Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Olmedo Wins Crashfest

The wet conditions played a huge factor in Saturday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race as the championship leaders all crashed out unhurt, including points leader Alex Dumas. The attrition started early and often as polesitter Ashton Yates also crashed his Yates Racing Kawasaki on the opening lap. KTM Orange Brigade/JP43 Training rider Dumas was in the catbird seat and in the lead group, poised to wrap up the championship based on merely finishing the race. However, the French Canadian went down in the wet and postponed his title celebration for at least another day.

Meanwhile, the MonkeyMoto/AGVSPORT racing team swept the podium aboard their Yamaha R3s, with Kevin Olmedo taking the win, Marc Edwards finishing second, and Jay Newton coming home third.

After his first-career MotoAmerica Supersport win, Olmedo, who is from El Salvador, said: “I saw that on the track it’s slippery but on every lap I saw that I feel good. I tried to carry more corner speed, and I saw that the track is good in the rain. So for my first time on this track I feel pretty good. I want to say thank you to my family, too. I want to say thank you to AGVSPORT, also Graves Motorsports, MonkeyMoto.com, and all the sponsors that gave me this opportunity to ride here.”

Twins Cup – Turner Takes It

In what was arguably the best race of the day, Saturday’s Twins Cup feature event concluded in a photo finish with Turner’s Cycle Racing’s Kris Turner edging out LWT Racing’s Brian McGlade for the win by .003 of a second, with both riders aboard Suzukis. Syndicate/AP MotoArts’ Jason Madama, who crashed early on in the 14-lap event, remounted his Yamaha and raced all the way back up to third. Championship leader Chris Parrish also crashed his Ghetto Customs Suzuki and remounted, but he only managed to finish seventh. As a result, Parrish now leads the point standings by just two points with one race left on the schedule to decide it all.

“I came out of turn nine, and I was in the lead, and I was like, there’s no way that they’re going to be able to pass me to the finish line from here,” Turner said. “I went into the last turn, and I thought, ‘We’re gold, there’s no way.’ I was so excited and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him and I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding?’ We were looking at each other after the finish line and thinking, ‘Who won?’ I’m not in the points chase. I’ve got nothing to lose. I kind of got a bad start, and I saw the other guys go down in the first turn, so I just kind of put my head down and I came through the second turn in third place. I almost crashed four or five times, and it wasn’t skill that saved those crashes. It was all luck. I had a lot of fun, though. It’s been a long time since I last raced in the rain. I want to thank my dad. I wouldn’t be here without my dad.”

Motul Superbike
Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
Roger Hayden (Suzuki)
Cameron Petersen (Honda)

Supersport
Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)
JD Beach (Yamaha)
Richie Escalante (Yamaha)
Anthony Mazziotto III (Yamaha)
Nick McFadden (Suzuki)

Liqui Moly Junior Cup
Kevin Olmedo (Yamaha)
Marc Edwards (Yamaha)
Jay Newton (Yamaha)
Damian Jigalov (Kawasaki)
Joseph Blasius (Yamaha)

Twins Cup
Kris Turner (Suzuki)
Brian McGlade (Suzuki)
Jason Madama (Yamaha)
Bart DeFrancesco (Suzuki)
Tyler Humphreys (Suzuki)