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ROAD RACE ROUND 5 / JUNE 24-25, 2017 UTAH MOTORSPORTS CAMPUS / SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH P106 2017 MOTOAMERICA down the straight. I knew that wouldn't have been eligible to do, so I just kind of sat back and knew I had to save my tires a little bit to wait for the right mo- ment and time to make my move. "They pulled a gap on me for a second and had me worried, so I had to push really hard to get back up there. I just hap- pened to make moves really fast and coming into that last lap there were those lappers, which spooked me a little bit because I didn't know what they were doing. Jackson got around one but maybe lost some momentum getting around the other one and I came up on these fast guys. "I did whatever I could going into turn 14. Jackson was killing it through that corner and I had to do something. I knew he was faster than me through 15 and Series in Road America when he finished second. On Sat- urday, he went one better, the 15-year-old Californian winning his first MotoAmerica race after a thrilling three-way battle to the finish with Benjamin Smith and Jackson Blackmon. It all came down to the last lap and Ventura got through the final three miles the best, taking vic- tory over Smith by just 0.021 of a second with Blackmon third—just 0.061 of a second behind. "The race was really good," Ventura said. "We got off to a good start, probably my best start of the season, and I just stuck with these two fast guys (Smith and Blackmon). I tried to get up there and mix it up early on in the race, and tried to break away one lap, but both of them drafted past me about halfway perstock 600 victory in the pro- cess. He was some 12 seconds clear of Team MG55's Michael Gilbert, the Sport Rider Maga- zine editor taking the runner-up spot for the second straight day. Sixth fell to M4 medAge Suzuki's Nick McFadden, the Kentuckian braving the pain of having his collarbone operated on just a week before the race to earn the final Superstock 600 podium spot. Following his perfect weekend in Utah, Aguilar now leads the Superstock 600 title chase by nine points over Gilbert, 135- 126. Connor Blevins, seventh today, is third with 125 points. KTM RC CUP Cory Ventura showed what he was capable of at the previ- ous round of the KTM RC Cup Yamaha teammates Garrett Gerloff and JD Beach got a little too close when Beach dove under Gerloff, putting them both on the ground. Beach did win race one, however.