Robem Engineering Aprilia riders finish second, third in MotoAmerica Twins Cup race Saturday at New Jersey Motorsports Park

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

Robem Engineering Aprilia riders Hobbs, Gloddy finish second, third Sunday in MotoAmerica Twins Cup race

New Hampshirites round out second all-Aprilia Twins Cup podium at Road Atlanta in two years

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2022

BRASELTON, Ga. — When the Aprilia RS 660 made its debut in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup last year at Road Atlanta, two Robem Engineering riders were part of an all-Aprilia podium in the motorcycle’s first race. This year’s MotoAmerica event at Road Atlanta featured similar results, as Robem Engineering Aprilia’s Teagg Hobbs and Ben Gloddy finished second and third Sunday in the round’s lone Twins Cup contest.

It was Hobbs’ second runner-up finish in three races with the Robem Engineering team, and he’s now just 3 points behind the class leader in the battle for the 2022 MotoAmerica Twins Cup title. Gloddy greatly improved his bid for the 2022 title at Road Atlanta, as he moved up from 12th to seventh in the points standings.

Hobbs showed excellent pace from the first on-track session of the event. He was the second fastest rider in Twins Cup Friday practice and missed out on the top spot in Qualifying 1 by 0.003 seconds. Gloddy finished practice ninth fastest but upped his pace for Qualifying 1. He wrapped up that session in fourth place and improved his best lap time by nearly three seconds.

Qualifying for the Twins Cup concluded Saturday morning with both riders finishing in the top four. Hobbs struggled through the early part of the session but missed out on pole position by a mere 0.025 seconds. Gloddy finished Qualifying 2 in fourth place and further improved his best lap time by about half a second.

Sunday’s race featured Hobbs locked in a race-long battle for the race lead, while Gloddy came out on top in a multi-bike battle for the last step on the podium. Both riders got good starts on Sunday when racing kicked off at about noontime, but the contest was stopped before one lap was completed due to a series of crashes.

When the race restarted, Hobbs and the race leader got good starts, and Gloddy slipped down the running order several positions on the first lap. As Hobbs and another Aprilia rider took turns leading the race, Gloddy kept his composure and worked his way to the front of the battle for third place. Hobbs made a valiant effort to hold onto the race lead but had to settle for a runner-up finish by a margin of 0.073 seconds. Gloddy was battling hard for third until the last lap and claimed his first MotoAmerica Twins Cup podium by 0.223 seconds.

Robem Engineering Rider Ben Gloddy (No. 72). Photo by Sara Chappell Photos

The Robem Engineering team has three weeks to prepare for the next MotoAmerica round, which takes place May 20-22 at VIRginia International Raceway in Alton, Va.

Teagg Hobbs / No. 79

“The team really did their job this weekend. We made progress on our setup every session, and the Robem Engineering team had my Aprilia on point for today’s race. We did what we needed to do this weekend to get a bunch more valuable championship points. It’s still early in the season. We’re in this for long run, and finishes like this are just part of the process.”

Ben Gloddy / No. 72

“We started the weekend with a pretty good setup on our Aprilia. We struggled with getting the bike to turn early in the weekend, but we got that sorted out in time for the race. I’m really happy to be on the podium here at Road Atlanta. If we keep working like this, I think we’ll be good to go for the rest of the season. We’ve found a good base setup that I think will transfer over to VIR nicely.”

Robem Engineering’s technical partners for 2022 include Aprilia Racing, Piaggio Group Americas, The Center for Plastic Surgery, Synchrony, Velocity Calibrations, Bitubo Suspension, Woodcraft Technologies, Dymag, Vesrah, Sprint Filter, DID, Magura USA, Sara Chappell Photos, NGK/NTK, Blud Lubricants, Millennium Technologies, Motovation USA and SC-Project.

Header image caption: Robem Engineering rider Teagg Hobbs (No. 79). Photo by Sara Chappell Photos

Who is your company’s editor? 

Have you sent out an important email or document for work, only to discover there was a major typo or misstatement that you didn’t find until it was too late? How many more times might you have done it that you’re not aware of? 

Any communication that gets sent outside a company – aside from short, simple emails – needs to have a second set of eyes on it. Who do you trust in your organization to catch even the smallest errors? 

