More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Petersen Gets It Done In MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Race Two At Road America
From DNF To Victory, Cameron Petersen Bounces Back In Sunday’s Superbike Race Two
ELKHART LAKE, WI (June 5, 2022) – In Saturday’s MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike race one at Road America, Cameron Petersen was forced to watch from turn five after a mechanical failure put him out of the race he was leading at the time. In Sunday’s race two, Petersen put all that behind him and went out and won in iffy wet/dry conditions on the four-mile circuit in America’s Dairyland. The win was the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing rider’s first of the season and the second of his Superbike career.
Sunday’s race was a good one with all the top men opting for full rain tires but searching for puddles by the time it concluded. The battle at the top featured three riders and it lasted for all eight laps of the shortened race with Petersen, Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen, and Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Danilo Petrucci all taking turns at the front.
At the finish it was Petersen putting his head down on the final go-around to take victory by 1.3 seconds over Jacobsen with the New Yorker just .455 of a second ahead of Petrucci.
The win was the second of Petersen’s MotoAmerica Superbike career with the first coming in a driving rainstorm last year at Barber Motorsports Park. This was Petersen’s first victory with his new Yamaha team.
Petersen’s teammate Jake Gagne, the defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion, finished fourth – 14.3 seconds behind Petersen and four seconds ahead of the ageless Larry Pegram, who put his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW into the top five in his first race since last year’s Stock 1000 race at Road America.
Aftercare Hayes Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates continued his season of scoring points in every round and this time it was his best finish of the season as he rode the team’s BMW to sixth place.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis was some 11 seconds behind Yates and five seconds ahead of Saturday’s race winner Mathew Scholtz on the Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1.
Tecfil Racing’s Danilo Lewis finished ninth with Nielsen Racing’s Justin Miest having his career best finish in 10th.
A day after taking over the championship points lead, Scholtz handed that lead back to Petrucci with the Italian now leading the South African by seven points, 140-133. Gagne is third with 115 points, 12 points ahead of Petersen. Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hector Barbera failed to score points for the first time in 2022 but remains in fifth in the series point standings.
Cameron Petersen – Winner
The whole race, like these guys said, it was tricky. For sure wasn’t wet enough for the rains. I think from first lap, second, lap it just took all the rubber away. The center of the tire was so chewed up that every time we’d try to find the wet stuff, it was already like riding on a slick. So, it would spin up a little bit more. Then going into that last lap, the lap before going to the white flag, I think PJ might have got me to the line. I can’t really remember. I knew that there was maybe a possibility of that, so I put my head down. There were a lot of scary moments. I pushed the front so many times. I just wanted to try everything I could to at least give myself a little bit of a gap coming onto the straightaway. Then, like I said, throughout the race, going up to the wet stuff trying to keep the tires cool, I knew how much it was spinning, so on the last lap coming up the last corner I just stayed on the dry stuff all the way up the hill to make sure I got the maximum drive. Just so stoked. It was a fun race battling with these guys. We went back and forth a little bit. Never stood on the podium with PJ (Jacobsen), so that’s pretty cool. Well done to them and their team. Once again, just a great race with Danilo (Petrucci). We had one scary moment there where it was just kind of my bad. He passed me down the straightaway and I just wasn’t expecting for us to set up that early. I wasn’t able to move the bike on the brakes. Unfortunately, I just smoked his leg. So, that was on me. That was my bad. Even that, the last lap behind PJ going into five, I locked up the front end like three times going in there. I tried to brake so late. Good to be back up here. Both my wins have been in sketchy conditions, so it would be nice to try to get one in the dry. We’re slowly but surely getting there.
PJ Jacobsen – Second Place
“We had a lot of testing in the rain with BMW. We had like no dry days, so all we could do was ride two or three days in the wet. So, we did that. This race was half wet and half dry. But it was really good to be back battling up front again. After my accident I had here (at Road America), it’s even better to get on the podium in the Superbike class. The bike was working good. It was just really hard to manage the race. I felt super strong at the start of the race, but then again, I didn’t want to overcook the tires but we did anyway. I was searching a lot for the water on the straightaways, and also I was going off-line not in the dry areas to try to cool the tires. It seemed like when the tires were getting worse, it was actually that was making it worse for me. So, my plan didn’t really work. But I had a great battle with these guys. Congrats to Cam (Petersen) on his win. It was a really good race. It was fun. It was pretty crazy.”
