Gloddy, Hobbs score second, third podium finishes of 2022 season
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 11, 2022
MILLVILLE, N.J. — The Robem Engineering Aprilia team was back to its front-running form Saturday at the penultimate round of the 2022 MotoAmerica season. The team’s riders, Ben Gloddy and Teagg Hobbs, finished the lone Twins Cup race of the weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park in second and third – scoring the team’s second double-podium performance this year.
After being off the pace for a couple rounds – as well as missing a round due to a logistics challenge – the team’s riders were right back at the front of the field at the tight-and-twisty 2.25-mile Thunderbolt circuit at NJMP. Hobbs’ third place finish helped him hold onto seventh in the Twins Cup points standing, though Gloddy’s runner-up finish moved him up to eighth place – just four points adrift of his teammate.
Hobbs was right up to speed at the start of the weekend. He was the second-fastest Twins Cup rider in Friday practice and Qualifying 1. Gloddy was a little off Hobbs’ pace but still finished Friday practice in sixth place and the Friday afternoon Qualifying 1 session in seventh.
In Saturday morning’s Qualifying 2, Hobbs finished the session in fifth and Gloddy in seventh, which matched the positions each rider secured on the Twins Cup starting grid.
The start of the race went well for Gloddy but not so good for Hobbs. Gloddy got a good jump off the line and finished the first lap in fifth place. Hobbs lost several places on the first lap and was running in ninth at the end of Lap 1. Gloddy was the third rider in a three-way battle for third place on Laps 2-4 and moved up to third place on Lap 5 after a couple riders crashed out on that lap. Hobbs made the most of the field getting reshuffled on Lap 5 as he advanced five places up the running order on that lap alone. With the pair of Robem Engineering riders starting Lap 6 in third and fourth place, the duo each moved up another place on Laps 7 and 8, respectively, and were in second and third place by the end of Lap 8. Gloddy led a pack of five Aprilia riders vying for the last two steps on the podium for the final eight laps of the race, while Hobbs fended off the advances of riders behind him to finished third.
It was Gloddy’s second podium of the year and his first runner-up finish in Twins Cup. For Hobbs, the third place finish marked his third trip to the podium in 2022 – as well as his first since suffering a broken collarbone at the Road America round in June.
The 2022 MotoAmerica season concludes in two weeks time, with the final round scheduled for Sept. 23-25 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.
Ben Gloddy / No. 72
“I got a good start and tried to settle myself in there with the top five riders. I felt I was getting held up a little bit by another rider, but I was able to make a move to pass him. I tried to catch up the race leader when I got into second place, but I had used up too much of my rear tire early in the race. I’m hoping we can carry this momentum into Barber and hope we’ll be back on the podium there.”
Teagg Hobbs / No. 79
“The weekend went well, and the team and I worked every session to make the bike a little bit better each time out. It was a huge reward to get both Robem Engineering Aprilias on the box. All we can do is move on to Barber, and we’ll take what we learned here and try to win a race there.”
Robem Engineering’s technical partners for 2022 include Aprilia Racing, Piaggio Group Americas, The Center for Plastic Surgery, Synchrony, Velocity Calibrations, Bitubo Suspension, Dunlop, Woodcraft Technologies, Dymag, Vesrah, Sprint Filter, DID, Magura USA, Sara Chappell Photos, NGK/NTK, Blud Lubricants, Millennium Technologies, Motovation USA and SC-Project.
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Header photo caption: Robem Engineering Aprilia rider Ben Gloddy (No. 72). Photo by Sara Chappell Photos
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