Press Release | July 11, 2021
2021 Laguna Seca MotoAmerica Results – Sunday
Superbike Sunday Results
Newsflash: Jake Gagne got passed today at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in the second of two HONOS Superbike races in the MotoAmerica Superbike Speedfest at Monterey.
But it only lasted two corners.
Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s Gagne ran off the track on the run from turn five to turn six on the opening lap and the mistake allowed Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York’s Loris Baz to pass him. What followed was a frenzied 20 or so seconds as Gagne, Baz and Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz rubbed elbows and motorcycles through the Corkscrew and Rainey Curve. When the dust settled, Gagne was back in front.
The battle came down to Gagne vs. Baz with Gagne ultimately winning his ninth HONOS Superbike race in a row. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
And that was all she wrote. Despite constant pressure from Baz for the duration, Gagne was able to maintain his composure to beat the Frenchman by 1.789 seconds and win his ninth straight HONOS Superbike race. The win also increased his championship points lead to 65 points over Scholtz, 225-160.
“That turn five, when you get out there on a Superbike you start sliding,” Gagne explained when asked about his off-track excursion. “That curb comes back. If you get out on the curb, it’s almost tough to get back off it. I just slid out there a little too much. It was one of those things. I thought I was going to save it, and then the rear tire kind of hopped back off. Then all of a sudden, I was in the dirt. But I kind of dropped the throttle. The Yamaha still hooked up good in the dirt with the slicks on, so I just got back up on the curb. Loris (Baz) came by, then Mat (Scholtz) came by the Corkscrew. They both kind of ran wide in the Corkscrew, so I was able to just dive up tight on the Corkscrew and around the side of Rainey (Curve). I managed to kind of get that back and I knew I got to go. Obviously, I was keeping an eye on my pit board. I knew Loris was there. I knew Mat was there. They didn’t give me any issues to go. I saw a couple .2, .3, and then they’d pull a tenth back, they’d grab a 10th, they’d pull a couple tenths back… So, it was kind of back and forth.”
Gagne had been challenged all weekend by Baz and admitted that Sunday was the biggest challenge he’d faced all year.
“That was a tough race for me,” Gagne said. “I made a couple little mistakes. All these races, I’ve been in a pretty comfortable spot. I don’t have to push too many brake markers and stuff. But this time I ran wide here and there, I dropped it off the curb here and there. But we made some improvements. We made the bike easier to ride today from yesterday. It was fun racing with these guys. It’s been a little lonely up front, but this weekend it was a lot more exciting. We all banged some elbows today. Bent my front brake lever down going up to the Corkscrew. We got a little action today and it’s good. Hats off to the Fresh N’ Lean Attack Yamaha. This thing shows we can bring it anywhere and it’s a beast. We’ll just try to keep it up. I know these guys are coming and people want to get those wins, for sure. So, we’ll roll onto Brainerd.”
For Baz and his Ducati team it was a solid weekend where they made big improvements to the Panigale V4 R.
“I did a good start,” Baz said. “I think it’s the first one of the season, so I was pretty happy with that. Jake (Gagne) ran wide in turn five. There were a lot of stones. I’m really happy he didn’t crash because it would have been scary. I was really close to him. All the stones hit me like when you race motocross. Then I managed to overtake him, but I went wide in the next turn. Then he came back on the inside. We were elbow to elbow. We made the Corkscrew. His elbow was stuck in my wing. Then on the next corner, Josh (Herrin) came (by), and we went elbow to elbow all the straight. I really didn’t want to lose the rear wheel from Jake because I didn’t expect anyone to be able to follow us at the beginning, so I was surprised to see the next 10 laps plus zero. I was trying to keep the same gap to Jake, so I had pressure. He did a couple of mistakes, but not enough for me to go through. After 12, 13 (laps) I started to have a lot of chatter in the front, much more than yesterday. I had a few moments on the front. At that time, it took two tenths of a lap in the last section mainly. I was not able to be any faster. Again, another podium and another P2. I’m much closer to Jake. We put pressure on him. We had a fun race. So, I’m happy. I go home happy all the season, the closer we are. Big thanks to Ducati, all the team are doing an amazing job to improve the bike each weekend. The way we work in the team is getting better and better every weekend, more professional. We can only improve every week from now.”
