds ahead of Brittenum Construction/Hayden Schultz Racing Yamaha’s Hayden Schultz.
After his second win of the day and third of the weekend, Landers said, “Perfect weekend here. I think I was top in every session this weekend. I was able to do that in Junior Cup, as well. Definitely leaving on a higher note to get back to Europe next weekend. Biggest shout-out goes to SportbikeTrackGear.com, Brian and Max Van. I wouldn’t be here without them. I’d like to thank them all for the first four podiums. I’m super grateful to them. Also, a huge thank you to my dad and my mom, and my crew chief Thomas and my chassis mechanic Christian for putting me under a great program this weekend. We were struggling a little bit with tire wear at the end of the race, but not huge problems. Really a perfect weekend.”
ASRA racers during a Team Challenge event at Summit Point Raceway in 2019. Photo by etechphoto.com, courtesy ASRA/CCS.
ASRA/CCS Heads to Summer Cyclefest at Summit Point Raceway This Weekend
Fort Worth TX – This weekend Summit Point Raceway will host the Summer Cyclefest where American Sportbike Racing Association/Championship Cup Series brings all three of its Championship Series together for another huge event on August 15-16. Along with CCS Mid-Atlantic Championships on the line, the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge by Michelin Tire will contest round 3 of their series while the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprints by Pirelli Tire compete in round 5 of their 8 round series.
In the chase for the 2020 Mid-Atlantic Overall Championship, “Young Gun” Gus Rodio will try to hold off the resurging veteran Arnold Hastings with just 3 events left in the season for the sportsman series. For the Amateur Overall Championship, it’s Kyle Carrington of Alexandria VA battling Alex Yampolskiy from Totowa NJ for the 2020 Championship. These riders will face off during the 22 CCS Sprints over the 2 day event hoping to secure their position In CCS Racing history as an Overall Champion!
Saturday will feature CCS Sprints starting at 11:00am followed by the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge series in a 75 lap contest of man and machine with 11 of the front running teams already entered for the contest, setting up a challenge for Grease Monkey Racing (Stephen Hoffman, Eric Helmbach) and LB Sports (Lloyd Bayley) for the 2020 GTO title with a scant 5-points between the 2 teams, while the perineal GTU front runner Fast Lane Racing (Rick Beggs, Jason Gibbens) will be facing down challengers Birch Racing/B&D House (Dorsey Birch, Chris Rodriguez, Arthur Aznavuryan) and TsT industries (Gabriel Wingard, Adam Wingard) within 6-points of their championship lead.
The action continues on Sunday with ASRA Qualifying sessions at 9:30am then right into CCS races before the ASRA Sprints take the track after the lunch break. The afternoon will finish off with the remaining CCS races and the ultra-fast Unlimited SuperBikes with Mark Heckles and Frank Babuska Jr. will close out the event in what should be epic fashion if past history is an indicator.
Please keep in mind that this event is subject to COVID-19 restrictions and is open to racers, family and crew members only.
The American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA) is the parent organization to the Championship Cup Series (CCS), the largest amateur motorcycle road racing organization in the United States issuing over 2800 licenses per year. ASRA promotes eight AMA sanctioned Sprint Series and six AMA sanctioned Team Challenge road racing events for 2020. The CCS Series sanctions 40 events at popular tracks around the United States, including Daytona International Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Road America, New Jersey Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway among other fine venues. In 2020 ASRA and CCS will provide riders with access to millions of dollars of sponsorship awards through participation in its sanctioned events.
For more racing information visit www.asraracing.com or www.ccsracing.us or call us at (817) 246-1127. Join CCS and ASRA in the greatest road racing experience available today!
Autodromo Internacional do Algarve (a.k.a. Algarve International Circuit) in Portimão, Portugal. Photo courtesy Dorna.
Portimão to host 2020 MotoGP™ season finale
The FIM, IRTA and Dorna Sports recently announced the addition of a fifteenth Grand Prix to the 2020 FIM MotoGP™ World Championship calendar, with the event set to take place from the 20th to the 22nd of November and become the season finale.
The venue for the event can now be revealed as the incredible Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal. The reserve track for MotoGP™ since 2017, the circuit will now make its debut on the calendar.
The Autodromo Internacional do Algarve is truly unique, with its characteristic elevation changes and undulating layout earning it a reputation as a high-speed rollercoaster – a thrill ride for fans and competitors alike. The track will now welcome MotoGP™ back to Portugal for the first time since 2012, and the event will see Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) racing on home turf in the premier class for the first time.
Autodromo Internacional do Algarve CEO Paulo Pinheiro: “It is a great achievement for our team to finally have MotoGP at our racetrack! MotoGP is the pinnacle of two-wheeled motorsport, and we are so excited to have it.
“It has been a long process with Dorna, we had an agreement in place since 2017, and finally all the hard work paid off. On top of this to have Miguel Oliveira on the MotoGP grid, being able to fight for the podium will be an amazing add on for this race, and hopefully the Championship will be decided here.
“We are working to have the fans in our race, and we will start with a capacity of 30.000 fans for the race weekend and then we will decide with Dorna and the sanitary authorities the following stages.
“We can’t express how happy we are to have this race.”
Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta: “It’s big news for us, we signed an agreement in 2017 with Portimao to be the reserve circuit for any kinds of cancellations, and we’ve been in contact with them all this time. We’ve been to Portimão with Superbike and we think it’s an amazing possibility for us, and also in the agreement is that the track will be resurfaced after the Superbike round. When we explained this to the riders they were excited because they’ve seen the track on TV, but we’ve never been there.
“Portugal has a long history in our sport and there have been some historic battles in Estoril. It’s something very good for us to have the possibility to go back to Portugal, especially with Miguel Oliveira participating as it’s great to have a Portuguese rider able to compete in his own country. We are extremely happy to be racing in Portimão at the end of the year.”
FIM President Jorge Viegas: “I am very proud that MotoGP will return to my country eight years after the last Grand Prix, which took place at the Circuito do Estoril in May 2012. I would like to warmly thank Dorna, the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve and the Motorcycling Federation of Portugal for having managed to meet the necessary conditions for the organisation of the finale of the 2020 FIM Grand Prix World Championship to take place in Portugal.”
Mathew Scholtz (11). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Westby Racing.
Westby Racing’s Scholtz Is A Superbike Double Runner-Up At PittRace, While Wyman Rolls A Pair Of Sixes In Junior Cup
Wampum, PA – At first glance Westby Racing’s results on Sunday at Pittsburgh International Race Complex (PittRace) appear to be a carbon-copy of Saturday’s results. Superbike rider Mathew Scholtz raced his #11 Yamaha YZF-R1 to a second-place finish just as he did on Saturday, and Junior Cup rider Cody Wyman finished sixth on Sunday aboard his #34 Yamaha YZF-R3 to match his sixth-place result on Saturday. But, for both riders, their Sunday races were very different from their Saturday races.
For Mathew, who started from the middle of the front row, he was pounced on in the first lap by fellow Yamaha rider Jake Gagne. Jake had improved his setup from Saturday’s race, and it showed in Sunday morning’s warmup with him going second-fastest in the session compared with Mathew being third-fastest.
With Cameron Beaubier in the lead and Jake in second, Mathew knew he had his work cut out for him in running down the pair. Undaunted, Mathew put his head down and focused on doing fast, consistent laps. His efforts, combined with Jake experiencing a technical issue, enabled Mathew to catch Jake, pass him, and create a gap of more than 13 seconds over Jake, which enabled Mathew to secure a runner-up finish for the second day in a row.
