2022 MotoAmerica - Round 7 - Brainerd

MotoAmerica is at Brainerd International Raceway this weekend. News cycle has been slow. Brainerd has made a few changes to pavement and other items requested by MotoAmerica riders. The big news is that Josh Hayes will be riding in place of Kevin Olmedo, who is recovering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Hayes is currently two wins behind Miguel Duhamel, who holds the all-time AMA record with 86 victories. Could get interesting.

Superbike Standings:
1. 215 pts - Jake Gagne - Fresh N Lean Yamaha R1M
2. 212 pts - Danilo Petrucci - Warhorse HSBK Ducati Panigale V4R
3. 175 pts - Cameron Peterson - Fresh N Lean Yamaha R1M
4. 170 pts - Mathew Scholtz - Westby Racing Yamaha R1M
5. 122 pts - Hector Barbera - Tytler Cycles BMW M1000RR
6. 104 pts - Richie Escalante - M4 Vision Wheel Suzuki GSX-R1000


Supersport Standings:
1. 224 pts - Josh Herrin - Warhorse HSBK Ducati Panigale V2
2. 143 pts - Tyler Scott - M4 Vision Wheel Suzuki GSX-R750
3. 138 pts - Rocco Landers - Landers Racing Yamaha R6
4. 114 pts - Kevin Olmedo - N2 Racing Bobblehead Moto Yamaha R6
5. 83 pts - Sam Lochoff - M4 Vision Wheel Suzuki GSX-R750
6. 81 pts - Luke Power - 3D Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R750

Twins Cup Standings
1. 144 pts - Jody Barry - Veloce Racing Aprilia RS 660
2. 140 pts - Anthony Mazziotto - Warhorse HSBK Aprilia RS 660
3. 108 pts - Blake Davis - N2 Racing BobbleheadMoto Yamaha R7
4. 105 pts - Hayden Schultz - Cycle Tech Yamaha R7
5. 96 pts - Kaleb de Keyrel - Veloce Racing Aprilia RS 660
6. 78 pts - Teagg Hobbs - Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660

Superbike Q1 Results:
http://www.motoamericaregistration.com/Results/2022/BIR/22_8_BIR_SBK_Q1_res.pdf


Supersport Q1 Results:
http://www.motoamericaregistration.com/Results/2022/BIR/22_8_BIR_SSP_Q1_res.pdf


Twins Cup FP1 Results:
http://www.motoamericaregistration.com/Results/2022/BIR/22_8_BIR_TWN_P1_res.pdf


Stock 1000 Q1 Results:
http://www.motoamericaregistration.com/Results/2022/BIR/22_8_BIR_STK_Q1_res.pdf


Gagne on provisional pole, but only .2 up on Petrucci. Cameron Peterson is also in the mix for Superbike. Scholtz way off the pace again.

Hayes on provisional pole, but with an asterisk. Herrin and Scott were repeatedly hitting lap traffic. Rocco Landers suffered from a break setup that was locking, and the team could not get it swapped for him to have a meaningful session. Still, Hayes was only .001 off of Landers in FP1 so Josh will be competitive this weekend.

Jody Barry is running away with Twins Cup so far. Maziotto is down in 6th. Unfortunately, a Stock 1000 rider had to be airlifted after crashing at the very end of Q1, and Twins Q1 will probably be cancelled. It's unclear what will happen in Q2 tomorrow AM, but Barry looks really strong.

Corey Alexander is leaving the field in the dust in Stock 1000. He has a half second on the field, and he was repeatedly hitting lap traffic. He was probably faster than the times show. Hayden Gillim is in 4th. He suffered a late session crash that ruined his Friday qualifying.

Overall Superbike and Supersport grids are quite thin. Superbike only has 17 entrants and Supersport only has 15 entrants. Not sure if people are voting with their feet or if the expert nature of Brainerd has privateers questioning their ability to qualify. Stock 1000 and Twins Cup have a full roster. A little bit worried about Twins Cup, since roughly 10 riders are above 107%. Gonna be a short race, but could be lap traffic problems.

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RIP Scott Briody

Scott Briody, 50-year-old Stock 1000 competitor from New York, has succumbed to injuries he sustained from a crash during the Stock 1000 Q1 session at Brainers International Raceway

https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/motoamerica-racer-killed-in-crash-friday-at-brainerd/

Terrible tragedy. There were only a few seconds left in the session, and he crashed in a place with plenty of runoff. It was just a terribly unfortunate accident that occurred when his bike’s rear tire stepped out the turn before. RIP Scott.

Superbike Race 1 Results

Race 1 was the typical formula. Jake Gagne builds up a huge lead on full fuel and new tires, and then manages the gap. Petrucci was feeling particularly racy, and finding the limits of the Panigale V4, but ran off track with 2 laps to go, and Cameron Peterson overtook him for 2nd place. Matthew Scholtz struggled with a wrist injury and general setup problems. He finished 4th. PJ Jacobsen finished in 5th. Jake Lewis struggled on his return. His ankle is still not healed and he limped home in 8th position. Richie Escalante scored a DNF and injured himself. Team Hammer in bad condition in Superbike.


