Jake Gagne unstoppable at The Ridge

2022 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Round  6 – Ridge Motorsport Park

Images by Brian J Nelson

MotoAmerica Superbike Race One

On a hot and sunny day in the Pacific Northwest, Jake Gagne made it through three starts in the red-flag-interrupted race to win for the fourth time in 2022 – a few hours after earning pole position with a lap-record-setting performance at Ridge Motorsports Park.

Gagne led every practice session and both qualifying sessions, then went out and led all three starts on Saturday. In other words, no one ever led him. He’s also now climbed to within 16 points of championship leader Danilo Petrucci.

Gagne’s victory at Ridge was the 21st of his Superbike career and it was typical Gagne. Get the holeshot, pull a gap and maintain said gap to the finish.

After a final portion of the race that lasted just eight laps, Gagne crossed the finish line 3.935 seconds ahead of his teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African earning his fifth podium of the year and keeping Gagne honest for the duration.

Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Petrucci ended up third, the Italian benefitting from the second red flag as he crashed in turn one just moments after Jake Lewis’ crash in the last corner brought a premature stop to the race. Petrucci was able to get his bike back to pit lane where his crew replaced a broken left footpeg.

Petrucci was a bit more cautious on the third start and it took him longer to get to third place. Once there, he settled in and brought the Panigale V4 R home for his seventh podium finish of the season.

Petrucci’s fourth-place finish allowed him to extend his lead in the championship over Mathew Scholtz to 10 points with the South African finishing fourth on Saturday.

Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera was less than a second behind Scholtz and some four seconds ahead of Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates.

Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander was seventh, a tick over a second ahead of Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim. Precision Iron Works/DiBrino Racing’s Andy DiBrino finished ninth after earlier finishing second to Alexander in the Yuasa Stock 1000 race.

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Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was given second life after highsiding out of the first portion of the race and making the restart. He battled on to finish 10th on the day.

It was a race of fairly high attrition with Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis among those crashing out of the race.

MotoAmerica Superbike Race One

MotoAmerica Superbike Race Two

Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne had a perfect weekend in the Pacific Northwest, the defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion breaking the lap record at Ridge Motorsports Park while qualifying on pole position, and then winning both Superbike races over the course of the Dynapac MotoAmerica Superbikes At The Ridge weekend.

If his rivals weren’t already worried, they should be now. Gagne looks to be on the verge of going on a roll like he did during his 17-victory, championship-winning season of 2021. Although a rough start to the 2022 season means Gagne only has six podium finishes in the 10 races held thus far, five of those podiums have been victories.

With five rounds (10 races) in the books, Gagne has now closed to within 11 points of championship leader Danilo Petrucci, the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale V4 R-mounted Italian earning his second podium of the weekend on Sunday at Ridge with a second-place finish to Gagne.

Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen also had a solid weekend with two podium finishes, the South African splitting second- and third-place finishes with Petrucci.

In typical Gagne fashion, the Colorado resident stormed off to a flying start, put his head down for the first five laps to open a gap on his pursuers and then maintained that lead for the duration of the 16-lap race. At the finish line, Gagne was 4.578 seconds clear of Petrucci, who in turn was just a second ahead of Petersen. The win was the 22nd AMA Superbike victory of Gagne’s career, all of which have come in the MotoAmerica era.

Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz matched his fourth-place finish from Saturday with another fourth on Sunday, the South African losing his hold on second in the title chase to Gagne after holding it for the first nine races.

Fifth for the second day in a row was Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera, the Spaniard beating Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante by just .171 of a second. Those two were well clear of Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim who barely got the better of his Yuasa Stock 1000 Championship rival Corey Alexander and his Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW M 1000 RR.

Tytlers Cycle’s PJ Jacobsen was a lonely ninth with David Anthony riding the injured Jake Lewis’s Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki to 10th.

For the first time all year, Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates failed to score a point with the Georgian crashing out of the race for his first DNF. Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Travis Wyman was another who crashed out of the race.

Petrucci leads Gagne by 11, 176-165, after 10 races. Scholtz is third with 159 points, 20 better than Petersen. Barbera rounds out the top five in the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike point standings with 101 points.

