The third round of the MotoAmerica REVIT Twins Cup championship rolled into Barber Motorsports Park with Rodio Racing’s Gus Rodio holding an impressive 26 point lead.
After two rounds of fast, flowing race circuits, could Rodio continue to push his Aprilia to the front, or would the Yamahas prove better suited to the tighter layout in Alabama?
Throw in the highly anticipated debut of The WagBar MP13 Racing Team’s Kayla Yaakov, and this weekend was ready for a showdown.
Qualifying saw Rodio Racing’s Rocco Landers nab pole position, with injury-recovered Kayla Yaakov making a loud statement by qualifying in second position, and Rodio in third.
Race 1:
As the lights went out, Landers maintained first position ahead of Rodio and defending champion Blake Davis. On lap number two, Rodio lunged forward to take the lead, but Rocco Landers attacked right back and regained the spot. Just behind the duo at the front, the pair of Yamaha YZF-R7’s piloted by Davis and Yaakov fought for third position.
As lap five commenced, rain began to trickle and dampen the circuit. The Aprilia-riding teammates up front slowed the pace as Landers dropped back, waving his arm across the front straightaway seemingly expecting the race to be red flagged. However, the race continued…as did the rain.
Gus Rodio inherited the lead, as Landers slipped back to seventh place, and continued to push ahead. The rain would eventually get the best of Rodio though, as a massive high-side crash sent him flying into the grass. Almost simultaneously, several other riders received the same fate, causing bikes to litter the track. This now seemed to be a justifiable stopping point for Race Direction as they halted the race with the red flag.
Many in the paddock were left wondering why it took so long for the red flag to come out, including Gus Rodio, who was quite vocal during a live interview as his team frantically worked to repair his Aprilia RS 660.
A five lap dash race was ordered and the riders began to grid up, including Gus Rodio. However, race direction forced Rodio to withdraw due to the timing of his crash versus the red flag being displayed, but the details around the ruling are not clear.
The race restart saw Kayla Yaakov launching off the line from pole position, where she would continue to lead for the first lap.
With three laps remaining, Rocco Landers found an opening and put the pass on Yaakov for the lead. Yaakov kept Landers close, but the dash to finish was not enough time to make a move.
Landers won the race ahead of Yaakov, while a last lap battle between Hayden Schultz and Dominic Doyle resulted in Doyle grabbing the third and final podium position.
With Rodio’s inability to restart the race, his valuable points lead was brought down to 13.
Race 2:
Race two began under the scorching Alabama sun with Rocco Landers charging to an early lead from pole position, while teammate Gus Rodio tucked in behind him looking for redemption from yesterday’s devastating race. Kayla Yaakov rounded the first lap in third place, with Blake Davis trailing back in fourth.
Just further behind Davis, a tough battle for fifth position raged amongst Dominic Doyle, Jackson Blackmon, and Hayden Schultz. Doyle eventually pulled a gap on the other two rider and pushed for the front group.
Halfway through the race, N2 Racing’s Blake Davis caught up to Kayla Yaakov, and made a solid pass into third position in turn one. Dominic Doyle followed suit by passing Yaakov on lap eight, making this a tight three way battle for the final podium spot.
Up front, Landers managed to pull away from Rodio, as the trio fight for third caught up to the number 96 Aprilia RS 660.
Doyle made his way through Davis on lap nine as the now four way battle for second position raged on. Davis made an impressive lunge forward and passed Doyle and Rodio in one fast sweep.
Just two corners later, Rodio’s luck went from bad to worse when he and Doyle’s opposing lines came together in turn 15 causing both to crash hard, which ended Rodio’s race. Doyle would remount and finish thirteenth.
The close fight continued for Davis and Yaakov, as the two Yamahas pushed hard down to the final lap. Yaakov looked to the inside heading towards the museum corner, but Blake pulled through and kept the spot, holding off the hard-charging WagBar MP13 Racing rider to the finish line.
The brute strength of the Aprilia proved victorious this weekend, but the Yamahas endured and made up precious championship points. Gus Rodio’s commanding lead is gone, with Davis now leading the championship by two points.
Ryan Yearwood is the motorsports correspondent for SoBros Network as well as the pioneer and visionary behind SoBros Outdoors. Follow on Twitter: @OutdoorSoBro.
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