Beaubier wins again, Corey races to career best as PJ consistently scores at The Ridge

Cameron Beaubier, Corey Alexander, and PJ Jacobsen – Tytlers Cycle Racing’s BMW Superbike trio – were back on track in the latest round of the MotoAmerica series at The Ridge Motorsports Park this past weekend with all three once again adding significantly to their overall points tally. Another win for Cameron, a career best fourth for Corey and a top six for PJ just some of the highlights of the round!

MotoAmerica returnee Beaubier was once again at the sharp end throughout the event at the 2.47-mile circuit. Qualifying third, the #6 rider was in contention for the win on Saturday after reducing the deficit to early leader Jake Gagne. Unfortunately, with three laps to go the multiple MotoAmerica champion slid out of contention. Remounting he was classified seventh. Sunday once again saw Beaubier going wheel to wheel with Gagne, his race winning overtake coming just after half race distance. Extending his advantage until the flag, Cameron took his third win of the season by over a second to consolidate second overall in the standings.

Corey Alexander dominated in Stock 1000 at The Ridge twelve months ago and he was in fine form once again this year. Achieving his best qualifying position ever in the Superbike class, fifth, Alexander ran consistently in the leading group in both races, underlining his speed at the Washington stage venue and showing that his adaption to the SBK category continues at an impressive rate. Fourth on Saturday, he finished fifth on Sunday to record the first double top five of his Superbike career.

The team’s third rider PJ Jacobsen qualified on row three. He too gained positions despite struggling a little with set up during the weekend. He finished sixth and seventh on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

With all three riders having now shown front running pace this season, Tytlers Cycle Racing heads to California in a fortnight for the first triple head weekend of the season at the iconic Laguna Seca circuit.

Cameron Beaubier: “We had good pace in Race 1 and slowly chipped away the lead to Jake but unfortunately, I lost the front in turn one with three laps to go. It was a bummer, but I was happy with the pace and the progress we are making. Yesterday was a good day. The guys made two changes to the bike, to the front end and with engine brake, that gave me a good feel from warm up on. It felt really good to get a win here on a track I thought we would struggle at coming in. Onto Laguna!”

Corey Alexander: “Since the first session of the weekend I’ve felt very comfortable on the bike and the times have come a bit easier. Our best qualifying of fifth put us in the mix for the races. I was a little too reserved the first half of the race one but really started to work my way forward and after running sixth lucked a top five with Cam’s (Beaubier’s) misfortune. I’m very happy with yesterday’s result in race two even though the position is one less than what we achieved on Saturday. We finished seven seconds back from Cam which is less than half the gap to the lead from yesterday. I’m excited to keep this momentum going forward to Laguna. Thanks to the team and my guys for giving me a great bike to work with.”

PJ Jacobsen: “I was a bit lucky to get away with sixth position on Saturday after a few people crashed, but I felt as the race went on we had a bit better pace and the guys in front were coming back to me. It was annoying that there was a red flag as I really thought we could have made up a few spots but that’s racing. We made some changes for Sunday as I haven’t had much front end confidence at all since the very first session. I ran off in race two at turn twelve and lost five or six seconds. That really set me back and cost us what could have been at least another top six. I am super disappointed to only get a P6 and P7, it’s not where I want to be or where we have shown we can be, but we will go again in two weeks. Laguna is one of my favourite tracks and I am hoping the front-end confidence returns there.”

More, form a press release issued by Suzuki Motor USA, LLC:

SCOTT AND HOBBS EARN PODIUMS FOR VISION WHEEL M4 ECSTAR SUZUKI 
IN WASHINGTON

BREA, CA – Suzuki Motor USA and Team Hammer reeled in a second and third podium result of the weekend to conclude a bountiful MotoAmerica round at Ridge Motorsports Park with Team Hammer’s 350th podium.