Jake Gagne – Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing

“I got off to another great start today, which really helped as I knew everyone would step up the pace. We have this R1 in a really good spot now, and even though it was hotter and greasier than yesterday, we ran a great race. It’s been an amazing weekend for this whole crew. We’ve had a rough start to the year, so we’ve just been taking it one session at a time, one race at a time. It was a great weekend; let’s roll on to the next one.”

Cameron Petersen – Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing

“It was a tough race. For some reason, I just wasn’t able to do the laps like I did yesterday. There was a certain part towards the end of the race when I was behind Danilo (Petrucci), and the laps slowed down a bit, and I felt like I was able to do something. I was kind of waiting for the last lap to make the pass, and then I had a big moment coming out of, I think, Turn 5, and he just got that little bit of a gap. I’m always looking for more, but I can’t thank the team enough. We’re just going to keep working and trust the process and come back at Laguna.”

MotoAmerica Superbike Race Two Results

MotoAmerica Superbike Standings

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 1

In Yuasa Stock 1000 race one, the 12-lap race was reduced to 10 laps due to a red flag on the initial start. Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW rider Corey Alexander started from the pole and led from start to finish to record his third race win in a row at Ridge Motorsports Park after getting the double-win last year.

Oregon-based rider Andy DiBrino showed well at his home track. Aboard his Precision Iron Works/DiBrino Racing Kawasaki, DiBrino started second and maintained his runner-up position all the way to the checkers. Third place went to Disrupt Racing Suzuki rider Hayden Gillim.

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 1 Results

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 2

In Sunday’s Yuasa Stock 1000 race two, Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW rider Corey Alexander followed up his Saturday race one victory with another win. In fact, Corey is undefeated at Ridge.

The New Yorker has won every Stock 1000 race at the Pacific Northwest track since MotoAmerica started racing at Ridge in 2020.

Alexander withstood a challenge from Hayden Gillim, who made an attempt to overtake Alexander, but ran out of track and had to take to the grass, which ruined his chance at a podium. Instead, it was a 1-2 finish for Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing BMW with Alexander’s teammate Travis Wyman.

Local rider Andy DiBrino finished third, the Precision Iron Works/DiBrino Racing Kawasaki rider notching his second MotoAmerica podium in as many days.

YUASA Stock 1000 Race 2 Results

YUASA Stock 1000 Standings

Supersport Race 1

Supersport points leader Josh Herrin notched his fourth victory of the season with his win in race one at Ridge Motorsports Park. Herrin stalked Tyler Scott in the beginning of the race, and then on lap three, he overtook Scott and maintained his lead all the way to the finish line.

Scott, meanwhile, faded as the laps wound down, and polesitter Rocco Landers took over second position aboard his Landers Racing Yamaha on lap 11 of the 15-lap event, ultimately finishing as runner-up in the race, a little over two and a half seconds behind Herrin.

Also moving up into podium position on lap 11 was Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sam Lochoff, the South African finishing third.

A rapid start for Luke Power saw him in contention for the podium in the opening laps, before a small mistake saw him crash at speed, thankfully without injury.

Supersport Race 1 Results

Supersport Race 2

Like Corey Alexander in Stock 1000 and Anthony Mazziotto in Twins Cup, Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC rider Josh Herrin also had a perfect weekend at Ridge. Herrin earned the pole, won Saturday’s race one and also won Sunday’s race two.

It was a dominant victory for Herrin, who crossed the finish line more than six seconds ahead of second-place finisher Tyler Scott aboard his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki.

N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha rider Kevin Olmedo finished third for his first podium result so far this season.

Josh Herrin

“It’s pretty unbelievable how good this bike is,” Herrin said. “We’ve never turned any laps at any of these tracks on this motorcycle. The guys work really hard behind the scenes, even at Ducati Corse over in Italy just trying to compare V4 data from last year to this year to try and help us with gearing choices and things like that. It’s huge. We have guys from Ducati Corse flying in every weekend from Italy, which is insane. Just a huge shout out to those guys. It obviously wouldn’t work without them and the rest of my crew really working hard. I’m just happy to be able to get these wins. Road America, we knew going into it, it was a really tough weekend. We knew we were going to struggle there. These next two coming up are tracks that I really like and also tracks that I think will favor the V2. I’m really excited to go to Laguna. We’re doing a special livery for Medallia there, so it will be a really cool all-black bike that weekend. Just having fun. Like I said at the beginning of the year, this team has really allowed me to be myself, which is huge in my opinion for anybody. It’s hard going up to do your job, especially when there’s as much pressure as there is on all these guys to perform well, and they do a really good job at making me feel like I’m just spinning laps at a cart track or something. Just a huge shout out to everybody. Looking forward to going to Laguna and seeing a bunch of friends and family.”