With Gagne beating Baz for the second straight day, it was Scholtz finishing third on Sunday. The South African ended up 7.8 seconds behind Baz after keeping the two in front of him in sight for most of the race.
“Yesterday was good,” Scholtz said. “Obviously, only finishing, I think, it was 4.8 off of Jake (Gagne) is the closest that we’ve been to him. It wasn’t a real race, per se, because we had the red flag come out and shortened laps and the tire doesn’t have as much grip after the heat cycle of coming in and going back out. So, it definitely helps us with the pace being slowed down. Last night we made some changes and it definitely helped today. The last two rounds have been difficult, so we came here and just reset everything, from the setup and just a ton of things. We kind of figured that we have just gone too far one way and just have been struggling. So, kind of reset so we were able to work our way up slowly Friday, Saturday, Sunday and just got quicker and quicker. I think I hung onto Baz and Jake for the first 12 laps, or something like that. I didn’t think it would be possible running low to mid 24s for most of the race. I got a nice surprise for myself there. Just a huge thank you to the Westby team. This was difficult times and we kind of persevered and managed to work our way back up to the podium here. We definitely have our work cut out for us to catch these two. I feel like the bike is sort of going somewhere where I feel comfortable riding. I have had to change how I’m going to attempt corners, slightly. I feel like if we carry on working in the direction that we are now, we should be able to hopefully catch them soon.”
Joe Roberts (left) and Cameron Beaubier (right) joined Loris Baz, Jake Gagne and Mathew Scholtz on the podium.
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen was fourth on Sunday, a day after finishing third. He ended up some six seconds ahead of Gagne’s Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s teammate Josh Herrin, who in turn was seven seconds ahead of Petersen’s teammate Bobby Fong.
Panera Bread Ducati’s Toni Elias got the better of Scheibe Racing BMW’s Hector Barbera after a race-long duel to finish seventh. Elias was riding the Ducati in place of the injured Kyle Wyman at Laguna Seca, but Wyman will return to the HONOS Superbike class in three weeks at Brainerd International Raceway.
Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman and BPR Tuning’s Bryce Prince rounded out the top 10 finishers while also finishing first and second in the Superbike Cup.
2021 Laguna Seca MotoAmerica Superbike Race 2 Results
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Loris Baz (Ducati)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Cameron Petersen (Suzuki)
- Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
- Bobby Fong (Suzuki)
- Toni Elias (Ducati)
- Hector Barbera (BMW)
- Travis Wyman (BMW)
- Bryce Prince (Yamaha)
Mission King of the Baggers Results
Broken elbow, be damned. Kyle Wyman is the 2021 MotoAmerica Mission King Of The Baggers Champion. Wyman did what was needed to do to earn the title on his factory Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle Road Glide as the three-round series culminated on a sunny day on the Monterey Peninsula.
Kyle Wyman (33) jumped out front at the start of the Mission King Of The Baggers finale and was never headed. The factory Harley-Davidson rider won the race and the championship.
The three-round Mission King Of The Baggers Championship wrapped up on Sunday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle rider Kyle Wyman left no doubt, from the beginning of the race, that he would not only win the race, but clinch the title in dominant fashion.
Wyman started from the pole and was never headed in the eight-lap race. He gained more than a full second on second-place finisher and Mission Foods S&S Cycle Indian rider Tyler O’Hara on almost every lap of the race until he decided to slow his pace just a bit towards the end. At the checkers, he took the win by just under four-and-a-half seconds over O’Hara. Third place went to DTF Performance/Hoban Brothers Performance Racing Harley-Davidson’s Michael Barnes, who added yet another podium finish in yet another motorcycle road race class on yet another brand of motorcycle.
Wyman, who had broken his elbow in a crash last month at Road America, made a miraculous recovery from his injury, and he talked about it after the race.
