Sean Dylan Kelly has been chasing a championship since he was five years old. On Sunday at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Kelly got what he’s been chasing with the 19-year-old wrapping up the 2021 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship.
Kelly didn’t win Sunday’s race, but he didn’t need to. Instead, victory went to his rookie M4 ECSTAR Suzuki. teammate Sam Lochoff with Kelly finishing second. That was all it took, and the title was his.
Supersport: Kelly Crowned!
In Sunday’s Supersport race two, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s two-rider team took all the headlines for the 19-lap event as Sam Lochoff won his first-ever MotoAmerica race and Sean Dylan Kelly clinched the 2021 Supersport Championship with his second-place finish. HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki rider Richie Escalante finished third, but the defending champion did not surrender his class title without a fight in every race so far this season, including Sunday’s. There were lead changes aplenty throughout the entire race, and all three riders took turns at the front.
“This is a dream come true to get this championship,” Kelly said. “To now be crowned national champion is a dream. I’ve been working really hard for this. Not only me, but everyone around me. My family, ever since I started racing when I was five, they have given literally everything they had. They left everything behind in the U.S. They took me to Spain. They lived there with pennies. Everything for me, for this passion, for this dream. This is one of the first steps. It’s emotional. It’s something that I’ve been working really hard for. Last year, I really wanted to be the one to be crowned. I worked hard, but it clearly wasn’t enough. At one point I thought, ‘Man, this is going to be difficult. What’s my pathway?’ But, I didn’t stop believing. I kept on working. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki gave me another chance, another opportunity. (Team owners) John and Chris (Ulrich), I need to thank them from the bottom of my heart for giving me this opportunity for the past two years. I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for them. Thank you very much to them. Thank you to everyone that has been behind me, my parents, my family, my friends, my supporters…Like I said up there on the podium, this is only my first national championship, and I’m going to keep on going. I’m not going to stop. My next goal is to be world champion, wherever it needs to be.”
Commenting on his breakthrough Supersport win, Lochoff said, “It’s the second-to-last race of the season, but honestly that was our goal in the beginning of the year. Our goal was to try to get on the podium towards the end of the year, but when I saw that I was getting on the podium in the beginning of the year, I knew that maybe by this race or Barber I’d be able to win. Yesterday seeing that I was really close to the front for the majority of the laps, and only the last couple laps losing quite a bit to them, I knew today I just had to dig a little bit deeper, and it paid off. Honestly, it took everything out of me. I have a week now, or a couple days to get ready for Barber. We’re going to just relax, just get the body ready. I think, if we can get on the podium again or maybe win or come second, I think for next year I’ll have a good chance at maybe getting a championship.”
SportbikeTrackGear.Com Junior Cup: Great Scott
In Sunday’s SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup race two, Scott Powersports KTM rider Tyler Scott won his ninth race of the season and extended his points lead to 30 over Landers Racing Kawasaki’s Ben Gloddy, who finished third on Sunday for his 14th podium finish this year. Local rider Gus Rodio, who won at Road America earlier this season, came in second aboard his Rodio Racing Kawasaki for the second day in a row.
“I knew Ben had difficulties after the warmup lap yesterday,” Scott said. “So, I knew today he was going to be there and fighting really hard for the podium and (to get) the points back, so I put my head down and saw three seconds on the board, so I just tried to keep pushing and get the win.”
At the checkered flag, Scott won by a little more than seven seconds over Rodio, while Gloddy was another eight seconds behind Rodio.
Twins Cup: The Italian Job
Talk about saving the best for last. The final race of the weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park was in Twins Cup, and it was arguably the best race of the entire event, not to mention the best race in that class all year. Which is saying something considering that MotoAmerica’s “tuner class” always puts on a good show for the fans.
The battle at the front was fierce between Aprilia riders Tommaso Marcon, Anthony Mazziotto, and Max Toth. Marcon, who is an Aprilia test rider in Italy and is racing with Robem Engineering at the final two rounds of the MotoAmerica season, got the win by just .049 of a second over local rider Mazziotto, who competes for Veloce Racing. Marcon’s teammate Max Toth, who also recently joined Robem Engineering, finished third for the second day in a row and only his third race in the class.
“I arrived in the U.S. in the first of September, so it’s like more than ten days that I’m here,” Marcon said. “I am loving U.S.A. I visited so many places. I really like to stay here more times. Congratulations for everything because everything is beautiful. MotoAmerica organization is, also. I think that many championships should learn from MotoAmerica because it’s really, really, really good organized. About the race, we had some problems on Friday and Saturday. Saturday also crashed, so problem plus crash was for sure a difficult situation. The team worked really well, Robem Engineering. I want to thank them so much. Finally, today, we had other problems in warmup, but these guys, the team was amazing, and they fixed all that for the race. Finally, I just did my job. So, big thanks to Robem, to Aprilia. Congratulations to Max (Toth) and Anthony (Mazziotto), because really, I wasn’t expecting that the level here was that high. I would like so much to see Max and Anthony racing in Italy. We have Trofeo 660, so it will be a pleasure to have them and race again with them. But I’m still focused for Barber next week. It will be beautiful to repeat this result, so keep focus and we’ll see you in some days.”
