MotoAmerica Supersport Road America, Race 2

It’s time now, for the second race of the MotoAmerica Supersport championship.  After his crash in yesterday’s race, he is sore, but is ready to race.  The bikes form up into the order they will line up on the grid after their sighting lap with the quick start procedure.  We are ready to get on with it, Supersport race two.  It’s lights out, and away we go! Into the lead, Richie Escalante, who won the race yesterday.,  Sean Dylan Kelly Wants to go for the lead, but Escalante is there.  Xavier Zyad and is also in the fight.  Benjamin Smith is in the fight as well and so is Brandon Paasch.  Escalante runs wiode and loses places. 

Brandon Paasch now leads Sean Dylan Kelly.  Escalante held the brake too long trying to go too fast into the corner.  Brandon Paasch raced in British Superbike and in Moto 3 in the past.  Lap one is done and dusted.  1:24.6 for Paasch on the Yamaha R6 as Sean Dylan Kelly motors past on the Suzuki GSXR600.  Paasch goes right back past Kelly and Here comes Richie Escalante.  He’s flying, and he thankfully goes tighter into the turn this tim, woeing down the bike.  Escalante slams past Paasch.  He’s on the inside, look.  He’s closer than he was in yesterday’s race. 

This action is hot and heavy.  Nate Minster is pushing hard as well, an experienced rider on a 600cc motorcycle.  Sean Dylan Kelly and Brandon Paasch continue to battle and Richie Escalante says, “so long, chaps.  I’m gone.”  Escalante is whistling off into the distance.  Nate Minster is flying and we see Benjamin Smith has gone down.  He will resume the race but is dropping like a stone down the order.  Benjamin Smith slid on the gravel and fell down, laying the bike down.  It wasn’t really a crash.

Paasch, 2:20.6, and Kelly, 2:20.2.  These two chaps are close together.  Paasch is closing back in on Richie Escalante.  Paasch has set both a personal best and a fastest lap.  Richie Escalante is continuing in the race and wants to cut consistent laps.  Don’t dwell on your mistakes.  It’s not worth it.  We have seven laps to go and Brandon Paasch has fastest lap so far at 2:19.789.  They will co0me back to Road America in a month’s time for more racing. 

Richie Escalante is strongest in the last two turns, at turns 13 and 14.  The cihcane and Canada Corner are strong spots for him, but he’s really quick out of the final two corners on the track as we have just five laps left in this motorcycle race.  Can the tires last for another 20 miles?  Nate Minster remains fourth, and has Jason Aguilar all over him like the proverbial el cheapo suito.  Aguilar is in the same ,lap time range.  Actually, let me correct myself.  Aguilar, is the pursuer, and Nate Minster is the pursuee, as it were.  It could be.  Nate Minster vs. Jason Aguilar, both on Yamaha YZF R6’s. 

Nate Minster was a Junior Cup rider on a smaller bike, but now, he’s in his element.  Younger riders do well on smaller bikes, and as they grow, they will fit onto a bigger bike.  Poor old Aguilar just got off in the grass.  Ugh.  That was a close one!  Fastest lap of the race for Richie Escalante at 2:19.3.  He’s still pushing.  Luca Silva has Nolan Lampkin on his rear tire.  These two chaps are also battling for position.  Somw of these chaps have been in MotoAmerica for 2-3 years.  Luca Silva and Xavier Zyad are aloso in the fight.  Aguilar is pressing Minster as well.  Nate Minster is having to be on guard, to keep Jason Aguilar behind him.

Two laps before this motorcycle race is done and dusted.  It is the final lap now.  Richie Escalante leads the motorcycle race by 4.1 seconds.  White flag.  It’s the final lap.  Escalante cuts a 2:20.4.  He is working on win number two in MotoAmerica Supersport.  He is through turn five clean.  nNo worries.  Just touch the rev limiter shifting up a gear and back down.  Then sweeping through the Carousel for the final time.  Brandon Paasch is back there, and he will finish is second spot.  Escalante leads by 5.2 seconds but he is going to do the double here, at Road America!  Richie Escalante is your winner!  Race two of the season, and two wins, in the bag.  Brandon Paasch is second.  Third is Shawn Dylan Kelly who gets 16 points after scoring nil points yesterday.

#54 Richie Escalante      MEX.     Kawasaki ZX6R

We will see you soon, for the next MotoAmerica race, also to be held here at Road America, next month.    

