Press Release | May 16, 2024
MotoAmerica resumes at Barber Motorsports Park this weekend, May 17-19, with Jake Gagne (1) and Cameron Beaubier (6) are tied at the top of the standings.
This is a press release from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (May 15, 2024) – With Attack Performance Yamaha’s Jake Gagne and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier winning 16 of the 20 Steel Commander Superbike races a season ago, it was apparent that they were the cream of the crop for the 2023 season. Gagne ended the year with 11 wins to emerge as the series champion for a third straight time while Beaubier’s five-win season ended prematurely due to the injuries suffered in a crash at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.
So, what did we learn from the 2024 season opener at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta? Well, the cream is still the cream with Gagne and Beaubier splitting wins to start the season after two thrilling races.
With the pair coming out of Georgia with 45 points apiece and tied for the series points lead, the Steel Commander Superbike Championship is back in action this coming weekend, May 17-19, at a series favorite – Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama – with three Superbike races scheduled (one on Saturday, two on Sunday) and 75 points up for grabs.
The two Road Atlanta races proved that the injuries that ended Beaubier’s season were in his rear-view mirror, along with any trepidation that it would take him some time to get back up to speed and ready to fight. Beaubier didn’t qualify well (for him), and he started both races from the middle of the second row. In the dry race one, it came down to a battle between pole sitter Bobby Fong, Beaubier and Gagne with Beaubier taking his 60th career AMA Superbike win by just .240 of a second over Gagne with Fong a shadow third. In Sunday’s wet race two, Beaubier came out second best to Gagne – by just .119 of a second. He was most definitely on top of his game.
While Beaubier was happy to be back, feeling good and up to speed, it was Gagne who ended up fighting some physical issues at Road Atlanta with arm pump bringing a bit of worry into his season opener. Despite numbness in his throttle/front brake hand, Gagne fought for victory on both days, winning the second race over Beaubier with his teammate Cameron Petersen finishing third.
Gagne went back to where it all started during the break between Road Atlanta and Barber: motocross. In an effort to cure what ails him, Gagne rode his motocross bike on a track for the first time in three or four years in the hopes that the arm pump would loosen itself up. We’ll see the results this coming weekend.
With Beaubier and Gagne tied at the top and 21 points in the clear, there’s a horde of riders within spitting distance of third place in the young championship.
TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly was nothing if not impressive in his Steel Commander Superbike debut with the Floridian fourth and fifth in the two races at Road Atlanta on his BMW M 1000 RR. Kelly was in the lead pack in both the dry and wet races at what is a difficult racetrack, and he left Road Atlanta smiling, confident and with 21 points in his pocket.
Kelly is just two points clear of Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong with the Yamaha YZF-R1-mounted Californian a fighting third in race one before struggling to 10th in the wet second race.
Fong is tied with Tytlers Cycle Racing’s JD Beach with Beach finishing seventh in the dry and a fighting fourth in the wet conditions of Sunday’s race two in his debut with the team and the BMW M 1000 RR. Beach was in the fight for victory when he crashed in the esses, remounted, and fought his way through to fourth.
Just three and four points behind Beach come the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati duo of Loris Baz and Josh Herrin.
After finishing seventh in race two, Baz was fortunate to escape mostly uninjured after being struck from behind by Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante after the checkered flag. Prior to crossing the finish line seventh in race two on Sunday, Baz had raced to sixth in Saturday’s race one.
Herrin sits seventh in the title chase after Road Atlanta after fifth- and ninth-place finishes in Georgia. Herrin led race one and was battling with Fong, Gagne and Beaubier when he ran off track in the final corner when Fong made an aggressive pass on the inside. From there, Herrin rode to a disappointed fifth. He is 27 points behind Gagne and Beaubier.
Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen had a miserable race one at Road Atlanta where he crashed, remounted, and managed to salvage a 15th-place finish, but he rebounded with a third-place podium result in race two.
Petersen is tied for eighth with Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim after the Kentuckian raced to ninth and sixth in the two races at Road Atlanta.
Tom Woods Powersports’ Nolan Lamkin emerged from Road Atlanta 10th in the Steel Commander Superbike Championship while also leading the Superbike Cup standings.
The Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team is hoping for better fortune at Barber after a disastrous start to its 2024 season. In addition to losing Richie Escalante to a broken left wrist, broken left ankle and compression fractures of his L1, L2 and L4 vertebrae, Brandon Paasch failed to score a point from the two races after two crashes. With Escalante out of action while his injuries heal, the team is bringing in 2023 Supersport Champion Xavi Forés to ride his GSX-R1000R.
Steel Commander Superbike action gets started at Barber Motorsports Park with the first practice session set for 10:35 a.m. with Q1 set for 2:40 p.m. Saturday’s race will begin at 3:10 p.m. with Sunday’s two races set for 12:15 p.m. and 3:10 p.m.
