MotoAmerica Championship At Road America
MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series
Road America
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
June 3, 2018
Supersport Race Two Results (all on Dunlop tires):
1. JD Beach (Yam YZF-R6), 11 laps, Total Race Time 25:39.593, Best Lap Time 2:18.916
2. Valentin Debise (Suz GSX-R600), -0.037 second, 2:19.079
3. Hayden Gillim (Yam YZF-R6), -4.559 seconds, 2:19.472
4. Cory West (Yam YZF-R6), -4.595, 2:18.957
5. Nick McFadden (Suz GSX-R600), -12.360, 2:19.768
6. Richie Escalante (Yam YZF-R6), -14.894, 2:20.240
7. Bryce Prince (Yam YZF-R6), -17.850, 2:20.460
8. Braeden Ortt (Yam YZF-R6), -19.617, 2:20.462
9. Anthony Mazziotto III (Yam YZF-R6), -20.847, 2:20.813
10. Miles Thornton (Suz GSX-R600), -28.170, 2:20.992
11. Jason Aguilar (Yam YZF-R6), -28.213, 2:20.936
12. Daytona Anderson (Suz GSX-R600), -44.340, 2:22.697
13. Benjamin Smith (Suz GSX-R600), -49.584, 2:22.935
14. Joseph Giannotto (Yam YZF-R6), -65.676, 2:24.544
15. Caroline Olsen (Yam YZF-R6), -68.016, 2:24.088
16. Xavier Zayat (Yam YZF-R6), -76.244, 2:22.464
17. Carl Soltisz (Yam YZF-R6), -76.584, 2:25.005
18. Kinzer Naylor (Kaw ZX-6R), -78.324, 2:24.947
19. Jeremy Simmons (Yam YZF-R6), -78.969, 2:25.162
20. Aaron Graham (Yam YZF-R6), -86.775, 2:25.512
21. Fernando Silva (Yam YZF-R6), -87.500, 2:25.958
22. Jaret Nassaney (Suz GSX-R600), -87.798, 2:26.322
23. Mauricio Roque (Yam YZF-R6), -114.137, 2:28.823
24. Ashton Yates (Yam YZF-R6), DNF, 2:22.417
25. Michael Gilbert (Yam YZF-R6), DNF, 2:22.886
26. Lucas Silva (Yam YZF-R6), DNF, 2:22.943
27. Nolan Lamkin (Yam YZF-R6), DNF, 2:26.621
28. JC Camacho (Yam YZF-R6), DNF, 2:47.895
Championship Point Standings (after 6 of 18 races):
1. Beach, 140 points
2. Gillim, 97
3. West, 79
4. Ortt, 60
5. McFadden, 59
6. Mazziotto, 54
7. Escalante, 52
8. Prince, 48
9. Debise, 45
10. Thornton, 39
11. Aguilar, 35
12. Yates, 30
13. Camacho, 21
14. Gilbert, 16
15. Anderson, 15
16. Giannotto, 12
17. Smith, 8
18. TIE, Lucas Silva/Max Angles, 7
20. Daniel Paine, 6
More, from a press release issued by Team Hammer:
Team Hammer hauled in another podium trophy on Sunday to close out Round 4 of the 2018 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship at Road America.
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise backed up his Saturday race win with another sensational performance in his return weekend. The Frenchman battled back and forth for the lead throughout Supersport Race 2.
After numerous trial runs covering a variety of last-lap strategies, Debise elected to attempt a draft and slingshot move for the win driving up the hill for the final time. Unfortunately, his bid for victory fell just 0.037-second short of completing an elusive double victory.
“All of the race, I was trying to see what I could do (on the last lap),” Debise explained. “I saw that pulling away like yesterday was not going to be possible because my competition was faster today than yesterday. So then I tried to see if he could draft pass me before the finish line, and he could. After that, I knew I had to be behind him and maybe I could make the pass. I saw that I could, so I held off and didn’t show him that I could. It was not easy, but I was comfortable. But when it came time to do it, I decided to go to the left, and he turned to the left on the main straight, too. That made me roll off the throttle and I lost all the speed I had.
“Anyway, if you told me before this race weekend, that I would get first and second, I would sign for it. I’m glad I’m here. Thanks to my M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team. As always, they did a great job.”
M4 medAge Suzuki’s Nick McFadden got a terrific launch off the starting grid and used the draft of the leaders to help him break free from the pack behind. The Kentuckian put that early advantage to good use, coming home well clear in fifth position to improve on Saturday’s seventh.
M4 RiCK! Suzuki’s Daytona Anderson finish a battling 12th after suffering a DNS the day prior.
Despite missing the season’s opening four races, Debise has jumped into the Supersport championship top 10 rankings, now holding ninth with 45 points. McFadden ranks fifth with 59 points while Anderson is 15th with 15 points.
Meanwhile, M4 ESCTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis finished seventh in a stopped and restarted Superbike Race 2. Lewis was part of a long freight train connected to the front in the early going, but eventually settled into to a lonely ride to the checkered flag.
The result marked the first time in six races that Lewis has finished outside the top five.
Lewis continues to hold down fifth in the Superbike title fight with 77 points to his credit.
Next up for Team Hammer is MotoAmerica’s annual trip to scenic Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, on June 22-24, where MotoAmerica will once again share the spotlight with the Superbike World Championship.
About Team Hammer
The 2018 season marks Team Hammer’s 38th consecutive year of operating as a professional road racing team. Racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 69 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National races, have finished on AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National podiums 194 times and have won five AMA Pro National Championships, as well as two FIM South American Championships. The team has also won 135 endurance races overall (including seven 24-hour races) and 13 Overall WERA National Endurance Championships with Suzuki motorcycles, and holds the U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24-hour race. The team also competed in the televised 1990s Formula USA National Championship, famously running “Methanol Monster” GSX-R1100 Superbikes fueled by methanol, and won four F-USA Championships.