Tag Archives: Cameron Beaubier

Beaubier crowned 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike Champion

2019 MotoAmerica

Championship of Alabama – Round 10

Images by Brian J. Nelson

Seven points were all that separated Cameron Beaubier from year-long championship leader Toni Elias as the 2019 EBC Brakes Superbike Championship reached a crescendo at Barber Motorsports Park over the weekend.

MotoAmerica Alabama Rnd Cameron Beaubier Garrett Gerloff
Cameron Beaubier and Garrett Gerloff celebrate at the Championship of Alabama

What seemed improbable just three days ago turned into reality for Cameron Beaubier on a sunny Sunday in Alabama, the Yamaha Factory Racing rider winning a fourth MotoAmerica Superbike crown by five points over his rival Toni Elias with a sweep of the two EBC Superbike races at Barber Motorsports Park.

Beaubier did everything he needed to do in the Championship of Alabama. He needed to win both races and for Elias to finish third or worse in both. And he got it with Elias struggling to a fourth-place finish on Sunday to give Beaubier the title.


Superbikes Race 1

Cameron Beaubier kept his championship hopes alive on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Alabama, the three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion taking his fifth win of the season while everything fell into place behind him.

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Cameron Beaubier needed to pull out all the stops on Saturday’s Race 1

Beaubier knew he needed to win, and he did. He also knew he needed help. And he got it with his teammate Garrett Gerloff finishing second. And, finally, he needed Elias to struggle, which he did, finishing third with his teammate Josh Herrin riding shotgun to the Spaniard in the final laps.

Beaubier’s win combined with Elias’ third place narrows the margin to seven points, 349-342, with just Sunday’s finale remaining in the championship.

Elias was disappointed with third place but hopeful of better things to come tomorrow. He knows that to earn the title, third place isn’t going to be enough. On Saturday, the former Moto2 World Champion was a distant third – 18.8 seconds behind Beaubier and just .033 of a second ahead of Herrin.

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Garrett Gerloff and Cameron Beaubier claimed the 1-2 result ahead of Elias on Saturday

Behind Herrin came JD Beach, the Yamaha rider closing in on the Yoshimura duo in the final laps and coming up just short at the finish after starting the race from the fourth row.

Sixth place went to Jake Gagne, just ahead of Kyle Wyman, who was some two seconds clear of Cameron Petersen. David Anthony and Travis Wyman rounded out the top 10 finishers.

Superbikes Race 2

Sunday’s victory was the sixth of the year for Beaubier and the 38th of his AMA Superbike career, but more importantly, it earned him a fourth AMA Superbike title, which puts him in a tie with former teammate Josh Hayes for the second most won in AMA Superbike history. Mat Mladin is at the top of that list with seven AMA Superbike Championships.

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Cameron Beaubier leads the Superbikes

Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff finished second, the Texan again leading the early laps before playing good soldier and not putting up a fight when his teammate caught up. Beaubier, meanwhile, had made things difficult for himself by running off the track in turn one on the opening lap, but he got the job done.

Cameron Beaubier

“I couldn’t believe what happened off the start. I’ve been feeling so good. My R1 has been working so good all weekend – Friday, Saturday, this morning, warmup, Sunday. I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to get in front and win the race and Toni (Elias) had to get third to win. I thought it was all out the door. I was in the grass. I tried to go around the outside of (Josh) Herrin and everyone knows you don’t go around the outside of Herrin. You end up in the grass. So that’s what happened. I got back on the track. I think I was like around eighth or something like that. These guys were riding so good. They were so hard to pass, and they were trying to pass each other as well. So, I made it really, really tough on myself, but I had nothing to lose. I just put my head down and pushed as hard as I could. I can’t even believe we were in this position going into this race – seven points out of the lead after yo-yo-ing to 30 points back on Toni (Elias), and we’re sitting here with the number-one plate. I just can’t believe it, really. It’s amazing. I just owe it all to my team Yamaha. It really is like a big family. I love all those guys. It’s Rick’s (Hobbs, his crew chief) last year. He’s retiring after this year. He’s been a huge key, if not thekey, to these four championships. I owe a huge portion of it to him. I’m really going to miss that guy.”

MotoAmerica Alabama Rnd Cameron Beaubier Garrett Gerloff
Cameron Beaubier and Garrett Gerloff topped the podium, with Mathew Scholtz third

Gerloff was happy with his performance and his season, a year in which he finished third in the title chase and won four races.

Garrett Gerloff

“This has been a good season for me. I definitely accomplished a lot of goals that I had going into the season. I feel like I had a pretty good year. Definitely some low points, but some really high points also. You can’t have one without the other. I’m really happy with my 2019 season. I really feel like I gelled with the R1 a lot better this year. I never give up and neither does my team. We’ve been working our butts off every weekend since last year to try to get the bike really where I like it and also just working on myself and working on my riding. A big part of that was having Josh Hayes help me out this year. He helped with a lot of different things, bike setup and also some mental stuff and everything. He’s been a huge part. Just can’t thank the whole team enough. I’m always looking for more, so I got bigger and better goals for next year. But just a big congrats to Cam. He’s been riding super consistent all year, super-fast. He’s definitely made me a faster rider. Like he said, it sucks to have a fast teammate sometimes because I was thinking the same thing. If I come in and he’s going a half a second faster than me and I’m like, ‘Dude, where the hell are you pulling this out of?’ But the challenge is always a closed door, but it’s a door that’s waiting to be opened for improvement. That’s the way I look at every challenge that I’ve had. I try to bust through those doors as fast as I can. It’s been a good year. I’m really excited with where we are and just really excited for what the future holds.”

