If you’re racing in the 2020 MotoAmerica Series, specifically in the HONOS Superbike class, one thing is certain: You’re hoping that there’s no such thing as déjà vu when the proceedings get rolling again at Road America this weekend for round two as MotoAmerica becomes the first motorcycle series in the U.S. to host fans post COVID-19 shutdown.
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Cameron Beaubier (1) dominated the 2020 MotoAmerica Series opener in the HONOS Superbike class at Road America. The series returns to Wisconsin this weekend. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
You don’t have to have a very long memory to recall how four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier performed in the opening round of the series. The Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha rider demoralized the field with two runaway victories at a racetrack that normally features nail-biting finishes.
Beaubier led every session except for the warm-up on Sunday morning when mechanical issues held him to just one complete lap. He also broke the lap record with his 2:11.145 coming in the second session. Then the Californian simply owned the races, winning the two by margins of 7.8 and 14.3 seconds, respectively.
But that was then, and this is now, and we will find out in a few short days if the rest of the pack has found anything to gain time on Beaubier.
It’s Beaubier’s new teammate Jake Gagne who is closest to Beaubier in the championship after one round, the laid-back Californian finishing third and second in his debut on the second Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha YZF-R1.
Gagne had battles in both races with Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong, with Scholtz finishing second in race one with Gagne third and Fong fourth. In race two, the other two handed Gagne second place when the pair crashed out together in turn five after Fong clashed with Scholtz. Both men were quick up until that point with both dipping into the 2:11s. Ditto for Gagne.
That left an intense battle for the final podium spot between Scheibe Racing BMW’s Josh Herrin and KWR’s Kyle Wyman and his Ducati Panigale V4 R. Herrin came out on top, by just .011 of a second, and his sixth- and third-place finishes puts him third in the title chase, 24 points behind Beaubier and just two points ahead of Wyman who earned fifth- and fourth-place finishes in the opener.
Scholtz is tied for fifth with Celtic HSBK Racing’s PJ Jacobsen with FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony, Fong, RideHVMC’s Corey Alexander and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounding out the top 10 in the series standings after one round.
The rider who struggled the most in the series opener is the same rider who most believe can make Beaubier’s life a bit more difficult. That man is Toni Elias. Elias’ opening weekend was atrocious. In race one, the Spaniard’s Suzuki GSX-R1000 lost its chain and in race two the former 2018 MotoAmerica Superbike Champion crashed. He comes to round two with zero points and a real need to get his feet back on the ground on the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki. If there’s a highlight to the weekend for Elias, it’s the fact that his best time over the course of the weekend this year was .675 of a second quicker than his best from a year ago.
Road America 2 Notes…
With the debut of the Mini Cup by Motul class and Heritage Cup exhibition class, entries for round two of the 2020 MotoAmerica series have eclipsed the 180-rider mark.
Ticket sales are also on the rise with sales on pace to equal or surpass the 2019 numbers just one race after no spectators were allowed at round one, a race that had record numbers of viewers worldwide. “We’re extremely happy with how the opening round of the 2020 MotoAmerica Series went at Road America,” said MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey. “We had huge television numbers with FOX Sports, Eurosport, MAVTV, NBC Sports, YouTube and MotoAmerica Live+. The event went off without a hitch, thanks to the efforts of our in-house staff, the staff at Road America, our volunteers, the riders and the teams. Now we get to go back to Road America and race in front of our fans, which will make this second race in Wisconsin even better. The COVID 19 pandemic has impacted everyone’s lives in some way and we’re happy to give our fans the opportunity to get out and see some racing at a world-class facility like Road America. We will be doing so, of course, using COVID guidelines.”
Beaubier’s two victories in the HONOS Superbike class at Road America in round one were the 39th and 40th career AMA Superbike wins for the four-time series champion. Beaubier is third on the all-time AMA Superbike win list behind Mat Mladin (82) and Josh Hayes (61).
Of the active riders in the HONOS Superbike class, Beaubier is on top of the all-time AMA Superbike race wins list with 40 victories. Toni Elias is tied for fourth on the list with Miguel Duhamel with 32 wins. The next highest number of wins by an active MotoAmerica rider is Josh Herrin with eight wins followed by Mathew Scholtz with two.
Road America 2 will mark the debut of the MotoAmerica Mini Cup by Motul class. The Ohvale-spec racing class will feature riders aged as young as seven competing on the go-kart track, which is located by the Carousel corner.
Cameron Beaubier broke his two-year-old lap record at Road America 1, the Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha rider putting in his quick lap in the second session – a 2:11.145. Beaubier’s previous best – a 2:11.422 – was set during Superpole in 2018.
Valentin Debise’s racing plans were thwarted by COVID-19 travel restrictions when he was denied a visa to leave his home country of France. Debise was slated to ride the second Scheibe Racing BMW in the HONOS Superbike races at Road America 2.
Six different manufacturers will be represented on the grid at Road America: Yamaha (eight entries), BMW (four entries), Suzuki (four entries), Kawasaki (five entries), Ducati (two entries) and Honda (one entry).
As far as manufacturers go, Yamaha has the most wins at Road America with 21 followed by Suzuki with 17, Honda (12), Ducati (eight) and Kawasaki (four). Yamaha had won seven of eight races until Suzuki swept both races in 2019 with Toni Elias and Josh Herrin. Beaubier started a new Yamaha streak with his two wins in Road America 1 at the end of May.
Riders from six different countries will line up at Road America in the HONOS Superbike class with the U.S., Spain, South Africa, Great Britain, Brazil and Australia all represented.
