Full all-category wrap from MotoAmerica at VIR

2022 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Round 4 – Virginia

Images by Brian J Nelson

MotoAmerica Superbike Race One

Gagne led the pack into turn one from his fifth pole position in succession (and the new VIR lap record that came with it), withstood early-lap pressure from Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s championship leader Danilo Petrucci, then did the same with Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz.

When all was said and done, Gagne had his 19th career MotoAmerica Superbike win in pocket, his second win in a row in 2022, and a jump all the way up to third in the championship point standings.

Scholtz ended up second, his fourth runner-up finish out of the five races held thus far in 2022 and sits second in the championship – just eight behind Petrucci.

Third place went to Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African fighting his way past Petrucci and hooking up with Scholtz until losing a bit of touch in the closing stages. Petersen ended up almost two seconds behind his countryman Scholtz at the finish line, giving Yamaha a sweep of the Medallia Superbike podium on a blazing hot day in Virginia.

Petrucci was a lonely fourth, some 10 seconds behind Petersen and 10 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Jake Lewis on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki.

Lewis also had a rather lonely ride, but the same couldn’t be said for the three riders behind him in the fight for sixth. That spot went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera by .149 of a second over his teammate PJ Jacobsen with Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Aston Yates eighth on his BMW and just half a second behind the two Tytlers BMWs.

Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim ended up ninth with Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Travis Wyman rounding out the top 10 finishers.

With five races complete in the 2022 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship, Petrucci leads Scholtz by eight, 88-80, with Gagne third on 66 points – just one point ahead of Petersen. Barbera rounds out the top five with his 56 points.

Notable non-finishers included Richie Escalante with the Vision Wheel M4 ECTAR Suzuki rider crashing out of the race early.

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MotoAmerica Superbike Race Two

Gagne again leaves Virginia with two MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike wins at one of his favorite racetracks, but this time, the margins of victory were much closer – 2.9 seconds on Saturday, 3.2 seconds on Sunday. And he freely admits that his rivals have gained a bit of ground on him. He also admits that he’s in favor of it and likes the fact that 2022 looks to be a 180 from last year in terms of the speed of his competition.

Jake Gagne

“There’s no such thing as those big eight-second leads anymore. Every half-10th or 10th, I’ll take it. These guys are all stepping it up this year. I’m excited. I think we’re all excited. It’s going to be some good battling. I think we’ll put on a show. It will be a little bit more exciting than some of the races last year. As much as I love cruising around at the front, I love battling, too. I love racing these boys.”

With Gagne and his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 winning race two on Sunday to complete his perfect weekend, Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz finished second. Again. This time Scholtz wasn’t overly upset with his fifth runner-up finish of the year. After all, he’d destroyed his A bike in a morning warm-up crash, forcing his crew to try and replicate the setup on the second bike.

Third place went to MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship leader Danilo Petrucci, the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC-backed Italian crossing the line just .020 of a second behind Scholtz as the pair raced to the finish line together. What happened next is still a bit of a mystery, but Petrucci crashed the Panigale V4 R in the fast turn one after the finish line and suffered a laceration on a leg that required stiches. Petrucci was in the medical center and missed the podium ceremonies.

The scrap for second lasted the entire race and featured Scholtz, Petrucci and Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen. Petersen was dropped from the battle in the closing laps and finished fourth, 1.5 seconds behind Scholtz/Petrucci.

Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen finished fifth on his BMW M 1000 RR and was challenged to the end by the pair of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzukis ridden by Richie Escalante and Jake Lewis. Escalante ended up .270 of a second behind Jacobsen in sixth and .257 of a second ahead of seventh-placed Lewis.

Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates ended a solid weekend with an eighth-place finish, ahead of the second Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW ridden by Spaniard Hector Barbera. Tenth place went to a lonely Travis Wyman on his Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW.

With three rounds (and six races) complete in the 2022 season, Petrucci’s lead has shrunk to 4 points over Scholtz, 104-100. Gagne, meanwhile, has vaulted himself to third in the championship chase, 13 points behind the Italian. Petersen is fourth, 13 behind Gagne. Barbera sits fifth – and is still the only rider in the top five to have scored points in every round.