Every business has customers, and it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is if you regularly put your foot in your mouth when you communicate with them. Every company, even solo practitioners, needs to have a dedicated person to review and edit introductory emails, sales and promotional materials, business plans and the like before an external audience sees it. 

Who should that person be? It can be anyone inside your organization – part time, full time, employee or contractor. It can be a vice president or a secretary, as long as they possess the qualities of a good editor. 

They need to be through in their work, unafraid of telling someone they’re wrong, have a good knowledge of your business’ products or services and be well-versed in your industry’s lingo. And you need to give them the power to slow down the communication process to make sure what’s being sent out is 100 percent accurate.  

It may seem logical to put someone in the editor’s role that’s heavily involved in your business’ day-to-day operations. While that can work, sometimes the best editor is the one looking at a document for the first time. If you select a company editor that’s involved in drafting the document to be reviewed, they will probably have seen the document several times before they give it a final edit. Sometimes it’s better to choose someone who isn’t involved in the drafting process until the very end, so they’re reviewing a document that have no preconceived notions about it. 

When you’ve selected a person to serve as your company’s editor, sit down with them and go over your company’s norms for communications. If your business doesn’t have a specific writing style, it may be best to task the editor with becoming well-versed in Associated Press (AP) style — which is widely used in media and business writing. 

What if your business is a solo practice or your current workforce is already overloaded? There are plenty of freelance communication professionals who can help your company come across as an industry leader to all your external audiences.

Robem Engineering riders score pole, two podium finishes in MotoAmerica Twins Cup competition at Daytona

Gloddy qualifies first in Twins Cup debut, Hobbs leaves Daytona at top of Twins Cup points standings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 13, 2022

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — They say first impressions are everything, and Robem Engineering Aprilia’s two full-time riders for the 2022 season — Teagg Hobbs and Ben Gloddy — had stellar debuts with their new team March 10-12 at the MotoAmerica season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Gloddy — who finished runner up in the 2021 MotoAmerica Junior Cup — claimed the class’ first-ever pole position at the historic Daytona track in his first weekend racing in Twins Cup. Hobbs scored a hard-fought second-place finish in the first Twins Cup race of 2022 and ended the event in first place in the Twins Cup points standings.

Hobbs also narrowly missed out on a second podium of the weekend but finished 0.01 second behind the team’s third rider — Aprilia test rider Tomasso Marcon — for third place in Saturday’s Race 2.

All three of the team’s riders were near the top of the time sheets aboard their Aprilia RS 660s in Thursday practice — the first time Twins Cup machines took to Daytona’s 3.56-mile road course. Marcon led the trio, finishing the session in fourth place with a lap time of 2:00.476. Hobbs was fifth fastest — less than a tenth of a second off Marcon’s time — and Gloddy was 10th.

Ben Gloddy (No. 72) leads several riders during Saturday’s Twins Cup Race 2 at Daytona International Speedway. Photo by Sara Chappell Photos

When qualifying wrapped up on Friday morning, it was Gloddy who’d secured the first MotoAmerica Twins Cup pole position at Daytona International Speedway with a 1:59.015. Marcon qualified in second, about a quarter of a second off Gloddy’s time. Hobbs finished qualifying in seventh, giving the team three riders within the first three rows of the starting grid.

Later Friday, the first Twins Cup race at Daytona saw Robem score a podium and come a few corners shy of having three riders in the top 10 or better. Gloddy took the holeshot, and — in a wild race that saw many lead changes among a large group at the front — all three Robem riders led the field at some point during the race. On the last lap, all three bikes were running in the top five, but a mistake by Marcon while navigating the backstraight chicane unfortunately caused Marcon and Gloddy to crash out. Hobbs — who was running in second as the frontrunners entered the chicane — narrowly missed out on the win and put a Robem Engineering Aprilia on the first Twins Cup podium at Daytona.

A rainstorm Saturday morning postponed the day’s Twins Cup race until after the Daytona 200, and Gloddy nabbed his second holeshot of the weekend on the initial start. Gloddy and Marcon were running first and fourth as the field entered the backstraight chicane on Lap 1, but a series of crashes at the chicane caused the race to be stopped. On the restart, Gloddy was again leading the field into Turn 1, and Hobbs and Marcon were running in second and third at the end of Lap 1. That pair also led the field over the line on Lap 2 and were part of an eight-rider pack vying for the lead in the closing laps. As the pack approached the finish line, the Marcon and Hobbs had a couple riders draft past them but held on to secure third- and fourth-place finishes. Gloddy fell back from the leading group in the early laps but managed to finish in seventh.

