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ROAD RACE MOTOAMERICA ROUND 10 / SEPTEMBER 15-17, 2017 BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK / LEEDS, ALABAMA P68 Aguilar topped M4 med- Age Suzuki's Nick McFad- den with Braeden Ortt finishing third on the Tuned Racing Yamaha R6. KTM RC CUP The last-ever race week- end in the KTM RC Cup lived up to all expecta- tions and then some, with Quarterley Racing/On Track Development's Ben- jamin Smith taking the title at the last possible point of asking, when previous title leader Cory Ventura crashed out on the final corner of the final lap of 2017. Toby Khamsouk and Trevor Standish were both involved in the crash, all riders taken to hospital but without serious injury. Smith beat Anthony Racing's Gavin Anthony to the finish line by just 0.008 of a second after a hectic final lap that saw some 10 riders in the lead pack. Smith set himself up for a good drive out of the final corner and drafted past Anthony to take the victory. Anthony held on for second with Savage Racing's Sean Ungvar- sky on the podium for a second straight day with third place—just 0.128 of a second behind Smith. "Five wins this season is awe- some, but man this one is really special," said Smith. "It was a For Aguilar, the title victory was made a little less stressful after Gilbert crashed in warm up, with his 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6 going up in smoke. "Michael made it a bit easy on me today with his bike catch- ing on fire, which is unfortunate and not how you want to win it," said Aguilar. "I had a great pace this weekend in both races and was able to get out front, run my pace, and not push it any harder than I really needed. This cham- pionship means a lot to me as I've been in this class a couple of years and have dealt with some injuries that set me back in recent years." Beach's win was his fifth of the season and signaled the end of an eight-race losing streak. "It's never easy to win a race when you're racing against these guys," said Beach. "I knew that there was a chance he (Garrett) could catch back up and I just focused on lap times and kept pushing forward." Fourth overall went to Team H35 Honda's Benny Solis. The Stock 600 victory, crucially, went to Aguilar, who went into the meet- ing just three points clear of Gilbert but headed into the final race on Sunday 17 points clear after Gilbert could only salvage fifth. M4 medAge Suzuki's Nick McFadden finished sec- ond to Aguilar with Tuned Racing's Braeden Ortt rounding out the podium finishers. For Sunday, Gerloff stamped his authority on the class by taking his 11th victory of the year from Beach, Debise and Solis, with Aguilar taking fifth overall and first in class to seal the 2017 MotoAmerica Superstock 600 Championship. "My strategy is always to be the first guy to the lappers," said Gerloff. "I wasn't going to hand this race over easy and was ready to push this thing until the end today. It was an awesome day and more memories were made here in my old hometown." Two times a champion: Gerloff was justifiably proud of his 2017 season.