Random notes, comments, statistics, musings, and bits of trivia from MotoAmerica Superbikes at Mid-Ohio.

On A Wing And A Flinder

Thrashed Racing Superbike rider Max Flinders doesn’t give up. After he was rather unceremoniously punted off the track in Saturday’s Superbike race one at Mid-Ohio, during the red-flag stoppage following the incident, he, his father Martin, and the rest of his hard-working, enthusiastic crew diligently went to work transforming his “decidedly second-hand” Yamaha YZF-R1 back into into a (mostly) race-ready motorcycle again.

The flattened exhaust silencer was removed in favor of a new one that would more efficiently extract spent combustibles from the engine. The screaming yellow zonker also lost one of its aerodynamic wings, and the handlebar controls were pretty much FUBAR, including the front brake master cylinder and the buttons used to actuate and control various electronic controls and devices.

At one point, while the various components on the bike were being hastily jury-rigged with color-coordinated duct tape, Flinders, while sitting on his bike, reached down with his racer-gloved right hand and picked up something that was laying on the tarmac. He gave the small object to one of his crew, who appeared to place it into the switch housing on the right handlebar, then proceed to wrap yellow tape around the housing. But, what did Flinders pick up from the track surface and hand to his technician?

By definition, a “flinder” is a “small fragment, bit, or splinter.” I found out while talking to his crew on Saturday night after the race day was done that Max found a small pebble on the ground in his pit box next to his bike, and it was just the right size to fit into the empty cavity in his switch housing to replace the “on” button that was lost when he crashed. His technician placed the pebble into the housing and wrapped tape over it to keep it place. That pebble gave him just enough of a “button” to enable him to switch the bike back on and get him back in the race.

Alas, while back on track and circulating, the front brake line, which had become entangled in the front fairing and handlebars during the crash, got pulled loose. Flinders saw brake fluid on his visor, which forced him to call it a day. But the old “flinder-in-the-switch-housing” trick did do its job and enabled him to race the bike if not for the compromised brake hydraulics.

That’s proof positive that you can’t keep a flinder from serving a purpose, or a Flinders from his appointed race.

For The Records

Favorable weather and improvements to the road course at Mid-Ohio yielded a bevy of broken lap records.

Stock 1000 was competing for the first time during the MotoAmerica era at Mid-Ohio, and in Friday afternoon’s Qualifying 1, Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach did the fastest lap of the weekend for the dealer showroom-spec literbikes with a 1:26.078. In Sunday afternoon’s Stock 1000 race two, OrangeCat Racing’s Andrew Lee set a new race lap record of 1:26.312 while on his way to winning the race and increasing his points lead in the 2025 class standings.

Motovation Supersport rider PJ Jacobsen repeatedly lowered the class lap record during pretty much every session in which he was aboard his Rahal Ducati Moto w/EXPEL Panigale V2. Saturday was a banner day for the New Yorker as he set a new lap record of 1:26.715 in the morning’s Qualifying 2 session. Then, in the afternoon, he did a fastest lap of 1:26.898 during Supersport race one, which was a new race lap record for MotoAmerica’s middleweight maulers.

At the final round of the season for the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Powered By Harley-Davidson, KWR rider James Rispoli had an incredible weekend in the Buckeye State. Not only did he win both races and clinch the 2025 Super Hooligan title by just four points over Jake Lewis in a dramatic, come-from-behind performance, but he rode his Harley-Davidson Pan America to a new class lap record and race lap record of 1:28.932 during Saturday’s race one.

Mid-Ohio Beach

James Rispoli wasn’t the only one who had a memorable weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Along with setting a new lap record in Stock 1000, JD Beach was the victor in Stock 1000 race one. The Kentuckian then followed that up by finishing third in Superbike race one aboard his Stock-1000-spec Real Steel Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. That’s right, the Jiggy Dog finished on the podium in a Superbike race despite his Honda literbike being in stock trim and without all the cool, go-fast parts that Superbikes are known for.

Incidentally, that was the first time in more than 16 years that a Honda rider finished on the podium in an AMA-sanctioned Superbike race. The last time it happened was on March 6, 2009, when Corona Honda rider Neil Hodgson finished second in Superbike at Daytona International Speedway.

