This weekend’s results are brought to you by 6D Helmets.
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Beaubier Takes His 10th Win Of The Season
48th Superbike Career Win For Four-Time Champ
MILLVILLE, NJ (September 12, 2020) – Dating back to last year, Cameron Beaubier has won 13 of the last 14 MotoAmerica Superbike races. On a sunny Saturday in New Jersey, Beaubier won his 10th of the 2020 season to extend his championship lead to a yawning 79 points over his Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha teammate Jake Gagne.
The win was also the 48th of the four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion’s AMA Superbike career and is closing in on his former teammate Josh Hayes (61 Superbike victories) for second on the all-time win list. The victory, however, didn’t come without a bit of pre-race stress.
“Truthfully, we were sitting on the grid and I wanted to go with the softer option tire, and Dunlop and my team were like, ‘I think you’d be better off on the 097,’ “ Beaubier said. “I just didn’t think that I’d be able to open up a little gap like I’ve been able to do at the beginning of this season. So, I just didn’t know if I’d quite have the time on the harder tire, but I’m really happy I went with it. So, thanks to those guys for throwing it on. I don’t know what to say. I just feel so good on this thing. Like I’ve said all year, it’s just so enjoyable going to all these tracks that we’ve been going to year after year with this new package that we have. To finally be able to get in the 19s (one-minute, 19-second laps)… I know we’ve done 20s around here for years. To finally be able to break into that 19 mark and get that lap record this morning felt really, really good. Just want to keep this thing going.”
As has been the norm so far in 2020, Beaubier’s win was dominant with the Californian taking victory by 9.599 seconds over Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, who took full advantage of Gagne’s first-lap crash to close in on the Californian for second in the championship point standings.
“Like you were saying, it’s the halfway point of the season so I’m looking forward to the championship for me, personally,” Scholtz said. “I kind of knew that we had to start gaining points on Jake (Gagne), so once he crashed, I thought, ‘now we can pick up some serious points there.’ Not saying that I could have kept up with Cam (Beaubier) because he’s riding awesome, but I was definitely thinking second place wouldn’t slow me down as far as the championship goes. So, I kind of just chilled to there and brought it home. Really happy with how the bike is going. Just had to catch up to Jake because we were pretty far back at one point. So, I was really happy there. Tonight, we’ve got a couple things that we wanted to try yesterday but due to the conditions we weren’t able to, so hopefully we’ll try them for the warmup tomorrow and try to close the gap on Cameron.”
Third place went to a revitalized Toni Elias, the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider ending a podium-less drought that dated back 11 races.
“Not very, very happy but I feel it’s the first step,” Elias said. “This is positive. We are working hard. We did a little step this weekend. I felt the traction was coming back. There’re different things around this. We just opened the door and we found the group, so this group has to work now. It’s the first step and I’m happy.”
KWR Ducati’s Kyle Wyman bounced back from a disastrous round in the Pacific Northwest two weeks ago to finish fourth on his Ducati Panigale V4 R. Wyman was challenged early on by Bobby Fong but was able to pull clear of the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider to beat him to the flag by almost seven seconds.
Sixth place went to Ride HVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander, the New Yorker matching his previous best HONOS Superbike class result after barely holding off Altus Racing’s Cameron Petersen in the final laps. Petersen ended up seventh.
FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony and his teammate Bradley Ward finished eighth and ninth with Scheibe Racing BMW’s Josh Herrin rounding out the top 10.
After 10 HONOS Superbike races, Beaubier has 250 points – 79 more than Gagne and 81 ahead of Scholtz. Fong holds down fourth in the standings, 20 points ahead of his teammate Elias.
More, from a press release issued by Westby Racing:
At New Jersey Motorsports Park, Westby Racing’s Scholtz Is Runner-Up In Superbike And Wyman Finishes Tenth In Junior Cup
Millville, NJ – September 12, 2020 – On Saturday at New Jersey Motorsports Park, both of Westby Racing’s riders competed in their respective race classes, and the team came away with a second-place result for Mathew Scholtz in Superbike and a top-ten finish for Cody Wyman in Junior Cup.
After only a one-race hiatus from the podium, Mathew started from the middle of the front row after qualifying second in the morning’s Superpole session aboard his #11 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike. Getting a good jump off the line, he slotted into second and maintained his position throughout the 21-lap event. The finish moved Mathew even closer to taking over second place in the season points standings.
“It’s the halfway point of the season, so I’m looking forward to the championship for me, personally,” Mathew said. “I kind of knew that we had to start gaining points on Jake (Gagne, currently in second place in the season points standings), so once he crashed, I thought, now we can pick up some serious points there. Not saying that I could have kept up with Cam (Beaubier, who was the race winner) because he’s riding awesome, but I was definitely thinking second place wouldn’t slow me down as far as the championship goes. So, I kind of just chilled to there and brought it home. Really happy with how the bike is going. Just had to catch up to Jake because we were pretty far back at one point. So, I was really happy there. Tonight, we’ve got a couple things that we wanted to try yesterday but, due to the (wet track) conditions, we weren’t able to, so hopefully, we’ll try them in the warmup tomorrow morning and try to close the gap on Cameron.”
Sunday’s Superbike Race Two is at 3 PM Eastern and will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and Eurosport, as well as streamed on MotoAmerica Live+.
In Junior Cup race one, Cody, who races the only Yamaha YZF-R3 in the field, qualified eighth, which meant that he had to start from the middle of the third row. The starting position compounded things, and he found himself too far back in the pack to be able to make any draft passes to improve his result, At the checkers, he unfortunately ended up a couple of spots further back than he started, crossing the finish line in tenth and have some regrets about the setup that he and the team decided to go with for the race.
