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sbknews · 3 years

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Kelly, Lewis, Hobbs And Gloddy Emerge Victorious At VIR

Sean Dylan Kelly Still Undefeated, Jake Lewis Back On Winning Track In Virginia. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly continues to strike while the iron is hot, the Floridian keeping his perfect season alive with another MotoAmerica Supersport victory with this one coming after a closely fought battle at VIRginia International Raceway. While Kelly remains the only unbeaten rider in the 2021 MotoAmerica Series, Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis became a first-time winner in the Stock 1000 class, the former MotoAmerica Superbike rider ending a winless drought that dates back to 2017. In the other support classes, it was a case of repeat winners as Ben Gloddy earned his second win of the season in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race; and Teagg Hobbs emerged victorious from a brawl in Twins Cup for the second straight race. Supersport: Kelly Remains Perfect Sean Dylan Kelly is on a roll. The M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider had a perfect weekend in round one at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, earning the pole and winning both races, and he also earned the pole on Saturday at VIR, then followed up his number-one starting position with the win in Saturday afternoon’s race one. And he did it in dominant fashion, leading the 19-lap race from start to finish. Stefano Mesa crashed his MESA37 Racing Kawasaki during morning final qualifying, but he managed to get his bike repaired and set aside the pain in his bruised body to take second in the race after a heated battle with North East Cycle Outlet Racing’s Benjamin Smith. The Yamaha rider and former KTM RC Cup Champion was delighted to get his first podium result in MotoAmerica’s middleweight class. “First of all, happy to be in the P1 spot again,” Kelly said. “For sure this was a little bit of a different race than Atlanta in one way. Honestly, I’m happy about this because I came into the weekend with a bit more question marks. As I said on the podium, I was actually in bed for the last two weeks after Atlanta. So obviously that kind of screws with you mentally and I wasn’t really sure how I was going to show up here. Feeling good to be able to get through it. The heat really wasn’t helping, but I’m not one to talk. Stefano (Mesa) is hurt, Richie’s (Escalante) hurt, so those guys are in worse positions than me, I think. Either way, we came in here working. Ben (Smith) has been doing really good. Congrats to him for his first podium and also Stefano, just to finally be back on the podium together after Indy last year. It’s been definitely a tough race. I actually had no idea what the gap was. I was confused with the board and the information the team was giving me. I didn’t know if it was zero seconds or .2 seconds or two seconds or 20 seconds. I had no idea. I could only see twos. But I looked back with five laps to go and I saw that it was a little bit of a distance, but they were right there. So, I tried to be as consistent as I could. Honestly speaking, I didn’t feel as good as I was expecting. I thought the pace was going to be a little bit better from my point of view. I’m going to do my homework. I know there’s some things to improve to get that pace better, or more as I was expecting. Just going to do our homework and come back stronger and recover for tomorrow. Just got to thank my team and everyone around me for making this happen.” Twins Cup: Hobbs Again! Saturday’s Twins Cup race one was a close-fought contest throughout the 13-lap event. In the end, it was Innovative Motorsports/Mike's Imports Suzuki rider Teagg Hobbs who got the victory, which was his second win in three races thus far. Second place went to Jackson Blackmon Racing Yamaha’s Jackson Blackmon, who missed round one at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta due to injury. GCP Suzuki rider Chris Parrish, who lent one of his spare engines to race winner Hobbs after Hobbs’ own engine expired at the beginning of Friday’s morning practice session, finished third. “Overall, I cannot complain, said Hobbs. “Yesterday, it didn’t even look like we were going to have a bike to ride. I owe it all to Chris Parrish. I wouldn’t be in the race today if it wasn’t for him. I owe it all to Team Hammer and Innovative Motorsports, too. They did so much work on my bike today and yesterday. I felt so bad. So, to reward them with a win feels really