Gagne and Jacobsen share MotoAmerica wins at Brainerd

2023 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Round Seven – Brainerd, Minnesota

Images by Brian J. Nelson

Superbike Race One

The MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship pendulum took a big swing towards two-time defending champion Jake Gagne on Saturday at Brainerd International Raceway with Cameron Beaubier, his main rival for the title coming into the Minnesota round, crashing out of the race early.

Despite not having Beaubier to deal with, Gagne still didn’t have it easy as Beaubier’s teammate PJ Jacobsen flew the team’s flag and hounded the Yamaha man to the finish, ending up with a gap of just .195 of a second in the race that saw a complete restart after a melee on the opening lap.

Third place went to Herrin, 3.48 seconds behind Gagne and 1.2 seconds ahead of four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, who was competing in his first Superbike race since 2017 (a span of 108 Superbike races).

Hayes, who was riding in place of the injured Cameron Petersen on the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1, got faster as the race wore on – apparently not overly fatigued even though he had raced to victory in the Supersport race 20 minutes earlier. Not to mention the emotions of a man who with that Supersport win became the all-time leader in AMA victories across all classes with his 87th win.

Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was fifth, 1.2 seconds behind Hayes and some six seconds clear of Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong, who had his best finish since returning to the class.

Seventh place went to Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim, who was doing triple duty on the day with races in Superbike, Mission King Of The Baggers (he won) and Steel Commander Stock 1000 (he also won that).

Escalante’s new teammate Brandon Paasch started fast but faded, eventually finishing eighth in his third race on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 R.

Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounded out the top 10.

The first attempt at a race was stopped after the opening lap when Beaubier clipped the back of Gagne’s Yamaha in turn two and then veered off track, taking Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz with him.

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With the race featuring a complete restart, Beaubier was able to take his spot on pole for the second go. Scholtz wasn’t as lucky as his radiator was torn open in the melee, causing the motor to expire.

Jake Gagne – P1

“After a couple of laps, I could see PJ’s (Jacobsen) pit board come out. Then there was one point after maybe five or six laps, I saw a Beemer on the side of the track, and I think I saw Cameron (Beaubier). I recognized the helmet. I didn’t know what happened. It was tough. It was really greasier and slicker than I think most of us expected, so right from the get-go I was just trying to hit my marks and not make any mistakes. It seemed like it would have been really easy to throw it away today. PJ was there. I knew Josh (Herrin) was in third. There were a couple laps I could see PJ’s pit board and I could see that Josh was maybe getting a couple tenths back. So, hats off to the team. I think we’re lucky. We got a little lucky today. It sucks to see Beaubier go down that big. I just saw it on the camera. I hope that he’s all good. I think he was kind of the guy setting the pace this weekend. So, I think we’re in for a good show tomorrow. We’ll go back and see if we can improve a couple little things. Just hats off to the team. Always helping me and trying to make me a better rider and understand what we need to go forward. I miss Cam P (Petersen), but it’s been good having (Josh) Hayes out here helping us out and having his input, because the guy has been around a long time and he’s super wise. So hopefully we can put our heads together later, get a little better, a little faster. He’s the all-time American-winning machine now.”

Superbike Race one Results

Superbike Race Two

With three second-place finishes so far this season and a runner-up finish once in 2022, Jacobsen’s win turned him from bridesmaid to bride and he did it the right way, by besting two-time and defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne in a straight fight.

The win also allowed him to step out of the shadow of his five-time Superbike Champion teammate, Cameron Beaubier – the winner of five races thus far in his first season with the Tytlers Cycle Racing team.

After trailing Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha’s Jake Gagne for all of race one on Saturday, Jacobsen was again behind the championship points leader in race two.

Until there were nine laps to go. At that point, Jacobsen made his move on Gagne in turn three, got the job done and even put a bit of a cushion between himself and Gagne. Although Gagne put in a late-race charge, Jacobsen was able to withstand the pressure to take that elusive first win by .322 of a second.

Behind those two, Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was also feeling pressure from behind as Bobby Fong was having the ride of his year on the Wrench Motorcycles Yamaha YZF-R1 and was giving the South African all he could handle in the final laps. Scholtz crossed the line in third with Fong giving up the chase in the final few turns.

Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch continues to impress in just his second weekend on the GSX-R1000R with another fifth-place finish. Sixth place went to Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim by a tick over Paasch’s Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammate Richie Escalante, who struggled with front-tire woes.

Josh Hayes was up to fourth when an off-track excursion knocked him back to 11th. The four-time AMA Superbike Champion, riding the injured Cameron Petersen’s Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1, charged back through to end up eighth.

Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates was ninth with Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounding out the top 10.

With Beaubier being ruled out of racing on Sunday due to the concussion he suffered in Saturday’s crash, and Josh Herrin’s Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R suffering a mechanical problem that knocked him out of third place, Gagne’s lead in the championship swelled to 68 points over Herrin, 262-194.