MotoAmerica Alabama Rnd Cameron Beaubier Garrett Gerloff
Garrett Gerloff and Cameron Beaubier

Third place on Sunday went to Mathew Scholtz, the South African some 10 seconds behind the Yamaha duo but almost three seconds ahead of Elias.

Elias was extremely gracious in defeat, especially considering he’d led this championship from the second race until the start of the 20th race.

Toni Elias

“First of all, I want to congratulate Cameron (Beaubier) and Yamaha. They did an amazing end of the season and they deserve this win. For me it is not nice – it’s hard and sad. It will take some days to digest this loss and accept it. We tried hard. We did everything we could. The whole team gave 200 percent. We tried to find grip where there was no grip. I also want to say thank you to my teammate Josh Herrin. He tried to help and did a great job, but it was not enough. I’m very proud of my team, every single person. It’s very difficult for them as well, but we must accept that we tried our best and be content with that fact. We will come back and work harder next year and try to win another championship for Suzuki.”

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Toni Elias

Kyle Wyman was fifth on Sunday, his best result of the season on his Ducati. Wyman was on Elias’s rear wheel as they crossed the line and was just ahead of Cameron Petersen, who also enjoyed his best result of the season in sixth. Josh Herrin faded to finish seventh, less than a second head of Jake Lewis. David Anthony and Max Flinders rounded out the top 10.

Source: MCNews.com.au

Beaubier closes in on Elias at New Jersey MotoAmerica

2019 MotoAmerica

Round 9 – Championship of New Jersey

Images by Brian J. Nelson

The 2019 MotoAmerica Championship of New Jersey saw Garrett Gerloff and Cameron Beaubier share the EBC Brakes Superbike wins, leaving Beaubier within striking distance of championship leader Elias, who missed the podium across both races. Heading into the final round that places Toni Elias on 333-points to Beaubier’s 317, with third places Garrett Gerloff back on 276.

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Garrett Gerloff and Cameron Beaubier shared the weekend’s wins

PJ Jacobsen took both of the weekend’s Supersport wins, relegating championship leader Fong to second place in each race, and narrowing his lead to just 10-points heading into the final.

Rocco Landers meanwhile clinched the Liqui Moly Junior Cup title on Saturday, and followed that up with another win on Sunday, now holding 325-points in the standings, with the closest riders being Kevin Olmedo on 214, and Dallas Daniels on 200.

Alex Dumas took the Twins Cup win in the single race held for the weekend, with Andrew Lee coming out on top for the Stock 1000, winning the 2019 title on Sunday.


Superbike Race 1

Garrett Gerloff continued to hold the hot hand in the MotoAmerica EBC Brakes Superbike Series, the Texan winning race one in the Championship of New Jersey for his fourth win in the last six races.

MotoAmerica Rnd New Jersey Sat Beaubier BJN P
Cameron Beaubier leads – 2019 MotoAmerica – Round 9, New Jersey

Gerloff had his hands full for the entire 23 laps of the New Jersey Motorsports Park race with his teammate Cameron Beaubier, the three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion ending up 1.7 seconds behind at the finish line. JD Beach rebounded from a tough stretch of races to finish third, his first podium since his victory in race two at VIR the first weekend in May.

The Gerloff, Beaubier and Beach podium gave Yamaha a one-two-three for the first time this season. Gerloff and Beaubier used their strong finishes to gain some points on championship leader Toni Elias, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider ending up a distant fourth on the day – some 25 seconds behind Gerloff.

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Garrett Gerloff – 2019 MotoAmerica – Round 9, New Jersey

With only race two and the two races at Barber Motorsports Park for the season finale remaining, Beaubier trails Elias by 28 points, 320-292, with Gerloff 44 points in arrears in third. Beach strengthened his hold on fourth in the championship with a 13-point gap over Josh Herrin, who was seventh in race 1 on the second Yoshimura Suzuki.

Although he didn’t win, Beaubier clawed back valuable points on Elias, while Beach was happy with a return to the podium, the two-time Supersport Champion and the Attack team finding a cure for the chatter issue that has slowed him of late.

With Elias a distant fourth, he had some three seconds on Mathew Scholtz, the South African holding off Jake Lewis by just .060 of a second for fifth place. Herrin, in turn, hands his full with SJake Gagne with the Yoshimura Suzuki besting the BMW by 0.169 of a second. Kyle Wyman finished ninth with David Anthony rounding out the top 10.

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Saturday Superbike Podium – 2019 MotoAmerica – Round 9, New Jersey

Superbike Race 2

Cameron Beaubier at least has a chance n the final round at the 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship at Barber Motorsports Park in two weeks after winning the second EBC Brakes Superbike race on Sunday.

Beaubier, who finished second on Saturday and won on Sunday to claw back into championship contention with just the two races at Barber left on the 2019 schedule, trails Toni Elias by 16 points, 333-317. Elias had an off-weekend and finished fourth in both races, giving up 19 points to his rival Beaubier.

On Saturday, Beaubier lost out to his teammate Garrett Gerloff and on Sunday he had his hands full with JD Beach. Gerloff, meanwhile, was declared unfit to race after a big crash in the morning warm-up session that left him concussed.

MotoAmerica Rnd New Jersey Sun Cameron Beaubier BJN P
Cameron Beaubier leads – 2019 MotoAmerica – Round 9, New Jersey

Beaubier and Beach were joined up front by Mathew Scholtz, but the South African ended up finishing third, some seven seconds behind Beaubier. Beaubier was also able to gap Beach in the closing laps, besting the two-time Supersport Champion by 1.44 seconds after 23 laps for his fourth win of the season and the 36thof his Superbike career.

