Beaubier wins again, Corey races to career best as PJ consistently scores at The Ridge
Cameron Beaubier, Corey Alexander, and PJ Jacobsen - Tytlers Cycle Racing’s BMW Superbike trio - were back on track in the latest round of the MotoAmerica series at The Ridge Motorsports Park this past weekend with all three once again adding significantly to their overall points tally. Another win for Cameron, a career best fourth for Corey and a top six for PJ just some of the highlights of the round!
MotoAmerica returnee Beaubier was once again at the sharp end throughout the event at the 2.47-mile circuit. Qualifying third, the #6 rider was in contention for the win on Saturday after reducing the deficit to early leader Jake Gagne. Unfortunately, with three laps to go the multiple MotoAmerica champion slid out of contention. Remounting he was classified seventh. Sunday once again saw Beaubier going wheel to wheel with Gagne, his race winning overtake coming just after half race distance. Extending his advantage until the flag, Cameron took his third win of the season by over a second to consolidate second overall in the standings.
Corey Alexander dominated in Stock 1000 at The Ridge twelve months ago and he was in fine form once again this year. Achieving his best qualifying position ever in the Superbike class, fifth, Alexander ran consistently in the leading group in both races, underlining his speed at the Washington stage venue and showing that his adaption to the SBK category continues at an impressive rate. Fourth on Saturday, he finished fifth on Sunday to record the first double top five of his Superbike career.
The team’s third rider PJ Jacobsen qualified on row three. He too gained positions despite struggling a little with set up during the weekend. He finished sixth and seventh on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
With all three riders having now shown front running pace this season, Tytlers Cycle Racing heads to California in a fortnight for the first triple head weekend of the season at the iconic Laguna Seca circuit.
Cameron Beaubier:“We had good pace in Race 1 and slowly chipped away the lead to Jake but unfortunately, I lost the front in turn one with three laps to go. It was a bummer, but I was happy with the pace and the progress we are making. Yesterday was a good day. The guys made two changes to the bike, to the front end and with engine brake, that gave me a good feel from warm up on. It felt really good to get a win here on a track I thought we would struggle at coming in. Onto Laguna!”
Corey Alexander:“Since the first session of the weekend I’ve felt very comfortable on the bike and the times have come a bit easier. Our best qualifying of fifth put us in the mix for the races. I was a little too reserved the first half of the race one but really started to work my way forward and after running sixth lucked a top five with Cam’s (Beaubier’s) misfortune. I’m very happy with yesterday’s result in race two even though the position is one less than what we achieved on Saturday. We finished seven seconds back from Cam which is less than half the gap to the lead from yesterday. I’m excited to keep this momentum going forward to Laguna. Thanks to the team and my guys for giving me a great bike to work with.”
PJ Jacobsen: “I was a bit lucky to get away with sixth position on Saturday after a few people crashed, but I felt as the race went on we had a bit better pace and the guys in front were coming back to me. It was annoying that there was a red flag as I really thought we could have made up a few spots but that’s racing. We made some changes for Sunday as I haven’t had much front end confidence at all since the very first session. I ran off in race two at turn twelve and lost five or six seconds. That really set me back and cost us what could have been at least another top six. I am super disappointed to only get a P6 and P7, it’s not where I want to be or where we have shown we can be, but we will go again in two weeks. Laguna is one of my favourite tracks and I am hoping the front-end confidence returns there.”