Beaubier drops to third, 79 points behind Gagne. With his 2-1 weekend tally, Jacobsen jumps past Escalante and into fourth in the title chase, 100 points behind the championship leader.

PJ Jacobsen – P1

“It’s just been hard work. Last year being able to even be on the podium was awesome and getting there. Then building steps this year and stuff, and with Cam (Beaubier) coming on as my teammate it was obviously a huge push because he’s a five-time AMA Superbike Champion. When he’s out there winning every weekend, first or second, it’s hard to have that as a teammate. I think just building and building and then learning some stuff from him as well in the data and everything. I knew I would eventually get there. I think I’ve always just been close in the wet races. I don’t really consider that a win, for me anyway. It’s good to finally get a dry win and actually get the job done. It feels pretty good. It was a big moment for me out there. I’ve wanted to do this. When you’re a kid coming up racing, and you’re in the paddock running around there, watching all these guys and then you want to be up here eventually with a win, like Hayes, Zemke, Duhamel, all those guys. So, it’s cool to be up here and to finally get a win in MotoAmerica.”

Jake Gagne – P2

“I was just on the edge. I was really pushing, trying to keep with PJ (Jacobsen). Right when he passed me that first lap, two laps, he was just putting tenths on me. I kind of calmed down and figured out a couple little things where he was quicker and tried to ride the bike a little different, be a little smoother, keep it from spinning up quite as much. Then that last lap, we came up on that lapper and I was wondering if I was going to get lucky and see what happened. But it was really fun racing with PJ. The guy has got so much talent. It’s good for him to get his first win. I enjoy being on that side, chasing him down for the win. It was kind of the opposite yesterday where he kind of just got back to my rear tire at the end there and I kind of did the same thing today. It was good. It really sucked to see (Cameron) Beaubier go out with that crash yesterday. I think something happened to (Josh) Herrin today. Good day for points, but more importantly just some good racing today with PJ.”

Mathew Scholtz – P3

“This season has been pretty sh*t so far, to be honest. So, this is awesome to be back up on the podium here. Yesterday obviously passed PJ in the third corner early on. Ruined the bike. Didn’t get out from that. So, during practice, we didn’t put more than six or seven laps on the tire. So, we went out there today changing gearing settings without really knowing what was going to happen. The first three or four laps I think Jake (Gagne) and PJ (Jacobsen) had a little bit of pace, but maybe it was from lap five onwards I kind of pulled them back slightly. Then I think from the halfway point, the bike just started backing in like crazy. I started losing grip as I would crack the gas. So, the last couple laps was just surviving for me, really. So just to be up there makes me feel good, considering how bad things have been. So, I think if we can just build on from here. Pittsburgh has been one of my favorite tracks. I’ve been strong there previously, so I’m really thinking we can challenge for the win there. The bike is working better than it has been. We made a couple changes. I think today’s race we can really look at data and carry on pushing forward.”

Superbike Race Two Results

MotoAmerica Superbike Standings

Stock 1000 Race One

Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim knows that to get back into title contention in the Steel Commander Stock 1000 Championship he must win races. He did just that on Saturday at BIR as he dominated the race, winning by 7.4 seconds.

With season-long championship points leader Ezra Beaubier finishing fifth, Gillim was able to gain valuable points and he now trails Beaubier by 23 points. When the race started, Gillim trailed Beaubier by 37 points.

Orange Cat Racing’s Kaleb De Keyrel, who started the race from pole position, couldn’t match Gillim’s pace and he settled into a comfortable second – until the closing stages when he found himself in a last-lap battle for the spot with Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman. At the finish, it was De Keyrel taking the spot by just a 10th of a second over Wyman.

De Keyrel remains in second in the title chase but he’s just a point ahead of Gillim and 22 points behind his teammate Beaubier.

Benjamin Smith Racing’s Benjamin Smith had a solid first outing in the class, riding his just-built Yamaha YZF-R1 to fourth place ahead of Beaubier.

Hayden Gillim

“After Atlanta, I was kind of in a pretty deep hole, mentally and points-wise. Barber was a good weekend, and I knew it was going to be good. I thought Atlanta would be better than what it was, and it ended up just being a terrible, terrible weekend. Road America, I knew was going to be difficult with all these guys on their bikes and my size and everything. I knew it was going to be tough. In the Stock (1000) race last year, this was kind of how the race was going and then we had a red flag and some stuff happened during the red flag and I ended up not having the greatest last lap in the race. So, we had a lot left on the plate from last year. I needed this. I needed this points haul. To be able to kind of just go out and do what I needed to do today. Riding three classes this weekend is actually helping a little bit because I had just come off of the Bagger and hopped on to that thing and was ready to go that first lap. That was ultimately why I pushed as hard as I could right off the bat. I knew with how different the track was this morning to this afternoon it was going to be a little bit difficult, especially for Kaleb (De Keyrel) since he hasn’t been out there since this morning. I figured it would be a little tough because I could already tell it was a little greasier than this morning. I knew right off the bat I needed to just go. Luckily the guys gave me a great bike and I’m feeling good right now. So, it’s going to be a long day. We’ve got Superbike coming up here in a minute, and then we’ll be back at it on Baggers later this afternoon. So, just got to keep our head on straight.”