Cameron Beaubier

“At the beginning I was pretty confident going in just because I felt like I had pretty good pace there at the beginning of the race yesterday, and then after latching onto (Garrett) Gerloff he kind of pulled us three away from the field. Then at the end it was us two. I was pretty confident that my bike was going to be better than it was yesterday, but I was struggling pretty bad at the beginning when the tires were new. I feel like we’ve been fast at every round, one of the fastest guys if not the fastest, but we just have not been able to put it together when it counts. So today feels really good. Obviously, I’m bummed for my teammate that he couldn’t line up with us today. I think for sure obviously his pace has been incredible all weekend. He definitely would have been another Yamaha in the mix. I feel really good going into Barber. We’re still in striking distance. We’re closing the points down. Just going to keep my head down and see what happens.”

MotoAmerica Rnd New Jersey Sun Cameron Beaubier BJN P
Cameron Beaubier leads – 2019 MotoAmerica – Round 9, New Jersey
JD Beach

“Going into the race, I told Cameron what my race plan was so he would know. We got going and it started off great. Then he kind of was screwing the plan up. So, I had to get out front. I led a few laps. The bike was feeling really good today. We were just trying to go. Towards the end Cameron got back by me. I started to lose the front just a little bit, and he picked the pace up just a bit. I just kind of lost touch a little bit. For half the year, how it’s been going, it’s been tough. To get a third and a second in the same weekend is great. I just got to thank my whole Attack Performance Estenson Racing team. We’ve still got one more round to go, so we’ll see what we can do.”

Elias was at the opposite end of the spectrum. He was happy. But only happy to have New Jersey in his rear-view mirror after a difficult weekend.

Toni Elias

“It was a tough weekend, maybe the toughest I’ve had in a long time. We tried to improve and change things, but it seemed it was impossible to improve. I went six seconds faster in the race today than yesterday, but still it was not enough to improve my position.I see things in positive way, and we are still leading the championship by 16 points going into the final round. I’d rather be ahead than be behind. We will analyze and if we have to change our setup completely, okay, we will do it. We will go and play as hard as we can at Barber and see what happens.”

Jake Lewis finished fifth, one spot better than on Saturday, and ahead of sixth-placed Kyle Wyman. Josh Herrin was seventh with Jake Gagne ending his weekend with an eighth-place finish. David Anthony and Cameron Petersen rounded out the top 10.

With Beaubier now trailing Elias by 16 points, Gerloff holds on to third though he’s dropped to 41 points behind after missing Sunday’s race. Beach is 20 points adrift of Gerloff in fourth place and 24 points ahead of Herrin, who is now just three points in front of Scholtz.

Source: MCNews.com.au

Gerloff & Beaubier take win a-piece at Sonoma MotoAmerica

2019 MotoAmerica

Round 7 – Championship of Sonoma

Images by Brian J. Nelson

The 2019 Championship of Sonoma, Round 7 of the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, saw Garrett Gerloff take the Saturday race win, with Toni Elias in tow, while Beaubier was a non-finish in a result that looked set to decide the Superbike championship.

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Gerloff Beaubier
Garrett Gerloff and Cameron Beaubier celebrated a Yamaha double-win at Sonoma Raceway

Sunday’s Race 2 proved that anything can happen however, with Toni Elias crashing out and Beaubier taking the win, leaving Elias with a strong but not insurmountable lead, while Gerloff and Beaubier are separated by only six-points in the standings.

In the Supersport class Hayden Gillim took out the Race 1 win on Saturday from Bobby Fong and PJ Jacobsen, while Sunday Jacobsen claim the win from Fong and Bryce Prince, with Gillim having to settle for fourth. Andrew Lee claimed victory in the single Stock 1000 race of the weekend.

In the Liqui Moly Junior Cup Rocco Landers continued to build his lead with Kevin Olmedo his closest competitor over the weekend. Alex Dumas meanwhile took a clean win in the Twins Cup class, with a single race run and the rider holding a 12-second lead over second placed Draik Beauchamp.

Superbikes – Saturday

Toni Elias took a giant step towards winning his second MotoAmerica EBC Brakes Superbike title in the Championship of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway, the Spaniard finishing second to Garrett Gerloff while his main championship rival Cameron Beaubier crashed out of the race on lap two.

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Toni Elias Saturday
Toni Elias – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Elias’ second-place finish combined with Beaubier’s non-finish gives him a 59-point lead in the championship heading into Sunday’s second EBC Brakes Superbike race, 266-207.

While Elias may have gained the most on a sunny Saturday in Northern California’s wine country, the day belonged to Gerloff. Hot off his win in race two at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca a month ago, the Texan bested Elias by 10.3 second to take his second career EBC Brakes Superbike race win.

Gerloff was quick all day, ending up the second fastest qualifier behind his teammate Beaubier, the three-time series champion who had won the last four Superbike races held at Sonoma. Gerloff didn’t waste much time in taking the lead from Elias after Beaubier crashed out of the lead on the second lap – just moments after passing Elias.

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Garrett Gerloff Saturday
Garrett Gerloff – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

In addition to taking his second win, Gerloff also took big gains in the title chase and is now just a single point behind Beaubier in third place with 206 points.

Third place today went to Mathew Scholtz, the South African besting JD Beach. Fifth place went to Jake Gagne in his best finish of the season. Max Flinders had his best career Superbike finish in sixth. Sam Verderico finished seventh in the race that featured an exorbitant amount of non-finishers. The non-finishers included Beaubier, Josh Herrin, Kyle Wyman, David Anthony, Jake Lewis and Cameron Petersen.

