KurveyGirl.com brings you the results of this weekend’s events.
Mathew Scholtz won MotoAmerica Supersport Race One Saturday at Brainerd International Raceway, in Brainerd, Minnesota. Scholtz got off to a slow start, but he quickly moved forward, took the lead on lap two, set a new Race Lap Record of 1:33.300, and pulled away to win the 16-lap race by 8.491 seconds on his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6.
PJ Jacobsen bounced back from a crash in Qualifying Two on Saturday morning to score a runner-up finish on his Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL Panigale V2.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Teagg Hobbs held off Roller Die + Forming Ducati’s Corey Alexander to take third and his first podium finish of the season. Alexander, who fractured his pelvis in May, crossed the finish line 0.255 second behind Hobbs.
Jake Lewis placed fifth on his Altus Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R750.
Hobbs’ teammate Tyler Scott was in the pack racing for the lead on lap five when he crashed at high speed in Turn 11. Scott walked away from the crash scene.
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Close Racing All Around On Saturday At Brainerd International Raceway
Gillim, Scholtz, Chapin And Landers Star On Day One In Minnesota
BRAINERD, MN (June 15, 2024) – It’s rare that you win a race and get overshadowed by your teammate who finished second, but that’s sort of what happened to Hayden Gillim on Saturday afternoon at Brainerd International Raceway in the Mission King Of The Baggers race.
As expected, given his pace at BIR all week, Gillim got the jump on the pack on his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson and never looked back. It was his first win of what has been a difficult season for the defending class champion, and it was well earned.
Some four seconds behind Gillim came his Mission King Of The Baggers rookie teammate Rocco Landers after an impressive final lap that saw him pass both of the factory S&S Cycle/Indian Challengers ridden by Tyler O’Hara and points leader Troy Herfoss on the final lap. Landers had earlier already disposed of the all-time winningest rider in the class, Kyle Wyman.
It was hard to not be impressed by Landers’ ride as his best finish coming into the Brainerd round was fifth in the first race of the year at Daytona International Speedway. Landers was ecstatic, as he should be, and even those he beat were happy for him.
It was also a big day for the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team as they swept the top two steps on the podium.
Third place went to Herfoss, and it extended his championship points lead to 12 over Wyman, with the Harley-Davidson Factory Racing rider ending up fourth in the race.
Wyman’s teammate James Rispoli crashed out of second place early in the race.
“It’s been a rough, rough start,” Gillim said of his early season woes. “I think before this I had one podium. So not a great backup to the championship. It’s been a long road. I thought we were a little better off coming into the season than what we ended up being. We’ve been right there the whole time. Just missing a little bit. I knew the first few tracks we went to, Road Atlanta, COTA, Road America, Daytona were going to be difficult. Somehow, I pulled out some podiums last year at some of those tracks, but this year everybody is on top of their game. Both factories have really stepped it up. They haven’t really made many mistakes this year, so not much to capitalize on there. Coming into this weekend, I knew this was a really good track for me. I was ready to go, especially after how Road America went. To have one-two Vance & Hines, it’s really good for the Motul RevZilla team. Good for this kid’s (Rocco Landers) confidence. He’s a confidence wave, man. If he’s on it, he’s confident and he’s going to be tough. Obviously, being up here with Troy (Herfoss) is really good for my confidence. I’ve got a lot of work to do to even hope of trying to get back in this championship. Really from here on out, we’ve talked about it. The only thing I can really do is try and win races and fight with these guys and capitalize where I can capitalize. Luckily my starts have been getting a lot better, so it helps a ton. I’m really excited. It’s been a really good weekend so far. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
Supersport – Scholtz Gets It Done
The level of competitiveness in this year’s Supersport class has increased fairly dramatically compared with last year as a handful of former Superbike riders are now competing in MotoAmerica’s middleweight class. Two of those riders – Strack Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz and PJ Jacobsen – are right in the thick of things at the top of this year’s championship standings.
One of last year’s major Supersport combatants, Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott, started from the pole, but he was unable to withstand the pressure from Scholtz and Jacobsen, causing Scott to crash out of the race on lap five of the 16-lap event. Meanwhile, Scholtz had already taken the lead, and he didn’t relinquish it, ultimately crossing the finish line eight and a half seconds ahead of Jacobsen. Scott’s Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammate Teagg Hobbs finished third for his first podium finish so far this year.
For Scholtz, it was his third win of the season, matching Jacobsen’s wins total, and he is now just seven points behind points-leader Jacobsen.