Tomasso Marcon (No. 70). Photo by Sara Chappell Photos

The Robem Engineering Aprilia team has a six-week break before the next MotoAmerica Twins Cup round, which takes place April 22-24 at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Ga.

Teagg Hobbs / No. 79
“The weekend in Daytona as a whole was great. Working with the Robem team was awesome and we quickly established a good rapport. The Aprilia RS 660 is a new bike for me, but the team had my bike dialed in quickly. I think I’m going to really enjoy racing the Aprilia this year. The unpredictable weather made for a rough start to the weekend, but things came together pretty easily once we got out on track. I knew Race 1 would probably come down to the last lap, and I came up a little short of the win when I made my move for the lead on the run to the checkers. The shortened Race 2 was a little more of the same, as I got pinched out of the draft as the leaders were coming to the finish line. I was hoping for better results but am happy I’m leaving Daytona with the championship points lead. This was a great first outing with the team and I’m looking forward to continuing my championship hunt at Road Atlanta.”

Ben Gloddy / No. 72
“It was a good weekend overall. We only got half the on-track sessions we were supposed to due to the weather, and I was doing my best to learn the track quickly. I struggled a bit in the first session but got a good draft at the end of qualifying to get pole position. Race 1 went well until the last lap, but I was feeling pretty good for Race 2 despite the crash. I had a good warm-up session on Saturday but got shuffled back a little bit at the end of the race thanks to the draft. But it was great running with the frontrunners in my first Twins Cup race.”

Tommaso Marcon / No. 70
“Daytona was great! It was amazing getting to race at the Speed Capital of the World, and it was a pleasure getting to race in the United States again. The track was super fun, and the banking was amazing. I’d never rode anything like that. I apologized to Ben about the ending of Race 1 but am happy about my result in Race 2. We struggled a little bit with the engine, but we will work very hard to be faster next time out. I’m hoping to be back later this year for the rounds at New Jersey and Barber and want to thank Robem Engineering and my crew who came with me to Daytona.”

Robem Engineering’s technical partners for 2022 include Aprilia Racing, Piaggio Group Americas, BK Corse, 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: Robem Engineering Aprilia rider Teagg Hobbs (No. 79). Photo by Sara Chappell Photos

3D Motorsports riders Power, Shakespeare, Boyce set to compete this weekend’s Daytona 200, MotoAmerica Twins Cup races at Daytona International Speedway

Oklahoma-based team to feature four riders competing in five MotoAmerica classes in 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 7, 2022

BLANCHARD, Okla. — 3D Motorsports LLC riders Luke Power, Steven Shakespeare and Mike Boyce are ready to kick off their team’s inaugural season competing in MotoAmerica this weekend at Daytona International Speedway. Power will pilot a Suzuki GSX-R600 on Saturday in the first Daytona 200 operated by MotoAmerica, and Shakespeare and Boyce will contest the weekend’s Twins Cup races aboard Aprilia RS 660s

The 80th running of the Daytona 200 gets underway Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern, and the Twins Cup races are scheduled for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. All competition takes place on Daytona’s 3.56-mile road racing layout.

The team’s fourth rider, Joe Mariniello, will start his 2022 MotoAmerica campaign in Junior Cup at the Road Atlanta round on April 22-24.

The Daytona races are to be Shakespeare’s only appearance in Twins Cup in 2022, as the Scottsdale, Ariz., resident will return to competing in Superbike Cup and Stock 1000 aboard a Yamaha YZF-R1 for the remainder of the season.

“I am very happy to be with 3D Motorsports for the 2022 season,” Shakespeare said. “The team has some of the best coaches and mechanics in the industry, which gives us riders a chance to perform at our best. I plan to work on improving my personal best lap times at each track and improving my qualifying performance.”

Boyce, from The Woodlands, Texas, is set contest the full 2022 MotoAmerica Twins Cup season aboard the Aprilia. Power, who hails from Lysterfield, Victoria, Australia, will race a GSX-R750 for the remainder of the season in Supersport. Mariniello, from Vermont, Victoria, Australia, will ride a Kawasaki Ninja 400.

