Motul-sponsored BMW rider also scores top finish among Superbike Cup riders Sunday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2021
MONTEREY, Calif. — Travis Wyman struggled through practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday at the MotoAmerica Superbike Speedfest at Monterey, but the Motul Travis Wyman Racing BMW rider had perhaps the best day of his pro racing career Sunday. The Las Vegas resident scored a hard-earned win in Sunday’s Stock 1000 race, was the top-finishing Superbike Cup rider later Sunday and bolstered his chances of securing two MotoAmerica titles.
Wyman increased his lead in the Superbike Cup title chase to 17 points and moved up from fourth to third in the Stock 1000 points while sporting a Motul-themed livery on his 2020 BMW S 1000 RR. He also advanced from ninth to eighth in the overall Superbike Class standings.
Like at the previous round, Wyman and the other top five riders in the Superbike Cup points practiced and qualified with the Superbike Class. Wyman finished Friday practice and both qualifying sessions in 13th, which was enough to secure sixth on the Stock 1000 starting grid and 16th on the Superbike Race 1 grid.
Wyman’s only race on Saturday was the Superbike contest. After failing to advance from 16th position before the race was red-flagged on Lap 3, Wyman got a good start and gradually worked his way to a 10th-place finish. He also nabbed the second-best finish among the Superbike Cup riders and missed out on top Superbike Cup honors by 0.284 seconds. Wyman’s better pace on Saturday was thanks to his crew chief, Steve Weir, giving Wyman a completely different suspension and geometry setup for the Superbike race.
The team didn’t make any changes to its BMW’s setup for Sunday’s races, and Wyman’s new-found comfort piloting his BMW helped him come out on top in the weekend’s only Stock 1000 race. Starting from sixth, Wyman had a big wheelie off the line and was running in eighth at the end of Lap 1. The BMW rider began working his way up the running order on Lap 6 of the 14-lap race. By Lap 8, Wyman has moved up to third place, and he made his move to second place on Lap 11. The only lap Wyman led was the last lap, where he got by the race leader as they exited the last corner of the last lap and took the victory by a mere 0.032 seconds.
About two hours after finishing fourth in his second race as a factory Harley-Davidson rider in the third and final King of the Baggers race of 2021, Wyman found more success in the Sunday Superbike race. Thanks to his top-10 finish in Saturday’s Superbike race, Wyman started the Sunday Superbike contest 10th on the grid. Wyman fell back to 12th on the opening lap but worked his way past three other Superbike Cup riders in the remaining 19 laps to claim a ninth-place finish. He was the highest-finishing Superbike Cup rider — his third time achieving that feat this year. It also was his sixth top-10 Superbike finish of the season.
Next up on the Travis Wyman Racing BMW calendar is MotoAmerica’s first visit to Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn., on July 30-Aug. 1.
Travis Wyman / No. 10
“This was an incredible weekend for my team and my road racing career. My goal for this weekend was to get on the podium in Stock 1000 and try to get two good finishes in Superbike. We started the weekend off the pace, but Steve [Weir] turned our weekend around by going with a radically different setup after qualifying on Saturday. It was a total gamble, but it paid off big when we needed it most. To get such a dramatic and hard-fought win in the Stock 1000 race was exhilarating, especially at a track that I’d never finished on the podium at before. This was one of the best weekends of my pro racing career, and I’m so happy to have accomplished so much at my title sponsor’s home race. It was great sporting Motul’s logo on the top step of a MotoAmerica podium, and I can’t thank them enough for increasing their support for my team this weekend.”
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Header photo credit: Brian J. Nelson
Marino Communications 