Cycle News Staff | May 21, 2023
Sunday Superbike
Other than surviving one of the scariest moments of his racing career midway through the Medallia Superbike race at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday, Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne had the perfect weekend in Alabama. The two-time defending Medallia Superbike Champion started from pole position and led every lap en route to a clean sweep of the two races.
Sunday’s victory was Gagne’s third in a row, and it increased his lead in the championship to 24 points over Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier, 95-71. The win was also the 32nd AMA Superbike victory for Gagne and it moved him into a tie for fourth overall with Miguel Duhamel and Toni Elias on the all-time AMA Superbike win list.
Gagne’s only scare was when he lost control of his Yamaha YZF-R1, ran on to the grass and dirt on the inside of turn three, somehow saved it and carried on to win the 20-lap race by 2.9 seconds.
No one could touch Gagne (1), who notched up his first double-win of the year.
“It could have been bad. I got lucky,” Gagne said of his near crash after the race.
Other than that, Gagne’s 32nd win was like the other 31. Get a great start and don’t let anyone else get near you, much less past you.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was second on his Yamaha YZF-R1 with the South African getting the better of Beaubier after a near race-long battle for the position. Their race came down to a last-lap brawl with the pair crossing the finish line just .161 of a second apart and almost hitting as Scholtz unknowingly swerved into Beaubier’s path.
Beaubier, who was fourth on Saturday with the harder-compound Dunlop R5s, switched to the softer R3 Dunlop for race two on Sunday and it paid dividends as he was a fighting third.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante had his best Superbike weekend to date, and he ended it in style with an impressive fourth-place finish on Sunday. Escalante was 5.7 seconds behind Beaubier and some six seconds clear of fifth-placed PJ Jacobsen with the New Yorker getting the better of Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin, who struggled with tire-wear woes.
With Herrin sixth, seventh went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander, who was less than a second ahead of Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Toni Elias was ninth with Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim rounding out the top 10.
The most notable of the non-finishers was Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen with the South African crashing out of second on the opening lap while trying to keep pace with Gagne.
2023 MotoAmerica Barber Results Superbike Race Two
| 1 |
Jake Gagne |
(Yamaha) |
| 2 |
Mathew Scholtz |
(Yamaha) |
| 3 |
Cameron Beaubier |
(BMW) |
| 4 |
Richie Escalante |
(Suzuki) |
| 5 |
PJ Jacobsen |
(BMW) |
| 6 |
Josh Herrin |
(Ducati) |
| 7 |
Corey Alexander |
(BMW) |
| 8 |
Ashton Yates |
(BMW) |
| 9 |
Toni Elias |
(Suzuki) |
| 10 |
Hayden Gillim |
(Suzuki) |
Sunday Twins Cup
You won’t find a MotoAmerica Championship more closely fought than the one for the REV’IT! Twins Cup title after Sunday’s eventful race at Barber Motorsports Park.
How’s this for close? Defending REV’IT! Twins Cup Champion Blake Davis leads Gus Rodio and Hayden Schultz by just two points after three rounds and six races. And despite not taking part in the two races at Daytona and DNFing the first race at Road Atlanta, Rocco Landers is lurking in fourth just 12 points behind.
Three straight wins will do that for you.
Laners (97) took his third straight Twins Cup win.
Landers won both races in Alabama and those two wins, combined with two non-finishes by former runaway championship leader Gus Rodio, have flipped the championship upside down.
REV’IT! Twins Cup race two kicked off the feature events on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park, and Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering Aprilia rider Landers completed a perfect weekend where he earned the pole, won race one and was also victorious in race two. Landers’ teammate Rodio didn’t fare as well, unfortunately. He had the points lead coming into the weekend, but a crash in each of the two races moved him down to second in the standings where he is tied with Schultz.