On Sunday, Beach had a technical issue with his bike on the warmup lap for Stock 1000 race one, and all eyes were on JD and his crew as they tried to correct the problem and get him to the starting grid. A red-flag stoppage due to a separate incident gave his crew and him another chance to exorcise the demons from his recalcitrant Fireblade.

He made it out for the sighting lap, but the bike was still not cooperating, so he was unable to make the restart.

Undaunted, Beach and his squad were able to get the bike race ready for Sunday’s Superbike race two, and they were rewarded for their efforts with Beach recording a top-five result. It was the 14th Superbike race this season in which he finished as the highest-ranked Superbike Cup rider.

On-The-Tire Training

Carmel, Indiana’s Solly Mervis is really getting the most from his MotoAmerica experience. The Ice Barn Racing Talent Cup rider was in attendance at Mid-Ohio even though he wasn’t racing. Instead, the Rose-Hulman Institite of Technology engineering and physics student did a weekend internship with Dunlop. Mervis joined Dunlop’s tire crew and helped balance tires for the teams and riders while getting an insider’s perspective on everything that goes on under the big, yellow-and-black paddock awning.

Also taking a busman’s holiday at Mid-Ohio was fellow Talent Cup rider and newly crowned, two-time SC-Project Twins Cup Champion Alessandro Di Mario, who served as crew chief for his good friend Andres Jaramillo, who raced in Super Hooligan.

Buzzing The Tower

Eighty-four-year-old Bobby Lemming and his son David Lemming are bona fide AMA flag-waving legends. Both men previously worked as race starters for AMA road racing, and Bobby has appeared in many a finish-line photo. He was familiar to everyone because of his lanky frame and also his trademark outstretched leg and right arm pose with the checkered flag billowing from his right hand.

Bobby and David were weekend guests of long-time Ohio racer Larry Pegram, who was a wild-card entry for Team Hammer in Motovation Supersport and has known the Lemmings since he was a little kid. In fact, Larry and “Davey” (as Larry refers to David) were childhood friends, and the Pegrams and the Lemmings have spent a lot of time together at racetracks throughout the years.

The Lemming father-and-son duo were invited up to the starter’s tower overlooking start-finish at Mid-Ohio where they resumed their former flag-waving duties during Sunday’s final Super Hooligan race of the 2025 season.

 Wounds That Need To Be Unwound

We had a number of unfortunate crashes at Mid-Ohio, and it is something that we never like to see. And, even beyond that, we absolutely never like to see any of our riders get injured.

Among those riders who crashed at Mid-Ohio and are currently on the mend are Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Bradley Smith and Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin.

Smith’s incident occurred during Friday afternoon’s Mission King Of The Baggers Qualifying 1 when he was highsided from his #38 Harley-Davidson Road Glide. Unfortunately, his bike stayed upright longer than he did, and it followed him off the race course. He sustained the impact and weight of his 600+-pound motorcycle, which left him with fractured ribs and a bruised liver. The ever-likeable Brit managed to get back on his feet, and he ended up going to nearby OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital where he spent the night under observation to ensure that he didn’t develop a pneumothorax (punctured lung) from his broken ribs.

I checked in with Smith this past Friday, and he said, “All OK, thank you. I’m in one piece and back home in Monaco. Seems I have cracks in six ribs, but I’m pretty sure we are going to be all OK for Austin (Circuit of The Americas in Texas) and New Jersey (Motorsports Park, the final two rounds of the 2025 Mission King Of The Baggers Championship). Mansfield hospital looked after me good and thoroughly checked me through with a CT scan and 2 MRIs. So, all set.”

Herrin’s crash happened with just five laps to go in Sunday’s Superbike race two when he got tangled up with another rider, and they both went down in unison. The red flag was thrown, which ended the race, and Herrin was in obvious pain. The defending class champion sustained a massive hematoma in the upper part of his right leg, but thankfully, he had no broken bones or injuries to his knee and thigh beyond severe bruising and some abrasions.

When I checked on Herrin last week, he said, “I’m good. Just pissed. I need time for my leg to heal. Nothing else I can do for it. A lot of people don’t know what happened, and some are assuming I caused the accident, which I didn’t.”

As with Bradley Smith, Josh Herrin is also expecting to be good to go for the final two rounds of the 2025 MotoAmerica Championship, which will take place at Circuit of The Americas on September 12 through 14 and New Jersey Motorsports Park on September 26 through 28.

Is there any doubt that motorcycle road racers are some of the toughest athletes on the planet?