MILLVILLE, N.J. – Iffy conditions ruled the day on a damp Friday at New Jersey Motorsports Park, with Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier tip-toeing through the puddles better than the rest to lead the first day of practice and qualifying.
Beaubier lapped at 1:23.802 in qualifying practice two for the HONOS Superbike class to lead M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong by a tick over half a second in perilous conditions, with at least two streams running across the track in different spots.
Jake Gagne, on the second Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha, ended the day third fastest, but paid a price for his efforts with a crash early in the final session. Although Gagne limped away from the crash, he was none the worse for wear except for the damage to his YZF-R1.
Things then got worse for the Californian, when he was DQd from the session because his bike was deemed to be out of MotoAmerica technical control after he rode it back to his garage instead of straight to parc ferme.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was just .07 seconds behind Gagne and just .3 of a second ahead of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Toni Elias.
KWR Ducati’s Kyle Wyman ended the day fifth on his rebuilt Ducati Panigale V4 R after his disastrous weekend in Washington State two weeks ago left him with a lot of repairs.
FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony, his teammate Bradley Ward, Scheibe Racing BMW’s Josh Herrin, Superbike Underground’s Jeremy Coffey and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounded out the top 10 from day one.
All five classes faced similar conditions and there were several crashes and near crashes.
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly led Supersport Q1 over Celtic HSBK Racing’s Brandon Paasch and N2 Racing’s Xavier Zayat, though Zayat had a crash that ended his day.
Stock 1000 saw Ride HVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander slip in a fast lap right at the end to take the top spot away from Altus Motorsports’ Cameron Petersen.
Rocco Landers rode his Norton Motorsports/Ninja400R/Dr. Farr/Wonder CBD-backed Kawasaki to the fastest lap of the Liqui Moly Junior Cup, a 1:32.723, to best Bauce Racing/CyberSafe Solutions/JL62 Racing’s Joseph LiMandri Jr in Q1, with LiMandri suffering a crash after his best lap.
Third fastest was BARTCON Racing’s Dominic Doyle, the South African having the save of the day when he was completely off the side of his Ninja 400, went on to the grass and rode the bike to a stop without tipping over.
Twins Cup Q1 was the final session of the day and was led by Landers and his SportbikeTrackGear.com Roadracingworld.com Suzuki over Hayden Schultz Racing’s Hayden Schultz and Trackworx Motorsports’ Teagg Hobbs.