EBC Brakes Superbike Result – Saturday

  1. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
  2. Toni Elias (Suzuki) +10.369
  3. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) +21.193
  4. JD Beach (Yamaha) +27.084
  5. Jake Gagne (BMW) +50.380

Superbike – Sunday

Sunday’s race in the Cycle Gear Championship of Sonoma was further proof that it truly ain’t over till it’s over. With most series observers, including Cameron Beaubier, thinking the 2019 MotoAmerica EBC Brake Superbike Championship was a foregone conclusion after Beaubier crashed out of Saturday’s race and championship leader Toni Elias won, suddenly it wasn’t.

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Sunday SBK Start – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Elias crashed out of Sunday’s race early and Beaubier rode to victory, his fifth in the last six Superbike races at Sonoma Raceway, and his third of the season. And just like that, the championship is back on with Elias leading Beaubier and his YZF-R1 by 34 points with three rounds and six races left in the title chase.

With fast-starter Beaubier leading, Elias crashed out of second place on the third lap. From there it was yesterday’s race winner Garrett Gerloff giving chase to Beaubier, the Texan putting up an admirable fight until losing front tire grip that forced him to slow his pace. That allowed Beaubier to cruise to a 5.281-second win, pocketing the 25 championship points that come with it.

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Sunday Superbike podium – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway
Cameron Beaubier

“It just feels really good to get a win today after crashing three laps in yesterday, especially just after kind of being in a rut lately. I saw plus 3.5 on my board and I was like, ‘Let’s just take this home.’ It feels really good. Obviously, it’s unfortunate I crashed yesterday. I thought it was pretty much all over points-wise going into today. I think it was good for me,though, because I just went out with the intention to win. Don’t go ride careful or nothing like that. Just put your head down and go race. Go race to win. I felt like I rode loose. I felt like I rode good. We’re back in it.”

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Cameron Beaubier Superbike
Cameron Beaubier – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Gerloff had a solid weekend at Sonoma and leaves Northern California with a win and a second place.

Garrett Gerloff

“My team gave me an awesome bike today, I really felt good on it. Wasn’t too different from yesterday. Yesterday I ran the softest front compound there was, and it ended up shredding on me at the end of the race. I tried the little bit harder compound this morning and just hated it. I didn’t like it. I was hoping that with the higher temperature today and stuff that the soft would maybe go a little bit longer, and I think it did but just not the whole race. It sucks. I wish I could have adapted a little bit better to the green tire this morning, but we just didn’t want to take the chance. I felt good at the beginning of the race. Ran off in the chicane on the fifth lap or sixth lap, which helped him (Beaubier) get out a little bit farther in front. Just did everything I could to try to kind of reel him back in. Felt like I was, to a certain extent, but then with like nine laps to go, my front was just so gone that I had trouble just turning the bike into the chicane and the last corner. Just really heavy braking front load corners. That was it. Kind of sucks, but we learned a lot this weekend. It was still a good weekend. First and second is not too bad. It’s cool that we’re right there in the championship, more or less. It feels good. Just try to keep taking steps forward. I’m really excited for Pittsburgh. It’s a track I really like. See how it goes there.”

Third place on Sunday went to Josh Herrin, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider making up for yesterday’s first-lap crash.

Josh Herrin

“It feels good, it sucks coming in being on a factory team and seeing these guys that are expecting a win and not doing good. Not to say that third is great, but I think all of us could say at the team that it feels pretty good today. This weekend hasn’t been good at all. A lot of people have been struggling, besides these two. Like I said, it feels really good. I’m happy to be up here. Hopefully Pittsburgh treats me a little bit better and we can be fighting up there with these guys at least. That would feel really good if we could at least see them at the end of the race. Thanks to the entire team for putting in all the work. I know it sucks being out in the heat and then having to repair a bike all night, so thank you to Jimmy, Frenchie, Ollie, Davey, all the guys, Scott, for putting in the work. Congrats to these guys. I look forward to going to Pittsburgh.”

As much as he gained in Saturday’s race, Elias lost in Sunday’s.

Toni Elias

“We made a little change to the front fork, I was feeling comfortable because I went with the medium tire and I was expecting a great race from mid-race to the end. I was in a good rhythm behind Cameron (Beaubier). I didn’t feel like I was pushing. I didn’t feel like I made a mistake or braked too late, but maybe with the change I did in the front, it was too hard and I just lost the front in one of the bumps. I’m sorry for the team, but I want to look in a positive way. We still have a 34-point lead. It’s not 59 like it was yesterday, but it’s still 34. We still have six races and we’ll see what happens.”

Fourth place went to Mathew Scholtz, the South African finishing third on Saturday. Scholtz battled with Herrin for most of the race and also had JD Beach nipping at his heels for the duration. Beach ended up just over a second behind in fifth place, a day after the Kentuckian finished fourth.

Jake Gagne was sixth, some four seconds ahead of Cameron Petersen. David Anthony rebounded from a crash in yesterday’s race to finish eighth. Jeremy Coffey and Sam Verderico rounded out the top 10.

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Cameron Beaubier Superbike
Cameron Beaubier – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

With the series heading to Pittsburgh International Race Complex in two weeks, Elias leads the title chase, 266-232, over Beaubier with Gerloff third on 226. Beach is fourth with 159 points, 11 better than Herrin.