“I knew that I was going to be able to do low 33’s for pretty much all 16 laps if I really, really had to, but I didn’t think that I was going to break them as soon as I did,” Scholtz said. “I think obviously being a little bit bigger with those conditions out there, the wind helped me muscle the bike a little bit more. I think I did get a little bit lucky with these guys battling, but overall, just really, really happy. We made a major change from Friday to qualifying two today, and it was I wouldn’t say a gamble, but it was one of the biggest changes that we’ve done over the last couple of seasons. Thankfully, everything paid off. I’d just like to thank all of the team, all the members back at the Strack Racing company. Everyone is really working hard, and they’ve given me a beautiful bike, beautiful package. This shows that we should be racing at the front of the Supersport class on the R6.”
Stock 1000 – Mr. Brainerd Does It
If Brainerd International Raceway wasn’t already defending Stock 1000 Champion Hayden Gillim’s favorite racetrack before this weekend started, it certainly has to be now. The Real Steel Motorsports Honda rider hasn’t put a wheel wrong in any session aboard his #1 Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.
He earned the pole position earlier on Saturday with a record-setting lap that eclipsed his own record-setting lap set in Friday’s first qualifying session. And then, in Saturday afternoon’s 11-lap race one, Gillim also set a new race lap record on his way to winning by nearly seven-and-a-half seconds over runner-up Benjamin Smith aboard his FLO4LAW Racing Yamaha YZF-R1. Third place went to Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates.
“I like tracks that have just a flow,” commented Gillim when asked what it is about Brainerd that he likes so much. “Road America is not a good track for me. Road Atlanta, I tend to struggle a little bit. The kind of point-and-shoot tracks, I struggle with. For some reason, I feel like I’m good on the brakes but then I always seem to mess up the exit. So, this place doesn’t have much of that. Everything flows together really good. Turn one and two are fun. They’re two of my favorite corners in the world. It’s sweet because you just go in, roll out of it for a second, and then you’re back to pin. It’s a fun track. It’s a fun layout. For that reason, I go good here. I knew coming into this weekend it was kind of like going to Barber. I know I go really good at Barber. I know these guys are going to be gunning for it. These weekends, I’ve got to take what I can get and capitalize on the confidence that I’ve got coming in. When we get to Ridge and Laguna, I know those tracks, Laguna specifically, I go good there but I’m not great there. I don’t have a great track record there, so I’m trying to just capitalize at the tracks that I know are good for me and hopefully not have to bend it at the other tracks.”
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – Landers Unbeatable
Along with Hayden Gillim, another rider who just can’t seem to get enough of Brainerd International Raceway just so happens to be his Mission King Of The Baggers teammate and protégé Rocco Landers, who races the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki GSX-8R in the BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship.
In Saturday’s race one, Landers started from the pole after going fastest in Friday’s first qualifying, and it was a record-setting lap for Landers, too. In the race, Landers got the holeshot and led all but one of the 11 laps to ultimately take the checkered flag by just under four seconds over Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Alessandro Di Mario, with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Rossi Moor finishing a very close third behind Di Mario.
Along the way, Landers ran the fastest lap of the race, which was also a new race lap record.
“Honestly, this result is probably going to be overshadowed by that Baggers Challenge race (in which he placed second a little earlier on Saturday),” Landers said. “That was one of the best races of my life even though it was only two laps. Considering where we started on this bike, we were P5 in race one. We were like P7 in one of the practices at Daytona. The thing was completely new to us. It was like a total street bike. But one thing we did have, was the direction to go. We’ve just been following the breadcrumbs, I should say. The thing has been getting better and better every round. Need to start doing more training on different bikes. Those first two laps are kind of hard because I’m adjusting myself from the Bagger to the Twin. It tends to lead to a couple mistakes, missing brake markers and that type of thing. But that was a good race for me. I just tried to get out there. I made a small mistake adjusting my clutch lever on the first lap. Rossi got up underneath me and Alessandro almost did. After that, I was just trying to see if I could lead the race, lay down some decent laps and do what I could. I didn’t really find my groove there until lap three or four, and then I started to feel solid. My whole team has just busted their butts completely. My mechanic Matt, my crew chief Steve, Motor Terry, my bagger mechanic Quentin, team manager Craig, and our fab guy, Josh. Every one of them is always busting their butts and making everything as good as we can go. We’re obviously heading in a decent direction, so I cannot wait until tomorrow.”
Junior Cup – Rain Leads To Chapin Win
Rain was in the forecast on Saturday at Brainerd International Raceway, but it held off, save for a few raindrops here and there, until the closing laps of Junior Cup race one. At the time, Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher had regained the lead and looked to be headed for victory. Due to the rain, a red flag was displayed, and the race was stopped. By rules, the results reverted to the lap prior, and that happened to be when BARTCON Racing’s Matthew Chapin had just taken the lead.