Davis finished second in Sunday’s race aboard his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha and took over first place in the standings by two points over Rodio. The WagBar MP13 Racing’s Kayla Yaakov got her second podium finish in as many days with a third-place finish on Sunday to go with her second-place finish on Saturday. Yaakov missed the Daytona and Road Atlanta rounds of the REV’IT! Twins Cup Championship due to injury, but she came back strong at Barber Motorsports Park in her debut weekend in the class.
Sunday Junior Cup
In the Junior Cup Championship, Sunday’s race one saw a Belgian rider take the checkered flag for the first time in MotoAmerica history. Badie Racing’s Levi Badie came from behind during the race to beat out Bicknese Racing’s Hayden Bicknese by only three milliseconds. Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher, who won Saturday’s race one, had his winning streak snapped at three victories when he finished third on Sunday.
Levi Badie (71) became the first Belgian ever to win in MotoAmerica with the Junior Cup race two win.
Sunday Stock 1000
Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim had a horrible opening round to the Steel Commander Stock 1000 Championship at Road Atlanta, but he turned that into a distant memory with his second victory of the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday.
Gillim’s efforts were rewarded as he gained 14 points on championship leader Ezra Beaubier, with the Orange Cat Racing-backed Californian finishing third on Sunday behind Gillim and his teammate Kaleb De Keyrel.
Good times for Hayden Gilli with the double win in Stock 1000.
Beaubier now leads Gillim and De Keyrel, who are tied for second, by 26 points, 86-60, with Taylor Knapp Racing’s Taylor Knapp (fourth today) fourth with 50 points and Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman (DNF today) fifth with 46 points.
Saturday Superbike
Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne won his second race of the young season at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday, and he did so in the same fashion in which he won 29 races over the course of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. He started from pole, put his head down, quickly opened up a two-second-plus lead and maintained that lead to the finish of the shortened 16-lap race.
The win, which was the 31st of Gagne’s Superbike career, moved him out of a tie with Cameron Beaubier in the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship and into the lead by himself. He now leads Beaubier by 12 points, 70-58. Beaubier finished fourth on Saturday on his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
Gagne (1) was dominant in race one at Barber.
The man who was closest to Gagne at the finish was his teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African keeping Gagne honest from start to finish and crossing the finish line 1.8 seconds behind the defending two-time Medallia Superbike Champion.
Third place went to Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, giving Yamaha a one-two-three finish at Barber. Scholtz didn’t get a good start and by the time he got through to third, the two Attack riders had distanced themselves from the rest. Scholtz ended up 6.1 seconds behind Gagne and 2.8 seconds ahead of Beaubier
Beaubier, meanwhile, had rid himself of the battle he found himself in early with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin, Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen.
It was Jacobsen who worked his way through that pack to finish fifth, some eight seconds ahead of the Herrin/Escalante battle that went the distance with Herrin beating Escalante by just .289 of a second to take sixth.
Scholtz took his 11th Barber podium in third.
Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates got the better of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander by just .299 of a second for eighth with Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim rounding out the top 10 finishers.
Saturday’s race was shortened from 20 laps to 16 due to excessive tire wear and the lap count for Sunday’s race two will be announced after evaluation of the tires following today’s race.
After three races of the 2023 championship, Gagne leads Beaubier, 70-58, with Scholtz third with 43 points.
Race two at Barber Motorsports Park will begin Sunday at 3:10 p.m.
2023 MotoAmerica Barber Results Superbike Race One
| 1 |
Jake Gagne |
(Yamaha) |
| 2 |
Cameron Petersen |
(Yamaha) |
| 3 |
Mathew Scholtz |
(Yamaha) |
| 4 |
Cameron Beaubier |
(BMW) |
| 5 |
PJ Jacobsen |
(BMW) |
| 6 |
Josh Herrin |
(Ducati) |
| 7 |
Richie Escalante |
(Suzuki) |
| 8 |
Ashton Yates |
(BMW) |
| 9 |
Corey Alexander |
(BMW) |
| 10 |
Hayden Gillim |
(Suzuki) |
Saturday Supersport
Warhorse HSBK Racing’s Xavi Fores won his third Supersport race in succession on Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park and it was a good one to win as the first-ever MotoAmerica “Extended” Supersport race paid double points. For many, however, it probably felt like two races as changing weather conditions prolonged the proceedings despite the race ultimately being shortened from 37 to 28 laps.