Stock 1000 Race One Results

Stock 1000 Race Two

Gillim won his second Steel Commander Stock 1000 race of the weekend on Sunday at BIR, the Kentuckian not only winning the race but moving to within eight points of championship points leader Ezra Beaubier after scoring a perfect 50 points in the two races.

Gillim’s effort on Sunday was a carbon copy of his race on Saturday. He jumped off the line and led by the time the pack got to turn three. From there he never looked back and ultimately won by 8.9 seconds over Orange Cat Racing’s Kaleb De Keyrel with the Minnesota native finishing second for the second straight day.

Benjamin Smith Racing’s Benjamin Smith was third in his first weekend in the class and his first weekend on his Yamaha YZF-R1. Tom Wood Powersports’ Nolan Lamkin was fourth with Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman rounding out the top five.

Ezra Beaubier was sixth on his Orange Cat Racing BMW, despite getting a five-second penalty for jumping the start.

Hayden Gillim

“Honestly, before this weekend I was ready to kind of call it quits on the Stock 1000 class for myself,” Gillim said. “So, this has definitely rejuvenated me a little bit and given me some more confidence going into COTA (the final round of the Steel Commander Stock 1000 series). That’s the only bad thing. That first weekend at Road Atlanta really had me down and out, and I was down a lot. With only five rounds this year for Stock 1000, I was a little nervous because I knew Road America was going to be tough. I expected Road Atlanta to be a little bit better than it was. I don’t know about COTA. We’ll see. I ran pretty quick there last year, so we’ll see. It will be interesting. I know these guys will be running for it. It’s a tight race at the top right now, so it’s coming down to the wire. unfortunately, I’ve been in a lot of these situations where it’s come down to the wire and almost every time, I’ve come out the loser. I’m hoping to do a little bit better than last year (when I) tied for the championship at the end of it but getting second place because he (Corey Alexander) had more race wins. So, trying to get those race wins right now just in case. But this was a really good weekend to do it. I knew coming in that this one and Barber I knew for sure were going to be the ones where I had to do the job and get it done.”

Stock 1000 Race Two Results

Stock 1000 Standings

Supersport Race 1

History was made in Saturday’s Supersport race at Brainerd International Raceway when 48-year-old rider and four-time Superbike champion Josh Hayes got the win, which broke a tie with AMA Hall of Famer Miguel Duhamel for the most all-time wins in AMA history.

Hayes’s 87th career victory was a bit surprising given that Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati rider Xavi Forés had won all eight Supersport races thus far this season. But the technical Brainerd road course threw him a curve in more ways than one, and he only managed to finish seventh on Saturday.

Landers Racing’s Rocco Landers started from the pole, but he didn’t get the start that he hoped for, and he had to claw his way back towards the front. Landers was in second place by the time the checkered flag flew, but Hayes had a gap of more than three seconds at the finish line. Third place went to Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott

Josh Hayes

“Pretty good weekend so far,” Hayes said. “I was really glad the (Supersport) race was first. That’s still my primary goal is to win on that bike. I was doing like I have all year – try to be super aggressive in the first laps and get myself to the front. Fortunately, I was able to open up a little bit of a gap and I was able to manage it. The managing was coming pretty easy. I was doing low 34’s without much drama. Just really happy. The hardest part was staying focused in the last few laps, just because I was happy and super excited. Probably the hardest part was when I rolled into victory circle and Melissa was standing there with my kids. There’s a reason my helmet didn’t come up too quick. But for the Squid Hunter team and I, we’ve been working for this hard for a year. I really enjoyed every race we’ve been in this year. Been in the fight a lot. It’s more relief than anything to get that done, out of the way. We don’t have to talk about it anymore. Let’s just go have some fun and race now.”

Supersport Race 1 Results

Supersport Race 2

Prior to today, Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott had finished on the podium four times this season, but he hadn’t won a race since Road America last year. Well, that all changed with Sunday’s Supersport race two at Brainerd when he came away with the victory in the red-flag-shortened event.

The 17-year-old was hounded throughout the race by Squid Hunter Racing Yamaha’s 48-year-old Josh Hayes, who was looking for his 88th all-time race win to extend the new record he set on Saturday by one more victory.

Scott took the checkered flag by a little more than one-and-half seconds over Hayes. Third place went to Landers Racing Yamaha’s Rocco Landers, who passed both Xavi Forés and Stefano Mesa on the final lap to notch his second podium of the weekend.

