Random notes, comments, statistics, musings, and bits of trivia from the MotoAmerica Superbikes at Ridge event:

Perfect Parity

Jamie Howe, one of our intrepid broadcast personalities, was the first to point out an interesting anomaly that occurred on the starting grid for the weekend’s two Superbike races at Ridge Motorsports Park. And, what was even more interesting is that the same anomaly occurred in the results from Sunday’s Superbike race two.

For the first time in MotoAmerica history and what we thought might be the entire 49 years of AMA-sanctioned Superbike racing, the top five motorcycles on the starting grid were made up of five different OEM brands: Yamaha (Jake Gagne), Ducati (Josh Herrin), BMW (Cameron Beaubier), Honda (Hayden Gillim), and Suzuki (Richie Escalante).

Also, the top-five finishers in Sunday’s Superbike race two were aboard five different brands of motorcycles: Herrin (Ducati), Beaubier (BMW), Gagne (Yamaha), Escalante (Suzuki), and Gillim (Honda).

We went all the way back to 2005 in our records to see if either or both of those brand-parity anomalies had ever happened before and, even in the heady days of yore when there was official and direct factory involvement in the Superbike paddock, as far as we could tell, five brands in the top five has never happened before.

Well, wrong again, Sasquatch-breath. Brian Stoneburg got in touch with us and set us straight. Five different brands of motorcycles did finish in the top five of an AMA Superbike race one time before. On June 18, 1978, at none other than the Loudon Classic in New Hampshire, John Bettencourt won on a Suzuki, and he was followed across the finish line by John Long (BMW), Reg Pridmore (Kawasaki), Paul Ritter (Ducati), and John Fuchs (Honda).

Thanks for the correction, Brian. History finally repeated itself in AMA-sanctioned Superbike racing 47 years later. Also, thanks to Larry Lawrence and his “Rider Files” for being Brian’s source for the information.

Who Lapped The Fastest?

As is usually the case during every MotoAmerica weekend, lap records are usually broken in several race classes. Notable, however, is the fact that a new outright lap record was not set in the premier Superbike class. Three of the Superbike riders did get into the “39s” during Saturday morning’s Qualifying 2 session, including polesitter Jake Gagne, as well as Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin, but no one eclipsed the lap of 1:39.145 that Jake Gagne set in Qualifying 2 “way back” on June 25, 2022.

In Motovation Supersport, defending class champion Mathew Scholtz set a new lap record of 1:42.221 aboard his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R9 in Friday afternoon’s Qualifying 1 session, which earned him the pole position in MotoAmerica’s middleweight class. Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott set a new race lap record of 1:42.308 in Saturday afternoon’s Supersport race one.

The Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Powered By Harley-Davidson saw Saddlemen Race Development’s Jake Lewis set a new lap record and race lap record of 1.44.905 in the “high-handlebar” class during Saturday afternoon’s race one, despite the fact that he had to carry an additional 38 pounds of ballast on his Harley-Davidson Pan America due to the balancing measures that were instituted in the Super Hooligan class just prior to Ridge.

And, in the SC-Project Twins Cup Championship, 16-year-old phenom Alessandro Di Mario won both two-banger races aboard his Robem Engineering Aprilia, plus, he set a new lap record and race lap record of 1:46.026 during Sunday afternoon’s race two.

Good Things Come In Threes

At Ridge, we had several instances where good things happened in threes. First of all, San Antonio, Texas-based rider Kira Knebel swept the weekend in Royal Enfield’s Build.Train.Race. program. Due to the rain-related postponement of one of the BTR races earlier this season at Barber Motorsports Park, there were three races at Ridge, including two on Sunday, and Knebel was victorious in all three.

Also, there were at least three well-known people in the paddock on Sunday with the first name of “Steve.” Bellevue, Washington’s own Steve Baker, America’s very first FIM World Champion, was in attendance. So was Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame member Steve Crevier, from British Columbia, who raced in the AMA for Erion Honda, Muzzy Kawasaki, and Yoshimura Suzuki during the mid-to-late 1990s. Crevier’s former crew chief in the Canadian National Road Racing Championship was our very own Race Director Rick Hobbs. Together in 1989, Steve and Rick swept all three of the top race classes in the Canadian series.

The third Steve in the paddock at Ridge was Steve Rounds, who was Josh Hayes’s chassis technician for all four of the Mississippi Madman’s AMA Pro Racing Superbike Championships. Rounds was making his rounds at Ridge on behalf of Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. as he provided assistance to the Yamaha teams and riders competing in MotoAmerica.

For Avery Dreher, the theme of good things happening in threes had to do with him being able to compete in the third round of the SC-Project Twins Cup Championship and on his third brand of motorcycle. Dreher, who is a former Junior Cup Champion, was aboard a Yamaha YZF-R7 at Daytona, and then, he raced a Team Hammer-built Suzuki GSX-8R at Barber. For the Ridge round, Dreher hit for the cycle as he competed on an Aprilia RS 660 and qualified third for the weekend’s two races. On Sunday, Dreher finished on the podium in, you guessed it, third. Oh, and where is he ranked in the Twins Cup Championship standings right now? Third, of course.

Start Me Up

It’s no secret that Mathew Scholtz has not been a master at getting holeshots. When he competed in MotoAmerica’s Superbike class, his race starts were a bit of an Achilles Heel for the lanky South African. But, this season, as Scholtz defends his 2024 Supersport Championship, something has changed.

Not only has Scholtz earned the pole position for three of the four rounds and six of the eight races thus far in the season, but he’s also gotten the holeshot when he’s been on pole. I asked him what the secret is to his success this year in getting really good jumps off the starting line, and he said, “I think, even looking at the success the Yamaha YZF-R9 has had this year in the the World Supersport Championship, I think the increased swingarm length on the R9 really lends itself to getting great jumps off the line. Also, we’ve been really working hard on softening the torque in first gear, just to kind of help me get off the line better. That’s definitely made my life easier this year, not having to battle through a couple guys to get to the front. Last year on the R6, I would always drop a couple spots. This year, getting the holeshot and getting clear laps has really helped me a lot.”

Highest Trap Speeds

The fastest MotoAmerica road racer in all the land at Ridge Motorsports Park was defending Superbike Champion Josh Herrin, who achieved a highest trap speed of 164.1 miles per hour aboard his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati on lap three of the 10 laps he did during Friday afternoon’s Qualifying 1 session.

In Motovation Supersport, Vesrah Racing’s Ryota Ogiwara went 149.2 miles per hour aboard the same Vesrah Racing Suzuki GSX-R750 that Hayden Gillim earned a third-place podium finish on in the 2024 Daytona 200. Ogiwara reached the highest top speed recorded by any Supersport rider at Ridge on lap three of Sunday’s afternoon’s 15-lap race two.

Defending Mission Super Hooligan National Champion Cory West rode his #1 Saddlemen Race Development’ Harley-Davidson Pan America to a top speed of 144.9 miles per hour, and he achieved that maximum speed twice: on lap two of the 10 laps he did during Qualifying 2 Saturday morning and again Sunday afternoon on his penultimate circulation of the eight-lap Super Hooligan race two.

Robem Engineering’s Alessandro Di Mario, the defending champion in SC-Project Twins Cup, went 136.4 miles per hour on lap four of the 15 he completed during Friday afternoon’s Qualifying 1 session.

And, finally, in Royal Enfield’s Build.Train.Race. program, Camille Conrad improved on the highest BTR trap speed of 106.5 miles per hour that she achieved in 2024 at Ridge and went 108.5 miles per hour on lap 6 of 8 during Friday afternoon’s Qualifying 1.