Luke Power claimed fifth in Race 2, and now sits sixth in the standings.

Luke Power – P5

“It was a pretty disappointing Saturday, and I don’t really know what to say. We had an electronics issue which meant I couldn’t complete the full session in Q2. We made a change for the race, and I made a good start and felt really good and had good pace. I made a mistake downshifting and it bit me. The bike was a mess, and I was pretty banged up and I wasn’t sure I’d be on the grid on Sunday. Race 2 was pretty good considering what happened on Saturday. The team did a great job, working until 2am to give me a bike after I sent it into the trees, so I can’t thank them enough. I struggled a lot as the race progressed. My tyre dropped which affected my lap times in the final part of the race, but I was fortunate to be able to take advantage of a mistake ahead of me and was able to take another Top 5. It was damage limitation, and it could have been a lot worse. I am already looking forward to Laguna Seca, a track that I have always wanted to ride, and I hope to be able to put on a good show for the fans.”

Supersport Race 2 Results

Supersport Standings

Twins Cup Race 1

Rodio Racing/HSBK Racing followed up their win in SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race one with Gus Rodio’s teammate Anthony Mazziotto winning Twins Cup race one. Mazziotto started from the pole aboard his Aprilia and was never headed in the red-flagged-and-restarted seven-lap race.

Second place went to defending Twins Cup champion Kaleb De Keyrel aboard his Veloce Racing Aprilia, while Cycle Tech Yamaha rider Hayden Schultz rounded out the podium in third.

Twins Cup Race 1 Results

Twins Cup Race 2

Rodio Racing/HSBK Racing Aprilia rider Anthony Mazziotto is from New Jersey, but his weekend in the Pacific Northwest couldn’t have gone better. First, he earned the pole position and the high-dollar timepiece that came from Wilbur Watch Company for being the fastest qualifier in the Twins Cup class.

He then followed that up with a win in Saturday’s race one and capped things off with the win on Sunday, as well. Second place went to Cycle Tech Yamaha rider Hayden Schultz, who improved by one position from his third-place result on Saturday. Third on Sunday went to Alpha Omega rider Cody Wyman.

Twins Cup Race 2 Results

Twins Cup Standings

Junior Cup Race 1

Rodio Racing/HSBK Racing’s Gus Rodio started out the season competing in both Twins Cup and SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup. But, after round two at Road Atlanta, Rodio and his team decided that he would focus all of his energies completely on STG Junior Cup and withdraw from Twins Cup.

The strategy has paid dividends for Rodio in Junior Cup because he podiumed in Virginia, finished second in race one at Road America, and in race one at Ridge, he got the win.

The New Jerseyan built a big lead aboard his Kawasaki in the red-flagged-and-restarted 10-lap race, but SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki rider Joseph LiMandri Jr. closed the gap considerably and finished in second, just ,204 of a second behind Rodio.

Third place went to Kayla Yaakov, who turned 15 years old on Friday. It was the fourth podium result of the season and third in a row for the Altus Motorsports Kawasaki rider.

Aussie Joseph Mariniello was 11th.

Junior Cup Race 1 Results

Junior Cup Race 2

History was made in Sunday’s SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race as Altus Motorsports Kawasaki rider Kayla Yaakov became the first female rider in history to win a MotoAmerica race.

Yaakov, who turned just 15 years old on Friday, had been knocking on the door of a victory for the past few rounds, and she had recorded four third place finishes so far this season. And then, in Sunday’s race two, after leading the morning warmup, Yaakov got her breakthrough win.

Second place went to SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki rider Joseph LiMandri Jr., who was battling a respiratory infection but managed to get through the weekend and notched two podium finishes in the process. Rodio Racing/HSBK Racing Kawasaki rider Gus Rodio finished third as a follow-up to his win on Sunday.

Junior Cup Race 2 Results

Junior Cup Standings