Jayson Uribe took a decisive 10-second victory in the marquis MotoExotica Formula Pacific race, completing the hat-trick at AFM Round Two April 13-14 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, in Buttonwillow, California.
Although it was one of the busiest road racing weekends on the US calendar, with MotoAmerica Superbike and MotoGP at Circuit of The Americas, in Austin, Texas, the AFM paddock was once again full, the grids stacked, and there was no shortage of top-end talent out in California.
Graves Motorsports were back once again with reigning MotoAmerica Stock 1000 champ Andrew Lee and Braeden Ortt on his ZX-6R. They were also joined this weekend by Valentin Debise. The former Moto2 rider would be lining up alongside Ortt on the 600 grid. The Graves team took a bone stock 2019 Kawasaki ZX-6R and got it race ready in under 6 hours.
Unfortunately, the three-pronged Graves attack would be brought down to two on Saturday. On the last lap of MotoExotica Formula Pacific qualifying Lee went down in Turn One. What appeared to be a rather innocuous low side was anything but. Lee’s left little finger was trapped between the bar and the pavement. The digit suffered significant damage but was able to be saved.
Lee returned to the track on Sunday with his finger heavily bandaged. Lee hoped to race but eventually ruled himself out of the competition before undergoing surgery on Monday. Speaking after his surgery, Lee was optimistic about the upcoming MotoAmerica round at Virginia International Raceway.
“I had a great experience with Dr. Farr. He got it taken care of in a timely manner. I should be able to go for VIR in three weeks,” said Lee.
Lee’s teammates were both at 100% for Sunday. Debise and Ortt lined up on the 600 Superbike grid with 53 other competitors! Debise was the quickest bike on the track, clicking off a crazy fast 1:44, the better part of two seconds faster than teammate Ortt’s best. At the flag, it was Debise taking the win from Ortt, with young Cory Ventura finishing a very impressive third.
Both Ortt and Debise would sit out the Formula One race later in the day, allowing Ventura to take the victory in that race from Daniel Riser, who ran a new personal best of 1:47.7, dropping nearly three seconds from his best lap time during Round One. That made all the difference as third-place man Kaleb De Keyrel finished just 0.6 second back in third place at the end of six laps.
In the final 600 event of the weekend, 600 SuperStock, Ortt would not be denied, edging Deion Campbell to the line by just over two seconds. Brandon Crawford got his first taste of the podium in this one, dipping down to a 1:47 to beat out DeKeyrel by less than a second.
Despite sitting out the final race, looking back on the weekend, Debise was very pleased with how it played out, “It was just a tryout with Graves, but things went good. So hopefully I can stick with those professional guys.”
On the 1000cc bikes, it was all Uribe. Uribe started from P1 with his Ride Red Honda CBR1000RR in all three of his races and made no mistakes on the way to taking home a trio of first-place trophies, including in the weekend’s marquis event, MotoExotica Formula Pacific. The weekend was not however flawless for Uribe and his team.
At the end of the weekend, Uribe was quick to praise his crew for all their hard work, saying, “We definitely didn’t have it easy, but my crew and I worked together and achieved the success that we all knew was possible. Through all the oil leaks, broken shocks, and late night radiator swaps, we prevailed. I can’t thank my crew enough!”
One of those challenges was with the preload adjuster on the rear shock. In the end, the team opted to bypass it entirely by creating a spacer from a purple coat hanger.
Ezra Beaubier attempted to keep Uribe honest, chasing the Honda has hard as he could on his Kawasaki ZX-10R. Beaubier eventually finished 10.5 seconds back of Uribe in a solid second place. Wyatt Farris was able to solidify his third-place finish in the closing laps with a five-second lead over Ortt who came home fourth on his 600. Deion Campbell, also aboard a 600cc machine would close out the top five.
The 400s once again had a fantastic weekend of racing at Buttonwillow. Fresh off his sweep of the MotoAmerica Junior Cup at Road Atlanta, Rocco Landers was obviously on form, but he would be in tough competition this weekend with the likes of Marc Edwards, Nikolas Thompson, and Brian Bartlow, all of whom were capable of fast laps around the circuit.
In the end, Rocco won the battle, clicking off the fastest laps of the weekend, all the way as low as 1:53 in his last race, the newly minted Calishine Racing Ninja Cup, and winning the first race of the weekend, 400 Superstock on Saturday. Marc Edwards would, however, win the war, taking the Calishine Ninja Cup win, after Landers lost the front exiting turn 10, as well as wins in 400 Superbike, Formula III and Lightweight Twins.
The AFM will now catch its collective breath, before getting back on track June 29-30th for Round 3 at Thunderhill Raceway Park.