EBC Brakes Superbike

  1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
  2. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) +5.281
  3. Josh Herrin (Suzuki) +21.832
  4. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) +26.470
  5. JD Beach (Yamaha) +27.796

EBC Brakes Superbike Standings

  1. Toni Elias 266
  2. Cameron Beaubier 232
  3. Garrett Gerloff 226
  4. JD Beach 159
  5. Josh Herrin 148
  6. Mathew Scholtz 139
  7. Jake Lewis 121
  8. Cameron Petersen 90
  9. David Anthony 84
  10. Jake Gagne 83
  11. Max Flinders 65

Supersport – Saturday

After the Supersport race was red-flagged because of a crash on the first lap, it was re-started, and Hayden Gillim went to the front and hung on to a narrow lead to capture his fifth win of the season.

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PJ Jacobsen – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Second-place finisher and current championship leader Bobby Fong closed the gap to Gillim as the laps wound down and brought his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki home in second. As a result, Gillim closed the points gap to just 13 behind Fong. Third place went to PJ Jacobsen.

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Hayden Gillim Saturday
Hayden Gillim – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Supersport Race Result – Saturday

  1. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)
  2. Bobby Fong (Suzuki) +0.102
  3. PJ Jacobsen (Yamaha) +3.089
  4. Bryce Prince (Yamaha) +7.213
  5. Joshua Hayes (Yamaha) +10.692

Supersport – Sunday

In Sunday’s Supersport race, PJ Jacobsen notched his second win of the season after passing Bobby Fong late in the race. Fong, who is leading the championship, tried a couple of times to get back around Jacobsen, but he used discretion to maintain his second-place position rather than put valuable points in jeopardy. Bryce Prince put his Yamaha on the podium in third.

PJ Jacobsen

“Right from the beginning with the bike I felt really good. It was weird. In the beginning, everyone was running low 40s, high 39s. The pace was really slow. When that was happening, I felt really good. So, I just wanted to move to the front. I haven’t been there so much, but I just decided I wanted to go to the front and just try to lead this thing until the end, and I just pushed as hard as I could. The team, Celtic HSBK Racing, gave me a great bike today. We made some changes overnight, really just with some gearing and a little bit of the suspension. It was working really good. I’m pretty pumped. Also, Jake Zemke helped me with some line choices. I was struggling in the esses with these guys yesterday. So, I think I got everything pretty right today.”

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma PJ Jacobsen Sunday
PJ Jacobsen – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Supersport

  1. PJ Jacobsen (Yamaha)
  2. Bobby Fong (Suzuki) +8.196
  3. Bryce Prince (Yamaha) +10.988
  4. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha) +11.737
  5. Joshua Hayes (Yamaha) +15.613
MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma PJ Jacobsen BJN P
Supersport Podium – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Supersport Standings

  1. Bobby Fong 200
  2. Hayden Gillim 180
  3. P.J. Jacobsen 164
  4. Richie Escalante 136
  5. Sean Dylan Kelly 125
  6. Bryce Prince 117
  7. Joshua Hayes 105
  8. Jason Aguilar 84
  9. Nick McFadden 83
  10. Lucas Silva 58

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Saturday

In Liqui Moly Junior Cup race one, Rocco Landers won his eighth race out of 10 so far this season, and though he notched the victory in dominant fashion, it was not without drama.

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Rocco Landers Sunday
Rocco Landers – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

The Californian had a couple of “moments” during the nine-lap event where he and his Kawasaki were not in sync, but the talented 14-year-old maintained his composure to take the checkers by a little over one and a half seconds over second-place finisher Kevin Olmedo. Third place went to Marc Edwards, the local rider also aboard a Kawasaki.

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Race 1

  1. Rocco Landers (Kawasaki)
  2. Kevin Olmedo (Kawasaki) +1.513
  3. Marc Edwards (Kawasaki) +1.584
  4. Josh Serne (Kawasaki) +1.659
  5. Brenden Ketelsen (Kawasaki) +7.089

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Sunday

Sunday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race-two podium was a carbon copy of Saturday’s result. Rocco Landers tallied his ninth win out of 11 races so far this season, but the 12-lap event was a battle between him and Kevin Olmedo, who led the majority of the laps.

MotoAmerica Rnd Sonoma Rocco Landers Saturday
Rocco Landers – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Landers seemed to be biding his time, and on the final lap, he pounced and passed Olmedo for the lead, and ultimately, the win. Local rider Marc Edwards matched his third-place finish on Saturday with another third place on Sunday aboard his Kawasaki.

Rocco Landers

“I didn’t have an exact plan as to what corner I’d pass him in, but the couple laps to the end, I just started trying to see what was going on, just tried to step back and think about it, I really wanted to see what I could do. On the last lap there, I was just following him a little bit. Coming up towards the end, I was like, ‘I got a good run. Just see what happens here.’ I came up on him and got by him. It was a very fun race. He was going so fast, and so was everyone.”

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Rocco Landers – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Liqui Moly Junior Cup

  1. Rocco Landers (Kawasaki)
  2. Kevin Olmedo (Kawasaki) +0.219
  3. Marc Edwards (Kawasaki) +19.408
  4. Brenden Ketelsen (Kawasaki) +20.161
  5. Josh Serne (Kawasaki) +30.698

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Standings

  1. Rocco Landers 250
  2. Dallas Daniels 174
  3. Kevin Olmedo 153
  4. Gauge Rees 98
  5. Dominic Doyle 81
  6. Jackson Blackmon 79
  7. Damian Jigalov 72
  8. Marc Edwards 63
  9. Samuel Lochoff 62
  10. Brenden Ketelsen 57

Stock 1000 – Sunday

The weekend’s Stock 1000 race saw local rider, defending class champion, and current points leader Andrew Lee get his fourth victory of the season with a dominant performance that saw him start from the pole, get the holeshot into turn one, and lead every one of the 14 laps to the checkers aboard his Kawasaki.

