MotoAmerica Round 3

Published on May 8, 2018 under Blog

MotoAmerica Round 3

Virginia International Raceway

MotoAmerica roared into VIR over the weekend, for what became an insane weekend of racing action.
Saturday saw the Liqui Moli Junior Cup win return to Alex Dumas on his Orange Brigade/JP43 KTM 390, followed by Attack Performance Yamaha Gavin Anthony and AGVSport Yamaha Jay Newton in a thriller of a race. Twins Cup saw a trio of Suzuki SV650s take the podium, with Xavier Zayat, Chris Parrish, and Curtis Murray taking top honors.

Supersport 600 class was dominated Saturday by Factory Yamaha racer JD Beach, chased hard by Rickdiculous Racing Hayden Gillim in second, and Quicksilver Motorcycles Richie Escalante completing an all-Yamaha R6 podium.

Superbike 1000 class began with a frightening crash on the 1st lap, as Factory Yamaha Garrett Gerloff high-sided and flipped off, taking Factory Yoshimura Suzuki rider Roger Hayden and Quicksilver Motorcycles Bobby Fong with him. Fong was unhurt, Hayden sustained a possible concussion, and Gerloff was hospitalized with chest/lung injuries. This is a dangerous sport, no doubt. Cameron Beaubier and Toni Elias battled the entire race before Elias snatched victory in the closing laps. South African Mathew Scholtz rounded out the podium.
Sunday races saw Alex Dumas take his third Junior Cup victory, besting Gavin Anthony again and third place Yamaha rider Kevin Olmedo. Stock 1000 class ran on Sunday as well, with Travis Wyman destroying the field with a devastating 10-second finish on his BMW ahead of Kawasaki rider Andrew Lee and Yamaha R1pilot Samuel Smathers.

JD Beach delivered a stunning Sunday show, winning by 28 seconds over the field after challenger Hayden Gillim crashed out. Tuned Racing Yamaha rider Braeden Ortt and ECSTAR Suzuki Cory West battled back and forth, side-by-side at times until Ortt edged out the 2nd place finish at the checkered flag. Now that’s racing.

Defending Superbike champion Toni Elias took the early lead and never gave it up in race 2, with Beaubier and Scholtz fruitlessly giving chase. Elias has won 5 of the last 6 Superbike races this season, with 21 total under his belt in MotoAmerica, now 6th on the all-AMA Superbike win list. Sunday, Elias also became the fastest rider in AMA history to reach 20 wins.
With a few weeks off, racing will resume June 2-3 at Road America in the Wisconsin round 4. Born To Ride will attend this round, with live reports from the track and paddock. Stay tuned via BTR’s website, social media and email blasts, and tune in on MotoAmerica’s website and beIN Sports for all the race action.

To view the VIR races in their entirety on YouTube, check these out-
https://youtu.be/aNCNBa7PKJo (race 1)
https://youtu.be/LaC-oAKt1iw (race 2)

Rob Brooks

Photos courtesy of Brian J Nelson and MotoAmericaphotos