Defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne Gets
His First Win Of The Season
BRASELTON, GA – April 25, 2022 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Going into the 2022 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship, not many would have placed money on Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne not winning until the fourth race of the season. But that’s how it played out with the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion finally notching his first victory of the 2022 season on Sunday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Thus far in 2020, Gagne’s record looks like this: DNF (mechanical), third, DNF (crash), victory. Gagne’s start to his title defense was dismal: Saturday’s crash, combined with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC rider Danilo Petrucci’s third-straight win, left Gagne 59 points behind the Italian.
But Gagne is Gagne and the ever-eternal positivity never wavered. Today he came out and did what he needed to do. He dominated from start to finish, despite two red flags (one for Jeremy Coffey’s crash on the opening lap and again when the TV truck lost power, forcing the race to be stopped) and ended up winning by 14.028 seconds over his teammate Cameron Petersen, the South African also bouncing back from a Saturday crash to bring smiles back to the Yamaha camp.
To make things even better for Gagne, the two riders at the top of the point standings both failed to finish. Petrucci’s Ducati Panigale V4 R blew up on the opening lap of the second restart and Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz crashed, remounted, pitted, and finally gave up on the 11th lap.
So, with his first win of the year and the 18th of his MotoAmerica Superbike career, Gagne now finds himself 34 points behind Petrucci and 26 behind Scholtz with the VIRginia International Raceway round a month away.
Third place today went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Kyle Wyman, who was riding the team’s BMW M 1000 RR as a replacement rider for PJ Jacobsen. Jacobsen failed a…
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