Who Is Prepared For Barber? The 2023 Medallia Superbike Championship Is Scorching, Scorching, Scorching
The Opening Spherical Of The Collection Confirmed Us That This 12 months’s Superbike Title Chase Is Vast Open
IRVINE, CA (Could 16, 2023) – In 2021 and 2022, the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship was dominated by Contemporary N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne. Forty races have been held throughout these two seasons and Gagne gained 29 of these. Thus, 72 p.c of the time, Gagne acquired to the checkered flag first. Naturally, he gained the title in these two successive years.
However that was then, and that is now. And the now’s spherical two of the 2023 collection at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, Could 19-21, with the expectations of battles on the entrance by no means larger than it’s proper now – based mostly on what was witnessed within the season opener at Street Atlanta.
Two races don’t make a season, however the opening spherical of the 2023 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship confirmed that the brand new 12 months would possibly simply be a bit totally different than the previous two as we head to Barber.
For starters, within the two earlier seasons there was by no means actually a battle on the entrance. Gagne both led off the road and dominated the race, or he led off the road and crashed, or he had a mechanical downside that saved him from ending. For all sensible functions, he by no means failed to steer except he had a difficulty.
On opening day at Michelin Raceway Street Atlanta, nonetheless, Gagne was in a battle for the period. He acquired out to an early lead within the opening two laps, and simply when it gave the impression to be enterprise as typical, the unattainable began to occur. Gagne was being caught from behind by Cameron Beaubier, the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion again from the wars of the Moto2 World Championship and armed with a quick however arduous to journey Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR. Beaubier solid ahead, caught Gagne, battled with Gagne, and in the end beat the two-time defending champion to the end line by a scant .340 of a second. And simply behind the pair was Josh Herrin, the 2013 AMA Superbike Champion returning to the Superbike class for a similar Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati workforce that he partnered with to win final 12 months’s Supersport title.
On Sunday, the followers have been handled to an excellent higher Medallia Superbike race with 4 males on the entrance in an all-out battle: Gagne, Beaubier, and Herrin and Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz. And it lasted. To the tip. On the ultimate lap, based mostly on his capacity to brake later than anybody into Street Atlanta’s 10A and 10B chicane, Beaubier regarded to have the sting and path to a second victory. On the final lap, nonetheless, issues acquired dodgy with Beaubier operating large within the 180-mph kink and almost pushing Herrin off observe. It created havoc on the way in which into flip 10 as Herrin arrived with out brakes and was lucky and expert sufficient to stop catastrophe. The beneficiary of all that was Gagne, who cut up the 2 and rode to victory, half a second away from Beaubier. Herrin, in the meantime, ran by means of the grass, and couldn’t cease Scholtz from passing for third.
Even with the final-lap melee, the highest 4 have been separated by simply two seconds on the end line and other people have been already salivating on the considered the upcoming spherical at Barber.
Whereas the 2 races at Street Atlanta have been thrillers, it’s possible that it may get even higher at Barber.
For starters, Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen wasn’t at his greatest in spherical one. A giant crash on Friday left him banged up however he nonetheless managed to complete fourth. On Sunday, he possible would have made the combat for the lead a five-rider battle, however his bike suffered a mechanical within the early laps.
There can even possible be some stress from others on the grid going ahead. For starters, the Imaginative and prescient Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki of Richie Escalante (sixth and fifth at Street Atlanta) and Toni Elias (seventh and eighth) will possible enhance and far can be anticipated of Beaubier’s teammate PJ Jacobsen (crash and sixth within the opening spherical).
Corey Alexander, the third member of the Tytlers Cycle Racing workforce, had an honest begin to his first season as a full-time, Superbike-only rider with eighth- and seventh-place finishes at Street Atlanta, which places him in a tie for sixth within the title chase with Elias.
Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim is one other rider hoping to get issues getting in a greater course at Barber as he wasn’t happy with a pair of Tenth-place finishes in Georgia. Ditto for Wrench Bikes’ David Anthony with the Aussie ninth and twelfth within the collection opener.
Twenty-eight Superbikes will take to the picturesque Barber Motorsports Park observe on Friday morning with the primary Medallia Superbike observe session at 10:20 a.m.
The pair of Superbike races have the identical begin time on each Saturday and Sunday with the 20-lappers taking the inexperienced mild at 3:10 p.m.
Pre-Barber Superbike Notes…
For the previous two years, the Barber Motorsports Park spherical of the MotoAmerica Championship was the ultimate spherical of the season. This 12 months, the favored venue on the outskirts of Birmingham strikes from September to Could and is spherical two of the championship.
Defending two-time Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne broke Cameron Beaubier’s lap report from 2020 throughout qualifying final 12 months with the Contemporary N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing rider lapping at 1:22.035 to raised Beaubier’s 1:22.676. Gagne additionally holds the race lap report together with his 1:22.917 coming in race one final 12 months. The three riders – Gagne, Cameron Petersen, and Mathew Scholtz – on the entrance row for final 12 months’s two Medallia Superbike races all lapped within the 1:22s in qualifying.
Jake Gagne gained the primary of two Medallia Superbike races final 12 months by 5.433 seconds over Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz with Danilo Petrucci ending third, some 19 seconds adrift. In race two, Gagne sat behind his teammate Cameron Petersen for the period and his runner-up end earned him his second successive Medallia Superbike Championship. PJ Jacobsen, in the meantime, was third for his second podium end of the season on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
Jake Gagne’s race-two win within the opening spherical of the 2023 Medallia Superbike Championship at Street Atlanta was the thirtieth Superbike win of his profession, a mark that places him sixth all-time and simply two wins behind Miguel Duhamel and Toni Elias, with these two tied on 32 wins apiece.
Cameron Beaubier’s race-one victory at Street Atlanta was the fifty fifth of his profession and he sits third on the all-time Superbike win listing behind Mat Mladin (82) and Josh Hayes (61).
With Miguel Duhamel and Josh Hayes tied on the all-time AMA wins listing (throughout all lessons) at 86, focus is on the Supersport races going ahead as Hayes’ subsequent victory shall be his 87th and can thus put him atop the listing. Along with his Squid Hunter Racing workforce saying that they’re doing your complete Supersport season, odds are that Hayes will take that tie-breaking victory in 2023. Nonetheless, most individuals haven’t seen that Cameron Beaubier lurks in fourth on the all-time listing with 76 wins – 10 behind Duhamel and Hayes – after his victory in race one at Street Atlanta a couple of weeks in the past.
Australian Mat Mladin has gained extra Superbike races at Barber Motorsports Park than another racer with 9 victories from 2004 to 2009. Josh Hayes is second on the Barber win listing with seven Superbike wins – all in a row from 2012 to 2015. Cameron Beaubier has gained 5 Superbike races in Alabama and shall be out to raised that quantity this 12 months. The very first Superbike races held at Barber have been in 2003 with Aaron Yates profitable race one and Kurtis Roberts taking victory in race two.
About MotoAmerica
MotoAmerica is North America’s premier bike street racing collection. Established in 2014, MotoAmerica is dwelling to the AMA Superbike Championship in addition to further lessons together with Supersport, Inventory 1000, Twins Cup, Junior Cup, and King Of The Baggers. MotoAmerica is an affiliate of KRAVE Group LLC, a partnership together with three-time 500cc World Champion, two-time AMA Superbike Champion, and AMA Corridor of Famer Wayne Rainey; ex-racer and former supervisor of Crew Roberts Chuck Aksland; motorsports advertising and marketing govt Terry Karges; and businessman Richard Varner. For extra info, please go to www.MotoAmerica.com and comply with MotoAmerica on Fb, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.
