MotoAmerica Boasts 4 Totally different Superbike Winners Heading To Ridge Motorsports Park Spherical
The Pacific Northwest Welcomes MotoAmerica Medallia Superbikes For The Dynapac MotoAmerica Superbikes At The Ridge Occasion
IRVINE, CA (June 22, 2022) – With eight of 20 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike races within the books in 2022 and the sequence headed to the Pacific Northwest to start its transient West Coast swing, solely seven factors separate first from second within the championship. And with a quartet of winners rising from the primary eight races, simply 37 factors separate first from fourth within the title chase. A glance again finally yr reveals that after 4 rounds (and eight races), solely two riders had tasted victory with champion-to-be Jake Gagne successful seven of the eight to guide Mathew Scholtz (who received the one race Gagne hadn’t received) by a whopping 44 factors. In the meantime, 67 factors separated the highest 4 and it was a forgone conclusion that this was only a two-horse race earlier than the sequence had even reached the midway mark. And the lead horse confirmed completely no indicators of letting up.
The truth that Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Danilo Petrucci is main the 2022 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship isn’t a shock. Most figured he’d win races and contend for the title. Not many, nonetheless, would have predicted that Recent N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne could be third within the sequence standings and 25 factors adrift with three wins, two DNFs and a podium-free go to to Wisconsin and Highway America. Say what?
Petrucci can pay go to to Ridge Motorsports Park this coming weekend for the primary time within the Dynapac MotoAmerica Superbikes At The Ridge occasion, and he’ll accomplish that because the 2022 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike factors chief with 140 factors from the primary eight races. Petrucci began off with a bang with three-straight wins, had his first and solely DNF up to now in race two at Highway Atlanta, and has been on the rostrum in three of the final 4 races.
The person who’s chasing the toughest at this level within the season is Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the South African taking his first race win of 2022 in race one at Highway America just a few weeks in the past. Regardless of following that win the subsequent day with a lackluster eighth-place outing in race two, Scholtz sits simply seven factors behind Petrucci after ending on the rostrum in six of eight races.
Then comes Gagne. No person of their proper thoughts would have guess that the defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion would win three straight races going into Highway America however emerge from there and not using a podium end. However that’s precisely what occurred. Gagne, contemporary off a doubleheader sweep at VIRginia Worldwide Raceway going into Wisconsin, had introduced Petrucci’s lead again to a manageable 13 factors. However together with his non-podium finishes of fifth (he crashed and remounted in final to cost by means of the pack) and fourth (in a principally moist race) at Highway America, Gagne sees Petrucci’s lead bounce again out to 25 factors heading to Ridge. Nonetheless, there don’t appear to be many fearful faces within the Gagne camp.
The fourth man to win a Superbike race in 2022 is Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African taking his first win of the season and his first together with his new Yamaha staff in race two at Highway America. Petersen is now 37 factors behind Petrucci together with his efforts slowed a bit with a race-one mechanical DNF in Wisconsin.
Previous to Highway America, Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera had a clear 2022 report with factors scored in each spherical. In race one at Highway America, Barbera landed on the rostrum for the primary time in a MotoAmerica Superbike race to maintain that good points-in-every-round tally going. However on Sunday, that was gone with the Spaniard following up his greatest profession effort together with his first non-finish of the yr. Nonetheless, Barbera sits fifth, although he’s now in a heated battle or the spot.
Simply 4 factors behind Barbera is Imaginative and prescient Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis with the Kentuckian simply 5 factors forward of PJ Jacobsen on the second of the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RRs.
Jacobsen is coming to Washington scorching off his first profession MotoAmerica Superbike podium with the New Yorker pressuring Petersen to the very finish of race two at Highway America whereas additionally holding off the advances of third-placed Petrucci.
Lewis’s teammate Richie Escalante had a tough go of it at Highway America with the 2020 MotoAmerica Supersport Champion solely scoring 10 factors in complete from the 2 races. Escalante now drops 4 factors behind Jacobsen and is simply six forward of Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates.
Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing’s Travis Wyman rounds out the highest 10 within the sequence standings heading to the Pacific Northwest and Ridge Motorsports Park.
Ridge Motorsports Park Pre-Race Superbike Notes…
Final yr, Ridge Motorsports Park hosted spherical 4 of the 2021 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship. This yr the cease in Washington would be the fifth spherical of the sequence in 2022 after rounds in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Ridge is the primary of two races on the West Coast with WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, scheduled for spherical six, July 8-10.
Jake Gagne received his sixth and seventh Superbike races in a row final yr at Ridge en path to successful 17 straight and the 2021 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship. Gagne beat his then-teammate Josh Herrin in each races in 2021.
Along with successful each races, Gagne additionally sat on pole place after lapping at a better of 1:39.568 (a brand new lap report on the two.47-mile monitor) on his Yamaha YZF-R1. Frenchman Loris Baz certified second on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale V4 R with Cameron Petersen finishing the entrance row on the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Jake Gagne hasn’t received each race this yr, however he has been on pole place for all 4 rounds up to now – COTA, Highway Atlanta, VIR and Highway America.
This yr’s race at Ridge will mark the third time that MotoAmerica has visited the monitor in Shelton. Within the debut season of the sequence holding a spherical at Ridge in 2021, Cameron Beaubier received each Superbike races. With Jake Gagne successful each final yr, Yamaha has received all 4 MotoAmerica Superbike races at Ridge.
Thirty-eight Superbikes will try to qualify for the 2 MotoAmerica Medallia races at Ridge. The most well-liked bike within the area is Yamaha’s YZF-R1 with 12 entries. BMW is subsequent up with 10, adopted by Suzuki with seven, Kawasaki with 5, Honda with three and Ducati with Danilo Petrucci’s lone Panigale V4 R.
Two riders are at the moment tied for the lead within the Superbike Cup, the category inside a category for these riders competing in Superbike on Inventory 1000 machines. Ezra Beaubier and Danilo Lewis are tied for the lead with 110 factors with Hunter Dunham and Jeremy Coffey solely two and 5 factors additional adrift, respectively, heading into the spherical at Ridge.
About MotoAmerica
MotoAmerica is the North American highway racing sequence created in 2014 that’s dwelling to the AMA Superbike Championship. MotoAmerica is an affiliate of KRAVE Group LLC, a partnership that features three-time 500cc World Champion, two-time AMA Superbike Champion, and AMA Corridor of Famer Wayne Rainey, ex-racer and former supervisor of Workforce Roberts Chuck Aksland, motorsports advertising govt Terry Karges, and businessman Richard Varner. For extra data on MotoAmerica, go to www.MotoAmerica.com. Additionally make certain to observe MotoAmerica on Twitter, Fb and Instagram.
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