Cycle News Staff | July 30, 2023
Jake Gagne took a big step toward defending the number-one plate after winning the first leg of the Superbike Championship at Brainerd International Raceway, Saturday, July 29, when he took the win on his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha and his main rival crashed out. Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier high-sided his BMW on the second lap, ending his race.
Jake Gagne leads PJ Jacobsen in Saturday’s Superbike race at Brainerd. Photos: Brian J. Nelson
Gagne went on to win the race and now has a nearly two-race points lead in the Superbike Championship over Warhorse HSBK Ducati Racing’s Herrin, who was third in the race.
Despite not having Beaubier to deal with, Gagne still didn’t have it easy as Beaubier’s teammate PJ Jacobsen hounded Gagne 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 when Beaubier clipped Gagne’s rear wheel. Beaubier ran off the course, but Mathew Scholtz went down and was unable to make the restart.
Heading into Sunday’s race two, Gagne leads Herrin by 48 points. Beaubier is another nine points back in third.
“After a couple of laps, I could see PJ’s pit board come out,” Gagne said of the race. “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. 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 10ths 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.”
History was made in the Supersport race. Josh Hayes took the victory and is now the winningest AMA road racer in history. The win was his 87th, moving him out of a tie with Miguel Duhamel.
Josh Hayes now has more AMA road racing wins than anyone after topping the Supersport race Saturday at Brainerd.
“It’s more relief than anything to get that done, out of the way,” Hayes said. “We don’t have to talk about it anymore. Let’s just go have some fun and race now.”
Hayes’s 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 toward 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.
In other classes, 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 as he dominated Saturday’s race, winning by 7.4 seconds.
Gillim also won the Mission King Of The Baggers race on his Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson Road Glide, beating Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong by 2.5 seconds and his teammate James Rispoli by eight seconds.
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 dominated the Junior Cup race, winning by a margin of seven seconds.
Hayden Bicknese (Kawasaki) and Max Van (Kawasaki) went 2-3. CN
Superbike Race 1
| 1. |
Jake Gagne |
(Yam) |
| 2. |
PJ Jacobsen |
(BMW) |
| 3. |
Josh Herrin |
(Duc) |
| 4. |
Josh Hayes |
(Yam) |
| 5. |
Richie Escalante |
(Suz) |
| 6. |
Bobby Fong |
(Yam) |
| 7. |
Hayden Gillim |
(Suz) |
| 8. |
Brandon Paasch |
(Suz) |
| 9. |
Ashton Yates |
(BMW) |
| 10. |
Max Flinders |
(Yam) |
Click here for complete MotoAmerica Brainerd Superbike results.
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