MotoAmerica: Josh Hayes performs in supersport at VIR – Roadracing World Magazine

Support classes ready to fight VIR with fierce battles at the top

Josh Herin, Corey Alexander, Jody Barry and Max Van are heading to Virginia

IRWINE, CA (May 19, 2022) – Eight years ago, Josh Hayes left VIRginia International Raceway with two MotoAmerica Superbike wins in his pocket, the 51st and 52nd AMA Superbike wins of his career, in which he won 61 in the class. It was also MotoAmerica’s debut weekend at VIR in 2015, and Hayes became the proper winner. This weekend Hayes returns to VIR, hoping to turn the clock back and win again, this time in the MotoAmerica Supersport class.

While we can’t call it a comeback because Hayes hasn’t retired yet (his last race was in the Daytona 200 in March of this year, where he finished fourth), it’s kind of a return to Hayes ’record of winning the VIR through all 13 classes. of the four will come to the class he will be competing for next weekend – Supersport.

And to put a good homage to Hayes / VIR history, the 3.27-mile racetrack, located on the Virginia-North Carolina border, is also the site of Hayes ’last career superbike victory – May 12, 2017.

Ironically, the top man in Hayes’ quest to win at No. 14 in the VIR is his former Yamaha superbike teammate Josh Herin, a Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC driver who won the first two rounds of the championship a few weeks ago. on supersport in Road Atlanta. .

Supersport – All Herrin

With two rounds of the MotoAmerica Supersport Championship in the books (the Daytona 200 was a race without a point), Herin is perfect with two wins on his Ducati Panigale V2 and a 10-point lead in the championship over Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Sam Lochaf from Suzuki.

Lohoff finished second both times on the Atlanta Road, an impressive start considering he was on a brand new motorcycle – the Suzuki GSX-R750 – without much time to test. However, the team was on a bike from Road Atlanta and it could end up paying VIR dividends. In the end, Lohoff was within striking distance in most of the two races, finishing 3.2 and 4.9 seconds behind in two races respectively.

Rocco Landers of Landers Racing is third in the VIR Championship with fourth and third places on Road Atlanta. Landers is 11 points behind Lohaf and six points behind Kevin Olmed of N2 Racing / BobbleHeadMoto and Max Engles of Max Angles Racing, both of whom finished fifth in the title race.

So Herin is perfect in 2022, but he has a lot of hungry young people biting at his heels. Oh, and you might want to at least keep an eye on Hayes and his Yamaha squid hunter YZF-R6.

Yuasa Stock 1000 – Alexander. Barely

Cory Alexander of Tytlers Cycle / RideHVMC Racing won the lone Yuasa Stock 1000 race on Atlanta Road, 0.001 second over Michael Gilbert of Cycle World / Octane / Chuckwalla Racing. Alexander’s teammate Travis Wyman was third, and Hayden Gilim of Disrupt Racing and Ezra Babie of Motorsport Exotica Orange Cat of BST Racing were fourth and fifth, respectively.

With the Yuasa Stock 1000 class only once racing on the Atlanta Road, the standings are the same as the finish positions. At VIR, however, 44 entrants will play twice over the weekend.

Twins Cup – Barry heads them

After three rounds of the MotoAmerica Twins Cup series, the top two in the championship share just three points. These two are Jodi Barry from Veloce Racing and Tig Hobbs from Robem Engineering. The difference between the duo is that Barry won the race and Hobbes did not. And that race was the only Twins Cup race on Atlanta Road, where Barry beat Hobbes by a minimum of 0.073 seconds.

Hobbes teammate Ben Glodie finished third on the Atlanta Road, and the Aprilia RS 660 took the podium.

In the Dayton race race winner, Blake Davis finished third in the VIR round, 17 points behind Hobbes and 20 points behind Barry. Davis and his N2 Racing / BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha YZF-R7 finished fifth on the Atlanta Road.

Anthony Maziota of Rodio Racing / Worhorse HSBK Racing and Jackson Blackman of North East Cycle Outlet Racing / Trackday Winner close the top five in the championship when the series heads to VIR for a pair of Twins Cup races.

Junior Cup SportbikeTrackGear.com – Van On Top

The SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup class will also compete twice in the VIR, with the first race starting with Max Van, who leads the title race for Cody Wyman by nine points, the two winning a pair of races on the Atlanta Road a few weeks ago.

Wang and his SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki Ninja 400 were the most consistent in Georgia. The young man from Michigan was second in the first race on Saturday and returned on Sunday to win his first-ever MotoAmerica race. Meanwhile, Wyman and his ninja Alpha Omega won Saturday’s race, but dropped to fifth on Sunday.

Kayla Yaakov of Altus Motorsports is third in the championship, 16 points behind Wang after finishing fourth and third on Road Atlanta. Jacob was deprived of his first career win at MotoAmerica on Sunday on Road Atlanta and was relegated to third after passing under the banner of caution on the last lap.

Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race – and we go

Fifteen women will be vying for first place when VIR hosts the first weekend of the six rounds of Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. Exhibition series featuring the Royal Enfield Continental GT 650, designed and built by the riders themselves.

Last year, CJ Lucas won all three APC races in his debut series, but Lucas isn’t coming back, and that makes this year wide open.

Trisha Dahl from Minnesota, however, returns in 2022, and she finished second in last year’s chase for points. Dahl was very stable with three third places for the year.

Becky Goebel, who scored her third point last year, is also not back, but both Kyle Tisler and Alyssa Bridges are back to get more. The two finished fourth and fifth respectively in the pursuit of the title.

The Royal Building of Anfield. Train. Race. the series will consist of one race on VIR on Sunday at 12:45 p.m.

VIR support class notes …

Jake Lewis and Corey Alexander won two Stock 1000 races at VIR a year ago. Lewis won the first race with Alexander II, and Alexander won the second race with Lewis II.

Sean Dylan Kelly and Richie Escalate also won slightly last year in the Supersport class. Kelly won the first race and took second place in the second, while Escalante took fourth place in the first and won the second race.

In the Twins Cup, the first race was won by Tig Hobbs, and the second race was won by Jody Barry. Jackson Blackman was third in both races.

Benjamin Roddy and Cody Wyman became the big winners of the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup. Tyler Scott, who later won the championship, had a day off and was third and fourth in two races.

About MotoAmerica

MotoAmerica is a North American series of road racing, created in 2014, where the AMA Superbike Championship is held. MotoAmerica is a subsidiary of KRAVE Group LLC, a partnership that includes three-time 500cc world champion, two-time AMA superbike champion and AMA Hall of Fame member Wayne Rainey, former racer and former Roberts team manager Chuck Axland, auto manager. Terry Carges and businessman Richard Warner. For more information on MotoAmerica, visit www.MotoAmerica.com. Also don’t forget to follow MotoAmerica on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.