good. I knew I needed to just ride a clean race in order to try and make it on the podium. Our main goal is just points for the championship. We already have one DNF this year, so I know we needed to cross the line. It’s just a plus that we were able to make a few moves to get us across the line first. It was a weird race. I’ve never really ridden with Jackson (Blackmon) on a Twins Cup bike. We don’t have much time together riding. So, I had to look at his moves, his lines, his brakemarkers. I knew I could draft him on the straight, but I didn’t think I could do it until the line. So, I tried to get in front and make as much of a mad dash as I could, and it seemed to work out. Still got a lot of work to do for tomorrow. It’s back to the drawing board and see if we can make it a double.” Stock 1000: Lewis Ends Drought In Stock 1000 race one, Altus Motorsports Suzuki’s Jake Lewis was victorious after only his third race back from a nearly-year-long MotoAmerica hiatus. The Kentuckian started from the pole but was overtaken by HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Corey Alexander. Lewis regained the lead on lap 10 and held his advantage all the way to the checkered flag in the 14-lap event. Alexander maintained his position in second to finish as runner-up, and third place went to Geoff May Racing/VisionWheel.com Honda rider Geoff May, the Georgian finishing on the podium for the second race in a row. “It feels amazing, honestly,” Lewis said. “I think it has been since 2017 that I won a race, and even at that point that’s when I was doing Stock 1000 with Superbike, so even though it was a win, it really kind of didn’t feel like a win. So, it feels amazing to win a race outright. It was a hell of a battle with Geoff (May) and Corey (Alexander). I knew the pace was going to be high because qualifying we didn’t get many laps, so we couldn’t really tell everybody’s potential but at the beginning Corey was running really well. I was kind of just sitting there because obviously with the heat and the conditions we were both sliding around. Geoff was really strong racing into turn one and he got by me. I think us three were just kind of pacing each other. I think it was about eight laps to go, maybe six laps to go, I wanted to try to make my way to the front just in case of a red flag. I knew we were going to catch the lappers, so just in case of that I was like, this was my time. I was a little bit stronger in that left-hander and honestly just put a block pass on Corey and he had a couple of sections that he was a little bit faster. I knew Geoff was back there and trying to put the hammer down. It was weird because the last two laps, I knew the white flag and my pit board said only one lap to go, but I didn’t get the white flag, so I don't know if we did an extra lap or not because I was just so focused to actually know if I had the white flag, honestly. Just kept going until I saw the checkered flag. It was pretty hairy that last lap. I stuffed a lapper in the double apex right coming on the straightaway because I was like, if Corey’s here I’m going to need a draft so if I chop this dude’s front wheel off, maybe Corey can’t get by me. Luckily it worked out. It just feels amazing. Big thank you to George and Janette Nassaney with Altus Motorsports for getting me back in the paddock and on a great bike.” SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup: Gloddy Escapes With Win In what was arguably the best race of the day, MotoAmerica’s entry-level class, SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup, featured a tight battle between the top six riders. Landers Racing Kawasaki’s Ben Gloddy withstood a strong challenge from Veloce Racing Kawasaki’s David Kohlstaedt and Scott Powersports KTM’s Tyler Scott. At the checkers, Gloddy took his second win of the season by a scant .115 of a second over Kohlstaedt, who in turn, took the runner-up spot by just .134 over Scott, who finished third. “Those last few corners were pretty insane,” said Gloddy. “I got swallowed up going into the turn before you come down the hill. I was going for that win. I was going to do kind of anything it took to get there. I went around the outside of one rider going down the hill and it was able to set me up perfect to get a double draft to the line. I was pretty worried honestly that I was going to get drafted. Luckily it didn’t happen. I think I’m going to go hop in the pool now.” For more info checkout our dedicated MotoAmerica Support Series News page motoamerica-support-series-latest-news/ Or visit the official MotoAmerica website motoamerica.com/