Jake Gagne – Winner

“I think, in the beginning at least, the pace was a little quicker. I think all of us, at least me, for sure. I was a little surprised that the pace yesterday wasn’t what I was hoping. We didn’t make a lot of changes. We were a little off on tire pressure yesterday, I think. We definitely knew that. So, with that little bit of a tire pressure adjustment, I was able to run the times I wanted to a little bit easier in the beginning. Those first five, six, seven, eight laps were pretty strong. I didn’t make any mistakes. I could see I was just inching out on those guys. Going through turn four or five or whatever you’ve got that big screen and sometimes I could go through there and I saw Mat (Scholtz), Danilo (Petrucci), Cam (Petersen), all in a good battle there for second. So, I just tried to keep an eye on my pit board. Just like yesterday, mistakes can happen easily when it’s that slick out there towards the end, but these Dunlops held up good and this Yamaha… I’m just stoked that I get to ride this bike every weekend. I’ve got the best team that I could ask for behind me. I’m happy we made a little progress today because I knew we needed it. Everybody would be stepping it up. It’s good to get another win.”

Mathew Scholtz – P2

“If you had told me last night I would take another second today, I probably would have punched you in the face. I’m tired of getting seconds. But after this morning’s crash, I’ll happily take it. The bike was totaled. We have a totally different tank, which I had to get used to. We haven’t done a single lap on the bigger tank with the weight over the front tire. It’s just a completely different bike, really. Just the first couple laps, I was sensitive out there. We were pretty similar in most of the corners, but there were two or three corners where he would pull out probably one and a half tenths just in those corners. For the rest of the track, I felt we were similar in maybe one or two corners. I would catch him by a bike length, but for the most part on those parts where he was strong, he was a lot stronger. Just really happy to take second after battling and seeing the board with plus 0.1 for 15 laps straight and just hearing Cam’s (Petersen) bike, Danilo’s (Petrucci) bike. Danilo passed me one time and kind of pushed me a little bit wide, which I wasn’t the happiest with because we were upright braking. I passed him back and started riding my own pace to make sure I got out of the corners well and broke late. I was kind of hoping with braking late and kind of parking the bike that Danilo and Cam would start fighting and help me a little bit. A massive thank you to the Westby team. The bike was totalled, so for them to bring out the second bike and put the settings on it and for me to finish second, I couldn’t be happier. To Tryg (Westby) who runs this whole team. He’s the main guy behind this whole project. He’s put his heart and soul into this team and me for the last five or six years now. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be back home waiting tables or something. I’m just living the dream here. Happy to be up here with Jake (Gagne) and battling with Danilo, a world-class rider. It’s just incredible stuff. I’m really happy. The next race, Road America, I have struggled there previously so we need to try to figure something out there and hopefully I’ll be challenging Jake.”

Danilo Petrucci had a rough crash, but also took two strong results, including third in race two.

Danilo Petrucci – P3

“I crashed at 280 km/h under the finish line that’s on a sixth gear corner for avoid touching another rider. I hit three sponsors signs with my body, multiple burns, multiple hematomas and a deep cut on the ankle with five stitches. I rolled for over 100 metres, maybe one of the worst crash of my entire career. And I lying down for over two minutes with no assistance, hearing the bikes passes next to me, till I stand up by myself and went alone to the medical center.”

 

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MotoAmerica Superbike Race 1 Results

MotoAmerica Superbike Race 2 Results

MotoAmerica Superbike Standings

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 1

Yuasa Stock 1000 race one started the day at VIR, and on-track incidents led to the race being red-flagged and shortened in length.

With a nine-lap sprint to the finish line, Disrupt Racing Suzuki rider Hayden Gillim showed his prowess and racecraft by taking the victory in dominant fashion. The Kentuckian crossed the finish line more than four seconds ahead of second-place finisher Geoff May, who was aboard his VisionWheel/DiscountTire/KWS Honda.

Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW’s Travis Wyman completed the podium in third.

Yuasa Stock 1000 Race 2

The final day of Superbikes at Virginia kicked off with Yuasa Stock 1000 race two, and Disrupt Racing Suzuki rider Hayden Gillim made the most of the weekend.

The Kentuckian won both Yuasa Stock 1000 races in an impressive performance for the veteran rider who has returned to MotoAmerica in 2022 as a full-time racer after an extended hiatus.

Gillim overcame a few bike “gremlins” during the early part of the race, but the technical issue resolved itself, and he was able to go to the front and stay there.

VisionWheel/DiscountTire/KWS Honda’s Geoff May finished second, a little over five-and-a-half seconds behind Gillim. The surprise of the day was Uruguayan rider Maximiliano Gerardo, who made the first podium visit of his MotoAmerica career after finishing third aboard his PDR Motorsports Kawasaki.

Hayden Gillim

“It was a pretty good start,” Gillim said. “I was right there with the guys and made a couple passes on the first lap. I don’t know what happened when we were coming down the front straight on lap two or something. I started coming through the kink, and the bike just shut off on me. I was giving it gas, giving it gas, trying to get it to go again. I was worried that the guys were going to smoke me from behind. Then, all of a sudden, it took off. Then, I made it another lap around, get into the kink, and it shuts off again. It did it a couple laps in a row, and then one lap, it did it to me coming down the little short-chute down into seven. I ended up breaking the windscreen with my helmet. All of a sudden, I started short-shifting into sixth going into the kink. I don’t know why. I don’t know what was going on. Once I kind of got it sorted out, I knew just from having to catch up in the infield that I had a little bit of pace. Bike was feeling really good. Yesterday, I had a little bit of front-end chatter and we ended up going to the hard front tire today, the 7455 that Dunlop has. That fixed a lot of it for us. It just felt more stable under braking. That’s where I felt really good, was under the brakes. I ended up getting out front and just tried to push. I dropped the lap times a little bit, and then all of a sudden, the pit board showed plus three. I could see the screen over here in turn five or whatever and I came through there the next lap, and I saw Michael (Gilbert) walking. I ended up seeing that he had crashed. From there, I just tried to manage it and make sure to bring it home. It’s a long season, and to bring home two wins is awesome for the team.”

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 1 Results

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 2 Results

YUASA Stock 1000 Standings

Supersport Race 1

Supersport race one at VIR was also red-flagged and restarted with 18 laps instead of 19. The event was quite literally one for the ages, as 47-year-old road racing legend Josh Hayes showed that he’s still got something left in the tank.

The four-time AMA Superbike Champion went up against riders who are a third of his age, and he battled throughout the 18-lap event to emerge as the winner by a little over .7 of a second.

Racing for Squid Hunter Yamaha, Hayes held off the challenges of both 16-year-old Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Tyler Scott, who finished second, and 17-year-old Landers Racing Yamaha rider Rocco Landers, who was third.

Luke Power finished sixth.

Supersport Race 2

After an eventful Supersport race one on Saturday, in which Squid Hunter Yamaha’s Josh Hayes notched his 84th all-time AMA win after battling with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin, the two combatants were back on Sunday for race two.

This time around, Herrin and Hayes swapped positions at the front without incident. Herrin prevailed over his former teammate Hayes and took the checkers just three-tenths of a second over Hayes.

Sixteen-year-old phenom Tyler Scott, meanwhile, had another great result, finishing on the podium for the second day in a row aboard his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki and raising a few eyebrows about the level of talent in the young man.

