Gagne Leads The Way As Buttonwillow Test Concludes

Defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion On Pace In Two-Day Test

BUTTONWILLOW, CA – February 9, 2023 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Two days of semi-private team testing at Buttonwillow Racetrack Park ended on Wednesday with Fresh N’ Lean Progressive Yamaha’s Jake Gagne at the top of the heap for a second straight day, this time by just .69 of a second over his teammate Cameron Petersen.

Fresh N’ Lean Progressive Yamaha’s Jake Gagne led the two-day test at
Buttonwillow Raceway Park, February 7-8. Photo by Tucker Scott.

Gagne’s day ended prematurely, however, with a tip-over mid-afternoon. Fortunately, the two-time MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion escaped uninjured, but opted to call it a day and start driving to his home in Colorado.

Gagne completed 21 laps on the day with his best lap a 1:41.875, which was .102 of a second faster than his best on day one.

“We made some good progress,” Gagne said. “We were here earlier with some new parts, a swingarm and some stuff so where we came from with the last test to this test, I think we made a lot of progress with the bike. I’m a lot happier leaving here then when we left the last one (test). We learned a lot. I just made a mistake and threw it off into the grass. It was my bad. My foot was kind of under the shifter, which they told me not to do, of course. I was already in there and already did my shifts, but my foot was still under the shifter, and I got a little quick shifter blip when I was leaned over and that took weight off the front. It wasn’t that fast, but I got off in the soft grass over there and caught an edge. I’m still leaving here happy. We made a lot of progress, and we were going fast easier and that’s all that matters.”

After spending the first day testing the YZF-R6 that he will race in the Daytona 200 in March, Petersen was back on his Superbike on Wednesday, and he finished just off Gagne’s best with his 1:41.944 coming on his 28^th of 36 laps.

“Great test,” Petersen said. “Yesterday, I was all day on the 600 so today we jumped on the big bike, and it took me a good session and a half to get used to a big bike again. We went through our whole test program, we had a bunch of stuff to test, and we ended up going faster than I’ve ever been around here other than on a qualifying tire. And it felt relatively easy, so there’s some big improvements on the motorcycle and we still have some stuff in the works. I think the bike will be even better…