The team was founded in 2021 by MotoAmerica veteran Dustin Dominguez, who is looking forward to his team’s debut at one of racing’s most historic venues.

“It’s been great to see my team grow from just concept last year to having a rider in the vast majority of MotoAmerica’s starting grids in 2022,” Dominguez said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what our riders can accomplish in our very first professional racing season.”

Coverage of this weekend’s races at Daytona International Speedway is available through MotoAmerica’s proprietary steaming service, MotoAmerica Live+. For more information, visit http://motoamericaliveplus.com.

3D Motorsports LLC’s sponsors for the 2022 MotoAmerica season include Orient Express, K-Tech, BTEC Turbines, 4SR USA, Blud Lubricants, CG Law, Evol Technologies, AF1 Racing, Southern Adrenaline, M4 Exhaust, Valor Farms, Second Hand Motorsports, LS2, Motorcycle Dealer Services and DrippinWet.

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Header Photo: Luke Power (No. 268) testing the 3D Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R600 in preparation for the 2022 Daytona 200. Photo by David T. Gillen

Marino Communications’ 2021 Year in Review

Story by Michael Marino, Owner/Principal 

Last year marked Marino Communications’ fourth year in business, and I’m happy to report the brand finished 2021 in a much stronger position than it started it. 

The company’s revenue more than doubled from the previous year, and I welcomed three new customers to the fold of Marino Communications clients. 

Most of my clients are racing teams that compete in MotoAmerica — the United States’ professional motorcycle road racing championship. It was my fourth year serving as the publicist for Travis Wyman Racing BMW – my first-ever client – and I filled a similar role for the Robem Engineering Aprilia and Jeremy Cook Racing BMW teams for the 2021 season.  

Robem rider Kaleb De Keyrel clinched his first MotoAmerica Twins Cup title in 2021, as well as won Aprilia’s first MotoAmerica crown. The team found immediate success in campaigning the new-for-2021 Aprilia RS 660. With no offseason testing under its best, two of the team’s three riders placed first and third on an all-Aprilia podium in the first race of the year.

Travis Wyman Racing had another successful yet challenging season aboard its BMW S 1000 RR. Despite major mechanical failures that cost Wyman dozens of championship points, his racecraft and sheer pace when the BMW was running right allowed him to claim wins at the Road Atlanta and Laguna Seca and kept him in contention for two MotoAmerica championships (Stock 1000 and Superbike Cup) until near the end of the season. 

Another newcomer to the Marino Communications fold, Jeremy Cook Racing, had a rough start to the year before a big injury at the Road America round sent his season sideways. Cook got taken out on the first lap of the Stock 1000 race by another rider that resulted in a spectacular crash. Cook shattered his collarbone in the crash, got it surgically pieced together in time for the next MotoAmerica round, but had the screws in his collarbone fail at the Laguna Seca round in July. The re-injury sidelined Cook until the last two rounds of the season in September. 

In total, I penned 39 press releases in 2021, as well as edited six editions of Wyman’s column in the BMW Riders Association magazine, On The Level.

Marino Communications also helped young racer and TikTok influencer Chris Clark find sponsors for his racing program. The 14-year-old from Baltimore, Md., competed in the MotoAmerica Mini Cup in 2021 as a member of the Travis Wyman Racing team, and Marino Communications put together a sponsorship proposal to help Clark and his family find sponsors for the 2022 racing season. 

I also did my part to help revive the media outlet I started my motojournalism career with. Early in 2021, my former editor at the 2 Wheel Power Hour, Larry Ward, asked me to design a basic website to help him market the rebirthed show to potential advertisers. The website launched in April, and we’re working to get the show back on the airwaves in 2022. 

I had one story published in RevZilla’s Common Tread online magazine about my Johnny Cash riding project. The story ran in January 2021, and it was the third story I’ve had published on Common Tread. I also continued to assist the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association as the all-volunteer club’s website editor. 

There was a lot more I had hoped to accomplish in 2021, but unforeseen events with my girlfriend and my relocation to Cleveland, Ohio, and a late-year injury on a motorcycle trip curtailed most of those plans. Among the Marino Communications projects I got started in 2021 and will finish in 2022 are revising my business plan, overhauling the business’ website and launching an initiative to put the motorcycling lifestyle in a more positive light. 

