|
Rodio Racing - Powered by Robem Engineering rider Gus Rodio (No. 96).
Photo by Sara Chappell Photos
MILLVILLE, N.J. -- It wasn’t the ending to the 2023 season that either Gus Rodio or Rocco Landers had hoped for, but the pair of Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering riders performed admirably in their first time racing their Aprilia RS 660s in full wet conditions on Saturday and ended the season on Sunday with a total of six poles, nine wins and nine additional podium finishes between them.
The Sept. 22-24 round at New Jersey Motorsports Park also marked Ben Gloddy’s return to MotoAmerica competition with a near-podium finish after being sidelined with an injury from the Daytona International Speedway round in March.
The Rodio Racing Powered by Robem Engineering riders had a strong start to the round in Friday’s dry conditions. Landers was the fastest rider in Friday practice, as he set a best lap time of 1:27.629 that was about 1.4 seconds faster than the next fastest rider. Rodio finished that session third, and Gloddy was sixth. Later Friday, the team’s riders found even more pace and secured first, second and sixth place on the provisional starting grid. Landers was again at the top of the time sheet with a 1:24.659, Rodio provisionally qualified alongside his teammate in second. Gloddy was the sixth-fastest rider in the session.
Tropical Storm Ophelia began its trek across southern New Jersey Saturday morning, which made for very wet conditions on the 2.25-mile NJMP Thunderbolt track. The conditions allowed Landers’ qualifying time from Friday to earn him his sixth Twins Cup pole of 2023. In the wet conditions, Landers was still among the fastest riders in the Twins Cup field. He finished Qualifying 2 as the second-fastest rider, and Gloddy was 10th-fastest. Rodio was a little off the pace, as he finished the session in 11th.
At the start of Saturday afternoon’s Race 1, it was Gloddy who got the best launch of the trio. He moved up three places during the first lap and ended up running in third place for most of the race. It was a different story for Rodio and Landers who lost several places as the field funneled through the first turn. Rodio finished Lap 1 all the way down in 10th place and Landers in seventh. Those two riders didn’t waste time making up the positions they lost, as Landers had moved up to fifth place by the end of Lap 3 and Rodio was running in fourth place by the end of Lap 6. Rodio’s paced improved as the race went on, and he got by Gloddy on the last lap to secure his 10th appearance on a MotoAmerica Twins Cup podium this year while also putting the fastest lap of race on the last lap. Gloddy held onto fourth place and Landers finished in fifth.
Race 2 on Sunday took place with mixed track conditions as the near-constant precipitation began to subside. Rodio got a good launch and led the field through the first corner. As Rodio and his championship rival pulled away from the rest of the field, Landers was struggling a little for pace and had fallen to fifth place by the end of Lap 2. The race was stopped on Lap 3 due to a crash at the exit of Turn 12, and Rodio got another good start when racing resumed. Though he was able to maintain the lead for the first two laps of the restarted race, Rodio got passed at the start of the next lap. As Rodio was trying to retake the lead, his teammates Gloddy and Landers were running in sixth and 10th place, respectively. Rodio’s race came to a premature end, as he highsided in the same area as the rider whose crash had brought out the red flag, and the race was stopped and later called complete. In the final race results, Gloddy was classified in fifth place and Landers in seventh.
Gus Rodio / No. 96
“I had never ridden the Aprilia in the rain, and we got on the podium on Saturday in a rain race. On Sunday, it was more mixed conditions, and there wasn’t much more we could’ve done. I’d hoped MotoAmerica would delay the race a bit more than they did, but unfortunately that’s not what happened. I put it on the floor trying today, and it was a big one. It’s been an up-and-down kind of season. A lot of things went wrong, but a lot went right too. Overall, it was a good year.”
Rocco Landers / No. 97
“It was an eventful weekend – that's for sure. It’s too bad we couldn’t win the championship for Aprilia. But, it goes like that sometimes. If conditions had been dry this weekend, I think Gus and I would’ve been right up at the front, This season has been hard for me, but I also didn’t think I was going to be racing at all this year. I was trying to get to 50 career wins this year, but I at least got that total up to 48. We’ll see what next year holds. Without Aprilia, I wouldn’t be in as strong a position to move up a class next year.”
Ben Gloddy / No. 72
“It was a good weekend, as I was just coming back from my injury at Daytona. It was a good dry day on Friday, and I ended up qualifying in sixth. I ran most of Saturday’s race in third place, but Gus was able to run me down at the end. Today, with the tricky weather, I just didn’t have the confidence I needed to move up the field. I didn’t have any high expectations for this weekend. I just wanted to have some fun and get back into it.”
Robem Engineering’s technical partners for 2023 include Aprilia Racing, Piaggio Group Americas, Bitubo Suspension, Dunlop, Woodcraft Technologies, Dymag, Vesrah, Sprint Filter, DID, Sara Chappell Photos, NGK/NTK, Blud Lubricants, Millennium Technologies, Motovation USA and SC-Project.
Rodio Racing's technical partners for 2023 include NJ MiniGP, Luxestar VIP, MAR Contractors, Evolve GT, N2 Racing, Dunlop, Spellcaster Productions, Kathedral, The Martinn and MVR Endeavor.
# # #
This press release has been prepared by Marino Communications on behalf of Robem Engineering. If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Michael Marino at 614.636.0199 ormichael@marinocommunications.com
| 
