First-person opinion review of PittRace – 2021 Twins Cup

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Since there hasn’t been much MotoAmerica Twins Cup chatter lately on this site, let’s take a look from inside the ropes of the PittRace round. I had the privilege of changing wheels and other assorted stuff on a Robem Engineering Aprilia RS660 entered by super-senior racer Dr. Carl Price.  This gave me a first-hand look inside the Robem operation which also included Twins Cup championship points leader Kaleb DeKeyrel, teammate Toby Khamsouk, and class debutant 16-year-old Californian Max Toth.

DeKeyrel had an off-track excursion early in the race, didn’t crash, but rejoined the race quite-a-ways back and had to claw his way back into the top 10 just to salvage some championship points.  He left PittRace with a 53-point lead and needs to ride smart at Jersey and Barber to win the championship.

Toby Khamsouk had a decent run at PittRace, but par for 2021 seems to be 6th-8th place finishes, unfortunately, and Toby finished 8th.  Big news should be breaking soon that Toby will be switching classes, most likely making his big-bike debut at New Jersey, so that should be interesting.

Dr. Carl Price hasn’t raced all year and has been itching to see how the Aprilia 660 would stack up to his last-year’s run at PittRace on an SV650.  The only real expectations for Carl Price were put upon himself, so he chased his laptimes all weekend, easily qualified for the race, and ended up beating his personal best time from 2020 by about 1 second….on the last lap of the race.  Just outside of a prize-money finish, but pretty impressive for any racer, much less an old man in his 60’s.

But….let’s talk about this kid named Max Toth…

Toth recently turned 16 thus making him eligible to race Twins Cup for the remainder of the 2021 season.  A consistent front-runner and podium finisher in Jr Cup this year on a Kawi 400, Max Toth made a name for himself this year. Plus most astute Twins Cup enthusiasts probably noticed Max Toth has been on the Twins Cup entry list for every MotoAmerica round since the beginning of the 2021 season.  We, the enthusiasts, have patiently waited…..and waited….and waited….wondering if he was ever going to grid up?  The Robem 660 was probably not the bike Max Toth was originally slated to make his Twins Cup debut on, but his performance, in my opinion, certainly lived up to the hype (although there really wasn’t much hype, unfortunately, if that makes any sense whatsoever…).
Max Toth had to learn the track and the new bike while experiencing some technical difficulties throughout Friday practice and qualifying #1.  Not a confidence-inspiring scenario, but it didn’t seem to phase him.  Max ran a 1:58something in Q1, the Robem boys made some changes for the better before Saturday morning’s Q2 session, and Max instantly dropped another 3 seconds in Q2.  In the race, Max Toth dropped another 5 seconds to run a string of 1:50 laps, just off the high 1:48-1:49 pace being set by the leaders, and finished 6th.  Pretty damn impressive, in my opinion, and Max Toth was disappointed in his performance.  The competition better watch out, this kid is one to keep an eye on, for sure.

That’s enough Robem Engineering nonsense, let’s look at some other highlights.

Anthony Mazziotto wins the race, beats Rocco Landers lap record from last year, but the group behind Mazz was not that far back.  Teagg Hobbs, Hayden Schultz, Jody Barry, Jackson Blackmon, and old-man Chris Parrish all ran laptimes in the 48’s.  That ain’t no joke folks, these guys are ripping.  Teagg Hobbs got DQ’d for a slightly quirky MotoAmerica technical infraction, post-race, which is unfortunate.  Teagg Hobbs has flipped a switch this year and has been riding at class-leading pace since day one at Road Atlanta.

Hayden Schultz and Jackson Blackmon’s Yamaha R7’s look badass in person and their results have been impressive since the debut.  Yamaha did a great job of making the R7 bodywork look like an R6 or R1 and the bike just looks right now, in my opinion.  Hopefully Schultz will paint his bike something other than gray soon.  Hayden Schultz, Jody Barry, and Teagg Hobbs put on a damn good show just a couple of seconds behind leader Mazziotto.  Jackson Blackmon threw down a flyer right at the end of the race, but it was too little too late to catch the group racing for the podium.  New Jersey and Barber should be barnburners to finish the season.

Cassidy Heiser put in a helluva ride on a Greg Reisinger-built SV650 to finish 7th.  If he runs at New Jersey, I wouldn’t be surprised if he mixes things up a little closer to the front.  Liam MacDonald has impressed in his first MotoAmerica season with multiple top 10 finishes along side his teammate Trevor Standish, who made his return after breaking his wrist at Road America.

My honorable mention list goes to John Knowles.  He’s been top-15 at every round so far (I think) with a couple of top-10’s too.  Very consistent and getting faster every weekend.  Knowles nipped Sam Wiest and Jerry Reeves at the line to take 12th.  For a little reader education…..Jerry Reeves ran laptimes 2 seconds faster than his personal best last year, and finished in the exact same position again this year.  Twins Cup may not get much love in the Pro paddock, but the class is tough and the racing is good.

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