Last year around this time, in a story on this Website, we mentioned the hinted-at Aprilia RS 660 and speculated about the bike’s potential in MotoAmerica’s Twins Cup class. Right from the get-go, with just a few photographs to go by, we could see that the Italian manufacturer’s twin-cylinder sportbike was designed with Twins Cup Championships as one of its…
After the revised version of the Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike debuted in 2015, Josh Hayes’s chassis man Steve Rounds seemingly spent every spare moment of his time (at least while at the racetrack) working on the seat on Hayes’s #1 machine during the 2015 season. Shaving, gluing, and clamping down the neoprene on countless iterations of the seat, Rounds focused tirelessly…
Jake Lewis is always an interesting person to talk to, whether it’s about road racing, Kentucky Wildcats basketball, hairstyles, or riding dirt bikes in the woods. We checked in with the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki Superbike rider and asked him “The Friday 5.” Here are his answers: 1. What is your favorite thing about racing a Superbike? The speed and the…
The following is from Robem Engineering… Robem Engineering, in collaboration with RBoM Racing, will run a two-rider effort in the 2020 MotoAmerica Twins Cup Champions, and they have enlisted 2019 Liqui Moly Junior Cup racers Jackson Blackmon and Toby Khamsouk as the team’s riders. Blackmon and Khamsouk will contest the series on Robem-developed, third-generation Suzuki SV650 motorcycles. 18-year-old Blackmon got…
Are you ready for this? Here’s the debut of our newest MotoAmerica project, The Rider’s Turn, and our first episode features Yoshimura Suzuki’s Josh Herrin. Watch Herrin as he methodically goes about his job at Circuit of the Americas in the opening round of the 2019 MotoAmerica EBC Brakes Superbike Series… and listen to Herrin as he explains his thought…
2018 MotoAmerica Twins Cup Champion Chris Parrish has what is arguably one of the most developed Suzuki SV650 racebikes on the planet. From its pouting-mouth air intake to its mid-1990s Suzuki GSX-R SRAD-inspired custom tail section, the bike is not only the result of virtually countless club races, track days, test sessions, dyno runs, and MotoAmerica Twins Cup races, it…
Categorized by Suzuki as a “standard” motorcycle, the SV650 was transformed into a MotoAmerica Twins Cup Championship-winning race bike by Team Hammer, who combined their ingenuity and past experience with race- and championship-winning twin-cylinder machines, a copious amount of top-shelf aftermarket components, and a young and very talented rider to capture the 2019 title. Rider: Alex Dumas Engine: Team Hammer-Built…
MotoAmerica’s first Twins Cup Champion Chris Parrish did everything he could to defend his 2018 title, but the Hermitage, Tennessee-based rider came up a little short, finishing fourth in the final standings. Traditionally a Suzuki SV650 rider, and a guru when it comes to extracting maximum performance from the S-brand’s middleweight V-twin, Parrish even switched to a Yamaha MT-07 for…
Nicknamed “Action Jackson” by the late, great Brian Drebber, Jackson Blackmon has been a fixture in MotoAmerica’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup class, and this past season, he began to make the transition to bigger bikes when he raced one of Russell Masecar’s Suzuki SV650s in the final two rounds of the Twins Cup Championship while still racing a Monkey Moto/AGV…
MotoAmerica honored its five 2019 MotoAmerica Champions and those who pushed them the hardest on Monday night, September 23, at a gala event in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, a day after the battles had been won and lost at Barber Motorsports Park. The list of champions from 2019 is impressive: Twins Cup Champion Alex Dumas, Stock 1000 Champion Andrew Lee, Liqui…
The following is from Yoshimura Suzuki… The 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike season finale will go down as one of supreme disappointment for Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing. Toni Elias, who led the standings nearly the entire season, and had a 16-point advantage coming into the event, suffered a challenging weekend, chasing bike setup all along the way. He managed a podium on…
What seemed like the improbable just three days ago turned into reality for Cameron Beaubier on a sunny Sunday in Alabama, the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing rider winning a fourth MotoAmerica Superbike crown by five points over his rival Toni Elias with a sweep of the two EBC Superbike races at Barber Motorsports Park. Beaubier did everything he needed to…
The newly resurfaced Barber Motorsports Park was the main talking point on the opening day of the Championship of Alabama as riders took to the billiard-table smooth surface for the first time on a sunny and warm Friday. The fastest of the fast on the day was Garrett Gerloff, the Monster Yamaha/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing-mounted Superbike rider lapping at 1:23.915 in…
It all comes down to this. With just two races left in the 2019 MotoAmerica EBC Brakes Superbike Championship, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias leads Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cameron Beaubier by 16 points as the series heads to the season finale this weekend – the Championship of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. By virtue of his eight wins and 14…
