Sunnyvale, Calif., August 13, 2021 – The opening day of MotoAmerica 2021 at the spectacular Pittsburgh International Raceway saw Ducati duo Loris Baz and Kyle Wyman both end the day within the top six.
At one of the most challenging tracks on the calendar, Loris Baz completed a marathon 35 laps on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York entry, ending the Qualifying 1 session fourth, 0.967 seconds behind pacesetter, Yamaha’s Jake Gagne.
For Kyle Wyman on the green and black Panera Bread Ducati Panigale V4 R, he finished the day a competitive sixth on the Qualifying 1 timesheets. The Arizona resident completed 29 laps of the 2.7 mile Pittsburgh complex, his final time of 1:42.292 putting him 1.163 seconds off Gagne.
There is still plenty to play for as Qualifying 2 gets underway tomorrow morning that will decide the grid for race one later in the day.
FP1 Final Standing
P1 – Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:41.451
P2 – Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:41.841
P3 – Toni Elias (Yamaha) 1:42.116
P4 – Loris Baz (Ducati) 1:42.644
P5 – Cameron Petersen (Suzuki) 1:43.630
P8 – Kyle Wyman (Ducati) 1:44.366
Qualifying 1 Final Standing
P1 – Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:41.129
P2 – Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:41.855
P3 – Loris Baz (Ducati) 1:42.096
P4 – Cameron Petersen (Suzuki) 1:42.144
P5 – Toni Elias (Yamaha) 1:42.247
P6 – Kyle Wyman (Ducati) 1:42.292
Loris Baz (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York – Ducati #76)
“It’s been a challenging day,” Baz said. “I know the track because we’ve been here before with the Ducati Panigale V4 S but this is the first time I’ve ridden the V4 R here. Like every track this year, we’ve been trying to learn the gearing and the set-up. We were way off the gearing for the first session, but we got it together for the Qualifying 1. That was better, but I still don’t have the feeling in the second section of the track that I want. We’ll be trying to make an improvement overnight for tomorrow so we’re closer to the front and will try to find the vibes I had with the bike at Laguna.”
Kyle Wyman (Panera Bread Ducati – Ducati #33)
“Today was a really positive day,” Wyman said. “We started out with a bike that was an evolution from what we tested here with back in May and we ran the second session with the same settings we tested with. That brought us closer to the front and now we have somewhere to work from. Now we’re P6 and only two-tenths off third, so that puts us in that podium mix. Despite still having a healing elbow, it has been a really positive day. We have a few changes to try out for tomorrow morning, and hopefully we find something for the middle sector. We’re on par for the first and third sectors, but we need to find a bit of time for the second.”