Race Highlights:

•  Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki
  • Supersport
    • Tyler Scott equaled his best result of the season with a strong runner-up.
    • Teagg Hobbs earns his second Supersport podium in hard-fought Race 2.
  • Superbike
    • Richie Escalante matched his career-best Superbike finish with a highly competitive fourth.
    • Taylor Knapp suffered a DNF after attempting to soldier on following a crash.

Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott made his intentions known from the start of Sunday’s MotoAmerica Supersport rematch. The 17-year-old locked down second position after starting from the center of Row 1 aboard his next-generation Suzuki GSX-R750. Scott then put his head down and stuck closely behind the race’s pacesetter long enough to pull free from the pack. Scott definitively put on a strong ride to second place. It was Scott’s second runner-up of the season and his third podium finish.

Scott said, “We made some changes overnight for this morning’s warm-up. The Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team did a great job dialing the bike this weekend. Yesterday, we had an issue during the race, which was unfortunate, but today our goal was to get a strong start and manage the gap to first and third. In the end, it was a really great race, and I’m happy with the result.”

Teagg Hobbs followed up Saturday’s breakthrough performance to a first-career MotoAmerica Supersport podium by adding a second one on Sunday. While Scott shook free early, Hobbs found himself mired in a multi-rider battle for third. Hobbs eventually broke his competition and earned some breathing space en route to another third-place podium aboard his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R750. Suzuki GSX-R750s once again achieved more top-ten class positions than any other manufacturer on the grid.

“It was a battle right from the start,” Hobbs said. “I had a decent start and tried to be as aggressive as possible. Tyler got away from me. I finished ahead of him on Saturday, so I knew he was going to be on it today. I’ve got to give it up for the whole Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team. I’ve got an amazing motorcycle underneath me, and I’m as happy as can be just to be here racing this bike.”

Richie Escalante enjoyed one of the strongest performances of his Superbike career. Escalante spent the bulk of the contest pressuring the rider in fourth before finally forcing him into a small mistake. He then took control of the position himself. Escalante pushed to the maximum aboard his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000R with a maiden podium ride in his sights. While he came up just short, Escalante ultimately earned his third fourth-place result in his last five outings, finishing less than five seconds back of the win. The race is the closest Escalante has been to the winner at the checkered flag.

“What an amazing weekend,” Escalante said, “We made a change to the geometry of the bike this morning to find a little bit more grip. We got a strong start and had a good rhythm. I saw how close we were to a podium result, so I pushed hard and did my best. I’m super happy and really proud of my Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki crew. We need to keep working, but overall, it was a particularly good weekend.”

Unfortunately, Taylor Knapp’s one-round ride aboard a Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000R Superbike ended on a tough note. Knapp crashed while fighting for 12th position, and while he remounted in an attempt to continue racing, he was ultimately forced to retire.

“We improved the lap time and dropped a second and a half, but I had an unfortunate crash in Turn 1. I am bummed about that,” said Knapp. “I was hoping to do better for the team and give them a good result. The bike was incredible to ride and the team was great all weekend. Hopefully, the team will benefit from me riding the bike and my feedback. Thanks to Suzuki and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki for giving me the chance.”

Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki will now travel to Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, for the next round of the 2023 MotoAmerica season on July 7-9.

For more racing news, results, and special team content please visit https://suzukicycles.com/racing/road-racing.

ABOUT SUZUKI

Suzuki Motor USA, LLC. (SMO) distributes Motorcycles, ATVs, Scooters, Automotive Parts, Accessories, and ECSTAR Oils & Chemicals via an extensive dealer network throughout 49 states. Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), based in Hamamatsu, Japan, is a diversified worldwide manufacturer of Motorcycles, ATVs, Scooters, Automobiles, Outboard Motors, and related products. Founded in 1909 and incorporated in 1920, SMC has business relations with 201 countries/regions. For more information, visit www.suzuki.com.

ABOUT TEAM HAMMER

The 2023 season marks Team Hammer’s 43rd consecutive year of operating as a professional road racing team. Race bikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 129 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National races, have finished on AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National podiums 350 times, and have won 11 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National Championships, as well as two FIM South American Championships (in Superbike and Supersport.) The team has also won 137 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.