Follow us @raceafm and find the full results at www.afmracing.org
Race Results:
350 Superbike:
1. Lucky Odisetti
2. Ashlee Deskin
3. Pao Vang
400 Superbike:
1. Marc Edwards
2. Nikolas Thompson
3. Brian Bartlow
Legacy Lightweight:
1. Jordan Edgington
2. Shane Austin
3. Lee Simmons
Vintage Expert:
1. Darrin Gauvin
2. Russ Granger
3. Kevin McKee
750 Superbike:
1. Cory Ventura (Yam YZF-R6)
2. Berto Wooldridge
3. Keir Leonhardt
Open Superbike:
1. Jayson Uribe (Hon CBR1000RR)
2. Deion Campbell
3. Chad Lewin
Formula Singles:
1. Ralph Staropoli
2. Yuri Barrigan
3. Mark Fitzsimmons
Lightweight Superbike:
1. Jordan Edginton
2. Aaron Tulchinsky
3. Sam Romick
Lightweight Twins:
1. Marc Edwards
2. Rocco Landers (Kaw Ninja 400)
3. Brian Bartlow
600 Superbike:
1. Valentin Debise (Kaw ZX-6R)
2. Braeden Ortt (Kaw ZX-6R)
3. Cory Ventura (Yam YZF-R6)
Open GP:
1. Jayson Uribe (Hon CBR1000RR)
2. Jordan Edgington
3. Kevin Murphy
450 Superbike:
1. David Moss
2. Mark Elrod
3. Owen Flatley
Middleweight Singles & Twins:
1. Jordan Edginton
2. Sam Romick
3. Kalvin Goforth
Super Dino:
1. Ben Hodges
2. Roger Baker
3. Stephen Dummit
Formula One:
1. Cory Ventura (Yam YZF-R6)
2. Daniel Riser
3. Kaleb De Keyrel
4. Berto Wooldridge
5. Adam Robarts
Formula Two:
1. Ralph Staropoli
2. Roger Baker
3. Richard Denman
4. Yuri Barrigan
5. Sergio Morales Galvin
Formula Three:
1. Marc Edwards
2. Nikolas Thompson
3. Brian Bartlow
4. Patryk Buchik
5. Valentine Welch
Formula Four:
1. Aaron Tulchinsky
2. Same Romick
3. Owen Flatley
4. Mark Elrod
5. Michael Souza
MotoExotica Formula Pacific:
1. Jayson Uribe (Hon CBR1000RR)
2. Ezra Beaubier (Kaw ZX-10R)
3. Wyatt Farris
4. Braeden Ortt (Kaw ZX-6R)
5. Deion Campbell
300 World Superstock:
1. Ashlee Deskin
2. Emily Grana
3. Gordon Pull
450 Superstock:
1. David Moss
2. Owen Flatley
3. Chris Reed
Legacy 250:
1. Jordan Edginton
2. Pao Vang
3. Soua Yang
Calishine Racing Ninja Cup:
1. Marc Edwards
2. Nikolas Thompson
3. Brian Bartlow
600 Superstock:
1. Braeden Ortt (Kaw ZX-6R)
2. Deion Campbell
3. Brandon Crawford
Legacy Middleweight:
1. Ben Hodges
2. John Nguyen
3. Stephen Dummit
Open Superstock:
1. Wyatt Farris
2. Ezra Beaubier (Kaw ZX-10R)
3. Kevin Murphy
750 Supersport:
1. Berto Wooldridge
2. Kaleb De Keyrel
3. Keir Leonhardt
Legacy Heavyweight:
1. Ben Hodges
2. John Nguyen
3. Stephen Dummit
Formula 40 Heavyweight:
1. George Myshlyayev
2. Sahir Zvik
3. Fabrice Vilder
Formula 40 Middleweight:
1. Berto Wooldridge
2. Stephen Rue
3. Michael Kim
350 Superstock:
1. Gordon Pull
2. Lucky Odisetti
3. Lisa Kinberger
400 Superstock:
1. Rocco Landers (Kaw Ninja 400)
2. Marc Edwards
3. Nikolas Thompson
Formula 40 Lightweight:
1. Aaron Tulchinsky
2. David Moss
3. Mark Elrod
Afemme Lightweight:
1. Krissie Coseteng
2. Kalen Brock
3. Carla Cruz
Clubman Lightweight:
1. Pedro Quiroga
2. Ladislav Sucik
3. Robert Sissons
Afemme:
1. Shelina Moreda
2. Valentine Welch
3. Emily Grana
Clubman Middleweight:
1. Hugo Peralta
2. Chris Stewart
3. Patrick Swisher
Clubman Heavyweight:
1. Gianluca Storti
2. Ben Tilley
3. Anthony Huizer
Formula 50:
1. Carlos Neves
2. Gavin Botha
3. Robert Lazzarini