Press Release | April 23, 2023
Sunday
Superbike
Four riders battled to the bitter end on Sunday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in what was the most exciting Medallia Superbike race in recent memory. And when the smoke cleared after 15 intense laps it was defending two-time Superbike Champion Jake Gagne crossing the finish line first on his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1, just half a second ahead of yesterday’s winner Cameron Beaubier on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
Gagne wins race two after a bar brawl of a last lap at Road Atlanta.
Just prior to the finish, it was anybody’s race when the four ran together down the backstraight and through the 180-mph kink when Beaubier’s line pushed him wide and nearly forced Josh Herrin off the track. That left a giant hole between Beaubier and Herrin to go through, and Gagne went through it. Herrin recovered but couldn’t get his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati stopped for the chicane and his off-track excursion allowed Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz to pass him, putting Scholtz third and Herrin fourth at the finish line. Scholtz was .850 of a second behind Gagne with Herrin some two seconds behind after getting his Panigale V4 R back on track.
The win was Gagne’s first of the season and the 30th MotoAmerica Superbike victory of his career and it put him into a tie with Beaubier at the top of the championship standings after one round and two races. The pair both have 45 points with the series heading to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, May 19-21.
Scholtz and the Westby Racing crew worked hard over the course of the weekend and the South African said they’d made huge progress over the course of the three days. He was rewarded with a podium finish on Sunday.
Herrin lead Beaubier, Gagne and Scholtz in an epic race two.
Herrin was also happy on Sunday afternoon, despite missing out on the podium. The two races were just his second and third outings on the new Ducati Panigale V4 R and he landed on the podium in Saturday’s race.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was fifth on Sunday, some three seconds ahead of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen and his teammate Corey Alexander.
The returning Toni Elias was eighth on the second Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 with Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates and Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim rounding out the top 10.
Notably missing from the results was Gagne’s Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha teammate Cameron Petersen. The South African’s difficult weekend ended early when his Yamaha YZF-R1 caught fire just a few laps into the race.
With Gagne and Beaubier tied atop the standings with 45 points, Herrin is third with 29 points, two ahead of Scholtz and eight ahead of Escalante.
2023 Road Atlanta MotoAmerica—Superbike Race Two
| 1 |
Jake Gagane |
Yamaha |
|
| 2 |
Cameron Beaubier |
BMW |
|
| 3 |
Mathew Scholtz |
Yamaha |
|
| 4 |
Josh Herrin |
Ducati |
|
| 5 |
Richie Escalante |
Suzuki |
|
Supersport
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Xavi Fores followed up his debut Supersport win on Saturday with another flawless performance on Sunday. The Spaniard started slower than in yesterday’s race but finished with a bit more comfort as he topped Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa by 1.4 seconds after 18 laps of Road Atlanta.
Fores was fantastic in race two for a second win.
Mesa, meanwhile, had worked his way past Squid Hunter’s Josh Hayes for second place on the final lap with Hayes ending up third for a second time on the weekend. Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott was fourth after finishing second on Saturday.
Michael Gilbert Racing’s Michael Gilbert was fifth, matching his effort from race one.
Fores leads the title chase with 50 points, 17 ahead of Mesa and Scott, who are tied for second, and 18 ahead of Hayes.
Mission King Of The Baggers
H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman rode his Harley-Davidson Road Glide to victory after passing Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ Tyler O’Hara on the opening lap and sped to his second successive Mission King Of The Baggers victory at Road Atlanta.
Wyman laid it on thick in race two for another win.
O’Hara finished 1.830 seconds behind Wyman with Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong third. Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson teamsters Hayden Gillim and James Rispoli finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
With his third straight victory, Wyman now leads the championship point standings with 75 points, eight points clear of Rispoli and 10 points ahead of Gillim. Defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion O’Hara is 14 points behind in fourth place.
