Gagne On Top At Buttonwillow Test, Beaubier Second Fastest

High Winds Stop Proceedings Early As Seven Superbikes Take Part In
Preseason Test In California

IRVINE, CA – February 22, 2023 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Seven Superbike riders took part in the first of two days of semi-private testing at Buttonwillow Raceway Park on Tuesday, but the name at the top of timesheets was the same as it was a few weeks ago – Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne – even though the track was run in the counterclockwise direction and the day was cut short by heavy winds.

The lone soldier under the Attack Performance umbrella with the absence of his teammate Cameron Petersen, who recently underwent a fasciotomy (arm-pump surgery), Gagne was solid as always with the two-time and defending MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion following up his successful test from February 7-8 at Buttonwillow with another solid day at the track located some 35 minutes north of Bakersfield.

Gagne’s best today was a 1:41.274, which came on his 19^th of 28 laps, and it came in what was his second time running the Buttonwillow track counterclockwise, though he said he likes both directions.

“It was good,” Gagne said. “We all ended the day early because some wind came in that was pretty gnarly. We got some good riding in this morning, but nothing too crazy. We ran the track backwards today. I’ve been here one other time when we ran the other way. It’s nice that we can switch directions because it changes some stuff, and it just changes the track so we can try something else (settings wise). There’s also one section that we don’t use so there’s one added section so there’s a couple of different turns that we don’t have going the other way (clockwise). It does work out that the fast time one way is close to a fast time the other way. We still have some stuff on our list to try tomorrow, mainly just different chassis stuff we haven’t had to try and there’s always electronics and things like that.”

Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier was second best, the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion in his second outing at Buttonwillow on his new BMW M 1000 RR as he returns to the series following a two-year stint in the Moto2 World Championship. The Californian did 26 laps today with his best – a 1:42.113 – coming on his 22^nd lap and it was .839 of a second off Gagne’s fast time.

“We wanted to pick up where we left off at the test a couple of months ago, but we couldn’t compare…