“I was struggling this morning and was trying to find a rhythm, and I ended up qualifying 8th for the weekend,” commented Cody. “Then, we decided to take a gamble on the setup and gearing in order to hopefully get a better result in the race. Unfortunately, the gamble just didn’t pay off for us. There’s another race tomorrow, though, and we get to have another go. Tomorrow morning, we’ll try out some new things. I know I’m better than what we did today, and we’ll look to get some better results on the Westby Racing Yamaha in race two.”
Sunday’s Junior Cup Race Two is at 2 PM Eastern and will be broadcast via tape-delay on FS2 (check your local listings for FS2 airtimes), in addition to being live-streamed on MotoAmerica Live+.
For more updates about Westby Racing, including news, photos, and videos, visit http://www.WestbyRacing.com
Also, follow “Westby Racing” on your favorite social media sites.
More, from a press release issued by Team Hammer:
ELIAS RETURNS TO THE PODIUM IN NEW JERSEY
Team Hammer underlined its multi-class excellence by placing two or more riders on the podium for the tenth consecutive MotoAmerica race day on Saturday at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
One rider who had unexpectedly yet to play a part in that remarkable feat finally broke through in a big way to contribute on Saturday; 2017 MotoAmerica Superbike champion Toni Elias earned his first top-three finish of the season aboard his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Elias got away in fourth and picked up a position on the opening lap. It was clear sailing from there for the Spaniard, who views the third-place performance as an indication of even better days ahead.
“It feels great to get back on the podium,” Elias said. “We still have a lot of work to do, but this is the first step. Thanks to my team for all the support. Let’s continue like this and, sooner or later, we will arrive back on the top step of the podium.”
Despite still suffering from the effects of an earlier fall, Bobby Fong put forth another courageous effort to put two GSX-R1000s in the top five. The reigning MotoAmerica Supersport king was forced to gamble on his set-up but still managed to fight for fourth well into the contest before turning his attention to securing fifth at the flag.
Meanwhile, Sean Dylan Kelly scored his tenth straight podium finish in MotoAmerica Supersport competition. It speaks well of ‘SDK’ and his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team that the Floridian encountered difficulties during the race, resulting in his worst finish since the season opener, and he still finished on box.
Kelly expected more than third after earning the pole on his GSX-R600 but was grateful to collect the points that he did. He explained, “I was looking for the win, but honestly, I’m just happy we made it on the podium today. We ran into an unexpected issue during the race and had to worry about not losing the podium spot.
“Obviously, third is not what we wanted and not what we needed, but this is racing. I’m happy we were able to salvage a podium and still be in the championship fight. We’re going to keep on fighting and come back stronger tomorrow.”
Behind Kelly, Ridge Race 2 runner-up Lucas Silva earned seventh, which extended his perfect season record of finishes inside the top ten.
SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki’s Rocco Landers concluded the day in brilliant fashion for Team Hammer with yet another blowout MotoAmerican Twins Cup win.
Landers opened a gap by the race’s second corner and instantly demolished any hopes the field may have entertained about contending for the victory.
Landers’ fourth triumph of the season elevated him into the Twins Cup championship lead.
He said, “We weren’t sure about our tire choice, so I tried to put in a good first few laps and then go into tire management mode. It was a great race, and I had a lot of fun. I was trying to manage the gap at about five seconds and I did pretty good at that.
“I have to give it up to my SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki team. The bike worked so well all weekend long and they put a great program underneath me every single weekend.”
Team Hammer will round out the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing weekend at NJMP on Sunday.
About Team Hammer
The 2020 season marks Team Hammer’s 40th consecutive year of operating as a professional road racing team. Racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 95 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National races, have finished on AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National podiums 269 times and have won seven 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.
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:
Beaubier Takes 10th Victory of the Season at New Jersey Motorsports Park
Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Beaubier scored another commanding win in Saturday’s MotoAmerica Superbike race one at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, New Jersey. Teammate Jake Gagne was unlucky to retire early after a crash on the first lap.
Beaubier continues to raise the bar, breaking the track’s lap record with a 1:19.806 in Superpole. Starting from the number-one spot, he launched into the lead and grabbed the holeshot. Staying true to his dominant 2020 form, the reigning champion began to stretch his lead immediately. En route to another crushing win, Beaubier set a blistering pace and built his lead to over seven seconds by the closing laps. The Californian took the checkered flag in fine style, his 10th win in 11 races, increasing his lead at the top of the championship to 79 points over his teammate.
Coming back from a high side in Friday’s second session, Gagne put in a solid qualifying effort in third. At lights out he got off to a good start and had moved up to second by Turn Two. He looked set for another strong finish, but an unfortunate low side crash on the opening lap at turn seven put him out of the race.
The Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing team heads into race two on Sunday seeking a strong finish for their riders in Millville, New Jersey.
Richard Stanboli – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing Team Manager
“Today was both good and bad. Cameron once again rocketed away from the rest of the field. Even though the competition stepped up and continues to close the gap, the Yamaha R1 proved once again to be a great platform to develop. We have yet to find its limits as we regularly improve the package and continue to break track records. Unfortunately Jake crashed early in the race out of second place, but is still holding a small margin over Westby Racing Yamaha’s Matt Scholtz in the championship standings.”
Cameron Beaubier – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“We had a great day today. It felt so good to get the track record this morning and bag another win. It was a fun day on my Attack Yamaha R1 and great racing in front of the New Jersey fans!”
Jake Gagne – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“It’s been a tough weekend for us so far. After that crash yesterday, the last thing I wanted to do was throw it down again. I got off to a good start and was feeling good on the first part of lap one. Unfortunately I just lost it in Turn 7 unexpectedly. I hate to make so much work for the team, but I’m glad to have such great people in my corner. We’ll be back for more tomorrow!”