Cameron Beaubier has now won nine HONOS Superbike races at Road America and that ties him with Mat Mladin as the all-time Superbike race winner in America’s Dairyland. Going into last year’s two races, Beaubier had won seven of the past 10 Superbike races in Elkhart Lake, but he was shut out in 2019 with two second-place finishes. Beaubier ended that streak with his two wins at Road America 1 a month ago.
If you remove Richie Escalante’s two runaway wins in the Supersport class in the opening round of the 2020 MotoAmerica Series at Road America at the end of May, the combined margin of victory for the other support classes on a sunny weekend in Wisconsin was a scant .168 of a second. Yes, .168 of a second.
Richie Escalante (54) won both Supersport races in the opening round of the 2020 MotoAmerica Series at Road America. Sean Dylan Kelly (40) and Brandon Paasch (21) both had second-place finishes. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
All that close racing happened without fans in the season opener, but this weekend’s action will take place with fans at the picturesque four-mile-long racetrack in Elkhart Lake as MotoAmerica becomes the first motorcycle series in the U.S. to host fans post COVID-19 shutdown.
Like the premier HONOS Superbike class with Cameron Beaubier’s first-round domination, the Supersport Series opener also featured a double winner with HONOS Racing’s Escalante starting his season off with a bang with two race victories on his new Kawasaki ZX-6R. Escalante topped Celtic HSBK’s Brandon Paasch in race one by 11.5 seconds and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly by 16.1 seconds in race two to complete his perfect weekend. On track, Paasch was second both times out, but he was disqualified from race two when his Yamaha YZF-R6 was found to be under the mandatory weight limit. Kelly, meanwhile, had his troubles in race one when he crashed out.
With his two closest competitors each failing to score points in one of the two races, Escalante leads the championship heading into this weekend’s Road America 2 by 24 points over the surprising Nate Minster. Minster and his TSE Racing Yamaha finished fourth in each race and he ended the weekend four points clear of Kevin Olmedo in the championship chase. Olmedo earned his first Supersport podium in race one but slipped back to 10th in race two. Paasch and Kelly are tied for fourth – 30 points behind Escalante.
Going into the opening round of the Liqui Moly Junior Cup Series, it was almost a forgone conclusion that defending champion Rocco Landers would have his way with the rest of the field. After all, Landers did win 14 Liqui Moly Junior Cup races last year en route to the title.
But it seems as though no one reminded Dominic Doyle of that.
Doyle won both races over the course of the weekend – by the slightest of margins. On Saturday, the South African beat Landers by .078 of a second. On Sunday, it was even closer with the BARTCON Kawasaki besting Landers by a Bond-like .007 of a second. For those not keeping track, that translates to Landers and his Landers Racing Kawasaki missing out on victory in two races by a combined .085 of a second.
With his two wins, Doyle goes back to Road America with a 10-point lead on Landers. Third place is held jointly by Benjamin Gloddy, the New Hampshire resident ending up fifth and third in the two races on his Quarterley Racing/On Track Development Kawasaki and Celtic HSBK Racing’s Samuel Lochoff, who mirrored Gloddy’s results with a third and a fifth. Westby Racing’s Cody Wyman heads to Wisconsin for round two tied for fifth in the point standings with Rodio Racing’s Gus Radio.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get closer than .007 of a second, they did. In Saturday’s opening round of the Twins Cup Series, 1833CJKNOWS’ Kaleb De Keyrel won by just .002 of a second. And guess who was second? Yes, it was Landers – in his Twins Cup debut on the Roadracing World Young Guns/Sportbiketrackgear.com Suzuki. On Sunday the same two went at it again – this time joined in the battle by Robem Engineering’s Jackson Blackmon. Believe it or not, Landers again came up short. Just short. Like .082 of a second short and that put him in third place as Blackmon beat him to the line by just .001 of a second. So in four races, Landers lost out on victory by a combined margin of .169 of a second. We have a feeling that Landers might show up for round two just a bit fired up.
With De Keyrel 14 points ahead of Landers heading into round two, Blackmon is third, a further five points behind. Jason Madama, who put his Syndicate Racing/Apex Assassin’s Yamaha on the podium in race one, is fourth in the points and five points clear of his friend/rival Chris Parrish.
PJ Jacobsen made his Stock 1000 debut a successful one, the Celtic HSBK Racing Ducati rider beating Altus Motorsports’ Cameron Petersen and his Suzuki GSX-R1000 by 4.26 seconds with Ride HVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander third on his Kawasaki ZX-10R. Mesa37Racing/Tango’s Stefano Mesa and Michael Gilbert Racing’s Michael Gilbert rounded out the top five with the Stock 1000 class only having one race in the opener.
Road America Support Class Notes…
MotoAmerica has upped the minimum weight requirement for the Ducati Panigale V4 R to 180 kilograms from 170 kg in the Stock 1000 class, effective immediately. PJ Jacobsen rode the Celtic HSBK Ducati to victory in the Stock 1000 class in the opening round of the series at Road America and will have to race with 22 pounds added to the Panigale for round two.
The largest grid for round two at Road America? That would be the Twins Cup class with 28 of the twin-cylinder motorcycles entered for the second round of the MotoAmerica Series. Stock 1000 features the second highest entry with 23 followed by Supersport with 22 and Liqui Moly Junior Cup with 20. The premier HONOS Superbike class will feature 24 entries for Road America 2.
Double duty: Rocco Landers isn’t the only Liqui Moly Junior Cup rider pulling double duty this weekend. While Landers will compete again in both Liqui Moly Junior Cup and Twins Cup, he will be joined by Cameron Jones. Jones, who rides the only Honda CBR500R in the Liqui Moly Junior Cup, will race a Honda CBR600RR in the Supersport class at Road America this weekend.
The official track length at Road America is 4.048 miles, which makes it the longest on the MotoAmerica schedule. The track features 14 turns and is affectionally known as “four miles of fun.”
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