“I kind of figured that something happened to him,” Mathew said about Jake. “Looking at the morning warmup times, we saw that they had upped their pace. I was a little bit disappointed in the warmup that we didn’t break into the 40s. My whole game plan was just to kind of follow Cameron and Jake and just sort of hang onto them and try to see, maybe from the halfway point, if I could consistently run low 41s and try to catch up to Jake, but something happened and he fell back. I’m just really happy to be back up on the podium and finish second for the Westby Racing team again today. We’ve been working hard. I feel like we’re getting better every time we go out. Just when we kind of think that we’ve caught up to Cameron, he pulls something out. So, we’ll just carry onward and find something more.”
Cody started fourth on the grid in his race and rode a consistent race in a pack of closely bunched riders, which has been the recurring theme this season. He ran no lower than seventh due to the shuffling of positions within his group, and he was in sixth place and planning his strategy for the finish line when the red flag was displayed due to an incident on the track that didn’t involve Cody. The race was declared final instead of being restarted, which spoiled Cody’s plan to move up in the results.
Cody Wyman (34) leading a group of Junior Cup riders at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Westby Racing.
Cody said, “This morning, we tried new gearing, and I thought that was the right move for the race. I knew we were in our own battle for fourth place. I tried to study the other riders, and I thought I was in a good spot. But then, a red flag ended our race early. I was bummed because I really wanted a short sprint race to the finish. Two sixth-place finishes aren’t the worst, though. I really wanted a podium yesterday, but it’s a long season. Thank you to my team, family, and friends who came out to PittRace. On to a brand-new track on the West Coast. I’m always stoked to learn a new course, and I can’t wait to get out there.”
Next up for Westby Racing is round five of the MotoAmerica Championship, which will take place (without spectators in attendance) at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, on August 28 through 30.
Also, follow “Westby Racing” on your favorite social media sites.
More, from a press release issued by Ducati North America:
One up for Kyle Wyman in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship after PittRace 2020
Kyle Wyman (33). Photo courtesy Ducati North America.
Mountain View, Calif. – Kyle Wyman (OneCure/KWR Ducati Team) jumped up one place in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship to fourth following two hard-fought races at round four of the series, held at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex this weekend.
After qualifying in fifth after Superpole, Wyman raced to an excellent fourth in Saturday’s race one behind winner, Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier.
Sunday’s race two was a gloves-off affair, as Wyman recovered from a bad start to be eighth into turn one, clawing his way back to fourth and engaged in a race-long scrap with Suzuki’s Toni Elias and BMW’s Josh Herrin.
Struggling with grip issues from lap two, Wyman was on the limit throughout the 17-lap race but had to settle for sixth at the flag, with Beaubier again taking the win.
Jake Lewis (85). Photo courtesy Ducati North America.
Jake Lewis (Celtic HSBK Racing Ducati), filling in for the injured PJ Jacobsen, collected eighth in race one and eleventh in race two for his Ducati debut at Pittsburgh this weekend.
MotoAmerica Superbike Standings — Top 5
P1 — Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 175
P2 — Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 138
P3 — Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 116
P4 — Kyle Wyman (Ducati) 89
P5 — Bobby Fong (Suzuki) 82
15 — Jake Lewis (Ducati) 20
Kyle Wyman (OneCure/KWR Ducati Team — Ducati #33)
“Saturday was really good,” Wyman said. “We were happy with fourth, considering we didn’t have a lot of pace. I wanted to replicate that today (Sunday) but I got a terrible start. I had to fight back to the top five but I got there relatively quickly, and up to fourth. I tried to put in laps and get a gap but I only saw +.5 as the biggest gap and I was pretty hosed early on.
“I had no grip from the beginning and a bunch of chatter in the esses. I was at my limit by about lap seven. We missed the set up, but I did everything I could by going from eighth to fourth and eventually sixth. We came into the weekend fifth in points, and left fourth. It’s not where we want to be but we have to take the positives.”
Jake Lewis (Celtic HSBK Racing Ducati — #85 Ducati)
“It was lot more difficult than I thought,” said Lewis. “I was stuck at a certain pace and couldn’t go much faster than that. Both my starts were terrible. Five people passed me each time, and today I ran off track early. I got a few places back but it wasn’t nearly as good as I expected from this weekend.
“The team’s great to work with, but it’s a struggle going fast. I didn’t have a great feeling with the rear and couldn’t feel the tire biting into the tarmac. The torque in second gear wasn’t what we hoped and we lost ground on corner exit. The bike’s easy to ride but you have to charge to go fast. It wasn’t an easy week, for sure.”
More, from a press release issued by Jason Aguilar Racing:
Plenty of Supersport points in the bag at Pitt Race for Jason Aguilar
Jason Aguilar (96). Photo courtesy Jason Aguilar Racing.
Jason Aguilar produced arguably his best races of 2020 at Pittsburgh International Race Complex this past weekend, finishing fourth in the two sixteen lap Supersport encounters.
Starting from the second row of the grid, the RiderzLaw Yamaha rider was in podium contention throughout Race One, making some aggressive overtakes, clearly at home banging bars whilst in the midst of a six-rider battle. Dropping to sixth, Aguilar dug deep, recovering to fourth at the flag on Saturday, a whisker away from third.
Sunday’s race saw Jason lose touch early on with the top three, the #96 using his head to launch an attack for fourth in the closing stages, crossing the line to add another thirteen championship points to the thirteen he added twenty four hours earlier.
The double fourth position finish consolidates Jason’s place in the overall standings, keeping him well in contention for P3 as the series heads to a new venue – The Ridge – in a couple of weeks.
Jason Aguilar: “We made some pretty significant changes on the bike this weekend, just to try a few things. The first session on Friday we found something that didn’t work but the second session (qualifying one), we found something that actually worked really well. We didn’t do the usual strategy of coming in and using two tyres, we focused on the race and I left the same tyre on for the whole session. I was able to run my fastest lap on the last lap, on a tyre that had done sixteen laps. The race distances are sixteen laps, so it was encouraging, and we had a new tyre in the bank for final quali. I got off to a fairly good start in Race 1 and pushed hard to hang with the lead guys. Ben Smith passed me, I passed him back and we got into a bit of a scrap. I hit a false neutral and tagged him but luckily stayed upright. I have no idea how I saved it. I lost quite a bit of time, but I regrouped, caught the guys, and managed to grab P4 on the final lap. I showed a good pace and it was the closest I’ve been to the podium this year so on one hand I was satisfied but on the other I was pretty bummed. Race 2 honestly didn’t go as I wanted. Some personal stuff messed with my head a little and I felt like I wasn’t really there come race time. I did go faster than Saturday, but something was definitely off. The top three got away, so I used my head and took fourth on the last lap. Another fourth, which I guess is better than fifth, but we will regroup, and I am looking forward to Washington – a new track for us.”
For more information go to www.aguilarracing.com
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:
Beaubier Perfect in Pittsburgh
Cameron Beaubier (1). Photo courtesy Yamaha.
Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Beaubier capped off a perfect weekend at Pittsburgh International Race Complex with a win in race two to further strengthen his title defense in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship. His teammate Jake Gagne held onto a third-place finish to give the team a sixth-double podium of the season.
Beaubier led every session and set about leading the final one by grabbing his second holeshot of the weekend. The reigning Superbike champ tried to pull another disappearing act but his teammate was moving along right with him. Holding up to the pressure, he focused on putting in some fast, consistent laps in the 1:40s and ultimately crossed the line nearly 10 seconds ahead of the competition to score his seventh win in eight races. As the series nears the halfway mark, Beaubier holds a 37-point lead in the championship.
Gagne got off to a good start in third and quickly moved into second a few turns later so that he didn’t give up too much time on his teammate. He was able to stay with Beaubier for the first half of the race, but unfortunately, a technical issue arose, costing him time and his healthy gap on fellow Yamaha R1 rider Mathew Scholtz. Just after crossing the finish line with four laps to go, he got shuffled back to third. From then on, the Californian did everything he could to salvage a podium, his second third-place finish of the weekend.
The Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing Team heads to the Pacific Northwest in two-weeks time for round four of the championship at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, on August 28-30.