It’s ironic that Chapin’s team owner is an Irishman because Chapin’s short time in the lead was just enough to be named the winner of the race. A stroke of Irish luck if there ever was one. For Chapin, who has now won four races on the season, he is definitely lucky AND good. That’s a solid combination.
Chapin’s good fortune was offset by Avery Dreher’s misfortune. But it was not all bad for the defending Junior Cup Champion. He made history on Saturday at Brainerd when he and his sister Ella became the first brother and sister to finish on an AMA road racing podium. Clearly, it was a memory of a lifetime for the Dreher family.
“I really had no idea if they were going to red flag it or not,” Chapin said. “I wanted to lead the race the whole time, but Avery and Ella were ripping. It was overall a good race, and it was fun riding with them.”
More, from a press release issued by Rahal Ducati Moto:
BRAINERD RACE 1
SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2024 | QUALIFYING 2 & RACE 1
With team owner, Graham Rahal, present for this weekend’s event, the trio of Rahal Ducati Moto riders showed the MotoAmerica series that the new team means business. With all three finishing in the top six, the riders earned 33 points collectively for their championship runs.
The weather conditions for the 16-lap race started questionable with the possibility of forthcoming rain during the session. While the rain held off, heavy winds blew across the track, impacting the handling and consistency of the bikes.
Tomorrow’s schedule consists of a warm up session in the morning, prior to Round 8 of Supersport competition. Coverage is available on MotoAmericaLivePlus.com.
PJ JACOBSEN
No. 15 XPEL DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 5th
FINISHED: 2nd
CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st (151 pts)
NOTES: While passing a slow-paced rider, hit a bump and slid on his bike requiring service in the hot pit and limiting track time to significantly improve his qualifying time // Despite the small amount of track time to complete qualifying, Jacobsen improved his time to secure a fifth-place starting position // Remains in the championship lead – seven points over Mathew Scholtz // Recorded his seventh podium finish in the seven races this season
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “It’s not the result we wanted, but it was still a good day for championship points and for the Rahal Ducati Moto team overall. I knew it would be hard to get the run off the start with the other guys in Turn 1 to [Turn] 2. Corey [Alexander] had an impressive jump at the beginning of the race and was riding really well, but then I got stuck in position at the tail of the group and everyone was mixing up in front of me. We’re going to do our homework tonight to see where we can come up with some straight-line speed and we’re going to try and put up a battle on track with Scholtz tomorrow for Race 2.”
COREY ALEXANDER
No. 23 ROLLER DIE + FORMING DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 4th
FINISHED: 4th
CHAMPIONSHIP: 8th (52 pts)
NOTES: Put on a stellar performance in his return to Supersport competition after an injury prevented him from competing in Rounds 5 and 6 // Recorded running as high as third in the 16-lap race // Despite falling three positions in the championship after sitting out the Road America races, jumped one spot to eighth in his return
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “I’m very happy with the results today. It’s always bittersweet to be that close to a podium finish, and of course, it would’ve been nice for the team and Graham [Rahal] to be there for both PJ [Jacobsen] and me on the podium, but there’s always tomorrow! We’ll take what we learned today during the race and use it to improve. Overall, considering where we were four weeks ago, missing the last round after my big crash, I couldn’t really be much happier. I rode well and I’m happy with that. Thanks to the team for their work on making the bike feel better for me. I’m really pleased with where we are at and I’m hoping to build on our progress tomorrow.”
KAYLA YAAKOV
No. 19 XPEL DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 8th
FINISHED: 6th
CHAMPIONSHIP: 10th (45 pts) -tied
NOTES: Fought competitively with the lead group throughout the race // Made an impressive pass in Turn 2 over Stefano Mesa to claim the sixth position // Earned her fourth top 10 finish of the season
WHAT SHE’S SAYING: “Day two at Brainerd [International Raceway] was really positive. The whole weekend has been absolutely amazing. Finishing within the top 10 for every session so far has been really special for our Rahal Ducati Moto w/ XPEL team. We talk about always improving and climbing the ladder in this class, and I can really feel the effects of that. Today’s race was really good, I had a lot of fun. The overcast conditions and wind made the race pretty tricky, but I got a really good start and was able to stay in the battle of the front group for a few laps, which is huge for me. In the last few laps I was able to make a pass and get into P6 and ride it home. I’m really happy with the day and I’m excited to make tomorrow good as well.”
BEN SPIES
TEAM PRINCIPAL
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “We had a good race today. You always want more but second, fourth, and sixth are really good results for us. We’re just a little bit down on some straight line speed. PJ did as good as he could to collect championship points. Corey rode awesome coming back from the injury, and Kayla had her best dry weather result and her lap times looked super strong through the whole race. All-in-all it was a really good race for us. We always want more but will try to be better for tomorrow.”