Though 2021 was Marino Communications’ best year so far, I have even bigger plans for 2022. It’s not the right time to talk about them publicly yet, but I’m looking forward to posting lots more good news on my company blog throughout this year. 

Robem Engineering riders De Keyrel, Toth to compete in Aprilia RS 660 Trofeo season finale Sunday in Italy

Team thanks Piaggio Group Americas for continued support, offers best wishes to its riders in advance of race at Autodromo Vallelunga Piero Taruffi

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct. 7, 2021

Kaleb De Keyrel piloted an Aprilia RS 660 to the marque’s first MotoAmerica Twins Cup Championship title this year, and — thanks to support from the Piaggio Group Americas — the Minnesotan has been rewarded with an invitation to compete Sunday in the season finale of the Aprilia RS 660 Trofeo series.

The event takes place at the Autodromo Vallelunga Piero Taruffi near Rome, Italy. Also competing in the RS 660 Trofeo finale will be De Keyrel’s Robem Engineering teammate Max Toth.

Accompanying De Keyrel and Toth on the trip is Eric Vallarta, the owner of Robem Engineering technical partner Velocity Calibrations. Vallarta was responsible for chassis and suspension setup for the Robem Engineering Aprilias during the MotoAmerica season and will help the two riders get their Trofeo-spec Aprilia RS 660s dialed in as quickly as possible. De Keyrel’s Aprilia also will feature a special livery for the event.

On-track action gets underway on Thursday, and the event’s lone race is scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m. Central European Time (6:15 a.m. Eastern) on Sunday.

The five-round Aprilia RS 660 Trofeo is organized by BK Corse and is part of the Campionato Italiano Velocitá (CIV) — Italy’s national road racing championship. The first four rounds of the 2021 season took place at three prominent Italian circuits — two rounds at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli and one round apiece at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola and the Autodromo del Mugello.

For more information about the Aprilia RS 660 Trofeo series, visit https://www.aprilia.com/en_EN/aprilia-racing/rs660trofeo.

Coverage of the race is available through Eleven Sports. For more information about how to tune in to watch the race, visit http://elevensports.com.

Robem Engineering’s success during the 2021 MotoAmerica season would not have been possible without the support of Aprilia Racing, Piaggio Group Americas, The Center for Plastic Surgery, Velocity Calibrations, Bitubo Suspension, Dunlop, Woodcraft Technologies, Dymag, Vesrah, DNA Filters, Magura USA, Sara Chappell Photos, NGK/NTK, Blud Lubricants, Millennium Technologies, Suter Racing and SC-Project.

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Header photo credit: Sara Chappell Photos

Jeremy Cook claims points-paying finish in MotoAmerica Stock 1000 race at Barber Motorsports Park weekend after returning from unusual collarbone injury

BMW rider may compete at Daytona, WERA Grand National Finals in October

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 23, 2021

When Jeremy Cook re-injured his surgically-repaired collarbone at Laguna Seca in July, he knew it was going to be a struggle to race in MotoAmerica again in 2021. Nevertheless, the former Marine recovered from surgery to re-plate his right clavicle in time for the round at New Jersey Motorsports Park Sept. 10-12 and scored a points-paying finish at MotoAmerica’s season finale last weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.

The pro racing veteran and BMW rider was cleared to resume racing shortly after the MotoAmerica round at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in August and finished 14th in the Stock 1000 contest on Saturday at the MotoAmerica Superbikes at Alabama round.

In Cook’s first race back from injury at NJMP, he finished 17th and dropped five seconds off his best Friday practice lap time during Saturday qualifying.

Cook originally shattered his right collarbone in a spectacular crash on the opening lap of the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 race at Road America in June and had surgery to piece the bone back together in time for the round at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Wash., on June 25-27. Though Cook scored two 16th-place finishes at The Ridge without any impairment from the injury, the screws that were holding the plate and bones in place came loose at the Laguna Seca round.

Cook had his work cut out for him in the race at Barber, as a problem with his BMW S 1000 RR’s ECU did not allow him to switch his motorcycle into “rain mode.” Cook had to pilot the machine with its engine putting out maximum power in wet conditions Saturday, which put him at a disadvantage to other riders who were able to use “rain mode” to re-tune their engines for the challenging conditions.

