Alexander, Landers, Fong And Van Victorious At BIR
Corey Alexander (23) won his sixth Yuasa Stock 1000 race of the season at Brainerd International Raceway on Sunday, topping Brandon Paasch (96) and Andrew Lee (14). Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Turns out the only time Corey Alexander doesn’t win is when he doesn’t start. There have eight Yuasa Stock 1000 races held in the MotoAmerica Championship and Alexander has won six of them. The other two, at VIRginia International Raceway, he missed because of a concussion. He most definitely didn’t miss Sunday’s race at Brainerd International Raceway. Thus, he won.
Yuasa Stock 1000 – Alexander Again!
The weekend’s only Stock 1000 race kicked off the final day at Brainerd International Raceway, and Tytlers Cycle/RideHVMC Racing Kawasaki rider Corey Alexander won his fifth race in a row and sixth out of eight races so far this season. The race was red-flagged and restarted with a five-lap sprint to the checkered flag, and Altus Motorsports Suzuki rider Brandon Paasch notched his first-career Stock 1000 podium with a runner-up result. It was an emotional accomplishment for Paasch, who drew inspiration from his girlfriend’s father Scott Briody. Also, a Stock 1000 competitor, Briody tragically passed away in an on-track incident on Friday.
Third place went to Cycle World/Octane/Chuckwalla Racing rider Andrew Lee, who is filling in for the injured Michael Gilbert.
“For me, I’m just happy to get through every session with no issues and every lap, for that matter,” Alexander said. “Not my favorite place to come to. Not my favorite place to ride. So, I’m happy to come out of here with some more points. It gives us a little bit more cushion because I know Hayden (Gillim) is going to continue to be really fast at these last few tracks. Jersey is our home round. We’ll see what happens there. Really thankful for my guys. It’s been really fun this year to work through things because we show up on a new bike and there’s a lot of new challenges. Last year, we weren’t able to get the bike figured out. This year, we’re able to really see big progress throughout the weekend, which is a fun thing to do when you come in and you can give feedback and the guys are able to turn that into progress, which is a really cool process. Enjoying that.”
Supersport – Landers x Two
Landers Racing Yamaha rider Rocco Landers had a breakthrough weekend in Supersport. The former Twins Cup and two-time Junior Cup Champion followed up his race one Supersport win with another win in race two. In both races, Landers won by a significant margin, but his gap was gargantuan in race two. Finishing second and more than 13 second behind Landers was Josh Herrin aboard his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale, the current championship leader never getting comfortable with the Minnesota race course. Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha’s Josh Hayes. All told, the Supersport podium in race two was exactly the same as the Supersport podium in race one.
“It was a surprise because I didn’t feel we made any crazy improvements from yesterday,” Landers said. “We made some small changes. The team worked really hard last night just to get every last percent that we could. Really thankful to have the Yamaha R6 and it’s amazing handling, carve these fast corners up. The race was really, really enjoyable for me because I’ve struggled a lot over the past two years. Yesterday felt really good. Today feels even better. I’m glad I’m able to do this to honor Scott Briody. It’s just a good day for me, really good. I feel really good with the team. Really looking forward to Pittsburgh. Can’t wait to work even harder to get ready for that.”
Mission King Of Baggers – Game On
In the penultimate Mission King Of The Baggers race of the season, which was red-flagged and moved from the second race of the day to the second-to-the-last race of the day, Roland Sands Design Indian rider Bobby Fong won his first Big Twin feature race of the year. And he did it by making an incredible inside pass on Mission Foods/S&S Cycle/Indian Challenger Team’s Tyler O’Hara, who was in the lead. After Fong threaded the needle – a very large needle – H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Travis Wyman followed him through, also overtaking O’Hara, who was quickly shuffled from first to third, with Wyman ending up second.
Defending class champion Kyle Wyman was disqualified after a technical infraction, and his teammate and younger brother Travis now leads the championship by three points over O’Hara with only the race at New Jersey Motorsports park in September to decide it all.
“I’m just thankful to ride a motorcycle,” Fong said. “A few months ago, my career was over, so I’m just thankful that my boss lets me do this. It’s been fun this year. It’s definitely been up and down. But leaving the track today getting first, it’s definitely going to be a really good feeling. I definitely miss this. It’s good to be here. I’m looking forward to New Jersey. Just keep on riding this wave.”
SportbikeTrackGear.com – Van Ends Drought
The MotoAmerica Superbikes at Minnesota weekend wrapped up with SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race two, and as is customary in the class, the frontrunners raced in a large pack for most of the five-lap event. Max Van led four of the five laps, and most importantly, the final lap as he took the checkered flag aboard his SportbikeTrackGear.com Kawasaki. Race one winner Kayla Yaakov finished second aboard her Altus Motorsports Kawasaki, and Alpha Omega Kawasaki rider Cody Wyman rounded out the podium in third.
“These past few rounds have been a little rough,” Van said. “Some DNF’s, some real bad results. Just wasn’t riding my best. But yesterday, I was in a good position all race. Hats off to Kayla because going into 12 and even maybe trying to draft her to the line, before the incident, I didn’t think that was possible. So, hats off to her for the win. It feels great to be up here with Cody and Kayla both. But just a tragedy this weekend with Scott Briody and the whole family. I’m doing this for them.”
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