The 2019 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing
season kicked off Friday at Road Atlanta, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and
riders and teams representing all five of MotoAmerica’s racing classes started
dialing in their racebikes during practice and qualifying sessions.
Their efforts, however, were complicated by weather and
track conditions that ranged from rain and a wet racetrack to a damp-and-drying
surface and ending with a dry track and bright sunshine in the late afternoon.
Garrett Gerloff was the pacesetter in the EBC Brakes
Superbike class. Riding his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory YZF-R1,
Gerloff mounted Dunlop slicks late in Qualifying Practice One (QP1) and took
advantage of a dry line to top the rest of the field by 3.7 seconds with a time of 1:30.786.
Gerloff then backed up that performance on a completely dry
racetrack during Qualifying Practice Two (QP2), leading the field with a
1:25.214 and claiming provisional pole position heading into Saturday’s
Superpole session.
“We took a little chance in the morning just with slicks,
and it worked out. So that was probably the biggest reason this morning I was
able to go good, but the bike and everything felt good with that,” two-time
MotoAmerica Supersport Champion Gerloff told Roadracingworld.com. “Then in the
second session, everything we’ve been working on during the off-season and our
last test has worked here, which last year that wasn’t the case. So I’m super
pumped that it’s going in that direction and everything is meshing together.
Hopefully, tomorrow we have nice weather and things will keep going this way.
“I want to win. It’s been a while. Hopefully, fingers
crossed, I can be up there fighting with those guys. My goals: I want a pole
position and I want to win more than anything. If I could get one of those
tomorrow it would be nice.”
Coming in second to Gerloff in both sessions was 2017
MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Toni Elias. In QP2, the 1:25.352 lap time Elias
did on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 put him just 0.138 second behind Superbike
sophomore Gerloff, and Elias said he was confident and happy with how
everything went Friday.
Mathew Scholtz won Superpole and finished on the podium in
both Superbike races at Road Atlanta in 2018, and on Friday, Scholtz rode his
Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 – which is now equipped with a Magneti Marelli
electronics system and a Suter swingarm – to the third-best lap time of the
day, a 1:25.913.
After getting his first taste of his new Yoshimura Suzuki
superbike in wet conditions during QP1, Josh Herrin finished fourth in QP2 with
a 1:26.117.
Likewise, JD Beach tried out his Attack Performance Estenson
Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 in the wet for the first time Friday morning, and then in
the afternoon, the two-time and reigning MotoAmerica Supersport Champion was
fifth-fastest with a 1:26.625.
In spite of still dialing in the new MoTeC electronics on
his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike and riding with a three-week-old
broken left fibula, Jake Lewis was sixth in QP2 with a 1:26.941.
Armed with only 10 laps of testing coming into the weekend,
Kyle Wyman was seventh in QP2 with a 1:27.037 on his three-week-old KWR Ducati
Panigale V4 R. Wyman, however, said he was concerned whether or not his new
Ducati has enough fuel capacity to complete race distance.
Although he is sick and his Ameris
Bank/CCFOfficeSolutions.com BMW S1000RR is more of a Superstock-spec machine
than a Superbike, Geoff May finished eighth in QP2 with a lap time of 1:27.055.
After suffering several engine failures in 2018, David “Aussie
Dave” Anthony enjoyed a problem-free day with his Fly Racing/ADR Motorsports Kawasaki
ZX-10RR Superbike and its new engine spec Friday and earned the ninth and final
spot in Saturday’s Superpole session to determine who will start where at the
front of the grid.
Just missing the cut for Superpole was former World
Superbike rider Jake Gagne, who did a time of 1:27.532 in his first outing on
his new Scheibe Racing BMW S1000RR. That’s not bad considering Gagne is still
recovering from a badly broken right leg (suffered on December 31, 2018) and
only started walking again “about two weeks ago,” he said.
The biggest news to come out of Friday, however, was the
fact that three-time and defending MotoAmerica Superbike champion Cameron
Beaubier did not make the cutoff for Superpole. Beaubier rode conservatively to
fourth in the drying conditions during QP1, but Beaubier’s Yamaha suffered a
clutch problem during QP2, limiting him to a best time of 1:27.710. That left
Beaubier 11th in the session, and with MotoAmerica Superbike
Superpole limited to just nine riders (instead of 12) in 2019, that left the
Californian out.
In Supersport, PJ Jacobsen led wet Free Practice One (FP1) with a 1:38.106 on his Celtic HSBK Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 even though it was Jacobsen’s first
time riding at Road Atlanta and riding on Dunlop rain tires in several
years. Jacobsen’s good fortune ran out during Qualifying One (Q1), however,
when he crashed at high speed in Turn Two, suffering a relatively minor injury
to his left hand. Jacobsen ended up third in Q1 with a 1:30.602.
After finishing second-best in Supersport FP1, Bobby Fong
was leading Q1 with a 1:29.782 when he crashed his new M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R600 in Turn Five.
Fong walked away from the incident, but his motorcycle was destroyed in the
crash. In spite of sitting out the last 16 minutes of the restarted session,
Fong still finished at the top of the field and on provisional pole position,
just ahead of Tuned Racing Yamaha’s Bryce Prince (1:29.826).
Rocco Landers, a 14-year-old from Oregon making his
MotoAmerica debut, sat out Liqui Moly Junior Cup FP1, which was run in the wet,
but Landers was fastest with a 1:47.904 on his Landers Racing Kawasaki Ninja 400 in the wet
conditions of Junior Cup Q1. Kevin Olmedo was quickest in Junior Cup FP1 with a
time of 1:51.487 on his Altus Motorsports Kawasaki Ninja 400.
After Junior Cup Q1, Quarterley Racing On Track Development’s
Teagg Hobbs, Dallas Daniels and Jamie Astudillo and Moonshot Motorsports’ John
Knowles were all disqualified from the session because the rear sets on their Kawasaki
Ninja 400s did not meet the requirements laid out in the rulebook, according to
MotoAmerica. According to Quarterley Racing On Track Development team co-owner
Bob Robbins, they replaced the bolt-on bracket that their rear sets bolt to but MotoAmerica considers that bolt-on bracket a part of the frame and cannot be replaced.
Robbins said was considering whether they would appeal MotoAmerica’s ruling or
not.
Joseph Blasius celebrated his 27th birthday
Friday by leading wet Twins Cup FP1 with a 1:48.174 on his new Autovest Suzuki
SV650. In Twins Cup Q1, which was run in damp conditions, the fastest rider was
Curtis Murray with a 1:43.930 on his RBoM Racing Suzuki SV650.
After Twins Cup Q1, five riders’ (Kris Turner, Ray Hofman,
Joshua Thomas, Robert Fisher, and Clifton Ransdell) times were disallowed
because their motorcycles were fitted with parts that were not on the approved
parts list. All of the riders were using Brembo front
brake master cylinders that had not been homologated.
The 21-strong Stock 1000 field only had one session on
Friday, FP1, but it was held during the best weather and track conditions of
the day. Travis Wyman (younger brother of Kyle Wyman) topped the session with a
1:28.680 on his Weir Everywhere Racing BMW S1000RR.