ROAD RACE
MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 5 / JUNE 6, 2016
ELKHART LAKE, WISCONSIN / ROAD AMERICA
P90
Supersport/
Superstock 600
Having started from pole posi-
tion, Yamaha Extended Service/
Graves/Yamaha rider Garrett
Gerloff took victory in race one
at Road America by the incred-
ible margin of just 0.004 sec-
onds over teammate and defend-
ing champion JD Beach.
With the track still damp in
some sections thanks to earlier
rain, slicks were still the pre-
ferred choice for the top men
including the two Yamaha riders
and the M4 SportbikeTrackGear.
com Suzukis of Valentin Debise
and Cameron Petersen. Debise
wouldn't last the race distance
however, with a ruined clutch
spoiling any chances of breaking
his MotoAmerica race luck.
Petersen held up Suzuki
honors well in his absence, tak-
ing third by just 0.264 seconds
behind Gerloff, who crossed the
stripe for his sixth win of the year.
"I wasn't really expecting the
track to dry up as fast as it did,"
said Gerloff. "There were some
spots that were pretty damp,
but a dry line appeared pretty
quickly. Towards the end of the
race, it was mostly dry, so I felt
like I could go a little quicker. I
think we could all tell that my R6
had a lot of steam today, so that
was a big help. Also, I was doing
everything I could to stay tucked
in because streamlining is so
important here."
The Superstock 600 race
was as competitive as ever with
Richie Escalante (HB Racing/
Meen Yamaha) taking the win
and fourth overall just from
Bryce Prince (Riders Discount/
Tuned Racing) and Travis
Wyman (Kyle Wyman Racing) in
third.
Race two saw a first-time win-
ner in the Supersport class as
Frenchman Debise fulfilled the
promise he's shown all season
by defeating the factory Yama-
has of Gerloff and Beach by
0.095 seconds with M4 Su-
zuki teammate Petersen taking
fourth, dropping to 2.148 sec-
onds behind at the flag.
"Earlier in the year I finished
Tucked in and
heading for the
flag—Valentin
Debise finally got
his first American
win over Garrett
Gerloff at Road
America.
