Frenchman Loris Baz And His Ducati Panigale V4 R Lead The Way In Iffy Conditions On Opening Day At NJMP
By the time the Steel Commander Superbike class took to New Jersey Motorsports Park for Q1, the racetrack was mostly dry which translated to everyone doing their quick laps on slicks. The quickest of those ended up being Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Loris Baz with the Frenchman posting a 1:22.737 on his 23rd and final lap of the 40-minute session.
Baz was the only rider to crack into the 1:22s with his 1:22.737 leading Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier by .413 of a second. Beaubier didn’t do as many laps as Baz and his best came on his 13th and final go-around, a 1:23.150.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch was a career-best third in Q1 with a 1:23.769.
Fourth fastest on Friday was Superbike Champion-elect Josh Herrin with the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati rider the last one in the 1:23s with his 1:23.931, fractions quicker than Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Petersen with the South African ending up fifth.
Petersen’s fill-in teammate Xavi Forés ended the day sixth fastest, some .4 of a second ahead of EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly, who was still riding the high of his first Superbike win two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas.
Wrench Motorcycle’s Bobby Fong, Beaubier’s Tytlers Cycle Racing teammate JD Beach, and FLO4LAW Racing’s Benjamin Smith rounded out the top 10 heading into tomorrow morning’s Q2 session.
Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Supersport – Jacobsen On Top
Tricky conditions in the first Supersport qualifying session meant there were crashes and two red flags. When it was all said and done it was PJ Jacobsen right where he needs to be – at the front.
Light rain fell for most of the session and Rahal Ducati Moto’s Jacobsen saved his best for the end as he does all he can to get closer to Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, who leads the Supersport title chase by 39 points with this weekend’s two races left in the championship. Scholtz, meanwhile, wasn’t taking any chances, ending the session in sixth and some two seconds off Jacobsen’s pace.
Jacobsen’s best was a 1:34.649 and that kicked his teammate Corey Alexander back to second with the taller of the two leading most of the session before ending up second – .203 of a second from the top.
Third fastest on the day was EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Maxi Gerardo with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa rounding out the top five.
Stock 1000 – Slick Hayden
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim saved his best for last in Stock 1000 Q1 with the defending series champion fitting slicks to his Honda CBR1000RR-R SP to earn provisional pole on his final lap of the session.
Gillim timed it perfectly in recognizing there was a dry enough line to give it a go on slicks and the result was a 1:31.243 – 1.5 seconds faster than Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis.
Edge Racing’s Jason Waters was third fastest, a few tenths quicker than Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, and fifth-placed Richard Kerr on the AMD Motorsports RK Racing Honda CBR1000RR-R SP.
OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe, who is just seven points behind Gillim in the chase for the 2024 Stock 1000 Championship, ended the session in seventh.
Junior Cup – It’s A Block Party
BARTCON Racing’s Eli Block is in his comfort zone at NJMP. Throw in some iffy weather and he gets even cozier. On Friday, Block was unstoppable in earning provisional pole for the two Junior Cup races this weekend.
Block was the only rider to break into the 1:32s with his 1:32.611 besting Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher by .616 of a second.
Mckellar Racing’s Jaden Mckellar was enjoying his first-ever MotoAmerica Junior Cup race and his weekend started well with the third fastest time in Q1.
Bad Boys Racing’s Ella Dreher was fourth fastest with Speed Demon Racing’s Logan Cunnison rounding out the top five.
Mission King Of The Baggers – ROCCO!
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers was lucky to get up after a scary crash coming out of the final corner in the closing moments of the Q1 for the Mission King Of The Baggers. Landers was a bit banged up, but smiling nonetheless after earning provisional pole position just a lap before the crash.
Landers ripped off a 1:24.829 on his 11th lap of the 30-minute session for his second provisional pole in a row. His quick lap put him .423 of a second ahead of his teammate Hayden Gillim, who in turn was barely faster than Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s James Rispoli.
The two protagonists in the battle for the 2024 Mission King Of The Baggers Championship were fourth and fifth with S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss .2 of a second faster than championship points leader Kyle Wyman. Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Wyman leads Herfoss by just two points heading into the weekend’s two races.
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