Danilo Petrucci back on top in America as Gagne tumbles out

2022 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Round  7 – Brainerd International Raceway

Images by Brian J Nelson

MotoAmerica Superbike Race One

On a sunny and warm Saturday in Minnesota, Gagne was Gagne. As always, the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing-backed Californian, who now calls Colorado home, led from pole position, quickly gapped his pursuers, and maintained a lead that resulted in a 5.338 margin of victory in what was the 25th AMA Superbike win of his career.

Jake Gagne

“It’s just a tricky place. You can knock it back a couple percent and just try to use the littlest lean angle and things like that, but it can just bite you in weird places. I’ve had that experience from last year and in testing. I’ve had some weird, big crashes at this place in the past, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid. I got a good start. Like these guys said, even those first couple laps are a little tricky. I didn’t have any big, big moments, but from my seat I knew the rear wasn’t hooking up like it had in practice, so you just had to ride the tire a little bit differently. I’m just lucky I had a good couple clean laps and then once I had a little bit of a gap I could just ride and try not to make any mistakes. Like you said, you can’t just knock it back and ride around. You’ve really got to stay focused at this track. Some weird stuff could happen. Again, thanks to the Yamaha guys. They’re working hard. I think all of us want to try to figure out and understand how to get the tires to feel a little bit better and get a little more consistency. But it’s an interesting place. It’s tough to get that consistency and really know what the tires are going to do, until it’s too late.”

Next best to Gagne was his teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African battling with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Danilo Petrucci for much of the race. With just a few laps to go, however, Petrucci hit a false neutral and ran off track, handing second place to Petersen. By the time Petrucci got back on the black stuff, he’d lost any hope of second place, and was some six seconds behind Petersen.

Still, the Italian former MotoGP star ended up on the podium in third, his 11th podium in 13 races as he continues a season of consistent podium finishes.

Petrucci ended up 9.3 seconds ahead of Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the South African riding with an injured left wrist after a big crash in Q2 on Saturday morning. Scholtz was in survival mode from the get-go and did well to finish fourth.

Fifth went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen just a second ahead of Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim with Gillim having his best Superbike finish of the season. Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates was seventh, three seconds behind Gillim and four seconds ahead of Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander.

Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis returned to action after thumb surgery to finish ninth with ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony rounding out the top 10. Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera had a rough day at the office, the Spaniard running off track on the opening lap before eventually crashing out of the race.

Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was a non-starter after suffering an ankle injury in his Q2 crash on Saturday morning.

MotoAmerica Superbike Race One Results

MotoAmerica Superbike Race Two

Just when everything was rolling along nicely for Jake Gagne and he looked to be on his way to a ninth MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike win of the year, his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 was cartwheeling down the racetrack at Brainerd International Raceway, destroying itself more and more with every bounce. Fortunately, Gagne escaped uninjured, but his championship points lead took a hit.

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Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Danilo Petrucci was the rider to pick up the pieces when Gagne crashed, and the Italian reaped the rewards for it. With his fourth win of the season, and his first since Road Atlanta in April, Petrucci moves back to the top of the championship point standings, 253-240, with three rounds and six races remaining.

Danilo Petrucci – P1

“Yesterday was a tough one. I tried the first lap to stay as close as I can to Jake (Gagne), but I almost crashed, like in the practice. I was able to hold the bike but with my feet. I couldn’t turn here, and I ran wide in the corner later, so also Cam (Petersen) came past me. Then I was able to pass him again. I tried to push, but same mistake as yesterday. Hit the neutral on the penultimate corner and then Jake made a gap. Then I start to push. I said, ‘I have nothing to lose. I’m behind him in the championship, behind him in this race. So, I need to try.’ The moment I said, ‘okay, he went away again.’ Unfortunately, he crashed. I’m sorry for him. I hope he is okay. That’s racing. The championship is definitely still open. I must be true. Jake in this moment is a bit faster than us, but on the pace, I think he was a bit of tenths faster. Then we made a massive change on the bike from yesterday, and we didn’t have the chance to try this morning. As I told you, I have nothing to lose at this point. I never look at the points. I know Jake is faster, but I need to stay in front of him because we cannot make any calculation with him. He’s always first, and you need to beat him. Congrats to these guys and thanks to my team.”