Stock 1000
Ezra Beaubier admitted surprise that he won his first career Stock 1000 race on Saturday. On Sunday, the youngest of the two Beaubier brothers came back to Road Atlanta filled with the confidence of a race winner. And he turned all of that into a second win in a row on his Orange Cat Racing BMW M 1000 RR, this time over Geoff May Racing’s Geoff May by six seconds with the 25-year veteran of the sport announcing his retirement from racing this weekend.
One comes, one goes. Ezra Beaubier’s arrival as a double race winner coincided with veteran Geoff May’s (99) retirement from racing.
Taylor Knapp Racing’s Taylor Knapp put his BMW on the podium with an impressive ride to third, 6.2 seconds behind Beaubier and two seconds ahead of fifth-placed Kaleb De Keyrel. De Keyrel was running second and right behind his Orange Cat Racing teammate Beaubier when he got into turn 12 too hot on the final lap and ran straight, losing three places to May, Knapp and fourth-placed Travis Wyman.
Beaubier’s perfect 50 points puts him 14 points ahead of May and 17 clear of Travis Wyman.
REV’IT! Twins Cup
Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering’s Rocco Landers suffered an engine failure while leading Saturday’s REV’IT Twins Cup race. On Sunday, he came out with guns blazing and completely dominated the race, beating his teammate Gus Rodio by 4.166 seconds. Third place, for the second straight day, went to Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz, who was 8.31 seconds behind championship leader Rodio at the end of the 12-lap race.
Former Twins Cup champion Rocco Landers was impervious in race two.
Defending class champion and Saturday’s race winner Blake Davis crashed early in the race but was able to remount his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha YZF-R7 to finish 11th.
After four races, Rodio leads the title chase with 85 points – 26 more than Schultz and 29 ahead of Davis.
Junior Cup
Turns out that Avery Dreher liked winning so much he decided to do it again with the Bad Boys Racing rider earning his second straight Junior Cup win on Sunday with a .949-second victory over Max Van, who was second for the second straight day.
Avery Dreher backed it up for a second Junior Cup win.
Bicknese Racing’s Hayden Bicknese was third for the second day in a row, just 1.080 seconds from victory.
With his two wins, Dreher leads Van by 10 points heading to Barber in a month’s time.
Saturday
Superbike
Cameron Beaubier picked up where he left off three years ago today at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion winning the first race of his comeback season in a straight fight with two-time and defending champion Jake Gagne.
Beaubier’s .340-of-a-second victory over Gagne marked the 55th AMA Superbike win of his career and his first on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR. It was Beaubier’s first MotoAmerica race since his championship-winning 2020 season and his two years of competing in the Moto2 World Championship. Beaubier’s win was also the first in the Superbike class for the Tytlers team and the first AMA Superbike win for BMW in 45 years, dating back to Harry Klinzmann’s victory in 1978 at Bryar Motorsports Park in New Hampshire.
Beaubier made history with BMW’s first AMA Superbike win since 1978.
When Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha’s Gagne threw down his usual blindingly fast opening two laps and pulled a gap on the pack, which was led by Beaubier, it looked to be a case of déjà vu from the past two years: Gagne gets great start, Gagne pulls away, Gagne wins. But Beaubier had other ideas and he put his head down and went after his former teammate, closing the gap until catching and passing Gagne on the seventh of 19 laps.
From there the two ran in formation with Beaubier leading and Gagne tucked in behind and the battle went to the finish with five-time champ Beaubier beating two-time champ Gagne to the finish line by a scant .340 of a second.
Behind them came a race-long battle between Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin, in his Superbike debut for the team, and Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen – the South African returning to action after his horrific qualifying crash from Friday afternoon. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was also in the fight early on before eventually finishing fifth, 1.7 seconds behind Petersen, who was beaten to the line by Herrin by .206 of a second. The pair fighting for third actually closed in on the Beaubier/Gagne duel in the final laps with Herrin just 1.9 seconds behind Beaubier at the end of 19 laps.
The straight-line speed of Beaubier’s BMW was prodigious as he fended off repeated attacks from champion Jake Gagne.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was sixth, some nine seconds ahead of his teammate Toni Elias in what was the Spaniard’s first race in over a year.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander was eighth with Wrench Motorcycles’ David Anthony and Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim rounding out the top 10 finishers.
