2024 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Barber Motorsports Park
Saturday
Superbike Race One
Leading 17 laps of a MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike race is tough enough. Leading 17 laps with three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne breathing down your neck is flat-out daunting. But Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha’s Cameron Petersen was able to focus on what was ahead and not what was behind to win Saturday’s first of three Superbike races at Barber Motorsports Park.
And in doing so, the South African never put a wheel wrong to top his team-mate Gagne by .438 of a second after 20 laps. Since 20 minus 17 is three, who led those opening three laps? That would be Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier on his BMW M 1000 RR, but it didn’t last. Just when it was starting to look like the five-time series champion was going to romp away to victory, it all went horribly wrong on the fourth lap when Beaubier crashed out of the lead.
That left Petersen vs. Gagne with Petersen leading and Gagne giving chase, piling on the pressure to see if Petersen would falter. He didn’t. Instead, he was mostly perfect in earning his fourth MotoAmerica Superbike victory with three of those coming at Barber Motorsports Park.
Gagne ended up second, happy for his teammate while also knowing that he’d extended his championship points lead to 20 points over his title rival Beaubier, 65-45, after the first three races of the season.
Both Petersen and Gagne acknowledged that things would have been different if Beaubier hadn’t crashed.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin came out on top of a three-rider scrap for the final podium spot.
After moving past his teammate Loris Baz, Herrin disposed of impressive rookie Sean Dylan Kelly on the final lap to finish third.
TopPro Racing’s Kelly ended up .476-of-a-second behind Herrin and .502-of-a-second ahead of Baz. It was Kelly’s third top-five finish to start his rookie season of Superbike racing.
Spaniard Xavi Forés was sixth in his debut on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki, riding in place of the injured Richie Escalante. Forés was well back from Baz and .8 seconds ahead of seventh-placed JD Beach and his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim was eighth with Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch rounding out the top 10 finishers.
With three races in the books, Gagne leads Beaubier in the title chase, 65-45, with Petersen jumping up to third in the standings with 42 points. Kelly is fourth with 37 points, three clear of fifth-placed Herrin.
Sunday will be a busy day for the Steel Commander Superbike men with two races on the schedule.
Cameron Petersen – P1
“It feels good. I think this is three wins at this track. Got one in the dry, but honestly it feels so good. I know a lot of people know what I’ve gone through in the off-season and after the surgery. It’s been a tough off-season. The wrist is starting to feel really good on the bike. It just feels so good to get this monkey off my back. It’s been a questioning game, wondering if I did the right thing with the surgery. But it’s starting to pay off. Like Jake said, we had a really tough Friday. We were all kind of scratching our heads, and the boys did an incredible job. We definitely took a step forward today. We had a good race bike. We kind of got gifted that one a little bit. Cam had some incredible pace in the beginning there. He was starting to check out. For the rest of the race, I just tried to hit my marks. I knew if I do that and I was good on the brakes and didn’t make any mistakes, I kind of knew that I would have a good opportunity at it. So, just put my head down and did everything I could. With about five laps to go, I was just like, nobody is taking this thing from me. We’re too close to the end. I’ve led this whole thing. I just wanted it super bad. Congrats to the guys up here next to me. It’s always fun racing against them. Look forward to two races tomorrow.”
Jake Gagne – P2
“It was awesome. Cam (Petersen) rode a great race. He didn’t put a wheel wrong. I was sitting there kind of waiting for a mistake. He was good on the brakes everywhere, so there was not a whole lot I could do unless I really tried to stuff it in there. I was going to see if I could try to make a move somewhere on those last couple laps. Then it started sprinkling, so in the back it was getting dark. I just figured there was nothing I could do unless he made a mistake, and he didn’t. He wanted that one. Congrats to Cam. He earned it. Congrats to the team, to go one-two after our pretty rough day yesterday, actually. So, it was good to see the consistency there. Fun race, riding around with Cam. Obviously, my teammate and one of my great friends. So, congrats to him. But we got some work to do. See if we can improve some things tomorrow. (Cameron) Beaubier was unreal those first couple laps. I didn’t see what happened, but I hope he’s okay. Everybody is going to be going faster tomorrow, so we got to do our job.”
Josh Herrin – P3
“We kind of just went back to what we had on Friday and tried something small from that. We’ve been here three times now on this bike. We came here for the race last year, a track day earlier in the year, and then now. I’m just stuck at the time that I’m at. I just can’t do anything better. Having Baz here, it helped because for me, mentally knowing that it wasn’t just me, this is just a difficult track for us. The bike feels great, but I just can’t go any faster on it. It’s weird because I feel like I’m going really good, but then those guys are going quicker. So, I’ve just got to keep plugging away here and keep trying to get better, but just know that there’s better days ahead. We got Road America coming up next. It’s a hard pill to swallow, knowing that this is a three-race round. But the most important thing to me, as much as I love the guy, is to beat Baz. So, it was good motivation. I had a good battle with Sean at the end. It was just a really fun race. Huge thanks to my team for just the nonstop effort, trying to get it better. I don’t know if it’s something that we need to improve on the bike or if it’s just me not being comfortable. Historically, this is a good track for me, so it’s hard to understand. But, if you would have asked me yesterday or this morning, if I’d be happy with third, I’d be stoked. Especially after Atlanta. We had arguably the best race of my career, but it just didn’t look like it on paper. But catching those guys as much as I did and feeling as good as I did on the bike, I got a really good on my head shoulders mentally going into the next couple rounds. I’m happy, and just hoping that tomorrow is better or maybe it rains and then maybe it helps us out. I don’t know.”