Petrucci and Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen did a better job of putting in quick laps early to keep the pressure on Gagne and, despite a mistake when he was within two seconds, Petrucci was keeping that pressure on when the defending champion crashed. Ironically, Petrucci said after the race that he was about to throw in the towel on trying to keep the pace on the very same lap that Gagne crashed.

With Gagne down and out, Petrucci finished 7.1 seconds ahead of Petersen with the South African earning his 11th podium of the year and his seventh in a row.

PJ Jacobsen matched his best finish of the year with his second podium of the season on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR, the New Yorker finishing third some 10 seconds behind Petersen.

Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim was fifth on his Suzuki GSX-R1000. 3.6 seconds ahead of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera. Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates continued his quietly impressive season with sixth at Brainerd, eight seconds ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis.

Cycle World/Octane/Chuckwalla Racing’s Andrew Lee put in a solid ride as the replacement for the injured Michael Gilbert to finish eighth.

Altus Motorsports Brandon Paasch and Triple M’s Jeremy Coffey rounded out the top 10 finishers.

In addition to Gagne, Max Flinders and Ezra Beaubier also crashed out of the race. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, meanwhile, opted not to race with the wrist injury he suffered on Saturday morning.

Petrucci’s championship lead is now 13 points of Gagne, 253-240. Petersen is third with 215 points with Scholtz fourth on 183 points. Barbera remains fifth with 133 points.

MotoAmerica Superbike Race Two Results

MotoAmerica Superbike Standings

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 1

The weekend’s only Stock 1000 race kicked off the final day at Brainerd International Raceway, and Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing Kawasaki rider Corey Alexander won his fifth race in a row and sixth out of eight races so far this season.

The race was red-flagged and restarted with a five-lap sprint to the checkered flag, and Altus Motorsports Suzuki rider Brandon Paasch notched his first-career Stock 1000 podium with a runner-up result.

It was an emotional accomplishment for Paasch, who drew inspiration from his girlfriend’s father Scott Briody. Also, a Stock 1000 competitor, Briody tragically passed away in an on-track incident on Friday.

Third place went to Cycle World/Octane/Chuckwalla Racing rider Andrew Lee, who is filling in for the injured Michael Gilbert.

Corey Alexander

“For me, I’m just happy to get through every session with no issues and every lap, for that matter,” Alexander said. “Not my favorite place to come to. Not my favorite place to ride. So, I’m happy to come out of here with some more points. It gives us a little bit more cushion because I know Hayden (Gillim) is going to continue to be really fast at these last few tracks. Jersey is our home round. We’ll see what happens there. Really thankful for my guys. It’s been really fun this year to work through things because we show up on a new bike and there’s a lot of new challenges. Last year, we weren’t able to get the bike figured out. This year, we’re able to really see big progress throughout the weekend, which is a fun thing to do when you come in and you can give feedback and the guys are able to turn that into progress, which is a really cool process. Enjoying that.”

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 1 Results

YUASA Stock 1000 Standings

Supersport Race 1

Rocco Landers is used to winning. Despite only being 17 years old, he’s already won 39 MotoAmerica races in his young career. He’s also conquered two race classes by winning championships. The Supersport class has been a tougher nut for him to crack, however.

Halfway through his sophomore season in Supersport, Landers got his first pole position in MotoAmerica’s middleweight class. And now, two rounds later, he notched his first win in Saturday’s Supersport race one at Brainerd International Raceway.

And he won with authority. Starting from the pole (his second one of the year), Landers led all but one of the 16 laps aboard his Landers Racing Yamaha and took the checkered flag by more than four and a half seconds over runner-up Josh Herrin aboard his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC machine.

Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha rider Josh Herrin, who filled in for Kevin Olmedo, who is recovering from illness.

Australia’s Luke Power finished the opening race in seventh.

Supersport Race 1 Results

Supersport Race 2

Landers Racing Yamaha rider Rocco Landers had a breakthrough weekend in Supersport. The former Twins Cup and two-time Junior Cup Champion followed up his race one Supersport win with another win in race two.

In both races, Landers won by a significant margin, but his gap was gargantuan in race two. Finishing second and more than 13 second behind Landers was Josh Herrin aboard his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale, the current championship leader never getting comfortable with the Minnesota race course.

Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha’s Josh Hayes. All told, the Supersport podium in race two was exactly the same as the Supersport podium in race one.

Rocco Landers

“It was a surprise because I didn’t feel we made any crazy improvements from yesterday,” Landers said. “We made some small changes. The team worked really hard last night just to get every last percent that we could. Really thankful to have the Yamaha R6 and it’s amazing handling, carve these fast corners up. The race was really, really enjoyable for me because I’ve struggled a lot over the past two years. Yesterday felt really good. Today feels even better. I’m glad I’m able to do this to honor Scott Briody. It’s just a good day for me, really good. I feel really good with the team. Really looking forward to Pittsburgh. Can’t wait to work even harder to get ready for that.”

Luke Power brought his Suzuki home in eighth in Race 2, and now sits sixth in the standings.

Luke Power

“Overall Race 1 was positive. My final position doesn’t reflect the pace I had but just like at Laguna Seca I struggled at the beginning. The pace we had late on was good and I was really hoping to capitalise on that on Sunday. I was only able to finish eighth in Race 2 which is frustrating after our Saturday race pace was not bad but sometimes races go like that. I learned a lot this weekend and thank the team’s efforts. We made some changes for Race 2 that didn’t pay off but overall, it was a solid weekend at another track that I have no experience at. In the championship we are only one point away from fifth and not a million miles from P4, so all things considered I can move on to Pittsburgh ready to push again.”

Supersport Race 2 Results

Supersport Standings – Top 15

Twins Cup Race 1

In the only REV’IT! Twins Cup race scheduled for the weekend, MP13 Racing Yamaha’s Cory Ventura won his second race in a row after getting his season off to a bit of a slow start earlier in the year.

Ventura survived a late-race skirmish with the other two riders who finished on the podium. Second place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto rider Blake Davis, who was runner-up for the second race in a row after winning the first race of the season at Daytona.

Finishing third was Rodio Racing/Warhorse HSBK Racing Aprilia rider Anthony Mazziotto.

Twins Cup Race 1 Results

Twins Cup Standings – Top 10

Junior Cup Race 1

“Running with the pack” is a continuing theme for the riders in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup Championship. In virtually every race, the key is to be in the group of riders at the front, and then make your move for the lead in the closing laps.

Such was the case for Altus Motorsports Kawasaki rider Kayla Yaakov in Junior Cup race one. She battled hard with a group of five riders at the front, and on the final lap, the 15-year-old put her head down, took the lead, and created a gap to ensure her second victory of the season.

Yaakov bested SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki rider Joseph LiMandri Jr. by just over one second, who, in turn, beat third-place finisher and Alpha Omega Kawasaki rider Cody Wyman by almost the same margin of just over one second.

Junior Cup Race 1 Results

Junior Cup Race 2

The MotoAmerica Superbikes at Minnesota weekend wrapped up with SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race two, and as is customary in the class, the frontrunners raced in a large pack for most of the five-lap event.

Max Van led four of the five laps, and most importantly, the final lap as he took the checkered flag aboard his SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki. Race one winner Kayla Yaakov finished second aboard her Altus Motorsports Kawasaki, and Alpha Omega Kawasaki rider Cody Wyman rounded out the podium in third.

Max VanDenBrouck

“These past few rounds have been a little rough,” Van said. “Some DNF’s, some real bad results. Just wasn’t riding my best. But yesterday, I was in a good position all race. Hats off to Kayla because going into 12 and even maybe trying to draft her to the line, before the incident, I didn’t think that was possible. So, hats off to her for the win. It feels great to be up here with Cody and Kayla both. But just a tragedy this weekend with Scott Briody and the whole family. I’m doing this for them.”

Junior Cup Race 2 Results

Junior Cup Standings

Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Championship

Day one of MotoAmerica Superbikes at Minnesota event concluded with the women of the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. program competing in their feature race.

Kayleigh Buyck emerged as the winner for the third race in a row but keeping her undefeated streak alive wasn’t easy. Chloe Petersen hung with Buyck for the majority of the race until Buyck managed to pull a small gap on the final lap to take the checkered flag by just over a second.

With Peterson finishing as runner-up, third place went to Jennifer Chancellor.

Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Results

Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Standings