Russell Masecar, who is the band leader of Russell’s Band of Misfits–otherwise known as “RBoM Racing”–sends word that Chris “CJ” Crosslin from Raleigh, North Carolina will make his return to the MotoAmerica paddock this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park where he will compete aboard the #409 RB0M Racing Suzuki SV650. According to Masecar, Crosslin will “attempt to upset the proverbial…
The following is from MotoAmerica… Please find attached sanction for M4 ECSTAR Suzuki for the behavior of team member Pat Kelly, who acted in a manner that discredits MotoAmerica, the AMA and the FIMNA from round nine of the 2019 MotoAmerica Series at New Jersey Motorsports Park on September 8, 2019. To view the sanction, click the following link. MotoAmerica_ECSTARSanctionNJMP
Cameron Beaubier will need a little help from his friends in the final round of the 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship at Barber Motorsports Park in two weeks, but he at least has a chance after winning the second EBC Brakes Superbike race in the Championship of New Jersey on Sunday. Beaubier, who finished second on Saturday and won on Sunday…
The following is from Attack Performance Estenson Racing… JD Beach ran a smart race to take his third podium of the season aboard the Attack Performance Estenson Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 in MotoAmerica Superbike race one at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Saturday, September 7. After a frustrating few race weekends, the team’s hard work paid off as Beach found his…
As if we all needed further proof that Twins Cup is decidedly different than the other four race classes in the MotoAmerica Championship, defending Twins Cup Champion Chris Parrish, who has raced and developed his #1 Ghetto Customs Suzuki SV650 for the past couple of years, will be aboard a Team AP MotoArts Yamaha FZ-07/MT-07, which is painted in Parrish’s…
While two riders are on the verge of capturing titles in the 2019 MotoAmerica Series, the other three classes are still wide open with gaps ranging from 11 to 35 points – including the premier EBC Brakes Superbike Championship – as the series heads to New Jersey Motorsports Park this weekend for the MotoAmerica Championship of New Jersey. With his…
The following is from RBoM Racing… The 2019 MotoAmerica Twins Cup series has consistently had big grids all season, provided plenty of on track entertainment, a fair amount of off track drama, a bit of social-media fodder, and another closely contested championship points race. As the penultimate round gets set to run at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP)…
The following is from Yoshimura Suzuki… It was a great day Sunday for Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing at Pittsburgh Motorsports Race Complex as Toni Elias scored a come-from-behind victory aboard the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. His teammate Josh Herrin also had a strong race, moving up to finish third, putting both Yoshimura Suzukis on the podium. The win for Elias, his…
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias thought he had two chances of winning the second EBC Brakes Superbike race in the Championship of Pittsburgh – slim and none. But Elias is Elias and by the time the dust had settled around him, he was at the front of the field and en route to his seventh win of the 2019 MotoAmerica Series.…
The following is from Attack Performance Estenson Racing… Attack Performance Estenson Racing’s JD Beach overcame adversity at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex to score another top 10-finish in MotoAmerica Superbike race one on Saturday, August 24. Beach got off to a decent start from the seventh spot on the grid and advanced to fourth after an incident between two riders…
Garrett Gerloff is most definitely on a roll, the Texan riding his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 to his third victory in the last five races with the latest one coming on Saturday in the Championship of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Gerloff came out on top of a race-long battle in the first of two EBC Brakes Superbike…
Going into turn seven at Sonoma Raceway on the third lap in race two a few weeks ago, Toni Elias led the 2019 EBC Brakes Superbike Championship by a healthy 59 points. Milliseconds later, Elias was sliding across the tarmac watching and praying his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 stayed intact. It didn’t. When the Spaniard got to the bike, he found…
And just like that, the 2019 MotoAmerica Series is headed into its final three races of the season with so much to play for as Pittsburgh International Race Complex beckons with the Championship of Pittsburgh, August 23-25. With rounds six and seven held in California, the series heads east this week for three straight races on the “East Coast” –…
When Sean Dylan Kelly showed up at the 2018 post-season test on the Monday following the final MotoAmerica round at Barber Motorsports Park last September, he climbed aboard one of Team Hammer’s Suzuki GSX-R600 Supersport bikes and immediately raised some eyebrows with his competitive laptimes. Renowned as a discoverer and cultivator of motorcycle road racing talent, Team Hammer proceeded to…
For 2019, Georgia-based Miles Thornton moved up to the Stock 1000 class aboard the #72 Altus Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000. Thus far, it’s been a somewhat trying season for Thornton as he and the team come to grips with the electronics on the big bike. A motorcycle road racer on the weekend, the multi-talented Thornton also has a day job as…
