Richard Kerr and the AMD Motorsport team were in action at The Ridge Motorsports Park at the weekend, and the Irishman came away with a fifth-place finish in both the MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 and MotoAmerica Superbike Championship races.
Opened in 2012, The Ridge Motorsports Park is a 2.47-mile venue near the city of Shelton in the state of Washington and, as per the previous rounds, 24-year old Kerr had another new circuit to master and he made good progress across the three days of action, which started with sixth place in the opening practice session.
The two qualifying sessions followed, one on Friday afternoon and one on Saturday morning, and a best time of 1’42.855 put him in eighth place overall and in the middle of the third row for Saturday’s 13-lap race where a solid opening lap put him in seventh place. Here he remained until the closing stages when a lack of grip saw him drop back slightly to ninth.
Sunday’s race, again held over 13 laps, saw Richard make one of his trademark lightning starts and he moved from eighth to fifth on the first lap. Two laps later he moved up to fourth after championship leader Hayden Gillim crashed, remounting in 14th, and it looked like this would be where he would finish only to run low on fuel at the end of the race. However, he only lost one position with a fine fifth place at the chequered flag keeping him in sixth place in the championship standings.
He also contested the two MotoAmerica Superbike Championship races and he truly excelled in Saturday’s encounter, which was held in the wet and ultimately stopped after eight laps. Quickly getting to grips with the conditions, Richard finished in a superb fifth place and ahead of several of the leading Superbike competitors including the Warhorse HSBK Ducati pairing of former World Superbike Championship race winner Loris Baz and three-time Daytona 200 winner Josh Herrin.
Unfortunately, he tipped off in Sunday’s second race, losing the front end on the third lap but despite only contesting three of the five rounds to take place so far, he sits in fourth overall in the Superbike Cup Championship.
Richard Kerr: “It was another big learning curve over the weekend with a new track to learn but The Ridge was a really good circuit and had a bit of everything in it with lots of blind corners and I’m happy with the results and progress we made. In the first Superstock race, I was running in seventh for most of the race but in the final few laps, I really struggled for rear grip and dropped back to ninth. The second race was much better though, and I had better pace, holding onto fourth until the last corner.”
“The quicker pace meant we used more fuel than expected and the bike cut out several times on the last lap, but I still managed to get the bike across the line in fifth place. That matched my result from Saturday’s Superbike race which was quite sketchy due to the conditions. I went with wet tyres which proved to be the correct choice as the race wore on. It was my first time with the Dunlop wets, and I had a great feeling with them so was more than pleased with fifth. I tipped off in Sunday’s race, sadly, when I trail braked for a bit too long but we’re all fine so a huge thanks to my team for their hard work and my sponsors for another great weekend.”
The fourth round takes place at the iconic Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California on July 10-12.
MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Championship standings (after three rounds)
1 Hayden Gillim (Honda) 110pts
2 Jayson Uribe (BMW) 104
3 Ashton Yates (Honda) 87
4 Benjamin Smith (Yamaha) 83
5 Bryce Prince (Yamaha) 74
6 Richard Kerr (AMD Motorsport/RK Racing Honda) 59
