VOLUME 57 ISSUE 29 JULY 21, 2020 P35
Ridge Motorsports Park Gets
Thumbs Up After Two-Day Test
W
ith the two-day MotoAmer-
ica test session at Ridge
Motorsports Park in Shelton,
Washington, complete, accord-
ing to MotoAmerica organizers,
the overall consensus from the
riders taking part is that the new-
est addition to the MotoAmerica
calendar is going to be a "great
place to race" when the series
heads there, August 28-30.
After two days of testing on
the 16-turn, 2.47-mile racetrack,
it was four-time MotoAmerica
Superbike Champion Cameron
Beaubier who clocked the fast-
est time—a 1:41.1 on the final day
on his Monster Energy Attack
Performance Yamaha YZF-R1.
"It was nice to be able to
sleep on it overnight and come
back today and know where I
was going," Beaubier said after
completing the test at the top
of the timesheets. "It was really
good that we got here and got
some good track time before we
start racing. There are a couple
of areas that are high speed and
blind without a ton of runoff that
might be a little scary, but for the
most part it's pretty good."
Jake Gagne, who had the
advantage of riding at the Ridge
a few years ago at a track day,
led the opening day of the test
and ended up second to his
teammate after two days. Gagne
lapped at 1:42.9 on Tuesday and
1:42.1 the next day. The track,
however, is a bit different than
the last time Gagne visited, as a
new turn-one chicane has been
added.
M4 Ecstar Suzuki's Toni Elias
ended up third best, the Span-
iard improving from his 1:43.8
on day one to a 1:42.37 on day
two. That put him ahead of his
teammate Bobby Fong, the
2019 MotoAmerica Supersport
Champion logging a 1:42.63.
Sean Dylan Kelly was the only
Supersport rider at the test. "I
loved it," Kelly said. "Number
one, it's super fun. It's definitely
a technical track and not a track
you learn the first session out.
There are a lot of passing zones
even though it's pretty tight.
There's a lot of hard braking
areas and it will make for good
races."
The Ridge will play host to
round five of the series with all
six of the MotoAmerica classes
set to make their racing debut
there. CN
Shakedown test at
Ridge Motorsports Park
ends with Cameron
Beaubier on top. PHOTO:
JASON KINGHAM