Richard Stanboli – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing Team Manager
“Once again the team came together to improve the performance of the machines for race two. Impressively, Cameron has won every race that he has finished and Jake has shown pace that is at the same level. We will digest what we learned and go to the Ridge race with an even better package.”
Cameron Beaubier – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“It was an amazing two weeks for me racking up some wins. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Our team has given Jake and I some amazing bikes this year and we are putting them to use. Jake was pushing me hard today up until about the halfway mark where he had a little problem. I just kept my head down to get to the checkered flag. I’m looking forward to Ridge!”
Jake Gagne – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“We made some great progress with the bike this morning in the warm-up and smoothed out some of the issues that were holding us back yesterday. I got off to a good start and got in behind Cam right away. Our pace today was much faster. We managed to keep Cam pretty close to us until about the halfway point and unfortunately ran into some technical problems that got worse and worse. I’m really happy with the crew and the progress that we’ve made throughout the weekend. Thankfully we kept it on the podium. I’m looking forward to the next one.”
More, from a press release issued by Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.:
KELLY AND DUMAS FIGHT TO THE PODIUM FOR M4 ECSTAR SUZUKI IN PITTSBURGH
Sean Dylan Kelly (40) fought bravely for two second place finishes on his GSX-R600. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Brea, CA (August 10, 2020) – Suzuki Motor of America, Inc. and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki followed up last weekend’s abundant trophy haul at Road Atlanta with three additional podium finishes this weekend as the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing championship completed Round 4 of the 2020 season at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in Wampum, Pennsylvania.
And like at Road Atlanta, it was the team’s two 18-year-old prodigies who registered the weekend’s highlight performances for the squad.Sean Dylan Kelly continued his consistent excellence in MotoAmerica Supersport action, hustling his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R600 to a pair of runner-up finishes. The twin seconds upped the Floridian’s impressive string of first- or second-place finishes to seven.
On Saturday, ‘SDK’ battled for the lead over the race’s opening half before settling into a clear runner-up position. On Sunday, he had to fight for second right down to the checkered flag, losing the position on the final lap only to reclaim in the race’s final corner and then win the sprint to the checkered flag.
Kelly said, “In today’s race, I knew where he wanted to pass me because I could hear him there every lap. I tried to block it but went a little wide and he got me on the switchback. He then tried blocking me in the last corner, but he went a little wide, so I said, ‘Okay, perfect.’
“We’re here to fight for the win, and I gave it my 100% in both races but it just wasn’t enough. Everyone with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki is pushing their hardest. I wish I could have given them another win this weekend, but it wasn’t to be.
“Overall, I’m happy because I gave it all I had, but I’ll admit it was a struggle because we really want to win — that’s our goal — and we just didn’t have enough to do it. It’s not easy fighting a displacement disadvantage but we’re going to keep on working and we’ll come back at Washington and do what we can. I’m looking forward to getting to an even more technical track and we’ll look to bring home a couple wins.”
Alex Dumas (16) nearly won the first Stock 1000 race and made his Superbike debut. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Fellow teenage sensation Alex Dumas extended his meteoric rise with his best showing yet since throwing a leg over the fire-breathing M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 in the Stock 1000 class.
While Dumas was expected to take some time coming to grips with a literbike after coming off back-to-back national titles in the MotoAmerica Junior Cup and Twins Cup classes, the French Canadian was fast from the start and only continues to get faster as he gains experience.
After improving from seventh to fourth to third to second in his first four races in the class, Dumas very nearly finished off the run with a win on Saturday. He slashed up from fifth to first only to narrowly lose out on the win on the final lap and ‘settle’ for another second.
“I had a really good race,” Dumas said. “I didn’t get a great start but I got through almost everybody. I was catching the lead little bit by little bit and then I got through in Turn 7 thanks to getting a really good run in 6.
“I gave it everything I had but just came up short on the last lap. I was pretty fast coming out of Turn 14 and coming onto the back straightaway, but I almost highsided. After that there was nothing I could do.”
Dumas followed that up with a fourth in Sunday’s Stock 1000 race before making his MotoAmerica Superbike debut later in the afternoon. There he proved to be a quick learner as well, picking up a top-ten finish with a ninth in his maiden premier-class attempt despite running a considerably more stock-spec machine than the established class’ frontrunners.
Toni Elias (24) delivered a pair of top five finishes in Pittsburgh on his GSX-R1000. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
The team’s decorated Superbike regulars had a more difficult weekend. Road America race winner Bobby Fong battled for second in Saturday’s main event before a crash took him out of contention at mid-distance.
Unfortunately, the Californian injured his left thumb in the fall. While he made a brave attempt to collect some points on Sunday, he was ultimately forced to retire from the race due to the pain and lack of grip strength.
2017 MotoAmerica Superbike champion Toni Elias scored a pair of top-five finishes on the weekend. The Spaniard took over fifth on the final lap of Saturday’s race and backed that up with another fifth on Sunday, taking the checkered flag on his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 with a podium finish less than two seconds up the road.
Lucas Silva (23) continued his run of top-ten finishes in Supersport. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Finally, Lucas Silva extended his perfect season’s run of top-ten finishes in MotoAmerica Supersport competition. The young racer notched up his third consecutive sixth-place finish on Saturday and then backed that up with a strong seventh on Sunday.
Additionally, Cameron Peterson (Altus Motorsports Suzuki) and Rocco Landers (SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki) won on bikes built by Team Hammer.
The team will return to action on August 28-30 when the ‘20 season resumes at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington.
More, from another press release issued by Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.:
Petersen Dominates in Pittsburgh
Cam Petersen (45) delivered the perfect race weekend on his GSX-R1000. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Suzuki Motor of America, Inc.
Brea, CA (August 10, 2020) – Altus Motorsports rider Cameron Petersen completed the perfect weekend at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex by taking pole position, winning both races convincingly and claiming the championship points lead in the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 class. Petersen started the weekend strong by taking pole position with a blistering time of 1:43.824 on his Altus Motorsports GSX-R1000. Starting from pole position, Petersen battled all race long and traded positions with fellow Suzuki GSX-R1000 rider Alex Dumas until the final laps when he took the lead for good and secured the win on Saturday.
The young South African rider then continued his success on Sunday in race two, taking the lead from the very first lap and continued to ride tenaciously for the remainder of the race taking another hard fought win over a field of strong contenders in the class.
“That was a better race for sure,” said Cam Petersen after race two, “ We found something this morning and we were able to push throughout the whole race. The pace was way quicker than it was yesterday, but I’m not going to let those wins go that easily.”
Cameron Petersen takes his Stock 1000 championship points lead to the fifth round of the MotoAmerica roadracing championship at the Ridge Motorsports Park August 28-30 in Shelton, Washington.
More, from a press release issued by Altus Motorsports:
MotoAmerica: Round 4 Results from Pittsburgh for the Altus Motorsports Tucker Hagerty Rangeline Team
(Wampum, PA) After a tough Round 3, the goal of the Pittsburgh race weekend was to regain lost momentum, get back to winning and show why Altus is a significant player in the MotoAmerica paddock.
Cameron Petersen (45). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Honos Superbike & Stock 1000: The Altus Team showed up in Pittsburgh cautiously optimistic that they had solved the brake fade issues that have plagued Cameron Petersen’s Suzuki GSX-R 1000 since the beginning of the season. Over the course of the weekend, they did manage to find a fix and Cam was able to achieve his goal of “regaining some of the points we left on the table in Atlanta.” Once again he topped the Stock 1000 timesheets on Friday and locked in pole position for the races.
Petersen had a great start in the Saturday race and was building a commanding lead when the race was stopped due to a red flag. In the eight-lap restart, Petersen had to fight for the win. After multiple lead changes over the duration of the race, the Altus rider made a last-lap pass to take the win.