Three riders failed to finish the race, including Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen who crashed early in the race. Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates, meanwhile, failed to start the race after encountering mechanical problems with the team’s BMW.
2023 Road Atlanta MotoAmerica—Superbike Race One
| 1 |
Cameron Beaubier |
(BMW) |
| 2 |
Jake Gagne |
(Yamaha) |
| 3 |
Josh Herrin |
(Ducati) |
| 4 |
Cameron Petersen |
(Yamaha) |
| 5 |
Mathew Scholtz |
(Yamaha) |
Stock 1000
Ezra Beaubier had never finished on the podium in any of the MotoAmerica classes he’d dabbled in. Not KTM RC Cup, not Stock 600, not Supersport. Last year, Beaubier raced in Superbike and Stock 1000 with a best finish of fifth in Stock 1000.
Ezra Beaubier makes a break for it on his way to his first-ever Stock 1000 win.
On Saturday at Road Atlanta that all changed as Beaubier didn’t resemble a first-time winner as he withstood constant pressure from the likes of Travis Wyman and Geoff May to win his first career MotoAmerica race on his Orange Cat Racing BMW M 1000 RR without putting a wheel wrong.
Beaubier, who made a break for it when the lead trio encountered traffic, bested Wyman by 2.7 seconds with May another half a second behind in third at the end of the 13-lap race.
Junior Cup
The Junior Cup race featured your typical Junior Cup race with a horde of racers battling to the bitter end. This one was a bit different than last year’s version in that the names were mostly different as a new class of youngsters settled in at the front with last year’s best moving on to other classes.
The Junior Cup field roars into life at Road Atlanta.
Avery Dreher was the best of the new crop on Saturday with the Bad Boys Racing Kawasaki-mounted 16-year-old besting SportbikeTrackGear.com’s Max Van, a three-time winner in 2022, by .612 of a second. Bicknese Racing’s Hayden Bicknese, a one-time podium finisher last year, was third and just .348 of a second behind Van
Supersport
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Xavi Fores raced at Road Atlanta in 2004 in a Suzuki World Cup race as a 16-year-old. Nineteen years later, Fores was back on the top step of the podium with a scintillating victory over 17-year-old Tyler Scott by a scant .041 of a second after a thrilling 18-lap battle.
Fores (12) made the perfect start to life in America with the Supersport race one win.
For the majority of the race, it was a battle between Fores and Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes, but Scott moved into contention in the closing laps and almost beat Fores to the line. Hayes, meanwhile, held on for third, just .315 of a second from victory as he searches for what would be a record-setting 87th AMA victory.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa and Michael Gilbert Racing’s Michael Gilbert rounded out the top five finishers.
Mission King Of The Baggers
H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman was unstoppable in the first of two Mission King Of The Baggers races at Road Atlanta on Saturday. After botching his line and shift points in the opening laps, Wyman settled in and pulled away from his pursuers to take his second win of the season and his seventh career King Of The Baggers victory.
Wyman clears off for the race one KoTB win.
At the end of the eight-lap race, Wyman was 3.908 seconds clear of defending champion Tyler O’Hara, the Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods-backed Challenger rider holding off the advances of Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim and Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong at the finish line. O’Hara beat Gillim by .137 of a second with Fong just another .177 of a second behind.
REV’IT! Twins Cup
The final race of the day on Saturday was REV’IT! Twins Cup and it marked the first victory of the season for defending class champion Blake Davis, the N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto-backed rider besting championship points leader Gus Rodio by .276 of a second after 11 laps.
Blake Davis (1) defended the number one plate in style by taking the Twins Cup win.
Davis and Rodio, on the Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering Aprilia battled for the duration with some six seconds in hand over the battle behind them that went to Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz over Track Day Winner/Blackmon Racing’s Jackson Blackmon.
Schultz was fortunate to be racing as he was taken out in a crash on the warm-up lap but was able to get back to the pits for repairs in time for the restart.