Josh Herrin

“Yesterday, I think I just was mad at myself for the mistake that I made going into one. I was bummed at Josh (Hayes) in the moment for the pass going into one,” Herrin said. “I felt like he came over to the left on me. That, to me, is the hardest thing to do to somebody. I would only do that to him whenever I’m really angry. In his eyes maybe he didn’t, but maybe he backed into me. I thought it was like that. I said some stuff in the moment that I shouldn’t have said. Josh is a legend of the sport, and I should just show respect for him and know that he wasn’t doing anything malicious, because he’s never done that to me before in the last ten years. Then when I got back to the hotel, I was just getting blown up by stuff on social media about the pass on (Sam) Lochoff, and Brandon Paasch running his mouth like he does nonstop all the time. Lochoff posting stuff about me. Got people texting me. It’s impossible for me to ever put my phone down. I really need to work on that. Today I just used it to fuel the fire a little bit, and it seemed like it paid off. It was good seeing him as far back as he was. It’s not fun coming to Race Control and having to deal with stuff like that in the morning right before the race. It’s funny. The team that was complaining about it is the same team that, 15 years ago, was purposely T-boning me all the time on the track, and now they’re the ones that are complaining when I think it was a safe pass. MotoAmerica removes the announcing of Pridmore talking about how clean the pass was just to get a reaction out of the fans, and it frustrated me. But, today was great. I’m super happy that we were able to get to win because yesterday was tough. Like I said on the podium, Josh has been somebody that’s waxed me my whole career. It’s been a lot of lucky wins for me. No matter what anybody says or no matter how close we got last year, it’s just something that fuels me all the time. When he’s here, especially when I listened to his podcast on Friday and he said that the lap times weren’t impressive at Road Atlanta, it just got me bummed out and wanted to come here and get a fight. We got one today. I’m happy that it was clean and fun. I hope these guys keep coming because it’s good for the series, it’s good for the class. Josh is a fan favorite for sure and brings a lot of people out to the races. Thank you to my team and thank you to KATO fasteners for being a big support for us. This is their local race. I’m bummed they didn’t get to make it out. Can’t wait to go to Road America.”

It was a DNF for Luke Power in Race 2.

Luke Power

“Qualified P9 with a PB just unfortunate how close everything is! Race 1 was hot and brutal but came away with P6 and I could smell P5. Well I threw the kitchen sink at that one [Race 2]. We made an adjustment after warm up and the bike felt awesome! Full of confidence I was working my way up through the field and just got caught out when in P7. We live and we learn but really happy with the progress we made. Massive thank you to the 3D Motorsports Team for all their hard work and Lenny from K-Tech for getting a mint set-up today. Onwards and upwards from here.”

Supersport Race 1 Results

Supersport Race 2 Results

Supersport Standings

Junior Cup Race 1

As was the case with Yuasa Stock 1000 race one and Supersport race one, SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race one was also red-flagged and restarted, which created a five-lap dash to the checkered flag.

Road Atlanta Junior Cup race winner Max Van won his second race in a row aboard his SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki. His teammate Joseph LiMandri Jr. finished second and just a little over .010 of a second behind Van.

Bad Boys Racing Kawasaki’s Avery Dreher earned his first Junior Cup podium and became the first rider to move up from MotoAmerica’s Mini Cup and finish on the podium in one of MotoAmerica’s “full-size” race classes.

Joseph Mariniello fought his way back into the top-ten in race one.

Joseph Mariniello

“Unfortunately we threw a chain on my opening qualifying lap which meant I had to start the races from quite far back. No fault of anyones just some mega bad luck. In race 1 I got the elbows out and clawed my way back into the top 10 … Hopefully if we get a clean start in race 2 we can go with the front lads. We have a great feeling on the bike, now we just gotta put it all together.”

Junior Cup Race 2

UPDATE: Following a post-race technical inspection, Max Van’s Kawasaki was found to be illegal, and he was subsequently disqualified. As a result, Cody Wyman was declared the winner of Sunday’s Junior Cup race two, Aden Thao was moved up to second, and Gus Rodio was credited with third.

SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki rider Max Van is having a breakthrough season in the STG Junior Cup Championship. He won one of the Junior Cup races at Road Atlanta to start the season, and then, he followed that up by winning Saturday’s race one at VIR.

In Sunday’s race two, he got the victory again, this time by just three-tenths of a second over Alpha Omega Kawasaki rider Cody Wyman, who came back from a crash in race one to land on the middle step of the podium on Sunday.