Supersport Race 1 Results

Race 1 featured an unexpected result. Rocco Landers cleared off and left the field for dead. His practice times indicated he had the best pace by far, but he's never put it together on race day, struggling to find a setup that works from flag to flag. Josh Herrin finished a distant second, and Josh Hayes a distant 3rd. Tyler Scott and Cory Ventura finished in 4th and 5th places, with Ventura finishing on the GSX-R600 because the team had run out of Supersport bikes. The field was quite depleted. Everyone who started the race would have scored, if they were running at the time of the checkered flag. Strange.


Twins Cup Race Results

Twins Cup Race 1 was as unexpected as Supersport. The Yamahas were dominant, with the Aprilias struggling to keep up. I'm guessing maybe the tire compounds changed to cope with the summer heat, and the R7 is in a league of its own now. Cory Ventura won his second race in a row, with Blake Davis in tow (again). Anthony Mazziotto finished 3rd, while the Veloce Racing bikes of de Keyrel and Barry finished 4th and 5th. Barry has lost the points lead in Twins!


Junior Cup Race 1 Results

Kayla Yaakov won her second race of the season. Stalking the field with about 5 laps left from 6th place. It was a masterful performance from such a young rider. She was patient and let the race come to her. Quite impressive. We'll have to see if she moves up or if she becomes the queen of the class, and forces all of the young guns to raise their game.

Twins Cup Full Race



Probably my favorite class. Good racing, and an awesome new class of production bike that will probably just keep getting better. Looking forward to Honda and Kawasaki joining the party. Maybe Suzuki will show up, but they are practically giving up on the supersport segement.

Superbike Race 2 Results
Sunday's Superbike race at Brainerd looked like it was going to be a near repeat of Saturday's race. Gagne was in front, managing the gap, while Danilo tried to chip away at the gap. Unlike Saturday, Danilo was not struggling to pull away from Fresh N Lean Yamaha rider, Cameron Peterson. More importantly, unlike Saturday, Jake Gagne could not keep the bike upright for the entire race distance, crashing heavily with about 5 laps to go. While Jake appeared to be unscathed, his R1 did some fantastic summersaults, and the front end detached and was flung high in the air. Thankfully no one was hit, and the race was able to continue, but for the first time watching a motorcycle race, I thought about the possibility of mandating tethers for the front end, like wheel tethers in car racing. Anyway, Jake Gagne's crash opened the door for PJ Jacobsen, who scored his first podium of the 2022 season. Hayden Gillim and Hector Barbera rounded out the top 5. Jake Lewis had a gritty ride in 7th place, as he battled through injury. His teammate Richie Escalante did not ride, nor did David Anthony or Corey Alexander.


Supersport Race 2 Results
Rocco Landers stormed the field again by apparently finding the perfect setup to maximize grip and lateral acceleration through the Turn 1 and Turn 2 right hand sweepers. He finished 13 seconds in front of Josh Herrin who endured the relatively boring chore of maintaining his chokehold on the championship. Josh Hayes finished in third place, stealing the position in the final turns from the luckless Cory Ventura, who was riding his backup GSX-R600, rather than the M4 Suzuki GSX-R750 ridden by his teammate Tyler Scott, who had issues, but managed to finish 12th because only 12 riders participated in the race 0_o Ben Smith finished in 5th place for a decent points haul.


Stock 1000 Race Results
Stock 1000 was a difficult race to watch. Cory Alexander has dominated the competition this year, winning 4 in a row before Brainerd, but Hayden Gillim looked to finally have Cory's measure. Hayden was a country mile down the road when the Race was red flagged with about 4 laps to go. After the restart Gillim pulled away again, until his bike suffered some sort of issue on the final lap, which caused him to limp home in 7th place. Cory Alexander took his 5th win in a row, and Brandon Paasch, two-time Daytona 200 winner, came home in second place, after Travis Wyman crashed while attempting an overtake in the final few corners. Andrew Lee came home in 3rd, in front of Danilo Lewis and Ezra Beaubier.


King of The Baggers Race Results
The baggers race was good fun, though it was born from total chaos. About 1/3 of the field did not start because they failed to qualify or had other issues, and race-winner Bobby Fong started from the back of the grid after failing to complete the sighting lap. Lap 1 opened the door for Fong to have a barnburner of a race, when Taylor Knapp's bike started smoking. As the filed let up, Fong charged through. By lap 3 he was in the lead, after overtaking Travis Wyman and Tyler O'Hara. Fong's timing was impeccable. The Minnesota skies went dark and the rains came down. The race was called after 4 laps. Short but sweet episode of Bobby Fong riding the wheels off of a bagger.