Fores completed the 28 laps in 44 minutes, 43.653 seconds to beat Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa by 9.8 seconds with the pair battling until the mandatory pit stop left Mesa at a disadvantage that he couldn’t recover from.
Fores (12) dominated the first Supersport “Extended” race.
Third place went to North East Cycle Outlet Racing’s Anthony Mazziotto with the New Jerseyan keeping his nose clean to earn his second career podium in the Supersport class.
Michael Gilbert Racing’s Michael Gilbert was fourth, some eight seconds behind Mazziotto, with Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes fifth after starting the final portion of the race on rain tires – a mistake that forced him to pit quickly after the restart to change to slicks.
Saturday Twins Cup
The changeable weather conditions on Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park had an effect on some of the day’s races, and REV’IT! Twins Cup race one was one of those. The first feature race of the day, the Twins Cup battle was red-flagged and restarted because of a quick shower that unfortunately led to a couple of crashes.
It was another win for Rocco Landers in the Twins Cup.
Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Rocco Landers had his Aprilia in the lead when raindrops fell. Landers signaled that it was raining, and he dropped back in the pack until the race was stopped. On the restart, Landers made his way back to the front to notch his second race win in a row. Landers bested The WagBar MP13 Racing Yamaha’s Kayla Yaakov, the 15-year-old finishing as runner-up in her REV’IT! Twins Cup debut. Rounding out the podium was Team Iso Yamaha’s Dominic Doyle.
Saturday Stock 1000
Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim had a “terrible” opening round to his Steel Commander Stock 1000 series campaign, but that was then, and this is now and Gillim put his Road Atlanta hiccup behind him to win the first of two Stock 1000 races at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday.
Gillim made it look easy in the Stock 1000 class.
Gillim bested championship points leader Ezra Beaubier with Beaubier’s Orange Cat Racing teammate Kaleb De Keyrel finishing third for his first career podium in the class in just his third race on the BMW M 1000 RR.
Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman lost out on his battle with De Keyrel for third, but the Las Vegas resident held on for fourth with Tom Wood Powersports’ Nolan Lamkin rounding out the top five.
Beaubier leads the title chase by 24 points over Wyman, 70-46 with De Keyrel third on 40 points. Gillim trails Beaubier by 35 points.
Saturday Mini Cup
Saturday’s Mission Mini Cup By Motul produced identical podiums in both races in the two Ohvale classes with Nathan Gouker Racing’s Nathan Gouker beating Macc Racing’s Mac MacClugage and Reese Frankenfield Racing’s Reese Frankenfield in the 160 Ohvale class and Alpha Omega’s Ryder Davis topping Historic GP’s Mahdi Salem and Jacobsen Motorcycle Training/Bettencourt’s Racing’s Nathan Bettencourt in the 190 Ohvale class.
Nathan Gouker came out on top in the Mini Cup.
Bettencourt had more success in the support classes with victories in both Stock 125 races.
The Stock 50 class featured two different winners on Saturday with Cory Texter Racing/Roof Systems-backed Cruise Texter taking his first victory in race one before SWG Motorsports’ Weston Fager won race two.
Ryan Clark Racing’s Ryan Clark made it a perfect Saturday with a clean sweep of the two Stock 110 classes.
Friday Superbike
The leaderboard was ever-changing at Barber Motorsports Park on Friday, but when all was said and done it was two-time MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne who earned provisional pole position for the weekend’s two Superbike races.
But it was close. Just the way Gagne likes it.
At the end of the 40-minute Q1 session, Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Gagne was on top with his 1:22.805 coming on his 16th lap to best Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz by just .390 of a second. Gagne’s best was a bit off his lap record of 1:22.035, set in Q2 in last year’s season finale in September.
Gagne led the way at Barber but it’s close.
