Brea, CA, (May 18, 2026) — Suzuki Motor USA and Team Hammer continued their trophy winning ways this weekend as the 2026 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship picked back up at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Over the course of the weekend, the factory-backed squad combined to tally six top fives, including a pair of podium finishes.
Race Highlights:
- M4 ECSTAR Suzuki
- Supersport
- Tyler Scott notched up his fourth podium finish of the season with another all-around impressive weekend.
- Superbike
- Richie Escalante charged his way to a pair of top fives.
- Brandon Paasch twice battled forward to fight his way into the top ten.
- Twins Cup
- Matthew Chapin picked up a second-place finish on Saturday and backed it with a close fourth on Sunday.
- Bodie Paige was ruled unfit following a qualifying crash on Friday.
Tyler Scott earned another hard-fought Supersport podium aboard the GSX-R750.
MotoAmerica Supersport title hopeful Tyler Scott finished off the podium aboard his next-generation GSX-R750 for the first time all season in Saturday’s contest, missing out on the box by just 0.067 seconds after taking the checkered flag only 0.296 seconds behind the winners.
The M4 ECSTAR Suzuki ace made his amends in Sunday’s rematch, parlaying his front-row grid position into a third-place finish. Scott got his revenge for his Saturday fourth with a last-lap strike on Sunday that saw him nudge into third at the checkered flag by an impossibly close 0.009 seconds, while again finishing only a half second away from victory.
Scott said, “I felt really good this weekend. We’re not quite where we want to be yet, but we’re getting there. I can’t give my M4 ESCSTAR Suzuki crew enough thanks. They’ve got the bike dialed in, and I’m comfortable on the bike. I can really ride it the way I know how to ride it, and it’s going to battle on it now.”
Richie Escalante charged forward all weekend, earning a pair of strong top-five Superbike finishes.
Meanwhile, the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki duo of Richie Escalante and Brandon Paasch were on the charge aboard their GSX-R1000Rs at Barber Motorsports Park.
Despite qualifying on the outside of Row 3, Escalante twice fought his way into the top five. He took fifth – and only 1.5 seconds away from second – on Saturday. The Mexican star went one better on Sunday, racing up from the bottom of the top ten to come home in fourth.
“It was a nice weekend,” Escalante said. “We got two top fives, which is good for the championship. But the most important thing is that I have a really good feeling from the bike again. The crew did a great job, always pushing to improve and find more. I am really happy about our race pace. Qualifying has changed this year to just 15 minutes, so my focus at Road America will be to get up to speed and get a good flying lap. That puts us closer to the podium again. I am really happy with the weekend, the bike, and the team.”
Brandon Paasch fought through the field twice at Barber, charging to back-to-back top-10 finishes.
Paasch pulled a similar trick. He twice finished eighth after starting on Row 4, including a Sunday ride that saw him climb to that position from outside the top 15 after being forced to take evasive action to avoid a downed rider.
He said, “There were some nice positives from the weekend. It started out a little rough. I have never gone that great at Barber, which is no excuse, and we didn’t qualify very well. In Race 1, I was trying to stick with the top ten pack and was able to get a good result. I tried to do it in Race 2, but there was a crash in front of me. I had to avoid it and ended up last but was able to charge up to eighth by the end. I wasn’t really happy at the time, but we were able to run some people down and make passes. I didn’t crash all weekend, and we made the bike better, so we continued our forward momentum. I really like Road America so it should be good.”
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Twins Cup squad was down a rider early after Australian Bodie Paige was ruled out following a Friday qualifying crash. Class title contender Matthew Chapin picked up the slack on the GSX-8R, winning out in a last-lap duel for second on Saturday. He narrowly missed out on a double-podium weekend by finishing a close fourth on Sunday.
Following his runner-up finish, Chapin said, “That was a fun race. I had a lot of fun battling and the pace was pretty good. I want to give a huge thanks to my M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team – we’ve struggled with small things all weekend, but together we were able to get it sorted for the race. I dropped like a second compared with my qualifying time in the race, and that’s absolutely absurd.”
The 2026 MotoAmerica season will resume in ultra high-speed fashion when it arrives at Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on May 29-31.
The 2025 season marks Team Hammer's 45th consecutive year of operating as a professional road racing team. Racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 135 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National races, have finished on AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National podiums 382 times and have won 11 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National Championships, as well as two FIM South American Championships (in Superbike and Supersport). The team has also won 137 endurance races overall (including seven 24-hour races) and 13 Overall WERA National Endurance Championships with Suzuki motorcycles, and holds the U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24-hour race. The team also competed in the televised 1990s Formula USA National Championship, famously running "Methanol Monster" GSX-R1100 Superbikes fueled by methanol, and won four F-USA Championships.
About Suzuki
Suzuki Motor USA, LLC (SMO) distributes Motorcycles, ATVs, Scooters, Accessories, and ECSTAR Oils & Chemicals via an extensive dealer network throughout 49 states. Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), based in Hamamatsu, Japan, is a diversified worldwide manufacturer of Motorcycles, ATVs, Scooters, Automobiles, Outboard Motors, and related products. Founded in 1909 and incorporated in 1920, SMC has business relations with 201 countries/regions. For more information, visit www.suzuki.com.
