Bodie Paige wins MotoAmerica Talent Cup opener – Countryman Drane on podium TechTricks365

2025 MotoAmerica Talent Cup

Round One – COTA

The new Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul Championship kicked off over the weekend at COTA. MotoAmerica Twins Cup Champion Alessandro Di Mario had been slated to dominate the proceedings, and Di Mario indeed dominate the opening bout, but young Australian Bodie Paige went on to best the 20-year-old in the second bout.   Sam Drane was on the podium across both races to make it two Aussies on the rostrum.

Race One

Di Mario didn’t nail the holeshot in race one, but he led by the time they exited from the first corner. From there, he never put a wheel wrong in storming to a 9.442-second victory.

With Di Mario disappearing into the distance, it was Paige emerging from the pack and racing to a rather lonely second place with almost 5.5 seconds over third place.

That spot ultimately fell to Paige’s fellow Australian Drane, who was just .169 of a second ahead of Hank Vossberg.

Drane and Vossberg ended up pulling a gap to what was once a six-rider battle for third, with Julian Correa besting Rossi Garcia by a scant .200 of a second. Ella Dreher crossed the line in seventh, just .202 of a second behind Garcia.

Derek Sanchez, Chase Black, and Solly Mervis rounded out the top 10. With Carson King, Nathan Bettencourt, Ian Fraley and Kody Kopp rounding out the field in 11th through 14th.

Race One Results

Race Two

Paige led from start to finish in race two on Saturday afternoon, ultimately beating Di Mario by 1.3 seconds to win his first career MotoAmerica race. Judging by his performance and the ability to hold off a charging Di Mario, it won’t be Paige’s last MotoAmerica victory.

Di Mario missed a little bit on setup for race two and said he had front-end chatter that forced him to run wide in several spots on the track.

The defending MotoAmerica SC-Project Twins Cup Champion tried but couldn’t match Paige.

While Drane had a battle on his hands in race one with Vossberg, the Estenson Racing rider was mostly alone in race two until Di Mario showed up. Once Di Mario made his pass, Drane had a lonely race and finished almost two seconds ahead of Julian Correa, who improved one spot from his fifth place in race one.

Dreher showed her mettle in race two, finishing fifth after improving from her seventh-place finish in race one. Sanchez also improved in race two, moving from eighth to sixth.

Three-time AFT Singles Champion Kody Kopp bounced back from his crash in race one to finish seventh in what was just his first day of road racing.

Kopp was in a heated battle throughout, with just .266 of a second covering Sanchez in sixth to Garcia in ninth. King, meanwhile, was also in that pack and finished eighth.

Black rounded out the top 10, dropping a spot from his race-one ninth. Mervis, Bettencourt, Smith and Fraley rounded out the finishers.

Vossberg, who was a fighting fourth in race one, was knocked out of the battle by a mechanical failure.

MotoAmerica Talent Cup Round Overall

Bodie Paige took the round victory on equal 45-points to Alessandro Di Mario, with third placed Sam Drane collecting 16-points per race for third on 32-points. That was well clear of Julian Correa in fourth on 24-points, and Ella Breher in fifth on 20.

Bodie Paige – P2/1

“We had it planned earlier in the year, and we were all set. We just had to pay off the bike, but we came up late on that. We pulled the pin on it for this year, and we were maybe going to do it next year. But we got a ride from Wayne Rainey, and we said ‘yeah.’ It was on the way home from dirt track. So, it was late. We got all the stuff that we needed for the test, but it wasn’t quite everything we needed. So, we just focused on bike setup at the test and just trying to get me comfortable with it, then focus on getting all the stuff for this round. It’s been a good weekend for the start of the championship, so hopefully we can keep going.”

Alessandro Di Mario – P1/2

“They went a lot faster. The pace was insane that second race. We made some bike changes, and apparently it wasn’t really too good. Every time I would lean the bike over and then get on the gas, it was kind of chattering a lot. So, I didn’t really have much confidence. I couldn’t lean it a lot. But the pace was also higher, too. So that made the issue even bigger. Obviously, I got a really bad start. I’ve got to learn how to start these things better. I was fifth or sixth, I think, at turn one. I had to make my way up. So, I got to about third place and then at that point, I just tried to control my pace and finish the race and get as many points as possible. I could tell the pace was a lot higher, so I knew it was going to be hard. But I just wanted to get up to the front as quick as possible. I lost three or four seconds just in the pack the first couple laps. So, it made it a lot harder. I feel like if I had gotten a good start I could have been up there battling. But we just have to work on that.”

Sam Drane – P3/3

“I did a lot of different riding (from race one to race two). I tried to lean off it more. It worked out better. I just had some struggles with the front end in race two that I dropped off a bit and slowed the pace down. Race one, we just didn’t really have the pace for the two in front of me. They were both good races, and it set me up nicely for the championship.

“From about December last year. Tim (Estenson, the team owner) really decided he wanted to do it and got all the stuff for it, and that’s about where we started. Yeah, we’re all in it together now because Tommy (his brother) is racing flat track and I’ll be doing that too this year. They built a house (in Kentucky) and we’re just going to be living there for most of the year now.”

MotoAmerica Talent Cup Race Two Results

MotoAmerica Talent Cup Standings after Round One

The Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul has just a few days off before the series resumes with the opening round of the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship at Barber Motorsports Park, April 4-6.