Cook had an OK start to the Barber round. He put in the 17th-fastest lap in Friday practice and finished the Friday afternoon Qualifying 1 session in 10th – lowering his best lap time from practice by more than two seconds. Due to the issues with his BMW’s ECU, Cook had to skip the Saturday morning Qualifying 2 session.

Starting from 20th, Cook moved up to 15th on Lap 1, fell to 16th on Lap 2 and regained 15th place on Lap 5 due to attrition higher up the running order. Cook crossed the finish line in 15th but was later reclassified as the 14th-place finisher when another rider was disqualified from the race.

With the two points he earned for his 14th-place at Barber, Cook finished the 2021 MotoAmerica Stock 1000 season with six championship points — enough to rank 31st in the standings despite missing two rounds.

Cook and his team offer their thanks to the team’s many sponsors, technical partners and fans for a great year of racing. The team will announce its plans for the 2022 MotoAmerica season at the appropriate time.

Jeremy Cook / No. 81
“New Jersey was the first round I was allowed to race after the second surgery, and it was a test of will. I had good strength for the short sessions there but didn’t have the stamina I needed to be as competitive as I wanted to be in the race. Once the arm fatigue kicked in, everything else started to hurt as I was trying to muscle the bike around. I was looking forward to this round, though Barber isn’t my favorite track. With the possibility of rain here, I figured that would be the great equalizer. My motorcycle’s current engine has about 2,600 kilometers on it, which is pretty long in the tooth and in need of an overhaul. Unfortunately, we had another gremlin with the ECU. Without rain mode, the power management and delivery are a lot more difficult to manage, especially with a quarter-turn throttle. It was pretty scary out there, especially during the race as it went from raining to a drying track then back to light rain. I think we definitely could’ve been in the top 10 if we’d had rain mode working, but it was a good weekend overall. We’ve already started tearing down the engine and may have it ready to compete at Daytona or the WERA Grand National Finals in October. I’d like to thank my wife Stephanie, Derek Dixon, Dakari Harris, Gabby Richmond and Veterans Empowered Through Motorsports for helping me accomplish what I did this year. Having them at the track was the such a great experience and something I can never thank them enough for — especially during this season’s very challenging times.”

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Header photo credit: Brian J. Nelson

Travis Wyman scores podium finish in Stock 1000 race at MotoAmerica season finale

Motul-sponsored BMW rider secures second place in Stock 1000, Superbike Cup standings at Barber Motorsports Park

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 21, 2021

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It was a positive conclusion to the 2021 MotoAmerica season for Travis Wyman, as the Motul-sponsored rider scored a podium finish in the final Stock 1000 race of the year and ended the season runner-up in the Stock 1000 and Superbike Cup points standings.

The BMW rider put in an excellent performance in two days of racing in challenging wet conditions Sept. 17-19 at Barber Motorsports Park and was twice in the hunt for a top-five Superbike finish or better. Though he came up just short of his goal of winning two MotoAmerica No. 1 plates, Wyman – like he has all season – got the most he could out of his BMW S 1000 RR and put his title sponsor Motul back on the MotoAmerica podium.

Wyman and the other top 10 riders in the Superbike Cup standings practiced and qualified with the Superbike Class at Barber. In Friday practice, Wyman put in the ninth-fastest time of the session and was second among the Superbike Cup riders. Later Friday, Wyman finished Qualifying 1 in 11th and was third among the Cup competitors. Qualifying wrapped up Saturday morning in wet conditions with Wyman having claimed third on the Stock 1000 grid – his fourth front row starting spot of the season – and 12th for the Saturday Superbike race.

Saturday also featured the weekend’s lone Stock 1000 race and one Superbike race. In the Stock 1000 contest, Wyman struggled in the early laps of the race on the 2.38-mile Barber circuit. After falling as far down the running order as sixth at the end of Lap 1, Wyman had advanced to fourth place by the end of Lap 4. With two laps to go, Wyman made his move into third place, which he held on to by a margin of more than five seconds. Rain continued to pour down on Barber Motorsports Park later Saturday when Superbike Race 1 got underway. Wyman got an excellent start and had moved up the running order five positions by the end of Lap 1. After advancing one position per lap on Laps 2-4, Wyman was running in third at the end of Lap 6 but suffered a crash at the exit of the Museum Corner on Lap 7 and had to retire from the race.

