The overseas race weekends wrapped up for former and current MotoAmerica riders who are competing at World Championship rounds in two different parts of the globe.
At the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands, former MotoAmerica class champion and multi-time Superbike race winner Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) took part in two final races on Sunday.
In the 10-lap Superpole Race, Gerloff finished 16th in what was an initially wet but gradually drying track. The return of dry conditions for the final WorldSBK race of the weekend, held over 21 laps like Saturday’s Race One, was welcomed by all. Aboard his Ninja ZX-10RR, Garrett Gerloff got away with a pack of other riders and fought hard for track position and the chance for more championship points.
After a drop in tire grip, The Texan had to let his immediate rivals go and then managed his own race all the way to the flag, finishing 16th.
After adding the points he scored for 13th place in the opening race at Assen, GG31 is now ranked 17th overall, with 14 championship points.
“The weekend has been quite a bit up and down, Gerloff said. “Maybe more down, unfortunately. It’s difficult to work through all the things sometimes, just with everything being so new with the team and the bike. We had a tough go at it on Friday and Saturday, and we’re changing a lot of stuff, trying to find solutions, but you’re not always going to go in the right direction with changes. Today, in the rain, it was also a bit of a struggle. There was a glimmer of hope in Race Two. We used different-compound tires front and rear and, as soon as the race started, I thought, ‘Finally, this feels right.’ It feels comfortable. It feels like I have good turning, good grip. I had pace with the others. I wasn’t just alone in the back, so that was something that was really positive that I could take away from the race. But, unfortunately, with seven laps to go, I just completely lost front tire grip, and I was just a sitting duck. One rider passed me. Another rider passed me. Another rider passed me. I just started going backwards, and it was absolutely killing me. I did the best I could to try to maintain something. In the end, it was a still a crappy result. But, at least we can take how I felt at the beginning of the race and try to make changes to extend that out for the full race distance. It’s been a tough start to the year, but we’re going to keep working until we figure this thing out. Cremona is the home round for our team, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Barni Spark Racing’s Danilo Petrucci, who is also a multi-time MotoAmerica Superbike winner, was in action at the TT Circuit Assen, too. The Italian rode his Ducati Panigale V4 R to third in Saturday’s WorldSBK Race One.
In Sunday morning’s Superpole Race, Petrucci finished 13th, and then, in WorldSBK Race Two, he wrapped up his Dutch weekend with an 11th-place result.
Petrucci commented, “”It was a tough day. This morning, we made a mistake with the bike’s electronics, which put us far back and affected our starting position for Race Two. In the afternoon, I had grip issues. The rear tire completely dropped off, and it was really hard in the final laps. I’m disappointed because we lost valuable championship points. We’ll analyze what went wrong and try to fix it ahead of the next race.”
In WorldSSP Race One on Saturday, former MotoAmerica multi-time Supersport race winner Valentin Debise crashed his Renzi Corse Ducati Panigale V2 in Turn 3 and did not finish. The Frenchman bounced back in Sunday’s WorldSSP Race Two to finish fourth and just off the podium.
In the FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship (WorldWCR), which also took place at TT Assen Circuit, in Sunday’s Race Two, Diva Racing’s Mallory Dobbs finished 13th, while Team Trasimeno’s Sonya Lloyd was 20th.
Dobbs said, “Assen is unlike any circuit I’ve ever been to. It’s so fast and especially on these R7s, the smallest mistake costs so much lap time. I really struggled to find the flow in it the first day, which led to a pretty poor qualifying. But, I kept my head down and managed to get some points on the board in both races. It’s definitely not quite the results I wanted, but I’m happy to have made improvements consistently throughout the weekend. We also showed that we had pace in the wet morning warmup. I’m really hoping that, one of these weekends, we will get a rain race. From here, I’m staying in Barcelona to train until the next round in Cremona in only two weeks’ time.”
“I had some pretty high expectations coming into the weekend,” said Lloyd. “I definitely wanted to see a top-15 result just to give us something good to start with and build off of for the year. Unfortunately, we ended up with an 18th and a 20th in the two races. I’m still super happy with everything we did. We did the best we could, and we learned so much this weekend. New track, learned the bike, just getting a feel for everything. Still a good place to start off with for the season. It’s going to be a learning year, and as long as we’re moving forward, I’m happy with everything we’re doing.
“I’m really looking forward to the next round at Cremona in Italy next month. I am going to go back to the States before the next round. Yamaha USA has been amazing. They got me a practice bike so I can get more comfortable on the stock YZF-R7. I’m going to rip around on that a little bit and get ready for Cremona. I want to give a huge thanks to everybody who helped me get here. Bison, Arai, BellissiMoto, Blud Lubricants, Woodcraft, and 64 Degree Racing. It was also great to have Tim Robinson here as a familiar face helping us out on the track. It was just a great weekend overall, and I’m excited to get on with the rest of the season, visiting some new countries and new racetracks.”
On May 2 through 4, Cremona will host the next round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, as well as WorldSSP, WorldWCR, and WorldSSP300.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, at the Lusail International Circuit in Doha, Qatar, American Joe Roberts was racing in the FIM Moto2 World Championship. Roberts finished Sunday’s race 15th on his American Racing Team Kalex.
Also in Qatar, the Asia Talent Cup featured two MotoAmerica riders. Current Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul competitor Bodie Paige followed up his ninth-place finish in Saturday’s Race One with another ninth-place result in Race Two. Paige was also joined on the Asia Talent Cup grid by former Mini Cup By Motul competitor Mahdi Salem. After Salem carded a 15th-place result in Saturday’s Race One, he finished Race Two on Sunday in 10th, crossing the finish line right behind Paige.