Tyler Scott

“I got a good start in this race,” Scott said. “I led for the first lap a little bit. He got in front of me, and the goal was just kind of to stay behind him and learn a little bit from him. I struggled all weekend in sector one. When we came in for the red flag, I looked at my sector one times, and they were right on par with Rocco and Teagg (Hobbs), so that was a good improvement. But the race was just kind of pacing myself, getting a little closer to Hayes, then making a small mistake. Kind of playing with whatever gap was there, a second or half a second. Then the red flag came out and we came into the box. We changed our engine braking strategy a little bit to pull us closer to the apex in some corners. I was running wide, making some mistakes. But I felt great on the restart. Got the holeshot and never looked back. I made one mistake in turn four that kind of scared me. I ran decently wide, but I was able to pull it back on the racing line and get the win in the end.”

Supersport Race 2 Results

Supersport Standings

TBC

Junior Cup Race One

It’s been eight weeks since MotoAmerica’s Junior Cup riders last raced, and despite the hiatus, Fairium NGRT – Gray Area Racing KTM rider Rossi Moor picked up right where he left off after race two at Road America in early June.

Moor notched his second straight win in MotoAmerica’s entry level class, and his victory on Saturday at Brainerd International Raceway was by a margin of more than seven seconds.

The other two podium finishers were a lot closer together with second-place Hayden Bicknese prevailing aboard his Bicknese Racing Kawasaki by just .138 of a second over SportbikeTrackGear.com’s Max Van, who finished third on his Kawasaki. Rossi led all but one of the 11 laps in the race.

Rossi Moor

“From practice and from qualifying, I think I had the pace to do it,” Moor said. “It didn’t show on paper since I wasn’t able to put a bunch of good laps together, but deep-down, I knew that, if I’m able to get to the front, I was able to pull away. But, with Jayden being there and Max and Hayden and all these guys I knew it was going to be pretty hard because I’m slightly down on power. I just wasn’t able to draft a lot of people. But as soon as I was able to get past, I just put my head down and tried to get enough gap by the turns where they couldn’t draft me by turn three.”

Junior Cup Race One Results

Junior Cup Race Two

As is always the case with the MotoAmerica Junior Cup Championship’s races, Sunday’s race two at BIR came right down to the final lap and the final run to the checkered flag before the contest was decided.

Belgian-based rider Levi Badie got the victory aboard his Badie Racing Kawasaki after coming from back in the field and then prevailing in a skirmish with pole sitter Rossi Moor, who was the winner of Saturday’s race one.

Moor led seven of the 11 laps in the race, including the penultimate lap, but Badie and his Kawasaki overtook Moor and his KTM, the final lap, but Moor was unable to strike back before the finish line.

Jayden Fernandez had a battle of his own going on, but he would not be deterred from getting his first MotoAmerica podium in his rookie season, and he finished third.

Levi Badie

“I came from eighth, so it was a little struggle to get back (to the front),” Badie said. “I was there the whole time, just struggling to pass a lot of guys because it’s a difficult track to pass. The competitors are very strong. Once I came in first, I kind of missed my braking mark a little bit. Then going into the corner, I was like in dirt, like flat tracking. I kept it open. I came out and I saw that they weren’t too far away, so just head down and tried to catch them because they were fighting. So, I knew when they’re fighting, they’re not going their top speed, so I just did everything I could, and I caught them. That was like two laps more. I was like, just go for it and try to pass every corner, try to pass someone. It worked. Last lap I just took the chance, tried to pass Rossi and it worked and just go. I’m very happy for first place.”

Junior Cup Race Two Results

Junior Cup Standings

Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. Race

The ladies of the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. program had one featured race at Brainerd International Raceway, and after their Sunday morning final qualifying session, it looked like the outcome of the afternoon’s race might be different than the previous four races this season had been.

Instead of Mikayla Moore starting from the pole as she’d done in all four races thus far, it was Sonya Lloyd who got the start from the pole with Moore right next to her on the front row of the starting grid.

The difference hardly mattered because Moore promptly went to the head of the pack on the opening lap, and she maintained that position all the way to the checkered flag.

Lloyd only gave up the one position to Moore, and she maintained second place throughout the eight-lap race. Crystal Martinez finished third after overtaking Aubrey Credaroli on the opening lap.

Mikayla Moore

“With the big gap (in the schedule)—Ridge Motorsports Park was last month – I spent time training on a (Kawasaki) ZX-6 and a Ninja 400,” Moore said. “But I knew going into this weekend it was going to be a new track for me and based off of P1 time, I knew I had a lot to figure out and to adjust. Going into race one I felt a lot better with the adjustments that Megan helped me with, with Öhlins and some gearing changes that I made.”

Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. Results

Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. Standings