In Sunday’s Superbike Race 2, Wyman had to start the race 20th — third to last — because of his crash on Saturday. Wyman got off the line well again and moved up from 20th to 17th on the first lap. After passing two more riders in the next two laps, Wyman had moved up to 12th place when the race was stopped on Lap 12 of 17 due to wildlife being loose on the racetrack. In Superbike Race 3, Wyman had a banner first lap as he moved up from 13th on the starting grid to eighth by the end of the lap. After running as high as seventh on Laps 2-4, Wyman began experiencing a fogging problem with his helmet’s face shield. The problem forced him to back off his pace, and Wyman had to settle for an 11th-place finish.

With the 2021 MotoAmerica season having come to an end, the Travis Wyman Racing BMW team thanks its many sponsors, especially Motul, and its many enthusiastic fans for another great season of MotoAmerica competition.

Travis Wyman / No. 10
“Friday qualifying went well, and it felt great to have a new engine in our BMW S 1000 RR. We were less than a tenth of a second off the Stock 1000 pole, and we knew on Saturday that the rest of the weekend was going to be wet. We used Qualifying 2 on Saturday morning to work on our wet setup, which felt great on Saturday and Sunday. It was drying conditions in the Stock 1000 race, and I was pretty tentative off the start. I had a great battle with another rider for the last podium spot. Getting third was great for the team and allowed me to secure second place in the Stock 1000 championship. It rained really hard for the Saturday Superbike race, and I was in the running for my first Superbike podium before crashing out. I got more comfortable as the Sunday morning Superbike race went on and was able to work my way from 20th to 12th. I felt great in the last Superbike race, but my shield fogged up so bad that I couldn’t see and had to battle that issue the rest of the race. I was lifting my shield on the back straight trying to wipe it dry and had to actually rip the face shield off to finish the last lap of that race, which was pretty frustrating.”

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Header photo credit: Brian J. Nelson

De Keyrel wraps up championship-winning season with victory Sunday in MotoAmerica Twins Cup race at Barber Motorsports Park

Marcon claims second Twins Cup pole position in as many races for Robem Engineering Aprilia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 20, 2021

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — With the 2021 MotoAmerica Twins Cup title already clinched, Kaleb De Keyrel didn’t have to take part in Sunday’s wet MotoAmerica Twins Cup race at Barber Motorsports Park. Nevertheless, the Robem Engineering Aprilia rider negotiated challenging track conditions to finish the season the same way he started it — with a victory.

The Minnesotan piloted his Aprilia RS 660 to his fifth win of the year and capped off his title-winning season by finishing 68 points ahead of the runner-up in the Twins Cup points standings.

The Robem Engineering team had three other rides take part in the Barber round, including Aprilia test rider Tomasso Marcon. The Italian claimed his second Twins Cup pole position in as many races. Also riding for Robem Engineering were 15-year-old Max Toth – in his third outing with the team – and team manager Carl Price.

Tomasso Marcon (No. 70)

Two of the team’s riders were near the top of the time sheets when on-track activities got underway Friday. Marcon and De Keyrel finished Friday practice in second and fourth place, respectively. Toth found himself in 13th place as he was learning the tight, technical Barber circuit, and Price finished practice in 29th. In Friday’s Qualifying 1 session, Marcon posted the fastest lap time – which was almost two seconds faster than his best practice time. De Keyrel posted the third best time of the session. Toth was 14th-fastest and improved his best lap time by about half a second but suffered a crash, and Price qualified 26th.

Wet conditions in Saturday’s Qualifying 2 session didn’t allow riders to better their lap times from Friday’s Qualifying 1, which handed Marcon his second-consecutive MotoAmerica Twins Cup pole position. The team used Qualifying 2 to perfect its wet weather setup for all four riders’ Aprilia RS 660s, though Toth endured another crash during the session.

