Just 17 Points Separate Top Three In Battle For MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca And The GEICO Motorcycle MotoAmerica Superbike Speedfest At Monterey Set To Play A Big Role In Title Chase, July 8-10

IRVINE, CA – July 6, 2022 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Eleven points. Seventeen points. Thirty-seven points. That’s the margin between Danilo Petrucci and Jake Gagne, Petrucci and Mathew Scholtz and Petrucci and Cameron Petersen in the point standings as the ultra-competitive MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship rolls into WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the 2022 GEICO Motorcycle MotoAmerica Superbike Speedfest At Monterey.

Defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne comes to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca fresh off two victories in the Pacific Northwest. Gagne trails Italian Danilo Petrucci by 11 points in the championship with the top three riders separated by just 17 points.
Photo by Brian J. Nelson

A year ago, this wasn’t the case.

Gagne came to the Monterey Peninsula in 2021 riding a high. He’d won seven races in a row and was seemingly unbeatable with a 44-point lead. Gagne then won both races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to run his win streak to nine in a row and he would go on to win every race until the final round – 16 races in row and a total of 17 on the season, which led to him being crowned champion in the penultimate round.

However, Gagne’s victories in the 2021 GEICO Motorcycle MotoAmerica Superbike Speedfest At Monterey were by the slimmest of margins with wins over Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Loris Baz by just 1.173 and 1.789 seconds, respectively in the two races. Those were the closest two races of the season.

This year Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Gagne comes in with two wins in a row and five total in the 2022 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship and no one has won more races. Yet he trails Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Petrucci by 11 points in the championship.

Petrucci has been fast and consistent, winning the first three races of the year. Since taking victory in the opening two races at Circuit of The Americas and the first race at Road Atlanta, the Italian former MotoGP star has been winless. His consistency has proven valuable, however, as Petrucci has podium finishes in the past five races and still has just the one DNF when he suffered an engine failure in race two in Georgia. But it’s victories that he wants and for just the second time this season (COTA was the first), Petrucci will…