Scholtz’s fast lap also came at the end of the session with his 1:23.195 also coming on his 16th lap.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier ended up third fastest to complete the provisional front row with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion just a tick over half a second slower than Gagne. Hot on Beaubier’s heels was Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen, with the South African .783 of a second behind his teammate.
Beaubier’s teammate PJ Jacobsen jumped to fifth fastest, moving past Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin near the end of the session.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante got as high as third on the timesheets before dropping to seventh and 1.3 seconds off Gagne’s best.
Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim, Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Corey Alexander and Wrench Motorcycles rider David Anthony rounded out the top 10 on Friday.
“It’s going to be close no matter where we go,” Gagne said. “We’re gonna go to a lot of different tracks and with all these bikes running really good now it will be cool to see what bikes have strengths and where. It was a good day. Sunday looks okay, but I think tomorrow we probably will have to get ready for a wet race. It’s fun. It keeps us on our toes and I’m having fun with the team and having fun knowing it’s going to be close racing with all these guys. It’s a good start to the weekend.”
Supersport
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott was the fastest of the fast in Q1 for Saturday’s “Extended” Supersport race at Barber Motorsports Park. Scott lapped at 1:26.605 and was the only rider to dip into the 1:26s.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa was second fastest, .810 of a second behind Scott, with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Xavi Fores third fastest and .840 of a second behind Scott.
Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes closed the session in fourth with Scott’s teammate Teagg Hobbs fifth at the end of the 30-minute session.
Junior Cup
Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher picked up where he left off at Road Atlanta today at Barber Motorsports Park with the Floridian earning provisional pole position for the weekend’s two races to back up his two wins at Road Atlanta.
Dreher’s best lap was .469 of a second quicker than Altus Motorsports’ Alessandro Di Mario with Bicknese Racing’s Hayden Bicknese third fastest and .480 of a second behind Dreher.
Steel Commander Stock 1000
Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim didn’t have a very good start to his season at the opening round of the Steel Commander Stock 1000 class at Road Atlanta, but he righted the ship on Friday at Barber by earning provisional pole.
Gillim’s best was a 1:25.381 and that topped Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman by 1.547 seconds, establishing Gillim as the man to beat on the weekend.
Gabriel Da Silva made an impressive debut in the class in what was his first outing of the season with the Floridian returning to the site of his Supersport win in 2021 to end Q1 third fastest on his Steel Commander Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R.
Flo4Law Racing’s JC Camacho and Burke Racing’s Ryan Burke rounded out the top five.
REV’IT! Twins Cup
It was a battle of teammates on Aprilia RS 660s in Friday afternoon’s final session at Barber Motorsports Park with Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering’s Rocco Landers topping his teammate Gus Rodio to earn provisional pole for the two REV’IT! Twins Cup races.
Landers’ best was a 1:29.946, which was .476 of a second quicker than championship leader Rodio. Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz rode his Yamaha YZF-R7 to the third quickest time, a tick over a second behind Landers.
The WagBar MP13 Racing’s Kayla Yaakov made a successful return to racing from her leg injury, ending the session fourth fastest on her Yamaha YZF-R7.
2023 MotoAmerica Barber Superbike Q1 Results
| 1 |
Jake Gagne |
(Yamaha) |
1:22.805 |
| 2 |
Mathew Scholtz |
(Yamaha) |
1:23.195 |
| 3 |
Cameron Beaubier |
(BMW) |
1:23.372 |
| 4 |
Cameron Petersen |
(Yamaha) |
1:23.588 |
| 5 |
PJ Jacobsen |
(BMW) |
1:23.593 |
| 6 |
Josh Herrin |
(Ducati) |
1:23.742 |
| 7 |
Richie Escalante |
(Suzuki) |
1:24.175 |
| 8 |
Hayden Gillim |
(Suzuki) |
1:24.493 |
| 9 |
Corey Alexander |
(BMW) |
1:25.069 |
| 10 |
David Anthony |
(Yamaha) |
1:25.197 |
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