Press Release | September 7, 2023
The Eighth Round Of The Medallia Superbike Championship is Ready To Roll At The Circuit Of The Americas, September 8-10.
This is a press release from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (September 6, 2023) – With Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne wrapping up his third straight MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship a few weeks ago at Pittsburgh International Race Complex with two rounds and four races left to run, it begs the question: Will he be more dangerous with the championship clinched and the freedom of having the title already in his back pocket?
Jake Gagne wrapped up his third MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship at Pitt Race a few weeks ago and will be going for his 10th and 11th wins of the season as the series heads to Texas for the Circuit of The Americas round, September 8-10. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
What Gagne closed with at the end of the post-race press conference at Pitt Race might have his rivals lying awake at night and collectively thinking, “Oh, oh.” With an ear-to-ear grin, Gagne ended the conversation in the media center with this nugget: “I’m looking forward to going to the last couple of rounds and just duking it out with these guys with nothing else to worry about.”
Oh, oh is right.
Gagne heads to the Circuit of The Americas in Austin this week with an insurmountable Texas-sized championship lead of 101 points after nine wins and a total of 15 podiums thus far in 2023. He also arrives in Texas with 38 career AMA Superbike wins on his resume. If there really is such a thing as having “nothing else to worry about,” Gagne has found it.
Gagne has been beaten a total of seven times in 2023 and one of the three other winners is Cameron Beaubier, who won’t be racing at COTA. After three massive crashes, including the most horrific of the three coming in race two at Pitt Race, Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Beaubier has opted out of the two remaining rounds of the championship to “look at the bigger picture” after sustaining concussions and some knee trouble from his crashes at the Brainerd and Pitt Race rounds.
The two other men who won when Gagne didn’t are Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin and Beaubier’s Tytlers teammate PJ Jacobsen. Herrin won the sixth race of the year at Road America with Jacobsen winning his lone race at Brainerd International Raceway. Those two will be at COTA and will be ready to attack.
Herrin is second in the title chase after posting 11 podium finishes (including his victory) thus far in 2023 and he’s also a former Superbike race winner at COTA. Herrin is 32 points ahead of Jacobsen in the battle for second in the championship, so any wrong step could cost him the runner-up spot.
Jacobsen comes to the Lone Star State with seven podiums and that 32-point deficit to Herrin. The New Yorker leads his teammate Beaubier by just a single point, but with Beaubier out of action for the final two rounds Jacobsen will be out to not only catch Herrin but also be wary of keeping Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz behind him
Scholtz, who has also tasted Superbike victory at COTA, is 20 points behind Jacobsen after landing on the podium seven times in the first 16 races. Scholtz has come alive in the past two rounds with three podiums and a fourth-place finish in the four races.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante almost ruined his perfect run of finishing every Medallia Superbike race this season at Pitt Race when he crashed in the closing laps of race one. Escalante, however, was able to remount and score two points for finishing 14th. Thus, he and Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim, who is seventh in the championship, remain the only two riders in the top 10 without a DNF.
The third of the Tytlers Cycle Racing Superbike men in the championship is Corey Alexander with the New Yorker sitting eighth in the point standings and six points adrift of Gillim. Alexander has had it difficult of late with three non-finishes in the last five races. He will be hoping to reverse that trend in the final four races of the season.
Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates completes the top 10 as the series heads to COTA with the Georgian nine points ahead of Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders. Those two are under threat from Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch, with the New Jersey resident scoring solid points in seven of the eight races since joining the team at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca round in July. Paasch is eight points behind Flinders and 17 behind Yates.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong has also inserted himself in the mix after joining the David Anthony-owned team at Laguna Seca with three top-five finishes in the past five rounds. Fong is 10 points adrift of Paasch.
With Beaubier opting to sit out the final two rounds of the season, the Tytlers Cycle Racing team has announced that its Supersport rider Stefano Mesa will forego the rest of the middleweight series to take over Beaubier’s BMW M 1000 RR for the final two rounds of the Medallia Superbike Championship. COTA will be the site of Mesa’s Superbike debut, though the Colombian does have big-bike experience as he has competed in Stock 1000.