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Stock 1000 – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Michael Gilbert also rode his Kawasaki to second place after getting by Geoff May with just two laps to go in the race. May finished third to round out the podium.

Andrew Lee

“The Franklin Armory/Graves Kawasaki crew has been working really hard lately, getting a bike underneath me that I can go out there and ride to my full potential today. The bike was just feeling really great. I got a good start, and I knew these guys were going to be breathing down my neck. After qualifying, I felt like I had some pretty good pace underneath me. I was looking at the pit board and I was like, ‘Man.’ The grip wasn’t great for me. I was just clicking my markers and getting lap in, lap out, just trying to stay consistent. I’m just happy to come away with three wins in a row. So, hopefully, moving forward we can keep it going.”

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Andrew Lee – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Stock 1000 Race Results

  1. Andrew Lee (Kawasaki)
  2. Michael Gilbert (Kawasaki) +7.608
  3. Geoff May (Kawasaki) +11.472
  4. Stefano Mesa (Kawasaki) +17.123
  5. Travis Wyman (BMW) +23.288
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Stock 1000 podium – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Stock 1000 Standings

TBA


Twins Cup – Sunday

The Twins Cup race saw a big shakeup in the championship after points leader Michael Barnes’ Ducati had a technical issue, which took him out of the race lead, out of the race, and unfortunately, out of the championship lead.

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Twins Cup – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Alex Dumas then took over the lead, put his head down, and stretched out a gap of more than 12-seconds by the time he took the checkers. Second place went to Draik Beauchamp, while Joseph Blasius finished a close third.

The race result vaulted Beauchamp into the championship lead with 108 points, Dumas is in second with 107-points, and Barnes was shuffled down to third in the standings. But, he has 106-points, so only three points separate the top three title contenders.

Alex Dumas

“Michael (Barnes) passed me on the first lap coming into the last corner, he was going pretty fast. I followed him for two or three laps until he had a problem. I didn’t know if I could win. I was catching him at some places on the track where I was faster, and he was pulling a gap on me at other places. It was really hard to just keep up with him and stay behind him really close to make a pass. It was pretty much a lonely race at the end. I just took it home, and I’m really happy.”

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Alex Dumas – MotoAmerica 2019 Round 7, Sonoma Raceway

Twins Cup Race Result

  1. Alex Dumas (Suzuki)
  2. Draik Beauchamp (Yamaha) +12.521
  3. Joseph Blasius (Suzuki) +13.334
  4. Kris Turner (Suzuki) +24.891
  5. Jason Madama (Yamaha) +31.790

Twins Cup Standings

  1. Draik Beauchamp 108
  2. Alex Dumas 107
  3. Michael Barnes 106
  4. Curtis Murray 89
  5. Chris Parrish 78
  6. Joseph Blasius 66
  7. Jason Madama 58
  8. Kris Turner 42
  9. Jeffrey Tigert 40
  10. Cooper McDonald 38

Source: MCNews.com.au

Toni Elias & Josh Herrin share Road America victories

2019 MotoAmerica

Round 4 – Road America

Images by Brian J. Nelson

Toni Elias and Josh Herrin have shared the EBC Brakes Superbike race wins at Road America’s Round 4, with Elias heading to Round 5 in the championship lead. In Supersport Hayden Gillim and Bobby Fong shared the wins, while Rocco Landers dominated the Liqui Moly Junior Cup races.

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MotoAmerica head to Road America for Round 4 of the 2019 Championship

Stock 1000 saw Geoff May take the Race 1 win, while Stefano Mesa claimed Race 2 victory. The Twins Cup only held one race over the weekend, on Sunday, with Draik Beauchamp taking the win.

Superbikes Saturday

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias won his third race of the season today in the Championship at Road America, the fourth round of the 10-round MotoAmerica EBC Brakes Superbike Championship held in changing conditions in Wisconsin.

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Toni Elias – Road America 2019

Elias came out on top of a battle that featured as many as seven riders at times and whittled down to four riders by the end of the race. At the finish line, Elias was .253 of a second ahead of his championship rival Cameron Beaubier to pull 29 points clear of the rider with six rounds and 12 races left in the title chase. Elias has 151 points to Beaubier’s 122.

Elias also earned his second pole position of the season earlier in the day during Superpole, doubling his amount of poles from a season ago. The win was the 28th Superbike victory of Elias’ career and it moved him into a tie with Ben Spies for fifth on the all-time list.

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Toni Elias – Road America 2019

Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff was a shadow third, just .787 of a second behind Elias. He was some two seconds clear of Elias’ teammate Josh Herrin, the Georgian in the mix until the final laps when he and Elias nearly clashed, and Herrin got the worst of it. Herrin was visibly upset after the race, gesturing at his teammate on the cool-down lap. Herrin ran wide on the final lap while trying to beat Gerloff and slipped to fourth.

Mathew Scholtz was fifth, some four seconds behind Herrin and racing alone as he had a 4.3-second lead on his South African countryman Cameron Petersen on the Omega Moto Yamaha YZF-R1.

Seventh place went to JD Beach, the rider in the mix at the front until his bike shut off with a few laps to go. Beach was able to get it going again, but then ran into clutch issues and slipped back to seventh.

Scheibe Racing BMW’s Jake Gagne was eighth with David Anthony ninth. Jake Lewis rounded out the top 10.

