Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1358713
tires and we stayed on the nine- sevens the whole time. We just wanted to work on things so I could get a feel for what the bike does when we do this or that. We really learned a lot. We didn't want to throw down lap times we wanted to do what we could do to build a good race setup." Third-fastest overall on Wednes- day was Westby Racing's Mathew Scholtz with his 2:08.957 with the South African doing his best in the third session. Frenchman Loris Baz, who was making his MotoAmerica debut, slipped down the order today to fourth fastest, but his fast lap from yesterday put him just behind Fong after two days of testing on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York Panigale V4 R. Baz also had his first MotoAmerica crash, a slow tip-over in turn one early in the final day. "Definitely, the conditions were different than yesterday," Baz said. "Really windy and the bike is pretty sensitive to the wind with the wings. But it was good to try the bike in completely different conditions than yesterday. I did a lot of long runs, honestly, and the only time I tried a softer tire was at the end and I didn't use it well. We worked on making long runs on the race tire, like 10-lap runs. We did a good job, and I had a better feeling on the long run than yesterday. The lap times were a bit slower, but we did a good job." Gagne's Fresh N' Lean Attack Performance Yamaha teammate Josh Herrin ended the day fifth overall and just ahead of M4 Ec- star Suzuki's Cameron Petersen. Fly Racing ADR Motorsports' Jayson Uribe and David Anthony ended up seventh and eighth, though Uribe was fortunate to es- cape injury in a high-speed crash in the penultimate session today. Altus Motorsports' Jake Lewis and Thrashed Bike Racing's Max Flinders rounded out the top 10 overall on Wednesday. The battle for supremacy in the 2021 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship will kick off in ear- nest at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, April 30-May 2. Honos Kawasaki rider Richie Escalante's defense of his 2020 Supersport Championship doesn't begin until round one at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, but he made a convincing state- ment at the preseason test that he is clearly the favorite to take the title again in 2021. Escalante led all eight Supersport practice sessions aboard his 2020-spec machine, and he anticipates that his 2021 Kawasaki ZX-6R will be an even better bike than the one on which he won 13 races last year. In SportbikeTrackGear.com Junior Cup, Landers Racing Kawasaki rider Ben Gloddy made good work of the two-day test as he was the quickest rider in all but the final practice session. He'd most likely have been a perfect eight for eight, but he suffered a minor tip-over during Practice 8 and, even though he was uninjured, he wasn't able to record a lap time during the concluding session. In Twins Cup, Wrench Motor- cycles Yamaha rider Ethan Cook went quickest overall. CN COMBINED 1. Bobby Fong (Suz) 2:08.343 2. Loris Baz (Duc) 2:08.595 3. Jake Gagne (Yam) 2:09.025 4. Matthew Scholtz (Yam) 2:09.163 5. Josh Herrin (Yam) 2:09.642 IN THE WIND P52 Jake Gagne ended the test as the third-fastest of the Superbike riders.