Speaking of replacement riders, JD Beach will get another two rounds on the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 vacated by the injured Cameron Petersen. Beach finished seventh, fifth and sixth on the Yamaha in the tripleheader round at Pitt Race.
The two 12-lap Medallia Superbike races at the Circuit of The Americas will be held at 3:10 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
COTA Pre-Race Superbike Notes…
Although the facility is called the Circuit of The Americas, Americans haven’t fared so well in the MotoAmerica rounds held at the immaculate facility on the outskirts of Austin. Twelve MotoAmerica Superbike races have been held at COTA and non-Americans have won nine of them. The all-time win leader at COTA is Toni Elias, the now-retired Spaniard winning six races in Texas. The rider with the second most victories at COTA is Danilo Petrucci with the Italian winning both races last year. The third foreigner to win at COTA is Mathew Scholtz with the South African winning race one in 2018 for Westby Racing. The last American to win at COTA was Josh Herrin, who got the victory in race two in 2019 on a Yoshimura Suzuki.
The first-ever MotoAmerica Superbike race at COTA was won by four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes in race one in 2015. Race two in 2015 was won by five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier.
Danilo Petrucci copied Toni Elias in winning in his MotoAmerica debut last year at the Circuit of The Americas. Elias won both Superbike races in his MotoAmerica debut in 2016 on his Yoshimura Suzuki and Petrucci won the first two races of his MotoAmerica season last year on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale V4 R.
MotoAmerica Live+ commentator Roger Hayden is still the Superbike lap record holder at the 3.4-mile, 20-turn Circuit of The Americas with his lap of 2:08.184 set in 2019 on his Yoshimura Suzuki.
Jake Gagne earned pole position for both of the Medallia Superbike races at COTA last year with a lap of 2:08.450.
While Petrucci won both races last year at COTA, it was Mathew Scholtz who was second best in both. Cameron Petersen was third in race one with Jake Gagne filling the podium in race two.
Suzuki is the manufacturer with the most MotoAmerica Superbike wins at COTA with seven. Yamaha has three victories in Austin with Ducati earning its first two wins in Texas last year.
Jake Gagne’s two victories at Pittsburgh International Race Complex a few weeks ago were the 37th and 38th of his MotoAmerica Superbike career. Gagne is fourth on the all-time AMA Superbike win list behind Mat Mladin (82), Josh Hayes (61) and Cameron Beaubier (59).
Mission King Of The Baggers, Stock 1000, Supersport, Super Hooligan
Only Three Points Separate Top Three In Battle For Mission King Of The Baggers Title
Three points. Three riders. Three measly points is all that separates the top three racers in the heated battle for the 2023 Mission King Of The Baggers Championship as the series heads to the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, for the penultimate round, September 8-10.
The battle for the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship is going down to the wire as three riders – Hayden Gillim (79), James Rispoli (43) and Kyle Wyman (33) – are within three points of each other in the battle for the title as the series heads to Circuit of The Americas, September 8-10, Photo by Brian J. Nelson
The man with the three-point lead as the series prepares for its eighth round is Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim. The two men giving chase are H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman and Gillim’s teammate James Rispoli. All three have had crazily consistent seasons, and Wyman is the only one in the top three with a DNF on his scorecard.
Gillim earned his 175-point total with two wins, two seconds, three thirds, two fourths and a fifth with his two wins coming in the second half of the championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Brainerd International Raceway.
Wyman, the 2021 Mission King Of The Baggers Champion, has the most wins of the three, but he also has a DNF. Wyman arrived at his 172 points via five wins and only one other podium finish, a third in race one at Road America. Wyman is coming off an off-for-Wyman weekend at Brainerd where he finished fourth and fifth in the two races. He also has a ninth-place finish on his points tally. Wyman knows how to win as he is the all-time wins leader in the class with 10 victories.
Wyman is tied for second with the personable James Rispoli with the Florida resident only winning one race, but with six other podium finishes. Like Wyman, Rispoli has 172 points.