Jake Lewis won his first-ever Stock 1000 race on Saturday and also ended a winless drought that dated back to 2017. Photo by Brian J. Nelson

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#BenGloddy #JakeLewis #SeanDylanKelly #TeaggHobbs #VIR #VIRginiaInternationalRaceway

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sbknews · 6 years

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Toni Elias Over Cameron Beaubier In VIR Thriller

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias continued to show he has an uncanny knack of being able to win close races in the closing laps, the defending MotoAmerica Motul Superbike Champion stalking race-long leader Cameron Beaubier before taking the lead and ultimately the win with two laps to go at VIRginia International Raceway.

Elias’ victory in the Championship of Virginia today was his fourth of the season and the 20th of his MotoAmerica Superbike career. It also gives him a 26-point lead in the championship going into tomorrow’s second of two Motul Superbike races at VIR.

Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Beaubier was a frustrated second, just .114 of a second from victory after leading the majority of the 20-lap race.

The race was red-flagged before the completion of lap one when Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff crashed. Quicksilver/LEXIN/Hudson Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden also went down trying to avoid Gerloff. While Fong was able to restart (and crash again), Hayden was a bit banged up and didn’t make the second start. Gerloff, meanwhile, was transported to a local hospital for precautionary chest X-rays.

“We could see this morning that (Cameron) was so strong,” Elias said. “The same situation I was in COTA (Circuit of The Americas). For me, it was clear: make a good start in the beginning. He start to attack. I could defend. When he start to go his pace, it was difficult for me. I was struggling a lot, especially in traction areas. I need to find something for tomorrow. But at the end, the race become easier at and I start to play my cards. I could see he was playing his cards. Both we are playing really good, and at the end I could win but I was not sure. I was not sure because was some struggle. I could feel him in the back. I saw him a couple of times. Always, the victory is nice. Thanks to my team. They are working really hard.”

Beaubier, who had been fastest in practice and also earned his first pole position of the season in this morning’s Superpole session, was frustrated with second place after leading for so much of the race.

“It’s always frustrating to come up short when you lead most of the race, but I’ve got to hand it to (Elias),” Beaubier said. “He rode really good the last couple laps. We were going back and forth, and he was protecting the insides really good on the last lap. We tried to go around him, which didn’t work. I was a little frustrated there in the middle of the race just because I felt like I didn’t have the grip I did in practice, but we’re going to go back and maybe make some changes for tomorrow and hope for a good race tomorrow. I felt comfortable as soon as the bike rolled off the truck this weekend. Yesterday, I had some good practices, felt comfortable. Had good pace and feeling just loose and good on the bike. So, it’s a bummer not to win, but I’m glad I’m up here (on the podium). I got second. We’ve got tomorrow to try again. I just want to give a shout out to Garrett (Gerloff). It sucks to see your buddy and your teammate go down like that. Hope he’s back for tomorrow.”

Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the South African who has won the two races that Elias hasn’t won this season, finished third and now trails Elias by 26 points in the title chase. Scholtz battled early with Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Yamaha’s Josh Herrin, who ran off the track shortly thereafter and ended up fourth.

“I got a pretty decent jump off the line,” Scholtz said. “I was following Cam and Toni. I don’t think we were setting a really fast pace in the first couple laps. (Josh) Herrin passed me. He was taking really tight lines. Unfortunately, that kind of slowed us down, and Cam and Toni were able to get some breathing room. Then I tried passing Josh. I was running him wide, he was passing me back, then he kind of dropped off. I’m still really happy to finish on the box. It’s been a really awesome weekend for us. I’m happy to be the first privateer. It’s been a pretty focused weekend. The bike’s been working great. I think we can make one or two changes to help us in the second race and hopefully bring something for these two guys.”

Fifth place went to M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis, the Kentuckian riding with a heavy heart after his father’s tragic passing this week. Lewis only lost out to Herrin for fourth in the final laps. It was Lewis’ third fifth-place finish of the young season.

Fly Street Racing’s David Anthony finished sixth, well clear of 6D Helmets/KWR’s Kyle Wyman, the team owner/racer suffering with a bad back that almost kept him off the bike yesterday.

Scheibe Racing’s Danny Eslick, Omega Moto’s Sebastiao Ferreira and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounded out the top 10.