ABOUT VISION WHEEL

Founded in 1976, Vision Wheel is one of the nation’s leading providers of custom wheels for cars and trucks, and one of the first manufacturers of custom wheels and tires for ATVs, UTVs, and golf carts. Vision Wheel looks beyond the current trends and to the future in developing, manufacturing, and distributing its wheels. Vision’s lines of street, race, off-road, American Muscle, and Milanni wheels are distributed nationally and internationally through a trusted network of distributors. Vision Wheel also produces the Vision It AR app to allow users to see how their wheel of choice will look on their vehicle before purchase and installation. For more information on Vision Wheel, visit www.visionwheel.com.

More, from a press release issued by Rodio Racing:

Landers victorious, shares podium with teammate Rodio Sunday in MotoAmerica Twins Cup race at The Ridge Motorsports Park

Rodio Racing — Powered by Robem Engineering riders claim half of the podium places at June 23-25 event

SHELTON, Wash. — After enduring a trying weekend at the previous MotoAmerica Twins Cup round at Barber Motorsports Park, the Rodio Racing — Powered by Robem Engineering duo of Rocco Landers and Gus Rodio found more success at the June 23-25 Twins Cup round at The Ridge Motorsports Park.

Landers was in dominant form from the start of the round, as he earned pole, a third place and a win. And Rodio was back in frontrunning form as he netted a fourth-place finish on Saturday and a podium finish on Sunday.

Thanks to their positive on-track performances in both Twin Cup races at The Ridge, Landers and Rodio and now just 11 and 13 points out of the championship lead, respectively.

Landers set the pace in Friday morning practice. His best lap time was a 1:48.063, which was more than half a second faster than the next fastest rider. Rodio also had a good start to the weekend, as he finished Friday practice fourth fastest. Landers and Rodio rounded out Friday’s on-track activity with more positive results, as Landers claimed provisional pole — while lowering his best lap time by about 1.5 seconds — and Rodio ended that session fifth-fastest.

The second and final qualifying session of the round took place Saturday morning and saw Landers clinch his third pole position of the season. Rodio also had a very good end to qualifying. He improved his best qualifying lap time by about 1.5 seconds and qualified third — which put both of the team’s riders on the front row for both Twins Cup races.

Saturday afternoon’s Race 1 was the site of another dominating performance by Landers. After a short battle for the lead into Turn 1, Landers paced the field and — in the later laps — began building a several second gap to the battle for second place. Rodio finished Lap 1 running in fourth place and briefly fell to fifth in the running order on Lap 2. After a rider in front of him crashed on Lap 3 — and after nearly crashing himself — Rodio gradually reeled in the two riders battling for second place. Rodio wasn’t able to get close enough to the other riders to overtake them and finished the race in fourth place. As Landers began the final lap, he came up to the back of a lapped rider that was experiencing a mechanical problem and going slowly at the start of a yellow flag zone. Landers was unable to slow down enough to avoid overtaking the rider within the yellow flag zone and was assessed a penalty that dropped him from first to third in the race results.

Sunday’s Race 2 also started with Landers briefly being challenged for the lead before taking the holeshot. After clearing the first chicane, Landers steadily built a gap to the rest of the field while Rodio slipped to fifth in the running order for the first several laps. As Landers stretched out his advantage over the rest of his competition, Rodio upped his pace and had worked his way up to third place by the end of Lap 4 and second place by the end of Lap 9. Landers ended up taking the win by a margin of more than 11 seconds, while Rodio had to settle for third place after being passed on the last lap by another frontrunning rider.

The Rodio Racing — Powered by Robem Engineering team is back in action in two weeks time when the MotoAmerica Twins Cup takes to the Laguna Seca circuit July 7-9.

Rocco Landers / No. 97

“The end to Race 1 was disappointing, but my Aprilia RS 660 is working amazing. My favorite thing about the bike is how easy it has been to set up. We found a solid base setup at the Road Atlanta round, and we haven’t had to make any big changes since then. We actually didn’t change anything from Friday’s Qualifying 1 to today’s Race 2. I don’t see why we can’t get a couple 1-2 finishes at the next round at Laguna Seca and keep this momentum rolling.”

