CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 54 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 29, 2017 P87
JD Beach was a further five
seconds behind in third and just
two tenths ahead of Team H35's
Benny Solis.
Gerloff battled back from a
slight off-track excursion and a
bee sting to lead the final 12 of
the 16 laps. With Beach finishing
third, Gerloff now leads by 23
points, 271-248.
"It was a dumb mistake that
I made in turn one by running
straight through the grass," said
Gerloff. "I had a little bit of a gap
on the guys behind me and ev-
erything was clicking really well
all day for me."
Debise, who came from well
down after running off in turn two
on the opening lap, is third in the
series points with 178.
Anthony Mazziotto III finished
fifth Saturday and that was good
enough for him to earn his first
career win in the Superstock
600 class, the former KTM RC
seconds behind Scholtz and 1.2
seconds clear of third-placed
Lewis.
Gagne ended up seventh, just
behind Lewis and just ahead
of Brixx Performance BMW's
Sylvain Barrier. Eslick and Décor
Briliance/ Lucas Oil/ KWR's
Kyle Wyman rounded out the top
10.
Scholtz now leads Lewis in
the championship by 64 points,
331-267. Fong is third, eight
points behind Lewis in the fight
for second in the title chase.
>>SUPERSPORT/
SUPERSTOCK 600
Supersport races aren't nor-
mally won by large margins,
but apparently Garrett Gerloff
doesn't know that. Gerloff rode
to victory Saturday, topping M4
Ecstar Suzuki's Valentin Debise
by 19.1 seconds after 16 laps.
Gerloff's teammate and title rival
"My team improved the bike
quite a bit for me this morning,"
said Elias. "Roger was so strong
today and there was nothing I
could do with him. All I could do
was try to protect myself from
Cameron and Josh (Hayes), but
I was still struggling to do that.
Roger did a great job today and
I'm very happy for him."
Hayes finished a close third
just .194 of a second behind
Elias as the top three raced to
the flag together.
Beaubier had a day to forget
just a day after winning his fifth
race of the season when he
ran off the track and out of the
re-started portion of the race just
after passing Elias for second
place. The non-score puts Beau-
bier 85 points behind Elias with
just two rounds (four races) left
to run.
Fourth place went to Scholtz,
the South African running right
with the top three Superbikes
and finishing just 0.910 of a
second behind Hayes. He was
fourth overall and the top Super-
stock 1000 finisher, giving him
his seventh win of the season
and a comfortable 64-point
lead in the championship as the
series heads to New Jersey Mo-
torsports Park in two weeks.
Fong was second in the
Superstock 1000 class and fifth
overall after winning Saturday's
Superstock battle. He was 2.8
Garrett Gerloff (1) won both
Supersport races padding his
points lead over his teammate
JD Beach (95).
