MotoAmerica Twins : Road Atlanta – Russell’s FPO (First Person Opinion)
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As a MotoAmerica Twins Cup enthusiast and supporter, I’d like to, perhaps, help educate the readers and assess the current line-up entered in this weekend’s race at Road Atlanta.
Some of the following will be based on past performances and some ramblings will be pure speculation, but I will try to give a full field rundown.
There are 28 entrants for the Road Atlanta race, unfortunately down a bit from last year’s 41 entries. Lots of variables are contributing to the reduction in entries but the field is talented and the races have been very good this year, as expected.
My front-running favorites would include those that ran at the front at both of the Road America rounds, including Kaleb DeKeyrel, Rocco Landers (if he hasn’t gone to Europe for Red Bull Rookies Cup), Jackson Blackmon, Chris Parrish, Jason Madama, Hayden Schultz, Cooper McDonald, Toby Khamsouk, Teagg Hobbs, and Trevor Standish. That’s a pretty solid top 10, for sure, but there are a handful of riders making their 2020 debut at Road Atlanta that have a very good chance of mixing things up in that group.
I would not bet against previous Twins Cup podium finishers Joseph Blasius, Chris Bays, and Justin Filice this weekend, although Filice better show up with some more horsepower in his Kawasaki Ninja650 than the dud he brought to Road America. Georgia club-racers Tyler Freeman and Dante Witter have plenty of experience at Road Atlanta and I expect them to do well also. The oldest competitor in the field, Carl Price, can not be counted out of a potential top 10, nor can multi-time ASRA Pro Thunderbike champion Ray Hofman.
One of my favorite sideshows is the race for top 15. There is no better feeling than winning some purse money to offset expenses, and MotoAmerica pays down to 15th place in Twins Cup. Ryne Snooks, Rodney Vest, Cliff Ramsdell and Steven Smith have potential to get in the mix this weekend but they’ll have to be on their A-game from the get-go. It should be a good show for those paying attention.
There are a couple of new names on the entry list that I’m not familiar with and a couple of names on the list that I always worry about when it comes to making the qualifying cutoff. I pull for everyone to make the grid, qualifying within 110% of the pole-position laptime, because big grids are good for the show, but the bar has been raised again this year making qualifying for the race that much tougher. I don’t know anything about Robert Bettencourt or Jimmy McAllister, so I wish them luck. Greg Reisinger, Will Coats, and Gino Angella will need to dig down deep and ride harder than ever to make the grid. Easier said than done but hopefully they’ll make the show.
Canadian Darren James would be front-runner but has been stuck in Canada this year due to coronavirus travel restrictions. James did not make either Road America rounds and, unfortunately, will not be at Road Atlanta either.
And last on the list is my boy Sam Wiest. Wiest has had some mechanical gremlins that have hampered his results this year but Sam can ride an SV650 very fast. Easy top-15 with top-10 potential, but will Sam actually show up? He’s on the entry list but rumors are now circulating to the contrary. Another new track for Sam but will he show? That is the big question. Hopefully so.
That’s my take on the 28 racers entered for Road Atlanta. It should be a typical hot and humid Georgia summer weekend with a chance of a late afternoon thunderstorm. The Twins Cup race will run at 5:00pm on Saturday, August 1st, and a rain race would definitely shake up my predictions. The race should be streamed live on the MotoAmerica facebook page or better yet, come on out to Road Atlanta and watch the action in person. The Twins Cup race is always a good show…in my opinion.
Russell Masecar
RBoM Racing
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