“Those guys are world-class doctors and surgeons, putting me back together, knowing exactly the timeline and how he needed to fix everything for me to be able to get what I needed to get done,” Wyman said. “Honestly, we didn’t make any changes to the bike ergonomically for me to ride it. It was just a matter of Friday it was like, okay, this is the lap time I can do without braking so hard that I’m screaming in my helmet. Then here’s a lap I can do when it really sucks. Then just decided from there how hard I wanted to push. I pushed pretty hard in the beginning of the race and saw the board grow pretty quickly, so I was pretty happy with that. I could kind of keep a steady rhythm from there and not have to brake too hard. That’s all it was. It was just more brake force and the more I have to hold my body weight, especially these downhill left-handers in 2 and 11 and stuff like that. Structurally it’s been good. It’s been a very fast recovery. If I was only racing Superbike this year, I probably would have ridden the Superbike, but both would have been a lot. I would have jeopardized both. So, my plan was just to focus on this. Pretty minimal laps for a race weekend. After doing double duty riding on the Harley only is like a vacation, so it was pretty awesome. Got it done.”
Supersport Sunday Results
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly and HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Richie Escalante continued what has been a season-long, round-by-round and race-by-race battle, but as has been the trend this season, Kelly, who started from the pole, prevailed with his seventh race victory of the season over Escalante.
The two riders had their usual paint-swapping skirmishes during the 19-lap event, but they were joined this time by CV28 Racing Yamaha’s Cory Ventura, who followed up his podium finish from Saturday’s race one with a turn in a lead for at least a brief few moments. As the race approached its conclusion, things became processional with Kelly beating Escalante by a little over four seconds, and Ventura just under two-and-a-half seconds adrift of Escalante.
Sean Dylan Kelly (40) leads Richie Escalante (1), Cory Ventura (28) and the rest of the Supersport field at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday.
“That wasn’t an easy race,” Kelly said. “I was really happy about the weekend. Truthfully, another solid job. We got the double. Did the pole yesterday. We’ve been in the fight the entire time. Just working away. Really happy, honestly, with how I’m working with the team. This is exactly what I want to be doing every single weekend. Definitely proud of the job. Today’s race was a little bit more tough than yesterday. Richie and I started off with some close battles and a few rubs, which is honestly one of the best ways to race. We’re tough competitors, but we have a level of respect, which is definitely necessary just to keep human. But it’s good. Cory definitely surprised me. I struggled to get by him for a lap or two. Just a different riding style I had never seen. Just a couple different things here and there. I actually almost hit him twice and decided to take it a little easy and study him a little bit more to do it the right way. So, I’m definitely happy about the job. Overall, just excited to get the double this weekend. We just have to continue. The goal is higher than this, so we’re just going to keep on working away.”
Stock 1000 Results
Sunday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca started off with a bang as MotoAmerica’s literbike riders put on an amazing show in their only Stock 1000 race of the weekend. Motul Travis Wyman Racing BMW rider Travis Wyman showed his tenacity when he started from back in seventh on the grid and methodically worked his way to the front. Meanwhile, HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Corey Alexander was in the lead and heading for the win…until Wyman descended upon him from seemingly nowhere with four laps to go in the 14-lap event. Wyman stalked Alexander, and then, on the final run to the checkers, he nipped Alexander at the finish line by a scant .032 of a second. Altus Motorsports Suzuki’s Jake Lewis also emerged from way back in the pack – a victim of a bad tire choice – to take the final spot on the podium just .286 0f a second behind Alexander.
Travis Wyman (10) barely beat Cory Alexander (23) to win the Stock 1000 race on Sunday.
“The guys got my bike dialed in where I can get off of that corner (turn 11) really well,” said Wyman about his race-long surge to the win. “That was my focus going into this weekend, was figuring out 11. Overall, the guys just figured out a great setup for me. We struggled in qualifying and they threw something together for me in the Superbike race and it was a gamble and it paid off. We didn’t change the bike one bit from yesterday’s race to this race because I knew we had pace and I just wanted to focus on riding and not having to take another gamble, because we were good. I just got a terrible start and I had to work my way through the field, and I knew Cory and (fourth-place finisher) Andrew (Lee) wouldn’t make it easy for me. Lapped traffic came into play. I actually thought that I was going to settle for second because of how far back I was from Cory coming down the hill, but when I got up behind him in 11, I was like, ‘Man, I haven’t made a pass by the start/finish yet, but I think if I can get a killer drive, I could do it,’ and I did and obviously it paid off. So stoked for BMW and everyone.”