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Toni Elias on the Saturday Superbike podium – Road America 2019

EBC Brakes Superbike Race 1 Result (Saturday)

  1. Toni Elias (Suzuki) 27:17.351
  2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) +0.253
  3. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) +0.787
  4. Josh Herrin (Suzuki) +2.805
  5. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) +6.890

Superbikes Sunday

Josh Herrin won Sunday’s EBC Brakes Superbike race in the Championship at Road America, but it was Cameron Beaubier who may have come away the biggest winner.

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EBC Brakes Superbikes Race 2 – Road America 2019

Herrin was solid throughout the 13-lap EBC Brakes Superbike race and it resulted in his second win of the year and the eighth of his AMA Superbike career, the Georgian holding off Beaubier by .506 of a second at the finish.

Herrin’s win moved him into a tie for 22nd with Tommy Hayden and Wes Cooley on the all-time AMA Superbike win list.

Josh Herrin

“I was comfortable sitting behind Toni (Elias). From just the glance I get at the monitors (JumboTron), it’s nicer to take a glance at the monitors than it is the pit board because it just shows you exactly where they are. I could see that we had a little gap on Cameron (Beaubier), I thought. I was just drafting Toni and then I’d kind of pull up alongside of him. One of the laps, I think he thought I was trying to race him down the back straight and maybe beat him on the brakes. I saw him shake his head and maybe getting frustrated. He just rolled off, like just go. That’s not what I wanted. I wanted to keep doing what you were doing and trying to break those guys because I know our bikes were running fast this year. But somehow it ended up working out in the end. I just knew that on the last lap I wanted to make a pass somewhere that for sure he wasn’t expecting it. I think where I did it was perfect and enough to kind of get him flustered. Then his whole plan kind of goes out the window. He was probably expecting me to go in on Canada Corner and come in a little hot and then cross back underneath him. So, it worked out perfect for me. It kind of felt like COTA all over again. I thought I was going to be able to break him after he made a mistake with three to go. I put my head down and did a couple 12.5s, but it wasn’t enough. I’m super happy with the result, obviously. But frustrated that it’s only my second podium of the year. Two wins are great, but we need more podiums. We’re far back in the points so the rest of the year we really got to put our head down. Now that I’m comfortable on the bike we just got to put our head down and hope for the best.”

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Josh Herrin – Road America 2019

Beaubier had been in the lead trio for the majority of the race and was handed second place on a platter when Herrin’s teammate Toni Elias, the winner of Saturday’s race, crashed out of the battle in the final corner. Elias’ miscue not only gifted Beaubier second, it also put the battle back into championship battle as Beaubier gained 20 points on the championship leader and now trails Elias by just nine points, 151-142.

Cameron Beaubier

“Coming into this round I had a lot of confidence, to be honest, just given the record that we’ve had here the last few years, we’ve won quite a few races. I think I have six or seven Superbike wins here. I just love this place. I love this track. It suits my R1 really well. It suits my riding style really well. We’ve just kind of been a little off all weekend. Like I said, I really wanted to win this weekend, but coming out of here with two seconds and riding as hard as I could, like I said earlier I left it all out on the track. I did everything I could just to stay on Josh and Toni’s wheel in the race today. I can be happy with that. Unfortunately for Toni, he crashed but gave us a pretty good chunk in points because we were pretty far back going into the race this afternoon. So now I think it’s nine points, so it’s going to be a dog fight the rest of the season. Both these guys are riding incredible, along with JD (Beach) and Matty (Scholtz) and a couple other guys going into some of the rest of the tracks this year. So, it’s going to make for some really good, exciting racing and I’m looking forward to it.”

Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff finished third for the second day in a row, the Texan ending up 6.172 seconds behind Herrin. In turn, Gerloff was five seconds ahead of Attack Performance Estenson Racing Yamaha’s JD Beach.

Garrett Gerloff

“Honestly, I’ve got to watch the race over again because I don’t know what happened, it was literally like I was there, felt good, dicing. We were all doing good times. Then just lost the draft. I can’t even remember where. I think it was three. I kind of ran a little bit wide in three and got just a few more bike lengths in-between me and Cameron and the draft was gone and that was it. Just shot off the back. It was kind of unexpected, I guess. It’s frustrating because I felt good. I felt like I had a good bike. Then for that to happen it just sucks. At least I was able to stay there. I figured something might happen on the last lap between these guys and it ended up being Toni’s own fault, I guess. Glad I was able to just keep it on two wheels and to get lucky today and be on the podium. Not ideal, but I’ll take it.”

Mathew Scholtz finished fifth for the second straight day, the South African ending up right on Beach’s tail.  Kyle Wyman matched his best finish of the season, the New Yorker finishing sixth – just .069 of a second ahead of Jake Gagne, who had Jake Lewis hot on his heels. Cameron Petersen and Sam Verderico rounded out the top 10 finishers.

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Toni Elias – Road America 2019
Toni Elias

“We had a great win on Saturday and then I had the crash today because I flinched in the final turn when Cameron (Beaubier) came in, I could not finish because the handlebar broke off. I congratulate Josh for his win. He has worked hard and is very deserving of this. I am sorry to my team for my mistake, but we will come back and fight again to build back our lead.”

EBC Brakes Superbike Race 2 Result (Sunday)

  1. Josh Herrin (Suzuki) 28:53.289
  2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) +0.506
  3. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) +6.172
  4. JD Beach (Yamaha) +11.111
  5. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) +11.538
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Josh Herrin tops the Superbike podium on Sunday’s Race 2 and claims the Round win

EBC Brakes Superbike Standings

  1. Toni Elias 151
  2. Cameron Beaubier 142
  3. Garrett Gerloff 104
  4. JD Beach 100
  5. Josh Herrin 96
  6. Mathew Scholtz 80
  7. Jake Lewis 76
  8. Cameron Petersen 65
  9. David Anthony 59
  10. Wyman 48

Supersport Saturday

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Hayden Gillim – Road America 2019

Supersport polesitter Hayden Gillim grabbed his third victory of the season aboard his Rickdiculous Racing Yamaha, and in what has been a consistent theme in MotoAmerica’s middleweight class, the win did not come easily.