With the top three all riding Harley-Davidson Road Glides, the first of the Indian Challengers is the one ridden by Bobby Fong and not defending series champion Tyler O’Hara. Fong is 45 points behind Gillim but has proven capable of winning on any given day as evidenced by his two wins thus far in 2023. (Road America and Brainerd). Fong has three other podium finishes on the year.
O’Hara is next and a disappointed fifth in the championship and is surprisingly winless on the season so far. O’Hara does have three second-place finishes and two third places, but he is seven points behind Fong and 52 behind his rival Kyle Wyman.
Mission King Of The Baggers rookie Jake Lewis sits sixth in the championship and has scored in every round but has yet to reach the podium.
The second of the two factory Indians and Harley-Davidsons have also had disappointing seasons with Jeremy McWilliams ninth and Travis Wyman 10th, respectively.
Steel Commander Stock 1000 – Beaubier vs. Gillim vs. De Keyrel
Orange Cat Racing’s Ezra Beaubier leads the Steel Commander Stock 1000 Championship over Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim with just the two races at COTA remaining in the five-round, 10-race series. The margin? Eight points.
But that’s not all. Beaubier’s teammate Kaleb De Keyrel is just four more points behind, and Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman is on the outside looking in, 15 points behind De Keyrel and 27 behind Beaubier.
With his two wins at Brainerd International Raceway at the end of July, Gillim took over as the Stock 1000 racer with the most victories on the year – four. Beaubier, however, has won three, including the first two races of the season at Road Atlanta that put him atop the point standings where he has been ever since.
Beaubier’s 145 points come via three wins, a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth and a sixth. Gillim, meanwhile, has been fighting back from a miserable DNF/sixth-placed weekend to open his season in Atlanta. His four victories since then are what has him back in the championship chase.
De Keyrel is winless thus far but has four second-place finishes and five total podiums. Wyman is the third rider in the title chase to have tasted victory, but he has a non-finish that blemishes his scorecard.
Supersport – Forés On The Verge
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Xavi Forés is on the verge of capturing the 2023 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship with the Spaniard holding down a whopping 86-point lead heading into the two races at COTA and the final two at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Forés won the first eight races of the season to build a lead that has his competition scratching their collective heads, but the series rookie has also gone the last four races without a victory.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott sits second in the title chase with two wins and seven additional podium finishes and that has him 13 points clear of third-placed Stefano Mesa. Mesa, however, won’t be racing in the class for the two remaining rounds as he’s been drafted up by his Tytlers Cycle Racing team to fill in for the injured Cameron Beaubier in the Medallia Superbike Championship. Mesa will make his debut in the class this weekend at COTA.
That means that Squid Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes will slot himself into the top three as he trails Mesa by just four points and is 67 points clear of Scott’s teammate Teagg Hobbs.
With Mesa heading to the Medallia Superbike for the final two rounds, the Tytlers Cycle Racing team is bringing in Kayla Yaakov to ride Mesa’s Kawasaki ZX-6RR at COTA and NJMP. Yaakov has been released from her contract with The WagBar MP13 Racing where she has been competing in the REV’IT! Twins Cup series.
Disrupt Racing’s Jake Lewis rounds out the top five in the championship despite not being drafted into the team until the third round of the series.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – Tied At The Top
A three-point gap between first and third in the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship, an eight-point margin between first and second in the Steel Commander Stock 1000 Championship and (… wait for it) a tie at the top in the battle for supremacy in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship.
Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods teammates Tyler O’Hara and Jeremy McWilliams arrive in the Lone Star State tied in the title chase with 106 points apiece.
O’Hara has three victories to McWilliams two wins and both riders have a non-points-paying race from their disqualification at Ridge Motorsports Park. O’Hara has one other podium to go with his three wins while McWilliams has three additional podiums.
This one truly does come down to a winner-take-all battle and calculators won’t be needed.
DiBrino Racing’s Andy DiBrino has also had a solid season on his KTM with his lone victory at Ridge Motorsports Park going with three additional podium finishes.
DiBrino is 15 points ahead of Team Saddlemen’s Cory West and his Harley-Davidson Pan America and another 14 ahead of Grey Area Racing’s Mark Price
How To Watch MotoAmerica Superbikes at Texas
For more information on MotoAmerica, visit www.MotoAmerica.com