Superbike Race One Top Ten
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha) +0.439s
- Josh Herrin (Ducati) +7.416s
- Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW) +7.892s
- Loris Baz (Ducati) +8.394s
- Xavi Forés (Suzuki) +16.119s
- JD Beach (BMW) +17.986s
- Hayden Gillim (Honda) +19.897s
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha) +38.920s
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki) +41.017s
Stock 1000
The Stock 1000 Championship finally got started with its opening round at Barber Motorsports Park and while many were thinking the race would be a thriller, it wasn’t part of Hayden Gillim’s plan.
Real Steel Motorsports Honda’s Gillim ran away and hid from the 36-rider field to win the opening round in the defense of his 2023 Stock 1000 Championship by some 11 seconds. The win was the 12th of Gillim’s Stock 1000 career, and it moved him into a tie with Andrew Lee and Corey Alexander as the winningest rider in the history of the class.
Gillim’s start wasn’t a good one and he had to fight his way to second place early before moving into the lead for good on the third lap after getting ahead of GMR/Jones Honda’s Gabriel Da Silva. Once in front, Gillim put his head down and left the others in his wake as he rode his Honda CBR1000RR-R SP to victory to give Honda its first win in the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 class.
Da Silva was a rather lonely runner-up, some four seconds ahead of BPR’s Bryce Prince with the Californian taking a weekend off work to try his hand at the Stock 1000 class. Bryce was in a battle with Benjamin Smith early on, but there was contact between the two with Smith coming out the worst of it as he crashed his FLO4LAW Racing Yamaha YZF-R1.
Visit Indiana/Tom Wood Powersports’ Nolan Lamkin finished fourth on his BMW M 1000 RR with Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates fifth, giving Honda three CBRs in the top five.
Gillim leads the championship point standings by five over Da Silva and nine over Prince.
Hayden Gillim
“I knew I could do the laps consistent just from all the practice sessions,” Gillim said. “We actually kind of had some miscues and didn’t get to put any new tires on the bike during the sessions. So really most of the sessions I was just doing race stints. So, I knew I could do the lap times. We had some stuff going on with the front end and made a couple clicker changes and it was pretty well fixed. I was super happy with that. I felt from the first lap of the race that I had a little bit extra from what I had in qualifying. It’s been a good weekend. The start wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. After Road Atlanta, I was getting some really good starts, and all my practice starts, testing and everything have been good. Then that light was a little long. If you go and watch the race, you see me about fall over to the right because I was sitting with my rear foot on the rear brake. As the lights hold, I started falling over and I had to end up taking that foot off right as the light went. It threw me a little bit, but it was a good race. These guys were putting up a good fight at the beginning. I had a couple runs on Gabriel (Da Silva) those first two laps. He was doing a good job of kind of blocking the real passing zones and made me work for it. It was a fun race. I was happy to get out front and get into a good pace and get the win. This is a new team. I’ve got the same crew guys from last year, but new bikes, new trailer, new title sponsors. So, it’s great to get the first win on the Honda. See how tomorrow goes. See how the rest of the season goes.”
Stock 1000 Q1 Top Ten
- Hayden Gillim – Honda
- Gabriel Da Silva – Honda +11.517s
- Bryce Prince – Yamaha +14.598s
- Nolan Lamkin – BMW +15.714s
- Ashton Yates – Honda +24.034s
- Jayson Uribe – BMW +29.224s
- Wyatt Farris – Yamaha +31.274s
- Richard Kerr – Honda +32.033s
- Jason Waters – BMW +32.603s
- Delon Campbell – Yamaha +32.774s
Supersport
Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen was content to sit on the rear of TopPro Racing’s Maxi Gerardo. Lap after lap after lap. But with four to go, the New Yorker took the lead, and it seemed like it would be smooth sailing to victory for the championship points leader.
Enter Mathew Scholtz and his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6.
After a horrible start from the inside of row one. Scholtz was able to make some moves to end the lap in a battle for fifth. On the ninth of 18 laps, Scholtz was free and started to move forward. On the 10th lap, he went past Blake Davis to take over fourth, but he didn’t stop there.
Meanwhile, up front, Jacobsen decided to go to the lead with four laps to go. Little did he know there was more racing in store for him as Scholtz was past Gerardo and into second. And the South African wasn’t content to finish there. On the last lap, Scholtz made his move and held it to the flag, winning his first MotoAmerica Supersport race by .269 of a second over Jacobsen with Gerardo just a tick over a second behind.