Gus Rodio / No. 96

“It was a good weekend on my Rodio Racing — Powered by Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660. It was a little bit of a learning curve for me, as I hadn’t raced here on a Twins Cup bike before. I think we did a pretty good job at figuring the bike setup out, and I’m happy to leave here with a podium finish after not scoring any points at the last round. I’m looking forward to racing at Laguna Seca and making more improvements there.”

Robem Engineering’s technical partners for 2023 include Aprilia Racing, Piaggio Group Americas, Bitubo Suspension, Dunlop, Woodcraft Technologies, Dymag, Vesrah, Sprint Filter, DID, Sara Chappell Photos, NGK/NTK, Blud Lubricants, Millennium Technologies, Motovation USA and SC-Project.

Rodio Racing’s technical partners for 2023 include NJ MiniGP, Luxestar VIP, MAR Contractors, Evolve GT, N2 Racing, Dunlop, Spellcaster Productions, Kathedral, The Martinn and MVR Endeavor.

More, from a press release issued by Altus Motorsports:

MotoAmerica: Wild Weekend at Road America for the Altus Motorsports Team

(Shelton, WA) Stock 1000 and the Junior Cup were not on the schedule for the MotoAmerica round at The Ridge in Shelton, Washington, which meant that only half the team would be running. Jaret Nassaney in the Supersport class and Joseph LiMandri Jr. in the Twins Cup. Both riders arrived in the Pacific Northwest looking to revitalize their seasons.

Supersport:

As great as the 2022 MotoAmerica season was for Jaret Nassaney, the beginning of this year has not measured up to it. Crashes, setup issues, and mechanicals have been the theme. The trend continued in Washington with a crash at the very beginning of Friday’s practice. With no laps on Friday, Jaret and the team had a lot of work to do in Q2 on Saturday. Lack of seat time led to a less-than-ideal grid position; P13. Unfortunately, a front brake issue put him on the ground a second time at the beginning of Race 1. Then, in Race 2, Jaret had a rear brake issue that limited him to an 11th-place finish.

Twins Cup:

Joseph LiMandri Jr. and the team had to do battle with a few electrical gremlins at The Ridge. During Q2 on Saturday, the bike began shutting off intermittently. After the session, the team determined the battery was defective. Joseph started both races from 8th on the grid. He finished the first race in 7th. A crash early in Sunday’s warm-up may have led to a mechanical issue that caused the bike to shut off on Lap 1 of Race 2. After restarting the bike, LiMandri crossed start/finish dead last on Lap 2. Undeterred, he put his head down and ran his fastest laps of the weekend to finish in 8th place.

Joseph LiMandri Jr.: “This wasn’t the turnaround weekend we were hoping for, but we aren’t done yet and we will continue to keep fighting. Huge thanks to Fuzzy my crew chief and the rest of the team for working their butts off all weekend long to help get this bike dialed. I’m excited to get to Laguna and continue to push”

George Nassaney: “It has been an exceptionally difficult season but we are not quitters. The Ridge is in the books and we are looking for a fresh start on the fresh surface at Laguna Seca. As a team, we have decided we need a ‘Hard Reset!’ For the next round, we are bringing in extra staff, and doing everything we can to give our riders the support they need to deliver the results we know they are capable of.”

Altus Motorsports team is supported by our great family of sponsors: Altus Motorsports, FLY Racing WPS, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Yamaha Motor Company, Barnett, Maxima Racing Oils, Moto-D Racing, Bonamici, Hot Bodies Racing, M4 Exhausts, Vortex EK, Motion Pro, SBS Brakes, BrakeTech USA, Inc., Ohlins, K-Tech, RS Taichi, Arai, Yoshimura, Chicken Hawk Tire Warmers, CarbonSmith, Law Tigers Oklahoma, and Altus Factory Racing