SHELTON, Wash. – With temperatures soaring into the triple digits in the Pacific Northwest, nothing came easy for those trying to win races on Saturday at Ridge Motorsports Park.
But win they did. In Supersport, Sean Dylan Kelly got the better of his rival, Richie Escalante to win for a fourth time on the season; Jackson Blackmon won his first-career Twins Cup race; Max Toth broke through in the SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup; and Corey Alexander gained some ground on Jake Lewis in the Stock 1000 class.
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Kelly started from the pole in Supersport race one, and as anticipated, the usual battle that Kelly has with defending class champion Escalante quickly materialized.
Escalante, aboard his HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki, tried to overtake Kelly, but he was never able to get close enough to finish the move and, in fact, Kelly not only maintained the lead from start to finish, but he built a gap of over a second at the checkered flag.
Altus Motorsports Suzuki’s Kevin Olmedo, who missed the first two rounds of the season due to a shoulder injury suffered while training, finished third for his first podium result since the first Supersport race of the season last year.
“That was a really difficult race,” Kelly said. “It was so hot out there, super physical. Richie (Escalante) was on me the entire race and never let go of me. It was super tough. I tried to keep the best pace I could. I didn’t go as fast as I was expecting for myself. I think the conditions were just so tough. Good thing is, I was able to be super consistent up until the last lap. I think that’s what got us the win today. I made a really big mistake putting a false neutral. I made a few other smaller mistakes through turn 13 and a few other corners. I need to gather myself up and change a couple things for the warmup to make that a little bit more consistent.
“Overall, I’m really happy we got the win today. We pushed through it, one of the hardest mentally and physically races, for sure, with this weather. Happy with the work we did.”
In Stock 1000, which was the first race of the day on Saturday, Altus Motorsports Suzuki rider Lewis started from the pole in the 13-lap race, and he looked to have the measure of the field. With less than three laps to go, HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Alexander, who was gaining ground on Lewis lap by lap, overtook the Kentuckian and made it stick.
Alexander crossed the finish line a little more than one second ahead of Lewis, who finished second. Third place went to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway/Octane Lending Kawasaki rider Michael Gilbert.
The air temperature approaching 100 degrees had a varying effect on all of Saturday’s races at Ridge, but in Twins Cup, where the bikes are modded more than in any other class to extract maximum horsepower from the twin-cylinder engines, there was a lot of attrition in race one – with nearly half of the riders unable to finish the race.
Jackson Blackmon Racing Yamaha’s Blackmon seemed almost completely unaffected by the heat. The South Carolinian won his first Twins Cup race by .215 of a second over Robem Engineering Aprilia rider Kaleb De Keyrel. Anthony Mazziotto, who started from the pole and looked to be headed for victory, was one of the riders who failed to finish; the New Jersian crashed out of the lead on lap eight.
After Mazziotto went out, De Keyrel led the race for two laps until Blackmon overtook him with two laps to go. Third place went to Innovative Motorsports/Mike’s Imports Suzuki rider Teagg Hobbs.
Saturday’s races at Ridge Motorsports Park wrapped up with SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race one, and MotoAmerica’s entry-level riders put on a great show.
Veloce Racing Kawasaki rider Toth, who joined the MotoAmerica series for the final round of the 2020 season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, got the first win of his MotoAmerica career after recording a podium finish at both Virginia Int’l Raceway and Road America earlier this season.
Toth took the lead on the final lap of the 11-lap event and won by 1.527 seconds over Landers Racing Kawasaki rider Ben Gloddy, who inherited second place when polesitter Tyler Scott was penalized five seconds for cutting the track.
With the time added to his result, Scott was moved back from second place to fourth in the results, and Veloce Racing Kawasaki’s David Kohlstaedt was credited with third place.
American Racing Team’s Kensei Matsudaira had a good evening at Ridge Motorsports Park’s karting track, the Californian going four for four with victories in both 110 and 160 races.
The two 190 races were split between American Racing’s Travis Horn and Atlas Speed Factory’s Jesse James Shedden.