In the lone Twins Cup race of the weekend, Marcon grabbed the holeshot as he and De Keyrel held onto their qualifying positions through the first two corners. The race came to an end for Marcon at Turn 3 though, as his motorcycle suffered a technical problem and stopped running. De Keyrel picked up where Marcon had left off at the front of the field, as he made a move for the lead at the Museum corner. Though De Keyrel dropped to second place later in Lap 1, he re-assumed the lead when the race leader crashed out at Turn 2 on Lap 2. The race was stopped a short time later and was restarted as a five-lap contest.

Carl Price (No. 532)

Marcon and his bike were brought back to the paddock when the race was stopped, but the Italian’s Aprilia experienced another problem before the restart that kept him out of the race. De Keyrel got a good restart and was in second when the field made its way through the first turn. Later in the first lap, De Keyrel was running in second when he rode around the outside of the race leader in Turns 15 and 16, regained the lead and was the first to cross start/finish on Lap 1. Toth and Price completed Lap 1 in 16th and 17th, respectively.

Though De Keyrel briefly relinquished the lead on Lap 2, he made an aggressive move at Turns 12 and 13 to retake the lead. De Keyrel went on to claim victory in the final Twins Cup race of 2021 by 1.688 seconds. Price finished in 11th place — missing out on a top 10 by less than a tenth of a second despite making an error at the Museum corner late in the race — and Toth brought his Aprilia home in 14th place.

The Barber round marks the conclusion of the 2021 MotoAmerica season, and the Robem Engineering team will announce its plans for 2022 in the near future. The team thanks Aprilia and its many other technical partners for a successful 2021 campaign.

Max Toth (No. 58)

Kaleb De Keyrel / No. 51

“The forecast was calling for rain all weekend, but it was dry on Friday surprisingly. I was happy to end up third in Friday qualifying, but I was unable to put in the best lap time I was capable of due to getting held up and the session getting cut short. I felt really confident in Saturday qualifying and posted the best time of the session. I knew I just needed to not throw it away in the race, but it was a pretty stressful race. I had another rider pass me then crash right in front of me. When the red flag came out, I was kind of bummed because I had a good lead going. But it is what it is, and my Aprilia RS 660 was working great all day long. Our technical partner, Velocity Calibrations, had the rain settings dialed in for me. It means a lot to get this win to cap off the year on a good note. A huge thank you to Robem Engineering for giving me a great bike all year, as the RS 660 was working phenomenally all year rain or shine.”

Tommaso Marcon / No. 70

“I enjoyed this track from the very first lap. It is amazing here: this facility is just incredible. I think this track would be amazing in Europe, as we do not have something like it over there. I was happy to get the pole position because this is a new track for me, but I think with more time on this track I could go a lot faster than I did. It takes time to find the best lines and reference points. There isn’t much to say about Sunday. I got a good start but the bike experienced an electrical problem in Turn 3. You can’t always anticipate this kind of issue, and I hope to win many races in MotoAmerica in the future. I want to thank Robem Engineering, Aprilia, the team’s sponsors and Matt Spicer and Carl Price for making my racing here in MotoAmerica happen.”

Max Toth / No. 58

“Honestly, this track is very different from New Jersey. It was tough trying to learn the track in the early part of the weekend. When the rain hit, things got even more difficult from there. I had two high-side crashes in the rain sessions, which set my confidence back a bit. The goal I set for myself for the race was just to bring the bike home unscathed, which I did. The result wasn’t what I wanted, and it’s not the way I wanted to end the season.”

Carl Price / No. 532

“Qualifying 1 getting red flagged set me back a little bit, as I usually build up my pace as a qualifying session goes on. I really wish I’d started farther up the grid, because I truly love riding in the rain. I had a little bit of a technical issues due to rider error yesterday, but I was feeling great today. I was reeling in the riders in front of me on the last laps but crashed at the Museum corner. I got back up and was able to finish 11th, but I really wanted that seventh place finish. These bikes do amazing in the rain, and the Aprilia RS 660 is a great racing platform.”

Robem Engineering’s technical partners for 2021 include Aprilia Racing, Piaggio Group Americas, The Center for Plastic Surgery, Velocity Calibrations, Bitubo Suspension, Dunlop, Woodcraft Technologies, Dymag, Vesrah, DNA Filters, Magura USA, Sara Chappell Photos, NGK/NTK, Blud Lubricants, Millennium Technologies Suter Racing and SC-Project.

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Header photo credit: Sara Chappell Photos