MotoAmerica Supersport: Road America, Race 1

We’re three laps into the race for the first event of MotoAmerica 2020.  This is race one for MotoAmerica Supersport at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  Three of eleven laps are done and dusted, watching the lead battle between Richie Escalante, Sean Dylan Kelly, and numerous others racing through the top ten.  Brandon Paasch is the man trying to catch the two leaders as they scream through The Carousel.  Into the chicane, Escalante is pushing, pushing, pushing.  His Kawasaki ZX6R accelerates extremely wel.=l.  He must watch the chatter in the front tire.  The Kawasaki can get wobbly in the front end, as a rider, that unnerves you.  He’s adjusting the brakes as they heat up. 

Sean Dylan Kelly is right on Escalante’s gearbox.  The Suzuki GSX-R 600 of Kelly is closing in, fast.  The lap here is really long at 2:20 average.  A shorter track means that you have less time to oplan your moves.  Escalkante, makes a bug mistake at Canada Corner.  Slow the bike, and turn.  Don’t lose your rolling momentum.  That’s a steep exit in the turn.  Kelly is waiting, watching for Escalante to make a mistake.  This lead scrap is the battle worth watching ojnh the road at the moment.  Back straightaway again,.and Sean Dylan Kelly wants it.  “SDK” did very well in the 2019 season.  

Another fastest lap for Escalante and these two blokes are cutting laps in the 2:19 range.  This whole race has really been between these two leaders, coming back towards Canada Corner.  The motorcycle gets really choppy over the bumps, and Sean Dylan Kelly falls off the bike!  He’s lost it!  It dug in and he high sided, tumbling into the gravel, trap.  He hits the downshift, caught a false neutral, and high sides the motorcycle, big style!  That’s a huge wreck!  Brandon Paasch and Kevin Olmedo move up.

Let’s hope that Sean Dylan Kelly is OK.  He broke his leg rearlier on.  The majority of the riders wear earplugs to protect their hearing on these high revving motorcycles.  Sea Dylan Kelly is OK.  RRichie Escal,ante has four laps remaining.  REscalante cuts a 2:19.7,l just two hundredths of a second off huis best lap.  Someone is getting the meatball flag, the mechanical black flag with the red dot.  The marshals in pit lane will look ovrr the bike.  Jason Aguilar on the #96 motorcycle, running fourth.  He has smoke emanating from the motorcycle.  His engine must be very smoky indeed.  It’s not pouring out, and there’s no oil.  But could it be something broken internally in the motor?

Game over for Aguilar.  Richie Escalante, the rider from Mexico, he is flying.  A few years back he broke his knee, tibia, and fibula in one leg.  So he has to ride more, using his arms.  Escalante has ridden the Yamaha YZF R6 before.  He has changed to Suzuki and the GSXR600, having help with the bike from Valentin Debise, the French rider.  Escalante needed a change. He wants to win.  Can he?  He has the pace right nown ahd just has to hold on for two more laps.  Kevin Olmato is in his first season of Supersport, after racing Junior Cup last year.  Olmato has not been able to train during the pandemic.  So, coming to Road America, it is easier to race because of the long, fast sections on the track.

Brandon Paasch, meanwhile, on the Yamaha R6, he tested with his team and has come back from England to the United States, to race.  The white flag is out and we are into the final lap of this motorcycle race, and we see Richie Escalante, he is about to maybe get the checkers.  He goes sideways, and up the hill.  He is cruising.  Poor old Sean Dylan Kelly is out of the race.  Richie Escalante has half of the track to navigate before he can celebrate.  Stay on the bike, sunshine.  Team boss, Chuck Graves, back at the shop, must be very happy right now.  Sending it into the final turn, twisting the grip on the handlebars, and RichieEscalante wins his first MotoAmerica Supersport race!  Brandon Paasch in second.  Kevin Olmedo, third, on the podium. 

Nate Minster, and others have successful results.  Thhere is a race tomorrow and then, more racing coming up at Road America in jusrt three weeks or so.  Sean Dylan Kelly, he will be checked by the doctors for concussion protocol, and if he’s not too sore, he can get back into racing, for tomorrow, on these 600cc street bikes.  So, the Supesport race, is now done and dusted, and we will be ready for race one for Superbike.  Stay tuned for that.