MotoAmerica Heads To Barber With Gagne And Beaubier Tied At The High
The Metal Commander Superbike Championship Resumes At Barber Motorsports Park With A Tripleheader, Might 17-19
IRVINE, CA (Might 15, 2024) – With Assault Efficiency Yamaha’s Jake Gagne and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier successful 16 of the 20 Metal Commander Superbike races a season in the past, it was obvious that they have been the cream of the crop for the 2023 season. Gagne ended the 12 months with 11 wins to emerge because the sequence champion for a 3rd straight time whereas Beaubier’s five-win season ended prematurely as a result of accidents suffered in a crash at Pittsburgh Worldwide Race Complicated.
So, what did we study from the 2024 season opener at Michelin Raceway Street Atlanta? Nicely, the cream continues to be the cream with Gagne and Beaubier splitting wins to start out the season after two thrilling races.
With the pair popping out of Georgia with 45 factors apiece and tied for the sequence factors lead, the Metal Commander Superbike Championship is again in motion this coming weekend, Might 17-19, at a sequence favourite – Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama – with three Superbike races scheduled (one on Saturday, two on Sunday) and 75 factors up for grabs.
The 2 Street Atlanta races proved that the accidents that ended Beaubier’s season have been in his rear-view mirror, together with any trepidation that it could take him a while to get again on top of things and able to struggle. Beaubier didn’t qualify properly (for him), and he began each races from the center of the second row. Within the dry race one, it got here right down to a battle between pole sitter Bobby Fong, Beaubier and Gagne with Beaubier taking his sixtieth profession AMA Superbike win by simply .240 of a second over Gagne with Fong a shadow third. In Sunday’s moist race two, Beaubier got here out second greatest to Gagne – by simply .119 of a second. He was most undoubtedly on prime of his sport.
Whereas Beaubier was completely happy to be again, feeling good and on top of things, it was Gagne who ended up preventing some bodily points at Street Atlanta with arm pump bringing a little bit of fear into his season opener. Regardless of numbness in his throttle/entrance brake hand, Gagne fought for victory on each days, successful the second race over Beaubier together with his teammate Cameron Petersen ending third.
Gagne went again to the place it began through the break between Street Atlanta and Barber: motocross. In an effort to remedy what ails him, Gagne rode his motocross bike on a monitor for the primary time in three or 4 years within the hopes that the arm pump would loosen itself up. We’ll see the outcomes this coming weekend.
With Beaubier and Gagne tied on the prime and 21 factors within the clear, there’s a horde of riders inside spitting distance of third place within the younger championship.
TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly was nothing if not spectacular in his Metal Commander Superbike debut with the Floridian fourth and fifth within the two races at Street Atlanta on his BMW M 1000 RR. Kelly was within the lead pack in each the dry and moist races at what’s a troublesome racetrack, and he left Street Atlanta smiling, assured and with 21 factors in his pocket.
Kelly is simply two factors away from Wrench Bikes’ Bobby Fong with the Yamaha YZF-R1-mounted Californian a preventing third in race one earlier than struggling to tenth within the moist second race.
Fong is tied with Tytlers Cycle Racing’s JD Seashore with Seashore ending seventh within the dry and a preventing fourth within the moist circumstances of Sunday’s race two in his debut with the staff and the BMW M 1000 RR. Seashore was within the struggle for victory when he crashed within the esses, remounted, and fought his method by to fourth.
Simply three and 4 factors behind Seashore come the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati duo of Loris Baz and Josh Herrin.
After ending seventh in race two, Baz was lucky to flee principally unhurt after being struck from behind by Imaginative and prescient Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante after the checkered flag. Previous to crossing the end line seventh in race two on Sunday, Baz had raced to sixth in Saturday’s race one.
Herrin sits seventh within the title chase after Street 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 monitor within the last nook when Fong made an aggressive move on the within. From there, Herrin rode to a upset fifth. He’s 27 factors behind Gagne and Beaubier.
Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen had a depressing race one at Street Atlanta the place he crashed, remounted, and managed to salvage a Fifteenth-place end, however he rebounded with a third-place podium end in race two.
Petersen is tied for eighth with Actual Metal Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim after the Kentuckian raced to ninth and sixth within the two races at Street Atlanta.
Tom Woods Powersports’ Nolan Lamkin emerged from Street Atlanta tenth within the Metal Commander Superbike Championship whereas additionally main the Superbike Cup standings.
The Imaginative and prescient Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki staff is hoping for higher fortune at Barber after a disastrous begin to its 2024 season. Along with shedding Richie Escalante to a damaged left wrist, damaged left ankle and compression fractures of his L1, L2 and L4 vertebrae, Brandon Paasch failed to attain a degree from the 2 races after two crashes. With Escalante out of motion whereas his accidents heal, the staff is bringing in 2023 Supersport Champion Xavi Forés to experience his GSX-R1000R.
Metal Commander Superbike motion will get began at Barber Motorsports Park with the primary apply session set for 10:35 a.m. with Q1 set for two:40 p.m. Saturday’s race will start at 3:10 p.m. with Sunday’s two races set for 12:15 p.m. and three:10 p.m.
Pre-Race Barber Notes
Jake Gagne is the Superbike lap document holder at Barber Motorsports Park after lapping at a better of 1:22.035 in Qualifying 2 final 12 months. Gagne additionally holds the race lap document 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 final 12 months at Barber Motorsports Park. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was third with Cameron Beaubier fourth. In race two, it was Gagne once more taking victory with Scholtz second and Beaubier third.
Cameron Beaubier’s race-one win at Street Atlanta was the sixtieth of his AMA Superbike profession. The five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion is third on the all-time Superbike win checklist and is now only one race win behind his former Yamaha manufacturing unit teammate Josh Hayes. Jake Gagne, in the meantime, can be charging his method up the all-time win checklist. Gagne’s race-two win at Street Atlanta was the forty first of his Superbike profession and he sits fourth on the all-time Superbike win checklist.
Australian Mat Mladin, who leads the all-time wins checklist in AMA Superbike racing with 82 victories, can be the Superbike win chief at Barber Motorsports Park. Mladin had 9 victories at Barber from 2004 to 2009. Josh Hayes is second on that checklist with seven Superbike wins at Barber with all seven coming in a row from 2012 to 2015. Of energetic Superbike racers, Beaubier leads the best way with 5 Superbike wins in Alabama.
This 12 months’s race will mark the twenty second consecutive season of AMA Superbike racing at Barber Motorsports Park. Aaron Yates and Kurtis Roberts received the primary two AMA Superbike races held at Barber in 2003.
About MotoAmerica
MotoAmerica is North America’s premier bike highway racing sequence. Established in 2014, MotoAmerica is house to the AMA Superbike Championship in addition to extra courses 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 Staff Roberts Chuck Aksland; motorsports advertising and marketing govt Terry Karges; and businessman Richard Varner. For extra data, please go to www.MotoAmerica.com and observe MotoAmerica on Fb, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. To look at all issues MotoAmerica, subscribe to MotoAmerica’s reside streaming and video on demand service, MotoAmerica Reside+
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