The Sunday Stock 1000 race was another hard-fought battle. The last two laps were a nail-biter with Petersen’s tenacity and skill again leading him to the top step of the podium.
“I love races like that,” said Cameron Petersen, “The pace was quicker on Sunday. The competition is really stepping up. I can’t thank the team enough for all of the hard work. It looks like we conquered our brake issue and now we can start working on some set-up adjustments to go even faster.”
“Credit to Cam’s experience to put that last round behind him and trust that the team would do what it takes to give him a bike he can win on,” said team-owner George Nassaney.
In the Superbike Race 1, Cameron started from the middle of the 4th row and finished in 13th. In the Sunday Superbike race, Petersen managed an 8th place finish on his Stock 1000 legal motorcycle.
Kevin Olmedo (16). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Supersport 600: Kevin Olmedo continues to impress. His practice and qualifying times were good enough to put the Supersport 600 rookie on the front row of the starting grid in 3rd. Unfortunately, he missed the sighting lap for the Saturday race and was forced to start from the back. Olmedo didn’t want to let the lead group get away and wasted no time getting through the pack. Kevin crossed start-finish in 7th at the end of the first lap. With three laps to go, Olmedo powered his GSX-R 600 into third place. A position he held off-and-on during a 3-bike battle for the last three laps. Ultimately, he finished the race in 5th.
On Sunday, Kevin started the race from his proper grid position on the front row. He spent much of the race battling for 4th place and took the checkered flag in 5th
“I am getting more comfortable on the GSX-R 600. I am able to run with the front guys and continue to finish in the top five. I am very happy with these results for my first year on a 600,” said Kevin Olmedo.
Jaret Nassaney (59). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Jaret Nassaney had a tough weekend. He was unable to get comfortable on the bike on Friday and was off his previous pace. A clutch issue ended his Saturday race before it started. During Sunday’s warm-up things started to look up. After a set-up change, Jaret’s lap times were close to his previous best. Unfortunately, a massive crash on lap 5 of Race 2 ended his weekend.
Daniel Kinard (33). Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy Altus Motorsports.
Liqui Moly Junior Cup: PittRace is yet another brand new track for Daniel Kinard. His goal for the weekend was to learn the track and improve every session. And he did. He dropped a couple of seconds between first practice and Qualifying 1. Shaving a few more seconds in the second qualifying session put him 15th on the grid for the race starts. Kinard continued to improve and get faster in each race. He finished Race 1 on Saturday in 13th and Race 2 in 15th.
“This weekend was really good for the team. We’ve really started to gel and communicate better. Getting the two wins in Stock 1000 was a fantastic boost. We will take that momentum to the west coast in a few weeks,” said George Nassaney.
The Altus Motorsports team is supported by our great family of sponsors: Altus Motorsports, Tucker Powersports, Hagerty, Suzuki, The Rangeline Group, VP Lubricants, RS Taichi, Arai, Moto D, Bonamici, Hotbodies Racing, SBS Brakes, Vortex, Motion Pro, Law Tigers Oklahoma, Arata Exhaust, Dunlop, Team Hammer, and Altus Factory Racing.
A scene from the MotoGP race at Red Bull Ring in 2019. Photo courtesy Michelin.
MICHELIN GOES TO AUSTRIA FOR A SPIELBERG DOUBLE-HEADER
Michelin has made the short trip from Czechia into Austria as MotoGP™ sets-up camp for back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring at Spielberg with firstly the running of the myWorld Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich followed seven days later by the inaugural staging of the BMW M Grand Prix von Styria.
The 4,318m circuit is located within the picturesque mountains and forests of the Styrian region, but that is where the calmness ends, as it is one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar for tyres. With just two distinct left turns and a fast left-hand curve, it is the remaining seven right-hand corners which present the huge stresses and heat build-up that the MICHELIN Power Slick tyres will have to contend with. Due to these demanding requirements Michelin has a special rear tyre construction, designed specifically for these conditions. The use of these tyres will mean that the new rear construction, with its improved grip and performance that has been so successful so far this season won’t be used at Spielberg. The tyre designed especially for these situations also gets used at Buriram in Thailand, but due to the changes to this season’s calendar because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the double-header at Spielberg will be its only outing in 2020.
For such a demanding track the MICHELIN Power Slick range – in soft, medium and hard compounds – will have an asymmetric finish on the special rear construction, with a harder right-hand-side ideally suited to manage the high temperatures which can build-up over a lap of this unique track. To complement the rears, the front MICHELIN Power Slick tyres will see the soft, medium and hard compounds in a symmetric finish, with compounds designed to give the riders the turning and stopping power they need and to instil the confidence over the fastest track that MotoGP visits in this, or in a regular season.
Michelin can also expect the possibility of wet weather, as the Red Bull Ring has demonstrated several times since MotoGP returned to the circuit in 2016. With this prospect in mind, the allocation will feature MICHELIN Power Rain tyres in soft and medium compounds. The fronts will have a symmetric finish, whilst the rears will be asymmetric and feature a harder right-hand side like the slick equivalents. For both races the tyre allocation that the riders have at their disposal will be the same for both slick and rain versions.
Michelin and the MotoGP field will take to the track for the first instalment of what promises to be a two-part Spielberg blockbuster on Friday 14th August, for the first two free practice sessions, these will be followed on Saturday by more practice and then the all-important Qualifying. Sunday 16th August will see the 28-lap myWorld Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich get underway at 14.00hrs local time (14.00hrs CEST, 13.00hrs BST, 12.00hrs GMT/UST), with the following week’s BMW M Grand Prix von Styria – also over 28 circulations – seeing the same schedule with the lights changing to signal go on Sunday 23rd August.
“The races are certainly coming along at a fast rate, as this double-header will make it five races in six weekends since the start of the season, but this one is a little bit different as we have to change the construction of the rear tyre. Spielberg is a very fast and demanding and the tyre builds up a lot of heat, so we use a tyre that can cope with that and give the riders the control from the rear that they need. We have witnessed some exciting races here at Spielberg in the last few years and hope that this season, with two ahead of us, it will be a similar result. We have supplied the tyres that will ensure that the riders have the best grip and performance at their disposal, so now we wait to see what they can produce.”
The start of a British Superbike race at Donington Park. Photo courtesy MSVR.
Andrew Irwin strikes twice then gets struck out at Donington Park season opener
Andrew Irwin sensationally doubled up on victories during a dramatic opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park this weekend; however it took a dramatic change in race three when he was involved in an incident with Josh Brookes, which later saw him disqualified from the result.
The Irwin brothers had been formidable all weekend with the new Honda Racing Fireblade, and after their one-two finish in the opening race of the season when Andrew pipped Glenn on the final lap, the pair were shaping up for another intense battle in today’s two races.
Glenn Irwin had been holding the lead throughout race two, but yet again Andrew Irwin struck on the final lap, putting the brakes on his brother to double up his achievement for Honda Racing in an incredibly close battle for the victory.
The pair looked set to reignite their sibling rivalry in race three, and after fighting their way up the order, they were in the battle for the podium positions in the closing stages after Tommy Bridewell delivered a dominant performance. The Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider led from the start and edged an advantage to become the second different race winner of the season.
By lap 24 Glenn Irwin was into second and Brookes split the Honda Racing teammates, however disaster struck as Andrew Irwin made contact with the VisionTrack Ducati rider at Hollywood sending him crashing out at high-speed and into the safety fence. The Australian was able to walk away from the incident but he was out of contention. The race result was then subsequently under investigation by Race Direction.
As they crossed the line Bridewell won by 2.064s ahead of Andrew and Glenn Irwin. However following a long deliberation by the Race Direction panel it was announced at 19:30 that Andrew Irwin would be disqualified for his part in the incident for avoidable and unfair contact causing a collision and crash with Brookes. Irwin also receives six penalty points and by virtue of his total penalty points accumulated, he will start his next Bennetts BSB race from the last grid position.
