Yamaha’s Cameron Beuabier (photo by Brian J. Nelson)
MotoAmerica – North America’s new road-racing series spearheaded by three-time 500cc GP Champion Wayne Rainey – headed to Georgia this past weekend for round two at Road Atlanta.
Rain played the largest role in Sunday’s Superbike doubleheader, but one rider seemed unfazed by the wet conditions – Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier.
The 22-year-old California won both races after starting from third on the grid behind teammate Josh Hayes and pole-sitter Roger Lee Hayden on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Beaubier fought early with Hayes in the opening race, but would take the checkered flag by 4.699 seconds ahead of the four-time AMA SuperBike Champion. Taking the final podium position was Roger Lee Hayden’s teammate Jake Lewis. As for Hayden, he crashed out.
Due to heavy rains and a flooded track, the grid would have to wait until nearly 5 p.m. to begin race two. Hayden once again crashed out, as did Hayes. This allowed Beaubier to move past Lewis and take his third MotoAmerica Superbike victory this season (including race two at Circuit of the Americas).
Beaubier took the win by 3.789 seconds ahead of Lewis. Third went to Yamaha Blumaz’s Bernat Martinez, which was the Spaniard’s first-ever podium.
Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier (photo by Brian J. Nelson)
As for Beaubier, including AMA SuperBike, he now has six Superbike race wins to his career
“I struggled a lot in the wet in the few outings we had last year. To get two wins in the wet, sketchy conditions today was good for my confidence. In the first race Josh [Hayes] and Roger [Hayden] were riding really good and it was a bummer to see Rog go down. I put my head down and started clicking off laps.
“I just kept going, kept going. I had a good feel in the wet. I didn’t want to throw it down, but I just kept clicking off laps,” Beaubier said following the sweep.
“I was pretty timid in race two in turn one. I didn’t know if there was any standing water or not and then Jake [Lewis] got me. Jake was riding awesome and I saw Rog out front just pounding out laps. I was like, ‘Oh, man, he’s gone.’ I was struggling a little bit with grip. I saw Rog crash, I saw Josh [Hayes] crash. It was a bummer. I want to race those guys to the finish. I just kept trucking along.”
Beaubier now has a 30-point lead over Josh Hayes after two rounds. Lewis is third with 60 points and Martinez is fourth with 51. Elena Myers, by virtue of her two sixth-place finishes today, is fifth in the title chase with 38 points.
The series now breaks for four weeks before resuming at Virginia International Raceway May 15-17.
Also running with the Superbikes was the Superstock 1000 class. Splitting wins were Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Joshua Day and RoadRace Factory’s Jake Gagne, both piloting the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1
MotoAmerica says Day won race one in his return to U.S. road racing and Gagne, who crashed in race one, bounced back for the win in the second race. Day’s afternoon was a mirror image of Gagne’s as he crashed out of race two after winning race one.
Tyler O’Hara ended up second in both races on the Tyler O’Hara Racing Yamaha R1 with Taylor Knapp riding the FourFour Motorsports R1 to third in both races.
“It was kind of like a last-minute thing,” Day said. “I was planning on going to Europe again this year and then things kind of fell through with that. I went to COTA for the first round just so I could be there in front of everybody’s face and they could see me in person and know that I was trying to look for something over here.
“They approached me and told me there might be an opportunity to race here. I ended up here this weekend and exceeded some of our expectations. They kept telling me that there were no expectations at all, but as a racer you always put things in your mind with what you want to do and try to accomplish. For myself, I think I was able to accomplish a little bit more than what I thought I could do.”
Gagne’s race-one crashed followed his crash in the morning practice session so he was pleased to get maximum points in the second race.
“Today was mostly me going down,” Gagne said. “I made a stupid little mistake and clipped the inside paint in warm-up. The paint here in the wet is a no-go. I had a pretty good crash. In the first race I was still feeling good in the wet, but I came out of five and got a little bit too excited again. I was running my dry bike. I just got caught off guard. To come back and race with these guys… it was a fun race and I’m glad to be back up here for sure.”
2015 Road Atlanta MotoAmerica Superbike Results, race one:
- Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
- Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Bernat Martinez (Yamaha)
- Chris Ulrich (Suzuki)
- Elena Myers (Suzuki)
2015 Road Atlanta MotoAmerica Superbike Results, race two:
- Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Bernat Martinez (Yamaha)
- Chris Ulrich (Suzuki)
- Stefano Mesa (Honda)
- Elena Myers (Suzuki)
2015 Road Atlanta MotoAmerica Supersport Results, race one:
- Joshua Day (Yamaha)
- Tyler O’Hara (Yamaha)
- Taylor Knapp (Yamaha)
- Mark Heckles (Yamaha)
- Devon McDonough (Aprilia)
- Brad Burns (Suzuki)
- Shane Narbonne (Yamaha)
- Dustin Dominguez (Aprilia)
- Barrett Long (Ducati)
- Marcel Irnie (Yamaha)
2015 Road Atlanta MotoAmerica Supersport Results, race two:
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Tyler O’Hara (Yamaha)
- Taylor Knapp (Yamaha)
- Mark Heckles (Yamaha)
- Dustin Dominguez (Aprilia)
- Shane Narbonne (Yamaha)
- Brad Burns (Suzuki)
- Devon McDonough (Aprilia)
- Marcel Irnie (BMW)
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