Scott rode the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki to fourth, some eight seconds behind Scholtz and just .5 of a second ahead of Davis and his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha YZF-R6.
Equitea MV Agusta by MP13 Racing’s Roberto Tamburini was sixth, less than a second ahead of Wrench Motorcycles’ David Anthony. Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa, Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis and Rahal Ducati Moto’s Corey Alexander rounded out the top 10 finishers.
After three races, Jacobson leads the championship by 16 points over Scholtz and 31 ahead of his teammate Alexander.
Mathew Scholtz
“When I was with (Stefano) Mesa, (Blake) Davis, a bunch of the guys, I was running like 27.3, 27.4,” Scholtz said. “I felt like I was pushing to my absolute max because I think that I was definitely flowing through a couple corners a little bit quicker, so I wasn’t able to kind of use those spots to pick up the lap time. So, once I kind of got some clear track, I started dropping time. I could see that I was catching them, but I thought that I was going to fall short. I think one lap they got screwed by the lappers into the second corner, which definitely helped me. Then I got up to third right onto Max’s (Gerardo) tail, and I just went for a crazy pass. I nearly crashed. Unfortunately, I think we touched. Then I managed to pass PJ (Jacobsen) on the second-to-last corner again, and then last lap I just put my absolute hardest lap down. I think I did a 26.8, which was one of the fastest laps for me. Overall, I’m just super happy to be sitting up top here.”
Supersport Q1 Top Ten
- Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha
- PJ Jacobsen – Ducati +0.269s
- Maxi Gerardo – Suzuki +1.159s
- Tyler Scott – Suzuki +8.237s
- Blake Davis – Yamaha +8.779s
- Roberto Tamburini – MV +13.541s
- David Anthony – Suzuki +14.712s
- Stefano Mesa – Kawasaki +15.657s
- Jake Lewis – Suzuki +15.703s
- Corey Alexander – Ducati +15.952s
Junior Cup
Speed Demon Racing’s Logan Cunnison became the third first-time winner in the first three Junior Cup races of the season on Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park as he topped championship points leader Yandel Medina by two seconds in the 11-lap race.
Medina came out on top of a five-rider pack contesting third, the New York Safety Track Racing-backed New Yorker beating Karns Performance’s Levi Badie by .251 of a second. Wolfe Racing’s Ryan Wolfe and BARTCON Racing’s Matthew Chapin rounded out the top five.
“Just excited,” 15-year-old Cunnison said after his first win. “It’s unbelievable. It’s just too exciting.”
The 2024 season marks Cunnison’s second go in the MotoAmerica Junior Cup Championship.
Junior Cup Q1 Top Ten
- Logan Cunnison
- Yandel Medina +2.028s
- Levi Badie +2.279s
- Ryan Wolfe +2.287s
- Matthew Chapin +2.475s
- Jayden Fernandez +2.769s
- Isaac Woodworth +4.250s
- Ella Dreher +4.458s
- Solly Mervis +10.409s
- Ryan Barbour +21.507s
BellissiMoto Twins Cup
Floridian Avery Dreher is racing in two classes this season. He’s defending his 2023 Junior Cup Championship while also competing in the BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship aboard a TopPro Racing Aprilia. Despite a thoroughly wet track from a cloudburst over Barber Motorsports, Dreher rode a masterful race in the tricky conditions and got his first victory in MotoAmerica’s two-cylinder, middleweight race class.
Second-place went to Cassidy Heiser, the Chiefs Racing Team Yamaha rider recording his first-ever podium finish in MotoAmerica competition. Completing the podium was Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle, whose third-place result was his third podium in the past three races.
Despite a ninth-place finish, Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Gus Rodio continues to lead the championship by 19 points over the tied duo of RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Rocco Landers, sixth today, and Doyle.
Avery Dreher
“I think this is for sure going to boost my confidence to try to get up there in the Twins Cup,” Dreher said. “With the unfortunate mechanical in the Junior Cup race earlier, that kind of bummed me out. But as soon as I saw the clouds start to roll in and the rain start to fall, I got a little bit excited because I’m a pretty good rain rider. I knew I just had to be smooth and finish the race on two wheels. It got a little sketchy out there towards the end. I was starting to hydroplane here and there, but I saw Alessandro go down. I knew he was pushing because I couldn’t hang with him. The rear was sliding all over the place, so I just took it easy and just tried to finish the race.”
BellissiMoto Twins Cup Q1 Top Ten
- Avery Dreher – Aprilia
- Cassidy Heiser – Yamaha +2.705s
- Dominic Doyle – Yamaha +5.592s
- Jack Roach – Yamaha +12.658s
- Rossi Moor – Suzuki +23.788s
- Rocco Landers – Suzuki +25.905s
- Alessandro Di Mario – Aprilia +33.386s
- Tyler Duffy – Aprilia +45.730s
- Gus Rodio – Aprilia +45.848s
- Jeff Bean – Yamaha +46.522s