The result means that brother Glenn Irwin leaves the opening round of Donington Park leading his brother by ten points in the championship standings ahead of Snetterton.
McAMS Yamaha celebrated a podium finish in race two with Jason O’Halloran to be one of five different riders, representing four different teams, who celebrated top three finishes at Donington Park this weekend.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, race two result:
Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing)
Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +0.194s
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.288s
Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) +1.035s
Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +1.411s
Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +3.557s
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +3.817s
Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +4.156s
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +5.437s
Héctor Barberá (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +5.757s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, race three result:
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati)
Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +2.157s
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +2.403s
Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +6.510s
Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +8.657s
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +8.923s
Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) +9.067s
Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki) +13.265s
Lee Jackson (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +14.425s
Héctor Barberá (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +14.927s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after Donington Park:
Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) 60
Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) 50
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 43
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 40
Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 34
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 28
Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) 26
Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) 22
Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) 22
Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki) 20
For more information on the Bennetts British Superbike Championship visit www.britishsuperbike.com
Andrew Irwin
(Honda Racing)
Race 2 winner
“Even with the outcome this evening from the final race, this has been a great weekend, with two race wins at the first round on a brand-new machine.
“It’s been a good start to the season with Honda and the Fireblade, and I’m looking forward to the progress we can make. I’ll keep working hard, putting in the time and effort in the next two weeks, to arrive at Snetterton even better. But we have to be realistic there, we know it’s a different track and a different style to Donington, so we have to hope the bike is also competitive there, so I’ll go, try my best and hopefully we can do a good job.”
More, from a press release issued by Honda UK:
A further win and podium for the new Fireblade at Donington Park
Honda riders Glenn Irwin (2) and Andrew Irwin (18) at speed at Donington Park. Photo courtesy Honda UK.
It was another successful day at Donington Park for the opening round of the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship for the Honda Racing team, as Andrew Irwin took a second race win aboard the all-new CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP, bringing its tally of wins to three in its debut outing on British soil.
The second British Superbike race of the weekend was another nail-biting experience in the Honda garage as teammates and brothers, Andrew and Glenn Irwin held off the chasing pack across the 26-lap race. Glenn started from the first row of the grid in third place, with Andrew behind in fifth, and by the end of the first lap it was Glenn leading the race.
By lap six it was again a Honda 1-2, as Andrew made up places to join Glenn at the front. Holding off their championship rivals, Glenn led the way lap after lap, but brother Andrew was hot on his heels and coming into the last corner made his move to take his second win of the weekend, with Glenn crossing the line 0.194s behind in second place.
The final Superbike race of the weekend also didn’t disappoint, but with Andrew starting seventh and Glenn 12th, they knew they had a job on their hands. However, showing throughout the race the strength of the new Fireblade, both Honda men set about tracking down their opponents, and by half race distance Glenn was sitting third with Andrew fourth.
On lap 23 the brothers made their move into the podium spots with Tommy Bridewell leading the pack, but again on the final lap Andrew made his move on his brother to take second place, with Glenn completing the podium in third.
Following an incident in the final stages of Race 3, with Josh Brookes exiting Redgate, Andrew has since been disqualified from the race, as well as receiving penalty points for his involvement in the incident, which means he will start at the back of the grid for Race 1 at Snetterton. Glenn moves into second place in the results and takes the championship lead with 60 points, with Andrew in second place with 50 points. After Round 1 Honda is leading the manufacturer standings and is 24 points ahead of Ducati in second place.
Meanwhile Tom Neave made an outstanding comeback in the final Superstock race of the weekend coming from last on the grid to cross the line fifth, setting a new Superstock 1000 lap record in the process. The race was rescheduled to the end of the day after a red flag incident earlier in the day, where Tom should have started from pole position, but after missing the gate for the quick restart he was relegated to the back of the grid.
However, cutting his way through the pack he soon moved his Fireblade up through the order to finish in an impressive fifth place, and was only 2.295s from the win. After this weekend Tom is sitting joint first with Chrissy Rouse in the championship standings with 36 points. Meanwhile teammate Davey Todd continued to progress throughout the weekend, crossing the line 10th in the race.
The Honda Racing team will now look forward to Round 2 of the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship, which takes place in two weekends time at Snetterton on 21/22/23 August.
#18 Andrew Irwin: Even with the outcome this evening from the final race, this has been a great weekend, with two race wins at the first round on a brand-new machine. It’s been a good start to the season with Honda and the Fireblade, and I’m looking forward to the progress we can make. I’ll keep working hard, putting in the time and effort in the next two weeks, to arrive at Snetterton even better. But we have to be realistic there, we know it’s a different track and a different style to Donington, so we have to hope the bike is also competitive there, so I’ll go, try my best and hopefully we can do a good job.
#2 Glenn Irwin: It’s been an amazing weekend! Race 2, for sure I chucked away a win! The final race today was probably my favourite ride, even though we finished third, (then moved into second). I wanted to not do anything stupid and if Andy came past me then fair play, but to come from 12th, same for Andy he was 7th on the grid was a good job. That race was enjoyable I got to him and he was stuck behind the Ducatis and I felt I could pull him through, so was nice to overtake him and the others, to be honest I never give up and I stayed in 1.06s to try and catch Tommy [Bridewell]. I threw everything at that race and when you do that and come away with a podium, it’s the icing on the cake – a victory would have been sweet, but we never expected the results we had this weekend and we leave here as a happy team, with a really happy rider with his confidence back – a lot due to what I’ve been working on off the track. Thanks to Harv and everyone at Honda for this weekend.
#68 Tom Neave: We made a mistake not getting out on time, but that was probably the most solid and maturest race I’ve ever had, I learnt so much – it was character building for sure! I suppose sometimes you have to have a weekend like that to prove where you’re at, but anyone who knows anything about racing will know I should have won that race, the Fireblade was amazing and the team has worked so hard to be where we are now. We came through the pack from last to finish fifth, so I can’t be disappointed with that. Thanks to Marcus for coaching me and helping me with all my training, everything off the bike feels like it’s come together and with the bike I have the full package. Also thanks to everyone who is supporting me, it’s been such a great weekend to get my first race win! I cannot wait to get to Snetterton redeem myself, and continue my 2020 journey!
#74 Davey Todd: It’s been a bit of a crazy day all in all, with the red flag and incidents this morning. To be honest we had our work cut out for us at the start, it was always going to be difficult starting so far back on the grid with the times from Race 1, but we made some really good set-up changes and we were strong in warm up this morning, I knew we had the pace and made some good changes. In all honestly we had the pace, we had the pace to be at the front, we were running pretty much the same time as the race winner in fact – we had the pace to run at the front, but just that pack of riders in the top-10 is busy! We need to work on a few things but we’re making progress with the Fireblade and making progress with me, most of all, but we’ll be strong at the next round.
Team Manager Havier Beltran: We’ve had a fantastic start to the season, we arrived at Donington without any expectations and the results this weekend across the Superbike and Superstock classes show what a great bike the new Fireblade is. I’m proud of everyone in the team for what we’ve achieved this weekend and we’re now leading BSB with Glenn and also the manufacturer standings. We’ve learnt a lot across the weekend and have more of an understanding and more information of where we need to be stronger. Of course we can’t take anything for granted and Snetterton is such a different circuit to Donington, but we will refocus, set our goals and see where Round 2 takes us.
More, from a press release issued by VisionTrack Ducati:
Tough Times At Donington For Brookes And Iddon
VisionTrack Ducati riders Josh Brookes (25) and Christian Iddon (21) in action at Donington Park. Photo courtesy Paul Bird Motorsport.
Defending champions VisionTrack Ducati saw 2020 riders Josh Brookes and Christian Iddon have an eventful day at the opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park today with a fourth place for Iddon the best they had to show for their efforts, which undoubtedly deserved more.
