The Championship Battles Get Closer After A Dramatic Day In Texas.
Roughly 30 minutes after taking his first-career Mission King Of The Baggers victory, it all went horribly wrong for Rocco Landers when he crashed out of the BellissiMoto Twins Cup race twice – one he could remount from, the other terminal. And, just like that, his 19-point lead had turned into a six-point deficit with only tomorrow’s final round at Circuit of The Americas left in the Twins Cup season.
The high drama started right away when championship points leader Landers crashed his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki on the second lap while giving chase to Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Alessandro Di Mario. Fortunately, Landers was able to remount and knife his way through the pack to climb to 13th after three laps. Then came the ultimate reprieve as Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Rossi Moor crashed out in a vicious highside that brought out the red flag, thus gifting Landers another crack at it.
But it was more of the same in the five-lap restart as Di Mario took off out front, leading Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle and Landers in the five-lap restart. Then it all went wrong for Landers – again – as he crashed out of third with three laps to go.
The win was 15-year-old Di Mario’s second victory of the year, and his sixth consecutive podium finish… and he’s now in the catbird seat heading into tomorrow’s season-ender for the Twins class.
Di Mario’s teammate Gus Rodio finished fourth with BARTCON Racing’s Mathew Chapin rounding out the top five.
“First of all, I hope Rossi (Moor) is all right,” Di Mario said. “I saw the crash on TV, and it was bad. Rocco (Landers), too. That was a gnarly highside. i just hope they’re all right. I crashed at Barber, and I lost many points, and today was the day I made them up. So, I’m really happy. I just want to thank everybody, the whole team, Kevin, Freddy from home. I didn’t forget you. I love you. My parents. They’ve done everything for me. Thank you. Matt, Chad, Mike, and all my sponsors. HJC, Dainese, Moto Liberty, just everybody. Thank you so much.”
Jake Lewis (85) battled early with Corey Alexander (23), but eventually pulled away to victory, his first of the year. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Supersport – More Drama
With everything on the line for Supersport Championship leader Mathew Scholtz and his closest challenger PJ Jacobsen, it was all change in the results of Saturday’s race one at Circuit of The Americas as neither of the two combatants finished on the podium.
The action was hot and heavy from the start as the field of 30 riders funneled into the tricky turn one hairpin. Jacobsen’s Rahal Ducati Moto Panigale V2 got a little too up-close and personal with Scholtz’s Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6, which resulted in Scholtz and EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Martin Cardenas coming together and causing both Scholtz and Cardenas to crash. Cardenas was unable to continue, but Scholtz remounted his bike in 30th place and spent the remainder of the 11-lap race trying to move into a points-paying position, which he just missed out on by one position at the checkers.
Meanwhile, at the front, Altus Motorsports Suzuki’s Jake Lewis took the lead and held it all the way to the finish line where he notched his first-ever MotoAmerica-era Supersport race win by nearly three seconds over N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha rider Blake Davis in second place. Third place went to Jacobsen’s Rahal Ducati Moto teammate Corey Alexander, who overcame a problem with his bike’s gearshift to complete the podium.
Speaking of Jacobsen, he finished fifth, which enabled him to reduce Scholtz’s Championship lead from 25 points to just 14 with three races left in the season.
“I feel like I could have run with Matthew (Scholtz) or PJ (Jacobsen),” Lewis said. “I don’t know if PJ went down or what. I had good pace in practice. I could do the lap time by myself. I was finally good enough on the brakes. We’ve made a lot of progress the past two weekends. I can really feel the front-end underneath of me. That’s the main thing for me is riding on that front tire. I had good pace and it kind of showed in that race. Once I got to the front, I just kind of put my head down but was riding kind of smart and just plugging laps away. Then, with four to go, I don’t know if they were showing me on the TV or not, but I had a huge moment in the stadium section. The rear just came around. I was modulating the throttle, and the rear snapped around and both feet came off. I scared myself a little bit, and then I kind of looked over to the side and realized I had a big gap. I hadn’t won a Supersport race in a long time, and this was huge for the Altus Motorsports team. So, I just kind of backed it off and hit my lines. Honestly, kind of cruised around the last four laps. This track, I have really good pace, and I didn’t want to do anything stupid. So, I’m just really happy with that ride and proved some people wrong.”
Cory West extended his points lead with a third-place finish over Troy Herfoss (17) and Jake Lewis (hidden). Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – West Gets Closer
Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson’s Cory West came out the best in the two-rider battle for the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship on Saturday at COTA, but he didn’t pull away from S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Tyler O’Hara as much as originally thought.
West led from the start and had O’Hara with him, but O’Hara didn’t waste any time in going to the lead. Then the race changed completely when O’Hara crashed in turn one. The crash altered the complexity of the race as West was wise enough to not put up too much of a fight with both O’Hara’s teammate Troy Herfoss and his own teammate, Jake Lewis. Herfoss and Lewis, meanwhile, went at it at the front with O’Hara up and racing again and making big strides into the top 10.
At the finish it was Herfoss beating Lewis by just .434 of a second with West third, by 1.659 of a second. It was Herfoss second win of the season and the first since Daytona back in March.
Then came a pair of S&S/Indian Motorcycle FTR1200s ridden by Jeremy McWilliams and O’Hara, who had somehow fought his way up to fifth to score 11 points and keep his championship hopes alive.
With just tomorrow’s race remaining in the championship, West leads O’Hara by nine points.
“It was such a good race, and to hear that Tyler (O’Hara) somehow picked that bike up and finished fifth in a completely dry race, that’s scary for tomorrow,” Herfoss said. “I don’t want to be racing against him. Anyway, it’s still alive. When he went down, I thought it (the championship) was all over. Then I had to try and catch Cory (West) rather than letting that race happen. Cory was going so fast. I didn’t understand how to catch him. I had to use Jake (Lewis) to learn a bit about how and use that slipstream once we got there. Jake is such an old-school rider. He definitely understands that the fastest guy doesn’t always win. It’s about staying in front. There were some fun moves there. I hope he enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. I’ve been wanting to race him all year and he’s been too fast on me. I’m really happy to be here. Thanks to Indian Motorcycle. It’s my second win on the FTR1200 and we’re here. Mission Foods, Progressive, S&S Cycle. There’s so many great supporters of ours. I owe them a few more wins on this bike, so I’m happy to get one. I’m extra happy that Tyler is still in the championship fight.”
Rocco Landers (97) beat Troy Herfoss (17) to win the first Mission King Of The Baggers race of his career. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Mission King Of The Baggers – Landers Gets His First
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers has showed flashes of brilliance in his rookie season of Mission King Of The Baggers racing. On Saturday at COTA, Landers was able to coral that speed and talent and turn it into his first victory on the big V-twin.
Earlier in the year, Herfoss reaped praise on the 19-year-old, calling Landers “an ambitious young fellow.” Fittingly, it was Herfoss who lost out in a race-long battle with Landers.
Although Herfoss doesn’t enjoy losing, he did enjoy cutting Harley-Davidson Factory Racing rider Kyle Wyman’s championship points lead in half, from 14 points to just seven. Herfoss goes into tomorrow’s race two trailing Wyman, 295-288.
Third place went to Herfoss’ teammate Tyler O’Hara who rode hard to help his fellow S&S/Indian Motorcycle squad mate by keeping Wyman and RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim, who rounded out the top five finishers.
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