After three races, Rodio leads Davis by 14 points in the championship, 65-51. Blackmon is third with 49 points.
Friday
Superbike
There are still many question marks on the eve of the opening round of the 2023 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta but defending champion Jake Gagne showed that he’s not one of them.
Gagne earned provisional pole position for this weekend’s two Medallia Superbike races with the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing rider lapping at 1:23.453 on his YZF-R1 on his fourth lap of the 40-minute session. Gagne’s best lap was .928 of a second faster than the returning Cameron Beaubier, the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion lapping at 1:24.381 on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR in his return to the series after two years in the Moto2 World Championship.
It was Gagne first, daylight second during Friday action at Road Atlanta.
Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen completed the provisional front row despite a crash, the South African lapping at 1:24.542 – just a tick over a second off Gagne’s best.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz completed the opening day of the Superbike season with the fourth fastest time with Beaubier’s teammate PJ Jacobsen fifth and the last rider to crack into the 1:24s. Josh Herrin, in his debut on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale V4 R, was sixth at the end of day one and ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammates Richie Escalante and Toni Elias.
Corey Alexander, third member of the Tytlers Cycle Racing team, was ninth with Wrench Motorcycles’ David Anthony rounding out the top 10.
Stock 1000
It was a good day to be a Beaubier on Friday at Road Atlanta with Ezra Beaubier riding the Orange Cat Racing BMW M 1000 RR to the fastest lap in Stock 1000 Q1, besting Geoff May Racing’s Geoff May by a scant .029 of a second. Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim ended up third and just .211 of a second from first and .130 of a second ahead of Ezra Beaubier’s teammate Kaleb De Keyrel in his Stock 1000 debut.
Junior Cup
Altus Motorsports’ Alessandro Di Mario led the Junior Cup class qualifiers at Road Atlanta on Friday, the Kawasaki Ninja 400 rider leading Bicknese Racing’s Hayden Bicknese by .312 of a second. Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher completed the top three on his Kawasaki.
Supersport
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott ripped off a 1:28.977 on his 16th lap of Q1 to earn provisional pole in the Supersport class. Scotts’ best was .526 of a second faster than Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa, on a Kawasaki ZX-6R, with Michael Gilbert Racing’s Michael Gilbert ending up third in his return to the Supersport class on his Suzuki GSX-R750.
Four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes was fourth fastest and just ahead of Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Xavi Forés, the Spaniard racing for the first time at Road Atlanta since competing in a Suzuki Cup race here in 2004. Forés was fighting electrical issues that have carried over from the issue that put him out of the Daytona 200 early. Despite a limited number of laps, Forés was just 1.3 seconds off Scott’s pace.
REV’IT! Twins Cup
Rocco Landers didn’t have a ride at Daytona in March and for a while it looked like he wouldn’t have a ride for Road Atlanta, either. But things changed just a few days ago when Landers was brought on by the Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering to replace Benjamin Gloddy, who is still recovering from his Daytona injuries.
Landers took full advantage of the opportunity on Friday by earning provisional pole position for the weekend’s two REV’IT! Twins Cup races. Landers, who won nine Twins Cup races en route to the title in 2020, lapped at 1:31.907 to top Optimum Performance Motorsports’ Jody Barry. Defending class champion Blake Davis was third fastest on the N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha, 1.3 seconds slower than Landers.
Landers’ teammate and REV’IT! Twins Cup Championship points leader Gus Rodio was fourth fastest.
Mission King Of The Baggers
Screamin’ Eagle H-D’s Kyle Wyman took 1.248 seconds off his lap record from a year ago in Mission King Of The Baggers Q1 on Friday afternoon, the New Yorker ripping off a 1:30.941 to earn provisional pole position.
Wyman’s best was just .151 of a second better than Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Food’s Tyler O’Hara. Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong rounded out the provisional front row, .649 of a second slower than Wyman.
Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim and O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams rounded out the top five.
For more MotoAmrica results, click here
