MotoAmerica: Round 5 Results from The Ridge Motorsports Park for the Altus Motorsports Tucker Hagerty Rangeline Team

(Shelton, WA)  The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, is a new venue for the MotoAmerica series this year. To allow the racers a chance to familiarize themselves with the technical track, MotoAmerica scheduled an additional practice day for the Thursday preceding the race weekend. The Altus team took advantage of the extra track time. All four riders had a good day and headed into the weekend with confidence.

Honos Superbike & Stock 1000: Having put the brake issues that plagued them in the early part of the season behind them, Cam Petersen and the Altus team are now focused on fine-tuning the setup of the GSX-R 1000. While Petersen dominated all of the Stock 1000 practice sessions, he and the team are now working to narrow the gap in the Superbike class. Cam finished the third Superbike practice session as the fifth fastest – an impressive showing on a Stock 1000-legal motorcycle.

His overall times put him in tenth on the starting grid for the Saturday Superbike Race. He finished the race in ninth and was the top Stock 1000 competitor to cross the line. In Sunday’s race, Petersen brought down his lap times and took the checkered flag in seventh place.

The Stock 1000 class was only scheduled for one race at the Washington round. Petersen started the race from the pole and never looked back. He finished in first with a comfortable 10-second gap on his closest competitor.

“Our early-season issues are behind us and now we are just making the bike better and better,” said Cameron Petersen.

Supersport 600: In his inaugural season, Kevin Olmedo is making a habit of putting his Suzuki GSX-R 600 on the front row of the starting grid for Supersport races. Olmedo was consistently third fastest during practice and, as a result, started both races from the front row. In Race 1, Kevin crossed the line in a lonely fourth place. Unfortunately, a first-lap incident during Race 2 put Olmedo off track and out of the race.

Jaret Nassaney’s weekend started strong. He was tenth fastest in the first practice session and improved to eighth for the qualifying sessions. Nassaney started both races from the middle of the third row. He finished Race 1 in Ninth. Saturday, after the races, the team made some major changes to his GSX-R 600. The bike felt good during Sunday’s warm-up and the team was excited to see how the second race would go. Jaret got an amazing start in Race 2, but he overcooked turn one, got pinched off, and ended up on the ground. Never one to quit, he picked the bike up and finished the race.

“The incident in Race 2 was a bummer. The changes we made felt amazing and I was able to do my fastest lap during the race on Sunday. We are definitely headed in the right direction and I can’t way to get to New Jersey,” said Jaret Nassaney

Liqui Moly Junior Cup: After a great practice day on Thursday, Daniel Kinard’s weekend looked promising. Unfortunately, motor and clutch issues limited his track time and caused a DNF in the Saturday Junior Cup race. Kinard started the Sunday race from 12th and finished 11th with his best lap time of the weekend.

“All-in-all, we had a great weekend. The team is working together extremely well. All the riders help each other. Having Cameron in our pit to work with Kevin and Jaret is indispensable. And our crew chief, Eric Gray did an amazing job this weekend. He brings a lot of experience to the team and we really appreciate it. He and Melissa Paris are working with Cam to dial his bike in and it really shows,” said George Nassaney.

More, from a press release issued by Travis Wyman Racing:

Travis Wyman ends difficult weekend on high note at MotoAmerica Superbikes at the Ridge

BMW rider bounces back from crashes on Friday, Saturday to score top five, top 10 finishes on Sunday

SHELTON, Wash. — While Travis Wyman’s first weekend racing at the Ridge Motorsports Park started with a big crash, the BMW rider rewarded his team’s perseverance with a top-10 finish in Sunday’s MotoAmerica Superbike race and narrowly missed out on scoring his second-consecutive Stock 1000 Class podium.

Wyman ended the Aug. 28-30 event tied for fifth place in the Stock 1000 points standings and was one of several riders who suffered spectacular crashes during MotoAmerica’s first-ever round at the Ridge facility. Wyman’s big crash occurred Friday at the front stretch chicane that was constructed for hosting MotoAmerica competition. The team was experimenting with a softer-compound front tire that lost grip as Wyman was turning into the chicane, and the crash resulted in extensive damage to the team’s 2020 BMW S 1000 RR.

Undeterred by the setback, the team went to work Friday evening repairing the motorcycle and was forced to use most of its spare parts supply in the process. Remarkably, the S 1000 RR was ready to go for Saturday’s Superbike race. However, Wyman was one of the riders who got caught up in a multi-bike crash at the outset of the race. Though the damage to the BMW was not as severe as Friday’s crash, the team wasn’t able to repair the bike in time for the race restart.

The team worked on repairing the bike Saturday night and had it ready for Sunday morning’s Stock 1000 warm-up session. Wyman was running in third place for most of the day’s Stock 1000 race and missed out on a podium finish by 0.384 seconds after a late-race battle with one of his championship rivals. In the Sunday Superbike race, Wyman placed 10th, scoring his fourth top-10 Superbike finish of the 2020 season.

The team has a two-week break before the next MotoAmerica round, which is scheduled for Sept. 11-13 at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J.

Travis Wyman / #10

“My first time racing at Ridge Motorsports Park certainly didn’t go as planned, but it’s great to be leaving Washington with two good results as we continue to develop our 2020 BMW S 1000 RR. My crash at the track’s new chicane on Friday was in part due to using a different front tire, as we are still working to find an ideal set up on our new bike. It was a gnarly crash with the front tucking so early in the corner. My crew of Steve Weir and Alex Torres did a fantastic job getting the bike back together twice in two days, and their hard work allowed me to score the positive results I did on Sunday. This weekend was a tough one for a lot of riders with having to learn a new track that so few of us had experience on. I’m looking forward to getting the team’s 2020 season back on track at New Jersey Motorsports Park, which is a track I have a lot of experience at. I think the great handling of the 2020 BMW S 1000 RR will give us an advantage there.”