Pre-Race Barber Notes
Jake Gagne is the Superbike lap record holder at Barber Motorsports Park after lapping at a best of 1:22.035 in Qualifying 2 last year. Gagne also holds the race lap record of 1:22.463, which he set in race two in 2021.
Jake Gagne beat his teammate Cameron Petersen by 1.8 seconds to win race one last year at Barber Motorsports Park. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was third with Cameron Beaubier fourth. In race two, it was Gagne again taking victory with Scholtz second and Beaubier third.
Cameron Beaubier’s race-one win at Road Atlanta was the 60th of his AMA Superbike career. The five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion is third on the all-time Superbike win list and is now just one race win behind his former Yamaha factory teammate Josh Hayes. Jake Gagne, meanwhile, is also charging his way up the all-time win list. Gagne’s race-two win at Road Atlanta was the 41st of his Superbike career and he sits fourth on the all-time Superbike win list.
Australian Mat Mladin, who leads the all-time wins list in AMA Superbike racing with 82 victories, is also the Superbike win leader at Barber Motorsports Park. Mladin had nine victories at Barber from 2004 to 2009. Josh Hayes is second on that list with seven Superbike wins at Barber with all seven coming in a row from 2012 to 2015. Of active Superbike racers, Beaubier leads the way with five Superbike wins in Alabama.
This year’s race will mark the 22nd consecutive season of AMA Superbike racing at Barber Motorsports Park. Aaron Yates and Kurtis Roberts won the first two AMA Superbike races held at Barber in 2003.
Stock 1000 Set To Begin Its 2024 Series With 46 Entries Set For Barber Opener
After This Weekend, May 17-19, At Barber Motorsports Park All The MotoAmerica Classes Will Have Started Their Seasons
The following is a press release from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (May 16, 2024) – The MotoAmerica Stock 1000 Championship may be a late starter in 2024, but you get the feeling that it’s going to be worth the wait with 46 entries champing at the bit to finally get the series started at Barber Motorsports Park this coming weekend, May 17-19.
With all the other classes having started their championship seasons, only Stock 1000 and Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. have yet to run a race in 2024. That will all change this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park with those two classes joining a full docket of Steel Commander Superbike, Supersport, BellissiMoto Twins Cup, and Junior Cup in a jam-packed MotoAmerica weekend on the picturesque track located on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama.
Stock 1000 – Who Can Beat King Gillim?
As the defending MotoAmerica Stock 1000 Champion, Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim must be the odds-on favorite to repeat that championship. After all, he won six of the 10 races in 2023 to take the title by 25 points over Kaleb De Keyrel, who isn’t taking part in the series this year.
Gillim is on a new bike and in a new team for 2024, but he’s happy with both and rode his new Honda CBR1000RR-R SP to ninth- and sixth-place finishes in the two Steel Commander Superbike races in his first race outings on the bike at Road Atlanta. The Kentuckian is one of six riders in the class who will be chasing Honda contingency money on the CBRs.
So where will Gillim’s competition come from? How about Orange Cat Racing’s Travis Wyman, who was third in last year’s title chase with a lone win and five other podium finishes? Wyman has also switched teams but will stick with the trusted BMW M 1000 RR. Or Motorsport Exoctica’s two-time Stock 1000 Champion Andrew Lee, another who is BMW mounted.
And can you ever count out BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince, or Ashton Yates on the Jones Honda CBR1000RR-R SP? There’s also Gabriel DaSilva on a GMR (Geoff May Racing)/Jones Honda, Benjamin Smith on a FLO4LAW Racing Yamaha YZF-R1, and Ireland’s Richard Kerr on the AMD Motorsport RK Racing Honda.
You get the picture. The list goes on and on with a large group of riders who could challenge Gillim. The opening round should give us some answers.
Supersport – PJ Leads Them In
Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen couldn’t have started his 2024 Supersport Championship campaign at Road Atlanta any better. How about two wins under two dramatically different circumstances? In race one, Jacobsen won in the dry. The following day he won in the rain, proving that so far it doesn’t matter what is thrown at him, the New Yorker can handle it.
And as if the smiles on the Rahal Ducati Moto team couldn’t get any bigger, Corey Alexander arrives at Barber second in the championship after finishing fourth and second in the series opener on his Ducati Panigale V2. The third member of the Rahal squad, Kayla Yaakov, wasn’t so fortunate at Road Atlanta as she finished ninth in race one and crashed out of race two.
Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz is hot off his first MotoAmerica Supersport races and is living proof that you shouldn’t give up. Scholtz’s debut in the class started horribly with technical difficulties sidetracking most of his practice and qualifying sessions and forcing him to start from the fourth row in both races. Although things didn’t fall into place until the race, Scholtz was ready for it, and he somehow fought through to finish third and fourth in the pair of races, and that puts him third in the series standings and just four points behind Alexander coming into Barber.
Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis also got his season off to a solid start with a sixth in the dry race one and a third in race two’s rainstorm, putting him fourth in the standings heading into round two.
