Ducati duo Loris Baz and Kyle Wyman are tearing up the track in proper fashion – and they’ve both made it in the top six as of Friday.
The opening day of MotoAmerica 2021 saw racers testing out the Pittsburgh International Raceway – a track that’s considered one of the most challenging tracks in the MotoAmerica schedule.
Loris Baz, ever the man-of-the-minute, completed 35 laps at the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York entry, finishing in fourth, with 0.967 seconds behind Yamaha racer and pace-setter Jake Gagne.
“It’s been a challenging day,” Baz says. “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 Panigale V4 R here. Like every track this year, we’ve been trying to learn the gearing and the set-up.”
Loris Baz astride his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York entry“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, spiffy in green on the Panera Bread Ducati Panigale V4 R, finished in sixth, completing 29 laps, setting him behind Gagne by 1.163 seconds.
“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.”
Kyle Wyman next to his Panera Bread Ducati Panigale V4 R“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.”
Here were the Final Standings:
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
Our hats off to Ducati’s young prodigies, and make sure to check out wBW’s archives on all things SBK.