Andy DiBrino recorded his first career Top 5 finish on Sunday en route to a sixth overall to start the season in the Superstock 600 class of the MotoAmerica series held last weekend at Road Atlanta in Georgia.
All riders dealt with a bit of nature as the raceway was wet for qualifying on Friday and a downpour on Sunday delayed the start of Race 2 on Sunday. DiBrino said some parts of the track on Friday only had a dry line a foot wide and conditions were barely good enough to run DOT race tires. He qualified 21st in the first session which is where he started for Race 1. He finished eighth for the second qualifying session on Saturday but a wet track slowed everyone's lap times so he didn't move up.
"I made the mistake of running a dark tint shield which made depicting dry lines harder," the MotoSport sponsored rider said of session one. "I did my best to push, but constant rain drops on my shield were not confidence inspiring."
Once Race 1 started, the track was dry and DiBrino raced to 12th from 21st after just one lap and then battled for a seventh-place finish. He settled for eighth after running a bit wide on the final turn of the last lap.
"My lap times were solid, I had the pace to run in the Top 5, but I started too far back unfortunately to work my way up in time," he said.
Race 2 was shortened to 10 laps and declared wet so all riders used rain tires and again DiBrino jumped fromt 21st to 12th on Lap 1 and by Lap 2 was in the Top 10. He picked off sixth-place halfway through and then shortly after got into fifth. The track at Road Atlanta offers hard breaking zones, which DiBrino excels at and took advantage of to pass riders. Towards the end DiBrino was fending off a rider behind him while he tried chasing down the rider in fourth.
"In the closing stages of the race, there were a lot of dry sections on the track and tires were getting really loose," He said. "I felt like I was flat tracking it everywhere. I held my ground to take home my first Top 5 finish at the checkers."
DiBrino said his starts were dialed in all weekend and the bike was tuned well. In the fast section of the track he posted the second best time to Joe Roberts, who rides for the Wheels in Motion/MotoSport.com/Meen Yamaha team and won both races. DiBrino recorded 19 points and is in sixth place just a point behind Nick McFadden.
"To me, a Top 5 was a victory coming from 21st in a 10 lap shortened race," DiBrino said. "I realize how crucial qualifying is now, and you just have to go for it no matter what the conditions are."
Riders get a month off before the next round May 15-17 at the Virginia International Raceway in Danville, VA. MotoAmerica is the new home for the AMA Superbike Series and is sanctioned by the AMA and FIM North America. The season started a few weeks ago in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas but Road Atlanta played host to Round 1 for the Superstock 600 class as a conflict with MotoGP forced the Superstock 600 class to miss the opening round and the Indianapolis round in August.
Superstock 600 Race 1 Results
- Joe Roberts - MotoSport rider
- Richie Escalante
- Travis Wyman
- Wyatt Farris
- JC Camacho
- Nick McFadden
- Hayden Schultz
- Andy DiBrino - MotoSport rider
- Gavin Elstad
- Ryan Jones
Superstock 600 Race 2 Results
- Joe Roberts - MotoSport rider
- Travis Wyman
- Wyatt Farris
- Richie Escalante
- Andy DrBrino - MotoSport rider
- Nick McFadden
- Ryan Jones
- Bryce Prince
- Michael Gilbert
- Gavin Elstad
MotoAmerica Superstock 600 Standings
- Joe Roberts (50) - MotoSport rider
- Travis Wyman (36)
- Richie Escalante (33)
- Wyatt Farris (29)
- Nick McFadden (20)
- Andy DiBrino (19) - MotoSport rider
- Ryan Jones (15)
- Gavin Elstad (13)
- JC Camacho (11)
- Michael Gilbert (10)