Junior Cup Sunday Results
The final race of the weekend was in SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup, and Saturday’s winner Tyler Scott did the double aboard his Scott Powersports KTM despite facing a very strong challenge from Landers Racing Kawasaki’s Ben Gloddy. Scott started from the pole, but Gloddy was undeterred and kept Scott in his sights throughout the race, which included overtaking Scott on lap eight. Scott was equally undeterred, however, and he quickly took back the lead and maintained all the way to the checkers. Veloce Racing’s David Kohlstaedt, who was third in Saturday’s Junior Cup race one and third in Sunday morning’s Super Hooligans race, finished third in Junior Cup race two to record his third podium finish of the weekend.
Tyler Scott (7) and Ben Gloddy again fought for victory in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race.
“It feels great to go back-to-back this weekend,” Scott said. “I couldn’t ask for a more perfect weekend. Great race today with Ben. It was definitely tiring. I knew he was there the whole time. Way more competitive than yesterday, in my opinion. We started going back and forth battling and saw our lap times going down, so in the last couple laps I decided to take the lead and try to set the pace for the last lap.”
Super Hooligans Results
Round one of the Roland Sands Design Super Hooligans QuaTTro Championship took place on Sunday with the road race portion of the multi-disciplinary series. Two KTM-mounted riders battled at the front with Chris Fillmore prevailing over his teammate Andy DiBrino by just .045 of a second. SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup regular David Kohlstaedt rode his Indian to third place.
Chris Fillmore (11) beat Andy DiBrino (62) to win the Super Hooligans race.
“We didn’t ride together really at all these past three days,” Fillmore said in reference to his teammate DiBrino. “So, I wasn’t sure where I was going to be strong. I just figured it out throughout the race. I decided to kind of play the wise old thoughts and kind of sit back and watch and pick my place where I was going to make my move. I saved it for the last corner because I didn’t want to give him another chance to come back by me. So, it would have been nice to battle back and forth a little bit because we, for sure, could have done a little bit of that, but I went for the safe last-lap pass.”
Saturday
Superbike Results
Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s Jake Gagne won his eighth straight MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike race today at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but this one was different. This one was close.
How close? Just a tick over a second and that was the biggest lead of the race as Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York’s Loris Baz finished just 1.173 seconds behind Gagne after applying relentless pressure for the duration of the red-flag interrupted race.
Baz was all smiles after having his best race of the season thus far in keeping Gagne.
Third place went to M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen, 3.6 seconds behind Baz, and that meant the podium consisted of three different manufacturers (Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki) and three different nationalities (American, French and South African).
Gagne (32) got the win but by a more slender margin than he’s used to.
Baz had put a pass on Petersen early in the race in the Corkscrew that left an impression on the Suzuki rider.
Fourth went to another South African in the form of Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the Yamaha rider ending up 1.3 seconds adrift of his countryman Petersen and over 12 seconds ahead of Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s Josh Herrin.
Some four seconds behind Herrin came Scheibe Racing’s Hector Barbera, the Spaniard beating M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong. The returning Toni Elias ended up eighth on Kyle Wyman’s Panera Bread Ducati.
Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis finished ninth over Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman and won the Superbike Cup in the process.
Superbike Race 1
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Loris Baz (Ducati)
- Cameron Petersen (Suzuki)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
- Hector Barbera (BMW)
- Bobby Fong (Suzuki)
- Toni Elias (Ducati)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Travis Wyman (BMW)
Supersport Saturday Results
One thing that has been a consistent theme in the Supersport class over the past two seasons is the friendly, but also red-hot, rivalry between HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Richie Escalante and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly. In Saturday’s race one at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Kelly started from the pole, and while he did lead every lap of the race, he was also challenged in virtually every lap of the race by defending class champion Escalante.
Kelly (40) made it another win at Laguna.
For Kelly, it was his sixth win of the season and third in a row to match the three-race winning streak with which he started the season. At the checkers, Kelly prevailed by just .099 of a second over Escalante. Third place went to CV28 Racing Yamaha’s Cory Ventura, who also podiumed last year at Laguna Seca, which was also the last time he raced in the MotoAmerica Series.
Junior Cup Saturday Results
In SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race one, Scott Powersports KTM rider Tyler Scott started from the pole, got the holeshot, and appeared to be headed for a dominant win. However, Landers Racing Kawasaki’s Ben Gloddy chased down Scott and overtook him on lap eight, but he was unable to make it stick. Scott retook the lead and crossed the finish line .216 of a second over Gloddy. Meanwhile, 24 seconds behind the leaders, Veloce Racing Kawasaki’s David Kohlstaedt and Rodio Racing Kawasaki’s Gus Rodio were waging their own war for the final spot on the podium. At the checkers, Kohlstaedt secured third place.
