A Whole Lot Of Perfection At Barber Motorsports Park On Sunday.
The second of two Stock 1000 races at Barber Motorsports Park featured a slugfest that went the full 14 laps. But that battle was for second place. Out front by a country mile for the second straight day was defending Stock 1000 Champion Hayden Gillim and his Real Steel Motorsports Honda CBR1000RR-R SP, with Hayden showing that if someone wants to take his title, they are going to have to step up their game.
Second place went to BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince, a day after his third-place finish in day one. Prince came out on top of his battle with FLO4LAW’s Benjamin Smith, a day after the two came together with Smith crashing out of race one.
To stay in championship contention both Yamaha YZF-R1-mounted podium finishers know there is work to be done to keep pace with Gillim and his Honda. But, as Prince rightfully pointed out, he was 14.5 seconds behind Gillim in race one and 10.5 seconds in race two so there was a gain.
Fourth place on Sunday went to AMD Motorsport RK Racing’s Richard Kerr, a big improvement over his eighth-place finish in race one. Kerr was some five seconds behind Smith and just .162 of a second ahead of OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe, who was a spot higher in the results than in race one. Uribe’s teammate Travis Wyman was sixth with BPR Racing’s Wyatt Farris seventh.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, BPR Racing’s Deion Campbell, and Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis rounded out the top 10.
With his win, Gillim became the winningest Stock 1000 racer in MotoAmerica history with his 13th victory moving him out of a tie with Andrew Lee and Corey Alexander. It also further padded his wallet with Honda contingency money.
“Yeah, that was the plan,” Gillim said. “It still wasn’t a great start. The wheelie control was kind of kicking in a little too much. So, it was kind of killing my drives. So, we’ll figure that out. Luckily this isn’t a very long run to turn one. It was really good. I knew if I could get to the front, the longer that these guys were able to fight with me and everything the harder it was going to be. I knew if I could try and get out front the very first lap, I knew with a good start if I was in second or so, I could try and make a run into Charlotte’s Web and get something done. I knew Gabriel (Da Silva) was going to be blocking a little bit, so I just tried to do the outside move. Tried to get him to go in a little hot, which he did, and then undercut him. It worked out. But it’s really good. The bike is working really good. Having the two bikes to run in Stock and Superbike, they’re identical bikes so I get to go out and try stuff on each bike to make the other bike better. So, it helps a lot. I’m getting a ton of track time, and that’s one key thing. I know what the track is going to be like most of the time throughout the weekend. The Steel Commander Southern Powersports Honda guys are killing it.”
Supersport – Scholtz Again
For the second straight day, Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz emerged victorious from the battle at the front of the Supersport pack and the two wins have propelled the South African into serious championship contention after two rounds and four races.
Scholtz got a better start on Sunday and was in the pack giving chase to the fast-starting Tyler Scott. Scott, however, suffered a high-speed crash on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki that left the young phenom bruised and battered. It also brought out the red flag.
On the restart, Scholtz was second behind Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen, but he was soon in the lead. Jacobsen stayed close but it was Scholtz taking his second win in a row, this one by .924 of a second. Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis after finishing fifth on Saturday. It was Davis’s second podium finish of the year.
Jacobsen’s runner-up finish was his fourth straight podium to start the season and it puts him 16 points ahead of Scholtz, 70-54.
“I think the second-to-last lap I did a 26.7, which actually surprised me because it didn’t feel like we were going that fast,” Scholtz said. “We were tipping into corners. The bike was kind of backing in a hell of a lot. The front was really pushing. So, I think for us to be running high 26s, yesterday we would have been even faster. It was definitely greasy out there now. Obviously, well done to PJ (Jacobsen) and Blake (Davis). Hope that Tyler (Scott) is good. That was a crazy highside. I’m just really, really thankful to be back up here on the top of the box. Looking forward to the next couple races of the season. I’d just like to give a personal shout-out to the Redvanly family crew. They’ve been awesome helping us out.”