Danilo Petrucci – Third Place
“This morning we went completely blind into the warmup because I never ride with this bike on the wet. I don’t know actually the traction of this tire and also this track. But at the end it was good. It was really, really wet (in the warm-up session). We go really with the softer, softer, less power, maximum traction control and the bike was working perfectly. Then in the race, the start was good, but out of the second corner I felt like my bike was with no power in the first three gears. Then in fourth, fifth, and sixth my bike going with the acceleration. Then I was able to gain and to not lose a lot of speed. But it was a nightmare. Since the first lap I think even on the main straight the first lap, my bike was shaking. I felt really a lot of spinning. I tried to go as free as possible with the electronics setup, maximum torque, less traction control, but my tire was completely with no rubber. I don’t know if maybe I was too aggressive in the warm-up lap. I don’t know. I tried to manage as much as possible. Tried to brake as hard as possible. But Cameron (Petersen) and PJ (Jacobsen) for sure were better than me in acceleration and they can stop the bike. They were actually riding really, really good. I tried to stay with them, but it was risky to brake harder and harder and harder. I don’t want to lose any other points. Last lap I even didn’t try with PJ because it was too far and too risky. So, congrats to these two guys. At the end, I think I gained some points to my challengers, so I’m happy. For sure, was yesterday and today a missed opportunity, but it’s racing. The championship is so long. Considering it’s a new track for me, it was good after so many problems in VIR. I’m happy.”
More, from a press release issued by Ducati North America:
Petrucci Reaps Reward of Heroic Performance at Road America
Petrucci bags a pair of podium finishes on his first visit to Elkhart Lake
Sunnyvale, Calif., June 5, 2022 — Danilo Petrucci put on a heroic display of grit at Road America, grabbing a second place in race one and a third in race two to extend his championship points lead over Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz.
Petrucci, nursing injuries from a crash at VIR two weeks ago, entered the weekend with tempered expectations, but the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC superstar tacked on another point to his championship lead and continued to impress with his performance on tracks he’d never visited.
Road America’s front straight, which at roughly eight-tenths of a mile is longer than the straight at Mugello, highlighted the horsepower advantage of the Panigale V4 R’s Desmosedici Stradale engine as Petrucci flew past his rivals, keeping him in position to fight for victory throughout race one. On the final lap, Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz executed a bold block pass on Petrucci at turn five. While the Italian retaliated on the final corner, Scholtz was ultimately able to hold on for the win, crossing the finish line just 0.015 seconds in front.
With a wet track on Sunday morning, Petrucci dominated warm up by two seconds. By race time, however, a partially drying track posed a challenge for riders and wet tires alike. In race two’s shortened eight-lap dash, Petrucci struggled with rear grip in the closing stages, finishing in a solid third place behind Yamaha’s Cameron Petersen and BMW’s PJ Jacobsen.
The former MotoGP race winner and Dakar stage winner leaves Elkhart Lake with 140 points, seven ahead of Yamaha’s Scholtz and 25 ahead of 2021 Superbike champion Jake Gagne.
2022 MotoAmerica Championship Points Standings—Top 5
P1 – Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) 140
P2 – Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 133
P3 – Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 115
P4 – Cameron Petersen (Yamaha) 103
P5 – Hector Barbera (BMW) 79
Danilo Petrucci (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC – Ducati #9)
“At the end, I had two good races. For sure I wanted to win yesterday, but Scholtz was really hard on the pass and pushed me out of the way and I finished second. Today, I was happy to see the rain. I was fast in warm up, but in the race the track was dry by the end and I was struggling a lot with the rear tire. Our setup was too soft for the condition, so I had no acceleration. It’s a good third position for the championship. Road America is a nice track and I wanted to make a double win, but I did my best.”
The MotoAmerica series breaks for three weeks before heading to The Ridge Motorsports Park in Washington on June 24–26.
More, from a press release issued by Westby Racing:
Scholtz Finishes An Uncharacteristic Eighth In Sunday’s Superbike Race At Road America
Elkhart Lake, WI – June 5, 2022 – With rain in the forecast for Sunday at Road America, Mathew Scholtz and the Westby Racing team were looking forward to a good result in Superbike race two. After all, Mathew is a bit of a rain specialist, and not counting his win on Saturday at Road America in dry and sunny conditions, Mathew’s other four wins came during inclement weather and wet track conditions.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan in Sunday’s Superbike race two. Mathew struggled with the setup of his #11 Yamaha YZF-R1 and finished eighth, which was his lowest race finish not counting DNFs (Did Not Finish) in the past three years and 53 races.
Only one day after taking over the championship lead, Mathew’s Sunday result unfortunately enabled Danilo Petrucci to again move back into the points lead. Mathew and the team, however, can take some comfort in the fact that they are now just seven points behind Petrucci, and that’s a lead of only three more points than Petrucci had coming into Road America.
“After yesterday’s win, race two was just a disappointment,” Mathew said. “We missed on the setup, and I dropped back four positions in just the first couple of laps. Things stabilized a little bit from there, and I did all I could just to finish eighth. I’m confident that we’ll bounce back at Ridge, though. We’re only seven points out of the lead, and that’s a positive that we can take from this weekend.”
The Westby Racing team will be back in action for round five of the 2022 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, which takes place at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, on June 24 through 26.
MotoAmerica Superbike Standings
1. Danilo Petrucci – Ducati – 140
2. Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha – 133
3. Jake Gagne – Yamaha – 115
4. Cameron Petersen – Yamaha – 103
5. Hector Barbera – BMW – 79
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.