N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis gave Jacobsen fits in race one and was in the hunt again in race two before crashing out. The youngster’s 20 points from finishing second in race one puts him fifth in the championship, albeit 30 points behind Jacobsen.
Forty-nine riders have entered the Supersport class for the Barber round.
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – It’s Still Rodio
While the majority of the MotoAmerica classes are just getting going, it already feels like midseason for the BellissiMoto Twins Cup riders as they have two rounds and four races already in the bank. And no one has more points than Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Gus Rodio, who started his season with four straight podiums on his Aprilia RS 660 – two of which were victories in the series opener at Daytona International Speedway.
Rodio arrives in Alabama with a handy 22-point lead, but this is far from over considering that the first of the chasers is RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Rocco Landers – the 2020 Twins Cup Champion and the class leader in victories with 16. Landers and his new Suzuki GSX-8R won for the first time in 2024 in race one at Road Atlanta.
Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle is the lead Yamaha rider at this point in the season as he’s slotted into third in the title chase with his first win of the year coming in race two at Road Atlanta. Doyle and his YZF-R7 are six points behind Landers and 28 behind Rodio.
Rodio’s teammate Alessandro Di Mario is fourth in the championship, 15 points clear of TopPro Racing’s Avery Dreher and Koch Racing’s Sean Ungvarsky with those two tied for fifth.
Junior Cup – Medina By A Point
Other than the Steel Commander Superbike series, which has Cameron Beaubier and Jake Gagne tied for the lead in the championship, the Junior Cup Championship is the closest one as its series heads to its second round at Barber.
New York Safety Track Racing’s Yandel Medina sits atop the standings but by just a single point over Wolfe Racing’s Ryan Wolfe and by just seven points over BARTCON Racing’s Matthew Chapin.
Medina has the points lead by virtue of his two podiums at Road Atlanta – a third in race one and his first career MotoAmerica victory in race two. Wolfe, meanwhile, was the model of consistency with two second-place finishes in Georgia. Chapin was another first-time winner at Road Atlanta with the Maryland rider winning race one before struggling in the wet race two to finish seventh.
The biggest surprise from the opener was Bad Boys Racing’s defending class champion Avery Dreher. And for all the wrong reasons. Dreher crashed out of what appeared to be victory in race one and then salvaged a fifth in the rain in race two. He is 30 points adrift of Medina heading into round two.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. – Moore To Come
It would take a brave person indeed to bet against Mikayla Moore in the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. series opener at Barber Motorsports Park. After all, she not only won last year’s title, but she also won every single race for a perfect seven-win season.
However, who knows who lurks beneath the Royal Enfield canopy for the series opener as 13 of the Continental GT 650s will line up for two races at Barber with most of those new to the program.
The highest finishing returnee other than Moore is Aubrey Credaroli, the Utah resident racing her Continental GT 650 to sixth in the championship with a best finish of third at Road America.
Pre-Race Barber Support Class Notes…
Yamaha leads the way in the number of entries for the first round of the 2024 Stock 1000 Championship with 14 Yamaha YZF-R1s entered. BMW is second with seven S 1000 RRs and six M 1000 RRs entered while Honda jumps up to six entries for CBR1000RR-R SP racers. Suzuki and Kawasaki, meanwhile, have five entries each for the GSX-R1000 and ZX-10R, respectively.
Last year’s two Stock 1000 races were won by Hayden Gillim. Gillim beat Ezra Beaubier and Kaleb De Keyrel in race one and De Keyrel and Ezra Beaubier in race two. The wins were Gillim’s first of the year after he suffered through a dismal opening round at Road Atlanta. He left Barber trailing Beaubier by 26 points.
The Supersport class last year at Barber was one of two “extended” races that featured pit stops. MotoAmerica has axed that and has gone back to the traditional sprint-race doubleheader. Last year’s extended race was won by Xavi Forés over Stefano Mesa and Anthony Mazziotto.
It was a clean sweep last year for Rocco Landers in the BellissiMoto Twins Cup races with the then-Aprilia RS 660-mounted Landers besting Kayla Yaakov and Dominic Doyle in race one before beating Blake Davis and Yaakov in race two.
In Junior Cup action in 2023 it was Avery Dreher and Levi Badie splitting victories. Dreher topped Max Van and Yandel Medina in race one with Baddie besting Hayden Bicknese and Dreher in race two.
The Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. program didn’t compete at Barber last year as their opening round wasn’t until the Road America round the first weekend in June.
Hayden Gillim (1:24.183) is the Stock 1000 lap record holder at Barber; Tyler Scott (1:26.348) has the lap record for Supersport; Kaleb De Keyrel (1:29.088) has the fastest lap for a Twins Cup bike; and Rocco Landers (1:34.782) is the lap record holder for the Junior Cup class.
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For more information on MotoAmerica, visit www.MotoAmerica.com