Junior Cup – Cunnison x Two
Speed Demon Racing’s Logan Gunnison liked winning Saturday’s Junior Cup race so much he opted to do it again on Sunday.
While he had a little cushion in winning on Saturday, he had no cushion on Sunday as he beat Karns Performance’s Levi Badie by just .045 of a second.
Sunday’s race featured the same podium as Saturday with second and third flipping spots. While it was New York Safety Track Racing’s Yandel Medina second on Saturday it was Badie taking the runner up on Sunday.
Seven riders battled for the lead in Sunday’s race with the top six finishers covered by less than a second.
Fourth place went to BARTCON Racing’s Eli Block with Elia Dreher, the younger sister of defending Junior Cup Champion Avery Dreher, finishing a career best fifth.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. – BTR Women Begin
The 13 women who were selected to participate in the 2024 Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. (BTR) program started their season at Barber Motorsports Park with two races on the schedule. Due to the heavy rain that on Saturday, race one was postponed until Sunday, which meant that the riders competed in race one on Sunday morning and race two on Sunday afternoon.
Defending BTR Champion Mikayla Moore extended her winning streak, with victories in both races bringing her unbeaten total to nine races in a row. The Maryland-based Moore won race one by nearly nine seconds over runner-up Camille Conrad and more than nine seconds over third-place finisher Emma Betters. In race two, the same three racers finished on the podium again, with Moore claiming her second victory of the day. Conrad and Betters swapped finishing positions in race two with Betters taking her turn as runner-up and Conrad getting third.
The most notable thing about race two was that, while Betters finished a second ahead of Conrad, Moore managed to stretch out an absolutely eye-popping lead of nearly 22 seconds during the short, six-lap race.
About her continued success, Moore said after race one, “Training during the off-season, I got to spend some time, as well, on the Royal Enfield. Then, before I came here, I actually spent some time with Evolve GT at Summit Motorsports Park in West Virginia on the ZX-6R. So, I feel like the training that led up to this point is what got me the win today.”
After race two, Moore commented, “You could tell that the track was hotter, and I experienced a little more chatter, but the bike actually felt better in the second race than it did in the first race. I challenged myself last year to do a two-hour endurance race, and I did the 67 laps. So, in terms of being able to do back-to-back races, I feel pretty confident in my endurance. It’s just really about finding a pace that you can be comfortable with, but also not pushing yourself too much.”
Photo by Brian J. Nelson
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – Di Mario’s First
It was a weekend of firsts for many riders competing at Barber Motorsports Park, and 15-year-old Alessandro Di Mario was one of them. The Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering Aprilia rider notched the first MotoAmerica race victory of his career in Sunday’s BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship race two. Di Mario bounced back after crashing out of the lead during Saturday’s rain-soaked race one and took the checkers by .768 of a second over hard-charging Rocco Landers, who finished second aboard his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki. Current points leader and Di Mario’s teammate Gus Rodio finished third.
Di Mario started from the pole, but Rodio overtook him for the lead until lap five of the 14-lap race when Di Mario solidified his position at the front and crossed the finish line for his breakthrough win. Meanwhile, Landers battled with Rodio and Dominic Doyle for third, and ultimately overtook Rodio on the final lap to finish as runner-up with Rodio completing the podium.
“I came into the weekend really excited,” Di Mario said. “I love this track. I was able to get a 28.2, which is a track record, in qualifying. My pace is really good. In yesterday’s race, I didn’t really think I was going to be that fast in the wet, but after Avery passed me, I tried to stay behind him. I was able to pass him again, and the sun came out. I couldn’t see anything in the back section of the track. So, when we got to turn three, I thought there was a little dry line but there wasn’t. So, I just lost the rear, and I was able to pick the bike up and get seventh, which I’m happy about. Today, I was kind of managing the gap a little bit. I probably could have gone a little faster, but there was really no need to. The front was sliding a lot. So, I didn’t want to take the risk. I’d say it was a pretty good weekend.”
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