Ultra-Close Racing At Road America In All The Support Classes
Normally, Supersport is not the final race of the weekend at a MotoAmerica event, but a couple of red flags during its initial timeslot dictated that it be pushed ahead to late Sunday afternoon at Road America. Little did anyone know that it would turn out to be the closest three-rider race finish in the 10-year history of the MotoAmerica series.
Supersport – Scott By A Whisker
Sunday’s weather turned out to be ideal compared with the rain-sodden conditions on Saturday, and MotoAmerica’s Supersport class put on an incredible show. “Supersport Next Generation” is the name of the game, which means that motorcycles with engine displacements ranging from the 599cc Yamaha YZF-R6, to the 749cc Suzuki GSX-R750, to the 955cc Ducati Panigale V2 all race in Supersport with balancing measures taken to level the competition.
So, how level is the competition in Supersport? At the finish line, Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott barely nipped Strack Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz in a photo finish, with Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen finishing third and just one one-hundredth of a second behind Scholtz.
It was a breathtaking result, and Scott talked about it afterwards. “Our season definitely didn’t start off good at all,” Scott said. “Daytona was good. We finished second. We had a big crash there. Atlanta, we did all right in the rain. Had a big crash out of the lead, and at Barber, too. So, we’ve had a little bit of bad luck. The level in Supersport this year is just a lot higher than in previous years. You’ve got PJ, Scholtz and the new Gerardo kid. They’re all ex-Superbike riders. So, the level just gets notched up. So, we’re pushing to the edge and just over-pushing for my part. The team has done a great job preparing the bike. The team did a great job this weekend. Overall, the goal is to not try and lead the race and pull away because that hasn’t worked the last two weekends for us. I can race and I know how to race well, so the goal was just to stay with the front pack and start racing at the end for the lead. Coming up the hill, I had a plan to at least draft one of them. When they split, the only opportunity that I had was if PJ didn’t go to the wall. If he would have gone to the wall, I wouldn’t have had the opening. I just had enough of an opening to try and see what I could do in the last couple-hundred feet.”