After claiming a podium in yesterday’s opening race of the season aboard the factory-supported VisionTrack Ducati Panigale V4 R for Paul Bird’s Cumbrian team, Brookes had been on course for a second podium finish in the final race of the weekend before a collision with Andrew Irwin resulted in a high-speed crash fortunately without injury to the Australian.
Earlier in the day, the opening 26-lap race started well as pole setter Brookes grabbed the lead off the line and although he was soon overhauled by Glenn Irwin, he was looking comfortable in second with Iddon one place further back in third having made a strong start from the second row.
2015 champion Brookes was forced wide on lap five and dropped back to sixth place and by half race distance, he’d dropped to tenth which left Iddon to fly the flag towards the head of the field as he slotted into third place behind the Hondas of the two Irwin brothers.
However, as the race entered its final third he too ran into trouble and fell back, eventually finishing in eighth place, two places behind Brookes who recovered some ground in the second half of the race to take sixth.
The second 26-lap encounter saw Ducati rider Tommy Bridewell disappear into the distance, never to be headed, but both Josh and Christian were in the hunt for a podium position for much of the race.
Indeed, both riders ran inside the top three at one stage and Brookes occupied second place for 15 laps before Glenn Irwin pushed him back to third on the 23rd lap. Moments later, Andrew Irwin attempted to overtake Brookes as they headed towards Craner Curves but as he did, the two riders touched, and last season’s runner-up Brookes crashed out at 130mph.
However, race stewards later disqualified Andrew Irwin for unfair contact which contributed to Brookes’ crash meaning Iddon, who crossed the line in fifth was elevated to fourth place, his second of the weekend.
The championship table sees Iddon in fifth place with Brookes in seventh as they head to the second round at Snetterton in two weeks’ time.
Josh Brookes: “What can I say? Despite a podium, I wasn’t happy with the bike in race one, so we made some changes overnight. They really didn’t make a lot of difference in today’s opening race and I ended up making a couple of silly mistakes, so I’ll take the blame for that one. We had to change the bike again for the third race and that worked as we were competitive and had I got a better start; I think I could have gone with Tommy. And then I encountered the situation with Irwin. Glenn got past me fine, but Andrew touched me as he went past and down I went. These things happen so we move on and hope for better results at Snetterton.”
Christian Iddon: “It’s been a big learning curve for me this weekend. Race one yesterday felt good and I was happy enough but in today’s opening race, I really struggled, especially in the last third of the race. The final race was better, and I was able to maintain a good pace. I was closing in on the leaders, but I made a minor mistake which let a couple of others past. From then onwards, I fell away and couldn’t manage a final push for the podium. Two fourths and an eighth isn’t what I want but we can work with those results. It’s three finishes, loads of data and no crashes so there’s room for improvement and my feeling with the bike is brilliant until the late stages of the race, so we just need to work on that and we’ll be somewhere near.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-Ordinator: “It’s been a disappointing weekend and we intend to look at where we need to improve before the next round. It was great to see Josh get a podium yesterday, but we struggled today, not helped by another rider causing him to crash at high speed. Luckily, he’s not injured but disappointing all the same that it happened. Christian continued to get to grips with the bike and with a pair of fourth place finishes, he was unlucky to miss out on a podium. Our aim is to bounce back at Snetterton so that’s our focus now.”
The next round takes place in two weeks’ time at Snetterton, Norfolk on August 21-23.
More, from a press release issued by Smiths Racing:
Challenging Weekend at Donington For Global Robots BMW
Peter Hickman (60). Photo courtesy Smiths Racing.
After a four month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship finally got underway this weekend with the opening round taking place at Donington Park but it proved to be a challenging affair for the Global Robots BMW team with 11th place for Alex Olsen their best finish across the three races.
Both he and team-mate Peter Hickman encountered issues during the weekend and crashes in both practice and qualifying put Hickman on the back foot going into race one on Saturday where he lined up in 14th place and the fifth row for the 22-lap race. Alex qualified two places further back although both riders were promoted up the order one place after Keith Farmer was forced to withdraw.
The race saw perfect conditions all round the 1.9-mile National circuit and a good start by the pairing enabled them both to make good strides forward, Hickman moving up inside the top ten on the opening lap. However, he soon began to encounter an issue under braking into the corners and although he was lying in eighth place at half race distance, from thereon in he fell back. Indeed, he eventually took 12th place with Alex overhauling him on lap 14 to take a solid 11th place.
It meant they started Sunday’s first race from 15th and 16th on the grid with each rider gaining a place at the end of the first lap. However, having moved up to 12th two laps later, Hickman’s hopes of points disappeared on lap 11 as he ran wide into the gravel at the Old Hairpin, eventually rejoining in 23rd place.
Olsen, meanwhile, found himself locked in battle at the bottom end of the top 15 as he exchanged places with Yamaha’s Jack Kennedy on more than one occasion. He crossed the line in 14th place for two more championship points with Hickman eventually finishing in 18th.
Fortunes for the pairing again differed in the final 26-lap race of the weekend but a good start for Hickman put him up to 11th and although he’d slipped back one place at the chequered flag, four more points and another finish could prove to be valuable come season’s end. On this occasion, it was Alex’s turn to be out of luck when he was forced to retire just after half race distance with a failed gear position sensor.
Peter Hickman: “It’s been a very disappointing weekend to be honest especially as the whole team has worked so hard from the very beginning. I had two unfortunate, and silly, crashes in practice and qualifying and then issues throughout with the brakes so it’s hard to know what to say. We changed so much to try and improve things but all to no avail so it was a hard weekend and the brake issue remained with me throughout. In the last race, I struggled with grip also so that kind of sums our fortunes up this weekend.”
Alex Olsen: “It hasn’t really gone our way this weekend and, like Pete, I struggled on the entry to the corners with the brakes too. We did improve things race on race but whilst we improved in some areas, we lost in others and I had to make lunges to overtake people rather than them being smooth, clean passes. The final race was the best in terms of how the bike performed but on this occasion a sensor failed and I had to retire. We’ve made a lot of changes for little reward this weekend but on the plus side, I was able to fight for the points in each race and 11th in race one is my best BSB finish to date so we’ll keep working hard and look to crack the top ten next time out.”
Darren Jones, Team Co-ordinator: “It’s hard to know what to say really as it’s been a really disappointing weekend to the beginning of the long-awaited series. We’ve still got some inherent problems under braking, problems which we had throughout all of last year, and whilst we thought we’d got to the bottom of them in pre-season testing in Spain, it’s now clear we haven’t. They were heightened in a race situation and led to a few issues but at least we came away with a few points even if they were far from the haul we had hoped for. I was pleased with both riders in terms of how they worked and how they remained calm throughout rather than getting wound up. It’s frustrating as we’ve done so much work to try and rectify the problem and we’ve thrown everything at it these last three days but all to no avail. Unfortunately, we’ve stood still without realising so we’ll get back to the workshop, get our heads together and come back stronger at the next round.”
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Service:
SUZUKI’S RYDE 4TH AS FARMER INJURED AT DONINGTON PARK BSB
Kyle Ryde (77). Photo courtesy Team Suzuki Press Office.
Team Suzuki Press Office – August 9.
Kyle Ryde: GSX-R1000 – DNF-4-7 (BSB)
Keith Farmer: GSX-R1000 – DNS-DNS-DNS (BSB)
Tim Neave: GSX-R1000 – 4-7 (Superstock)
Leon Jeacock: GSX-R1000 – 12-12 (Superstock)
Michael Dunlop: GSX-R1000 – 22-20 (Superstock)
Buildbase Suzuki’s Kyle Ryde enjoyed a positive opening round of the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship this weekend at Donington Park in the UK, securing two front-row starts and a fourth place in race two.
Ryde put his GSX-R1000 on the front row for the opening race of the season after qualifying third and grabbed the holeshot as the lights went out to lead the way early on. Sadly, the dream start was shattered when a stone flicked up from a bike in front – as he battled for the lead – put a hole in his radiator.
