BRAINERD, Minn. — Yamaha’s Jake Gagne has now won 10 races in a row in the MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike Championship, but this one was different.
On Saturday at Brainerd International Raceway, Gagne crashed and still managed to win the first AMA Superbike race held at BIR in 17 years.
Leading the race on the second lap, Gagne crashed in front of the pack and was stuck in the middle of the track as the field motored by on both sides. He finally ran to safety and, with his bike still on track, a red flag was thrown, stopping the race. Fortunately for Gagne, his Yamaha suffered only minor damage and he was able to ride back to the hot pit for repairs prior to the restart.
From there it was typical Gagne as he grabbed the lead and pulled away, ultimately besting M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong by 4.675 seconds to win his 10th race of the year and extending his championship points lead to 74 points.
“That was the highest my heart rate has probably been in a while,” Gagne said. “We sat on the grid for a long time both times. I know we were all kind of wondering what was going on. I know there was a crash on the warmup lap or the sighting lap. I saw the guy right next to me in the grass go flying by. So, that was just a weird start. I know all our tires were a little cold there at the beginning. I think with that quick of a heat fluctuation, you put so much heat in these tires in turn one and two especially, so from going that cool… I even spun the tire off the line, which I’ve never done in my life. I just lit it up. So, it was just weird.”
For Fong the race ended a podium drought that dates back to the very first race of the year at Road Atlanta in May.
“I felt pretty good out there,” Fong said. “Before the restart, I felt like I had some pace, for sure. At least to try to see Jake (Gagne) from a distance, just to kind of latch onto him. I’m struggling pretty bad in turn two. I’m losing literally a half a second a lap just in that one turn. I felt pretty good through the infield, but I had a solid machine underneath me today. It was good. The pace was pretty good. I just tried to manage it at the end. I’m looking forward to tomorrow at least to try to be a little closer to Jake. I know (Loris) Baz will be there tomorrow. It was definitely slick out there the first few laps. It was weird because I was in the back of the train, and I just see everybody just coming out of the seat and tucking the front. I had my moments back there, too. It was really weird. But I’m happy to get second and move forward to tomorrow with a positive attitude.”
The battle for third was fought out between the two South Africans – Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen. At the completion of the 15-lap race it was Scholtz grabbing third for his seventh podium of the year, though it still allowed Gagne to pull farther away in the title chase. Gagne now leads Scholtz by a whopping 74 points, 250-176. Petersen, meanwhile, made a big move to third in the championship, moving past Josh Herrin, who missed the race after testing positive for COVID-19.
Petersen held on for fourth, some 2.5 seconds behind Scholtz and 14.2 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Hector Barbera on the Scheibe Racing BMW.
J.D. Beach battled early in the race with Barbera but ended up sixth on the second Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha in his replacement ride for Herrin.
Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis was seventh and that put him at the top of the Superbike Cup, a class within a class for those riding Stock 1000-spec motorcycles in the HONOS Superbike race.
Franklin Armory/Andrew Lee Racing’s Andrew Lee was eighth on his Stock 1000-spec Kawasaki ZX-10R ahead of FLY Racing/ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony and his teammate Bradley Ward with the Suzuki-mounted pair finishing ninth and 10th, respectively.