Twins Cup Results
The final race on Saturday was in Twins Cup, and Robem Engineering Aprilia’s Kaleb De Keyrel seems to have WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca absolutely dialed.
Despite starting fifth on the grid, De Keyrel progressed quickly to the front, taking over the lead on the first lap and holding off polesitter and Veloce Racing Aprilia rider Anthony Mazziotto to notch his third podium in a row at Laguna Seca and his second win in his past three annual visits to the venue. At the stripe, Mazziotto was just .217 of a second behind De Keyrel, while third place went to Righteous Racing Aprilia’s Jody Barry to complete an all-Aprilia RS 660 podium. Barry, incidentally, overtook De Keyrel on lap five, but he was unable to make it stick.
Friday Practice and Qualifying
Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha’s Jake Gagne had a normal Jake Gagne day on Friday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Go fast, earn provisional pole, get ready for tomorrow’s first of two HONOS Superbike races in the MotoAmerica GEICO Motorcycle Superbike Speedfest at Monterey.
Gagne lapped at 1:24.371 in Qualifying 1 and that put him .338 of a second ahead of Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York’s Loris Baz, the Frenchman turning his best lap of 1:24.709 after a low-side crash in the Corkscrew.
Gagne went top on Friday at Laguna Seca.
“We had a good day today,” Gagne said. “In the first session we took the bike off the truck, and it was actually one of the toughest first sessions we’ve had. I wasn’t too happy with the bike with just a couple of little tweaks, the electronics mostly. We managed to run both tires and I liked the green tire better. We made some changes in between sessions and made the bike feel a lot better right away in the second session. So, we went out and did a 13-or 14-lap run to get a good feel for the tires, and we had a really good run out here. Obviously, we are just trying to do the work for the race. We’re just seeing how these Dunlops are going to be in the second half of the race because that’s when we want to be strong.”
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen ended a sunny and warm afternoon on the Monterey Peninsula third fastest by virtue of his 1:24.831 on his 17th lap and that put the South African ahead of countryman Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholz by just .002 of a second. Scholtz suffered two crashes in the session.
Gagne’s teammate Josh Herrin completed the day in fifth place with his 1:25.139, which put him ahead of Scheibe Racing BMW’s Hector Barbera, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong and the returning Toni Elias on Kyle Wyman’s Panera Bread Ducati rounding out the top eight.
Supersport
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly topped his rival Richie Escalante, on the HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki, by just .130 of a second in Supersport Q1. North East Cycle Outlet Racing’s Benjamin Smith, CV28 Racing’s Cory Ventura and Altus Motorsports’ Kevin Olmeda rounded out the top five.
Junior Cup
Scott Powersports/KTM’s Tyler Scott was the fastest of the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup races as he led his championship rival Ben Gloddy by 1.4 seconds. Maz Van ended the day third fastest, 1.7 seconds behind Scott.
Stock 1000
BPR Tuning’s Bryce Prince made his first day back in the MotoAmerica Series count as he led the way in Stock 1000 Q1, besting Ridge Motorsports Park/DiBrino Racing’s Andy DiBrino and Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates.
King of The Baggers
Mission Foods S&S Cycle News Indian Challenger’s Tyler O’Hara and his 1:33.058 led the Mission King Of The Baggers Q1, besting H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Travis Wyman, DTF Performance/Hoban Brothers Racing’s Michael Barnes and championship points leader Kyle Wyman and his H-D Screamin’ Eagle Road Glide.
Twins Cup
Righteous Racing’s Jody Barry led Twins Cup Q1 over Rodem Engineering teammates Toby Khamsouk and Kaleb De Keyrel.
Superbike Q1
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:24.371
- Loris Baz (Ducati) 1:24.709
- Cameron Petersen (Suzuki) 1:24.831
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:24.833
- Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:25.139
- Hector Barbera (BMW) 1:25.885
- Bobby Fong (Suzuki) 1:26.143
- Toni Elias (Ducati) 1:26.199
- Jayson Uribe (Suzuki) 1:26.971
- David Anthony (Suzuki) 1:27.107
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