Starting from ninth on the grid, he spent race two carving through the field to claim fourth, less than a second off the podium, and another front-row start for the final race of the weekend after setting the second fastest lap of the race in the process. Race three saw Ryde struggle early on as he dropped out of the top-10, but he recovered to eighth with lap times akin to those fighting for the podium. He was promoted to seventh after Andrew Irwin was disqualified post-race.
Kyle Ryde:
“To be honest I didn’t expect that from the weekend. In FP2 we changed the front tyre we were working with and that made a huge difference and I managed to pull a lap time out in qualifying that I didn’t think we’d get near this weekend. Leading race one I kept waiting for people to pass me but it took about 10 minutes, but then a stone put a hole in the radiator and that was that. It was obviously a real shame but there were plenty of positives to take from it.
“I was happy with race two, to come through to finish fourth and get on the front row again for the final race but I just struggled early on with the full fuel tank, as the pace was pretty hot from the start. But then it clicked midway through and I managed to start moving forward again and with another lap or two we could have had sixth and our pace was good enough for the podium at that point. I was disappointed to cross the line in eighth, but if someone had offered me that before the weekend I’d have taken it, which shows what a good weekend we’ve had. We just need to work on that early race pace and hopefully we can be fast for the full race distance, starting at Snetterton.”
It was not the weekend his teammate Keith Farmer was hoping for; the luckless former Superstock 1000 and Supersport Champion, on his return from injuries sustained in 2019, crashed in qualifying injuring his shoulder, ruling himself out of the weekend’s races.
Keith Farmer:
“It’s so frustrating because we really found something this weekend and the bike started to really feel like my bike. We worked with the clutch and the engine-braking, as that has such an effect on the whole balance of the bike, and we could then work on the chassis. In the qualifying session we made some changes as we went and after putting in a new rear tyre I set my fastest lap of the weekend but going into Redgate the rear came round and I lost the front and I had a pretty big crash. I’ve got what they’ve called a phase two injury of my ACJ which can be six weeks recovery time, but I’m hoping to see a specialist this week and hopefully we can get that down. The team were doing a good job and it’s a real shame, but hopefully we can get back on track soon.”
In the National Superstock 1000 Championship Tim Neave came away with two strong results, finishing fourth and seventh, with Lean Jeacock collecting a brace of 12th-place finishes.
The team was also joined by Michael Dunlop for the weekend, as the TT winner – who won the 2017 Senior TT with the team and the GSX-R1000 – enjoyed two outings in the National Superstock Championship. With the major road races cancelled for 2020, Dunlop picked up a 22nd and 20th from the two races, using the opportunity to gain track time and remain bike-fit.
Superbike race one result: 1. Andrew Irwin, 2. Glenn Irwin, 3. Josh Brookes, DNF: Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000) , DNS: Keith Farmer (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superbike race two result: 1. Andrew Irwin, 2. Glenn Irwin, 3. Jason O’Halloran, 4. Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), DNS: Keith Farmer (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superbike race three result: 1. Tommy Bridewell, 2. Glenn Irwin, 3. Jason O’Halloran, 7. Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), DNS: Keith Farmer (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superstock race one result: 1. Tom Neave, 2. Damon Rees, 3. Danny Kent, 4. Tim Neave (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 12. Leon Jeacock (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 22. Michael Dunlop (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superstock race two result: 1. Chrissy Rouse, 2. Billy McConnell, 3. Damon Rees, 7. Tim Neave (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 12. Leon Jeacock (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000), 20. Michael Dunlop (Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Four-Time Champion’s 45th Win Comes At Pittsburgh International Race Complex
Cameron Beaubier (1) leads Jake Gagne (32), Mathew Scholtz (11), Toni Elias (24) and the rest of the field at the start of MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike Race Two at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
WAMPUM, CA (August 9, 2020) – Cameron Beaubier celebrated his 100th AMA Superbike start in the best way possible. With a victory. The win, Beaubier’s seventh of his near-perfect season, was the 45th triumph of the four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion’s career.
As the others have been in 2020, Beaubier’s win was decisive, though he wrongly downplayed it as “a bit lucky.” Challenged early by his Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha teammate Jake Gagne early on, Beaubier ended up 9.59 seconds ahead at the finish after clutch problems dropped Gagne back to third. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was the beneficiary of Gagne’s problems, the South African ending up second for the second straight day at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.
“Just going to try to keep this ball rolling as long as I can,” Beaubier said after his start-to-finish victory in the HONOS Superbike race. “Like Jake (Gagne) said, the Monster Attack Yamaha guys have been working so hard. It’s been great. It’s been so much work all year so far. Just going to try to keep it going. I’d say I got a little lucky in that race. Jake has been improving all weekend, and same with Matty (Scholtz). Lining up today after how fast he (Gagne) was in warmup, I knew it was going to be pretty tough. At the start of the race, I put my head down and got a good start, which I’m really happy about because I’ve struggled with starts pretty bad in the past, and this year it’s been going really good. I get off the line really good and I think that’s a little key to our success as well. I saw .5 on my board lap after lap after lap. I’m like, ‘man. Jake is riding really good.’ I missed a shift and kind of almost put my face through the windshield with maybe 11 to go, something like that. I knew he had probably stuck on me pretty good. I came by, and I saw plus two seconds gap. I was like, ‘oh man. Maybe he ran off or something like that.’ Turns out it was a little clutch issue, which is a bummer for him because I knew it was going to be a pretty tough end to the race. All in all, I’m just really happy with where we’re at. Me and Garrett (Gerloff) had a really good battle last year, to finish second. I had a lead and ran off the track with a few laps to go to finish second to Toni (Elias) last year here. So, it was really, really good to get a couple wins here. Hats off to all my guys.”
Scholtz knew after the morning warm-up that he was in a bit of trouble as the other two had stepped up with faster lap times.
“I kind of figured that something happened to him,” Scholtz said when he saw Gagne coming back to him near the end of the race. “Looking at the warmup times we kind of saw that they had upped their pace. I was a little bit disappointed in the warmup that we didn’t break into the 40s. My whole game plan was just to kind of follow these two and just sort of hang onto them and just try to see maybe from the halfway point if I could just consistently run those low 41s and try to maybe catch up to Jake (Gagne), but something happened and he fell back. Just really happy to be back up on the podium and finish second for the Westby Racing team. We’ve been working hard. I feel like we’re getting better every time we go out. Just when we kind of think that we’ve caught up to Cameron, he pulls something out. So, we’ll just carry onward and find something more.”
Gagne said he was fortunate to finish third because he wasn’t sure he could nurse the bike to the finish.
“First off, we made a lot of improvements,” Gagne said. “Today the bike felt better than we have all weekend, obviously. At least to be able to run those times we wanted to run in the beginning in the first couple laps. We didn’t let Cam (Beaubier) get totally out of sight. We kind of just sat around a half second or so and was able to learn a lot. The first time I’ve been that close to Cam all year, especially on the starts because he’s been taking off. Unfortunately, there was that one lap, I think I just roasted the clutch a little too hard on the start. Then obviously it just kind of got worse and worse and worse. Like Cam said, he came by one lap and already pulled some seconds. I was messing with the adjuster, trying to get it to at least survive. For a second I didn’t think I would have done 10 more laps or whatever we had to go. Just rode a gear high and just kind of putted around there. I knew Mat (Scholtz) was coming. Luckily there was a big gap there behind Mat. For a while there I definitely didn’t think we’d still end up on the podium. The bike just kind of got slower and slower after the clutch. We got on the podium. We got a sweep again. Hats off to my team. They’re working so hard. I’m happy that we made some improvements and went faster today.”
Josh Herrin survived an off-track excursion and fought his way back up to fourth place by the finish of the race, the Scheibe Racing BMW rider besting M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s
Toni Elias by a tick over a second. OneCure/KWR Ducati’s Kyle Wyman was also a part of what was an entertaining battle for fourth, the New Yorker ending up sixth.
FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony finished seventh, some six seconds clear of Altus Motorsports’ Cameron Petersen. Ninth place went to M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Alex Dumas, the 18-year-old solid in what was his HONOS Superbike debut.
Travis Wyman ended the 17-lap race in 10th place on his Travis Wyman Racing BMW S 1000 RR.
With four rounds (eight races) completed in the 2020 HONOS Superbike season, Beaubier leads the title chase by 37 points over Gagne, 175-138. Scholtz is third with 116 points and Wyman moves back to fourth in the standings with Bobby Fong forced out of the race early with too much pain from his big crash yesterday.
Editorial Note: The race was stopped by a red flag on lap eight of 10. The incident that brought out the red flag involved Isaiah Burleson and Gus Rodio. Rodio was seen on video feeds riding his motorcycle back into the pits, but Burleson’s condition was not known at post time.
Support Classes At Pitt Race Have Everyone Seeing Double
Escalante, Petersen And Landers Win Twice
WAMPUM, PA (August 9, 2020) – If you won on Saturday at Pittsburgh International Race Complex, then you also won on Sunday at PittRace. That’s how the support classes ended up with all the winners doubling up over the course of the two-day program with Richie Escalante, Cameron Petersen, Rocco Landers all doing the double in Supersport, Stock 1000 and Liqui Moly Junior Cup, respectively. Landers even went one better and also won the lone Twins Cup race on Sunday.
Richie Esclanate (54) and Sean Dylan Kelly (40) battle for the lead in Supersport Race Two. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Supersport: Escalante Rolls On
In Sunday’s Supersport race one, HONOS Kawasaki rider Richie Escalante won his seventh race out of a total of eight so far this season. Similar to yesterday, Escalante had to contend with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly in the early going. Kelly got the holeshot and led lap one until Escalante found a way past and never looked back.
Meanwhile, Celtic HSBK Racing’s Brandon Paasch had a battle of his own early on with Altus Motorsports rider Kevin Olmedo and then Kelly. At the finish line, it was Escalante winning by nearly seven seconds over Kelly, who had his hands full with Paasch right to the finish. Paasch, in face, led on the final lap but made a mistake that allowed Kelly to squeeze by. At the finish line the two were separated by just .024 of a second.
“Today, every day, we’re feeling better,” Escalante said. “Today I have a little bit more rhythm, so I could pass. Brandon (Paasch) , in the first several laps, was really good. I pushed my rhythm very consistently. I’m really happy to win with this gap and every lap the same. Just keep working. The championship is coming. The next race is a new track so new motivation.”
Cameron Petersen (45) leads Corey Alexander (23) and Travis Wyman (10) during Stock 1000 Race Two at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Stock 1000: Petersen Doubles Up
In Sunday’s Stock 1000 race two, Cameron Petersen, the rider with the most momentum this weekend at PittRace, did the double and won his second race in as many days aboard his Altus Motorsports Tucker Hagerty Suzuki. But it was far from easy for the South African, who faced a strong challenge from HVMC Racing Kawasaki rider Corey Alexander.
Petersen started from pole, and Weir Everywhere Racing BMW rider Travis Wyman slotted into second with Alexander in third. While Petersen set the pace, Alexander was able to pass Wyman and close the gap on the South African at the front. Alexander raced hard and managed to get around Petersen, but he ran wide and handed the lead right back to Petersen who held his advantage, albeit a narrow one, to the finish line.
Alexander finished second and was just .196 of a second behind Petersen. Wyman, who is recovering from an arm injury, faded towards the end of the race, but held on for the final spot on the podium, just under four seconds adrift of Alexander.
When asked if he knew who was hounding him for the lead, Petersen said, “No. Honestly, I thought it was going to be Alex (Dumas). Alex was showing some pretty serious pace all weekend. Every lap I came by and saw plus-zero on my board. At the beginning of the race, I was like, ‘I’m going to put my head down and see what I can do.’ I might have an opportunity to get away, and it just didn’t happen. These guys were on my butt the whole race pressuring me. I just tried to do everything I could, just hit my marks and not make any mistakes. That was a hell of a race. I enjoy races like that. That pressure and not really getting shown a wheel the whole race and then two laps to go here comes Corey. I’m like, ‘This is going to be a dog fight.’ I saw that moment he had in the last turn and I followed him in there. We both got there super deep. I did everything I could to get a good start. Once again, I can’t thank the whole team enough. We found some stuff for today. The pace was quick. I’m looking forward to going into the rest (of the rounds). We’ve got some stuff we can work on. We can actually work on chassis now because we don’t have to deal with all those other problems. Looking forward to the rest of the season. Hats off to these guys. They stepped it up big time. Should be an exciting year. Stay tuned and be ready for some tight racing.”
Rocco Landers (1) leads the start of Liqui Moly Junior Cup Race Two at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Liqui Moly Junior Cup: Landers Lights It Up
In Sunday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race two, which was red-flagged and cut short because of an incident involving Isaiah Burleson and Gus Rodio, defending class champion and Norton Motorsports/Ninja400R/Dr. Farr/Wonder CBD rider Rocco Landers carried on with his winning ways and grabbed his fifth race victory in a row. BARTCON Racing’s Dominic Doyle, who was slightly injured in Saturday’s race one melée, toughed it out on Sunday and finished second. Celtic HSBK Racing’s Samuel Lochoff, who finished second on Saturday, was third on Sunday.
“So, the first two laps, actually, I got a good start,” Landers said. “But I saw that Dom (Doyle) was right behind me from the first few laps. Then I looked back and I was like, ‘He must have run off in the chicane or something.’ In the next lap I saw some grass on the track, so I was like, ‘That’s definitely what happened.’ I just tried to run a smooth race and be consistent. Tried to run as smooth laps as I possibly could. I looked back and I saw Dom was there with Sam (Lochoff). I’m like, ‘Just relax.’ There were only a few laps left. At the end I saw the red flag and I was like, ‘They must call this just because there’s only a few laps to go.’ My team, KFG Motorsports, did a great suspension this weekend. It’s such an honor to be able to race these guys, especially Dom after his crashes today.”
Landers is heading to Austria for round one of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and, when he was asked about his expectations heading into the first race next weekend, he said, “As of right now just going to try to go as fast as I can from practice one and see if I can get up there during the race. I know that track is good for someone who hasn’t been to those tracks quite so many times. It seems somewhat simple.”
Rocco Landers (97) won the Twins Cup race at PittRace. Photo by Brian J. Nelson, courtesy MotoAmerica.
Twins Cup: Landers Gets It Done
The final race of the weekend was in the Twins Cup class, and Rocco Landers raced his SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki to victory, which capped off the 15-year-old’s third win of the event and second win of the day (Landers also won both Liqui Moly Junior Cup races on the weekend). Landers started from the pole and was never headed in the 11-lap contest, winning by a margin of over four seconds. Second place went to 1-833-CJKNOWS Accident & Injury Law Yamaha rider Kaleb De Keyrel who crossed the finish line more than 10 seconds ahead of Brittenum Construction/Hayden Schultz Racing Yamaha’s Hayden Schultz.
After his second win of the day and third of the weekend, Landers said, “Perfect weekend here. I think I was top in every session this weekend. I was able to do that in Junior Cup, as well. Definitely leaving on a higher note to get back to Europe next weekend. Biggest shout-out goes to SportbikeTrackGear.com, Brian and Max Van. I wouldn’t be here without them. I’d like to thank them all for the first four podiums. I’m super grateful to them. Also, a huge thank you to my dad and my mom, and my crew chief Thomas and my chassis mechanic Christian for putting me under a great program this weekend. We were struggling a little bit with tire wear at the end of the race, but not huge problems. Really a perfect weekend.”
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