In addition to Fong, Gerloff and Hayden, Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda’s Cameron Petersen also crashed, the South African in sixth place at the time of the get-off.

Supersport: Beach Over Gillim For 2015 MotoAmerica Supersport Champion JD Beach, his Saturday at VIR got off to a rocky start in final qualifying, as he suffered a mechanical issue and, after his Monster Energy/Y.E.S./Graves/Yamaha YZF-R6 was repaired, he crashed and the bike had to be rebuilt in time to start the race.

Everything came good for the Kentuckian, though, as he got a great start, pulled the holeshot, and was never headed all the way to the checkers. Rickdiculous Racing’s Hayden Gillim, also R6-mounted, finished a close second and Quicksilver/LEXIN/Hudson Motorcycles rider Richie Escalante completed the Yamaha R6 podium sweep with his third-place result.

“Yesterday kind of started out a little rough… had a few incidents,” Beach said. “Then, this morning, I destroyed the bike. It’s been a little hard this year just because, unfortunately, it is different just having one rider (on my team). The staff is a little smaller, and we’re still trying to figure it all out. I think the race today was great. It was good to get a win. Hayden was pushing really hard. We definitely have some work to do. We’re going back to that drawing board and see if we can get a bit more speed for tomorrow.”

Liqui Moly Junior Cup: KTM On Top Following the balancing measures that MotoAmerica took to level the playing field in the Liqui Moly Junior Cup, Saturday’s race saw two brands of motorcycles reach the podium, with Orange Brigade/JP43 Training KTM rider Alex Dumas notching his second win out of the three races held so far. Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Yamaha rider Gavin Anthony was second, and AGVSPORT America/MonkeyMoto Yamaha’s Jay Newton earned the first podium result of his MotoAmerica racing career.

After his victory, Dumas said: “We made a change on the bike between qualifying and race one, and I couldn’t manage the bike at first. But, as soon as I figured it out, I was able to get a gap on these guys, and I won by a few seconds. So, I’m happy.”

Twins Cup: The X-Man Cometh In the Twins Cup race, it was an RBoM Racing sweep. The team fielded six riders aboard Suzuki SV650s at VIR, and three of them reached the podium. Xavier Zayat, who has previously competed in MotoAmerica’s KTM RC Cup and Superstock 600 classes, won the Twins Cup race with Road Atlanta Twins Cup winner Chris Parrish finishing second and Curtis Murray, who was third in Atlanta, rounding out the VIR podium again in third.

“Practice and qualifying was my first time on the bike, first time racing in this new series,” the 19-year-old Zayat said. “We ran into a couple of tire issues. We ran the same front tire all weekend and it didn’t give us any grief. It gave us a little grief in the race, so we should have swapped it. On the start, I got away. I had a little strategy just to get out of the gate. I just wanted to get away from the pack. I got a good jump off the line. I was able to do that and fortunately my comrades didn’t follow through. But, we still made it up here. Big shout out to (RBOM Racing’s) Russell and Mike. They are the living, breathing spirit of our team and this (Twins Cup) class. He was able to bring (six) entries on board. Hopefully, this is what they want changed for rules and everything like that because it will only make it fair and better racing, for sure.”

Superbike Race One Results 1. Toni Elias (Suzuki) 2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 3. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 4. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 5. Jake Lewis (Suzuki)

Supersport Race One Results 1. JD Beach (Yamaha) 2. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha) 3. Richie Escalante (Yamaha) 4. Cory West (Suzuki) 5. Braeden Ortt (Yamaha)

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Results 1. Alex Dumas (KTM) 2. Gavin Anthony (Yamaha) 3. Jay Newton (Yamaha) 4. Dylan Deutschlander (Yamaha) 5. Jackson Blackmon (Yamaha)

Twins Cup Results 1. Xavier Zayat (Suzuki) 2. Chris Parrish (Suzuki) 3. Chris Murray (Suzuki) 4. Jason Madama (Yamaha) 5. Darrell Ricks (Suzuki)

#CameronBeaubier #MotoAmerica #ToniElias #VIR

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