The second round of the MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Championship took Richard Kerr and the AMD Motorsport/RK Racing team to the Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota at the weekend with a brace of sixth place finishes enabling him to consolidate a top six position in the championship standings.
Free practice around the 2.5-mile circuit saw the 24-year old post the eighth fastest time and although he dropped a position during the first qualifying session later in the afternoon, he shaved almost a second off his time. He repeated this feat in second qualifying the following day with a time of 1’33.477s helping him close the gap to pole man and reigning champion Hayden Gillim and move up to seventh on the grid.
Richard was only 0.6s adrift of second place though with Gillim again dominating proceedings from the front, his pole time putting him 1.3s quicker than the rest of the field. He duly romped to victory in the 11-lap race on Saturday afternoon by over seven seconds but lapping close to his qualifying time, Richard brought the Honda home in a strong sixth place, just four tenths of a second behind fifth placed Nolan Lamkin.
Sunday saw warm conditions once more and Richard set a new personal best lap in the second 11-lap race to again claim sixth place with Jayson Uribe taking the win after Gillim crashed out early. With twenty points scored across the two races, he now sits in sixth place in the championship standings, only 18pts behind second-placed Uribe.
The Kilmacrennan, County Donegal rider also contested the two MotoAmerica Superbike races where he again rode well, scoring three hard-earned points for 14th and 15th place finishes.
Richard Kerr: “That’s round two done and Brainerd turned out to be an enjoyable but tough weekend. We started strongly and weren’t too far away off second place, but it was a tough track to learn – the first section was a bit like Thruxton and the second had parts similar to Cadwell. It was very bumpy too so had a bit of everything although nothing I’m not used to. We’re just struggling a bit to get the bike dialled in to the Dunlop tyres; learning the tracks is one thing, and difficult to do, but to try and go quicker on the new tyres and on a race weekend isn’t easy. The more laps we do, the more we learn but finding that sweet spot is proving to be quite tough.”
“We did make small improvements as the weekend wore on although a change for the last Superbike Cup race didn’t go like we thought. On the plus side, we’ve learned more and got a lot more data which will hopefully help in the areas where I’m missing something; finding grip and getting on the gas out the corners. There were parts of the track where I was as quick as the other riders, but not in other parts which made it a bit frustrating but we didn’t expect it to be easy! We’re not far away though and we know we can do better. The good thing is that the next round is less than two weeks away so we can get stuck in again and try and get up to those podium positions. The team worked well again so a big thanks to them and all the sponsors.”
The third round takes place at The Ridge Motorsports Park near Shelton, Washington on June 28-30.
MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Championship standings (after two rounds)
1 Hayden Gillim (Honda) 75pts
2 Jayson Uribe (BMW) 59
3 Bryce Prince (Yamaha) 57
4 Ashton Yates (Honda) 55
5 Benjamin Smith (Yamaha) 52
6 Richard Kerr (AMD Motorsport/RK Racing Honda) 41