Third place went to Calishine Racing Kawasaki rider Aden Thao, who reached the podium for the first time in his MotoAmerica career at Atlanta and repeated the feat at VIR.

Joseph Mariniello improved to eighth in Race 2.

Junior Cup Race 1 Results

Junior Cup Race 2 Results

Junior Cup Standings

Twins Cup Race 1

The day concluded with Twins Cup race one, and as usual, MotoAmerica’s middleweight, twin-cylinder class did not disappoint. Polesitter Jody Barry won his second race in a row, but it was far from easy.

The Veloce Racing Aprilia rider battled all the way to the finish line against a hard-charging James Rispoli aboard his Cycle Tech/Speed Weaponry/Mydigitalli Yamaha, and Barry beat Rispoli in a photo finish by just .020 of a second. Rispoli’s teammate Hayden Schultz finished a close third.

Twins Cup Race 2

Veloce Racing Aprilia’s Jody Barry was another rider who had a perfect weekend. The Illinois-based rider won Twins Cup race one on Saturday, and then, he repeated the feat with another win on Sunday despite being punted off the track by Teagg Hobbs after the race was red-flagged by another incident.

Barry shared the podium with the same two riders as he did in race one, but the order of finish was swapped. Cycle Tech teammates Hayden Schultz and James Rispoli finished second and third, respectively, after Rispoli was second and Schultz was third on Saturday.

Jody Barry

“First race stint, I didn’t have a quick shifter, so I completely botched the start, which caused me to get caught up around the fifth-place area. Everybody was drafting and out-braking each other. It was a blast. Going into turn one, James came up the inside of a couple guys, so I let him do his thing, and then next thing you know, I just got taken out by Teagg. Kind of a bummer. I was super fortunate. I hope everybody is okay from the red flag, but I was super fortunate that they threw the red flag so I could get the bike back in and the crew could get it back going. We only really got one lap in the first stint, but as far as front-end grip goes, the track was really greasy. Front end grip was a little different for me. Whether that had anything to do with the crash, I couldn’t really say right now. But it all worked out for the best, I guess.”

Twins Cup Race 1 Results

Twins Cup Race 2 Results

Twins Cup Standings

TBC

Royal Enfield’s Build. Train Race

Royal Enfield’s Build. Train Race. program had its first road race of the 2022 season, and Kayleigh Buyck was the standout of the weekend. The Central New Yorker led every practice session, both qualifying sessions, and she won the race by just a little over eight-tenths of a second over runner-up Crystal Martinez who made great strides in her riding over the course of the weekend.

Third-place finisher Chloe Peterson also lowered her lap times dramatically over the weekend, and she was delighted to make it onto the podium.

Kayleigh Buyck

“From day one in Roadracing World, they were all just posting articles about pole position,” Buyck said. “It does add a lot of stress. I know so many people here that came out to watch. That’s added stress. It just makes you that much more nervous. I’m grateful to have that many people behind me, supporting me, cheering me on, but at the same time just don’t talk to me until after the race weekend. It’s cool to see all the postings and everything. This whole program is going to make females in the sport. I feel like a lot of people don’t understand that we built the bikes ourselves. We put so much into this that some of the other racers don’t. We get a bike stock delivered in the box and we have to strip it down and build it to the race spec. So, I feel like a lot of people don’t understand the work that we have all put in to be here today. Sweat, blood, tears. Every single female here deserves to be up on the podium. They’ve worked so hard to get here today. My crash this morning was pretty rough. That took a toll. My elbow is hurting pretty bad. It set in like halfway through the race that I started to get sore. Eric busted his butt with me to get the bike back together, so it’s not as pretty anymore but it got the job done. All the mechanics, we had someone blow a motor this weekend. They deserve way more credit I think than they get, swapping motors during the day. We got my bike from trashed to being able to put it on the box within a couple hours. So, I’m so thankful for them. I know these girls are too. The whole program, thanks everyone for watching. Definitely helps and makes us feel a lot better about ourselves.”

Royal Enfield’s Build. Train. Race. Results

Royal Enfield’s Build. Train Race Standings