Gillim had to fight off a fierce challenge from Bobby Fong and Sean Dylan Kelly. Fong finished second while Kelly finished third, which was the rookie Supersport rider’s third podium result of his season.

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Hayden Gillim – Road America 2019

Supersport Race 1 Result (Saturday)

  1. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha) 26:05.871
  2. Bobby Fong (Suzuki) +0.646
  3. Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki) +0.687
  4. Richie Escalante (Yamaha) +7.115
  5. Bryce Prince (Yamaha) +13.693

Supersport – Sunday

In Supersport, Team Hammer’s M4 ECSTAR Suzuki squad had the measure of the field on Sunday, and its teammates Bobby Fong and Sean Dylan Kelly had a rousing battle for the win between themselves and also with Hayden Gillim.

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Supersport Start – Road America 2019

All three led the 11-lap event, and in the end, Fong maneuvered his bike onto the final straight in order to break Gillim’s draft, while Kelly drafted past Gillim. Fong took the checkers and Kelly barely squeaked past Gillim to take second and shuffle Gillim to third.

Bobby Fong

“I thought it was a real good race, I knew Hayden was going to be up there. He’s real strong. He has more confidence in his front end than anybody I’ve ever raced with, so I knew he was going to be up there. He’s a hard charger. I knew my teammate would be up there. I knew I wasn’t going to pull away. I was just trying to hit my marks and just tried to ride a smooth race. The last lap, I was trying to ride defensive and go inside. Fortunately, we got the win today and we got 25 points, but I’m looking forward to a lot more battles this year.”

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Bobby Fong – Road America 2019

Supersport Race 1 Result (Sunday)

  1. Bobby Fong (Suzuki) 25:44.504
  2. Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki) +0.357
  3. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha) +0.379
  4. PJ Jacobsen (Yamaha) +6.856
  5. Brandon Paasch (Yamaha) +12.397

Supersport Standings

  1. Hayden Gillim 97
  2. Bobby Fong 90
  3. Richie Escalante 81
  4. Sean Dylan Kelly 78
  5. P.J. Jacobsen 76
  6. Bryce Prince 55
  7. Joshua Hayes 54
  8. Nick McFadden 45
  9. Jason Aguilar 43
  10. Braeden Ortt 34

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Saturday

In Liqui Moly Junior Cup, early-season over-dog Rocco Landers notched his fourth victory in five races over his rival Dallas Daniels, who has finished second in all four of the races that Landers has won.

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Rocco Landers takes the win – Road America 2019

Landers, who started from the pole aboard his Kawasaki, got the holeshot, with Daniels close behind. The pair of Ninja warriors battled each other throughout the entire seven-lap sprint, and with Daniels was in the lead on the final lap. Landers made a perfect draft pass around Daniels on the run up the hill to the finish line to take the checkered flag in dramatic fashion.

Meanwhile, Kevin Olmedo was in a battle with Damian Jigalov, and Olmedo prevailed to round out the podium in third.

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Race 1 Results (Saturday)

  1. Rocco Landers (Kawasaki) 19:27.143
  2. Dallas Daniels (Kawasaki) +0.095
  3. Kevin Olmedo (Kawasaki) +5.380
  4. Damian Jigalov (Kawasaki) +5.386
  5. Dominique Doyle (Kawasaki) +5.528

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Sunday

In Sunday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race, the odds-on favorite to win was Saturday’s victor Rocco Landers, and the Kawasaki rider lived up to the hype by drafting into the lead on the final stretch to the finish line.

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Rocco Landers leading the Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Road America 2019

Dallas Daniels led throughout the majority of the seven-lap contest, but he fell victim to Landers’ draft maneuver for the second day in a row, and on Sunday Kevin Olmedo also snuck past Daniels, which resulted in Olmedo finishing second and Daniels taking third.

Rocco Landers

“Today, I did have a plan from about two laps till the end. Right after they passed me, I was just going to try to hang in there and see what was going to happen. Then, after I got past Dallas, I was just going to try to get as good of a run out of the last corner to get to him. It was a great race.”

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Dallas Daniels leads Rocco Landers – Road America 2019

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Race 2 Results (Sunday)

  1. Rocco Landers (Kawasaki) 19:07.887
  2. Kevin Olmedo (Kawasaki) +0.092
  3. Dallas Daniels (Kawasaki) +0.152
  4. Damian Jigalov (Kawasaki) +9.400
  5. Dominic Doyle (Kawasaki) +12.381

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Standings

  1. Rocco Landers 130
  2. Dallas Daniels 109
  3. Kevin Olmedo 65
  4. Dominic Doyle 56
  5. Damian Jigalov 56
  6. Gauge Rees 55
  7. Jackson Blackmon 53
  8. Samuel Lochoff 46
  9. Cameron Jones 34
  10. Teagg Hobbs 33

Stock 1000 – Saturday

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Geoff May – Road America 2019

Saturday’s Stock 1000 race saw the return of former factory Superbike contender and World Superbike rider Geoff May to the top step of the podium. It had been 11 years since the Georgian had won an AMA-sanctioned road race, and he was understandably emotional in the winner’s circle.

May, who was aboard a Kawasaki sponsored by his “day-job” employer Ameris Bank, for whom he is a mortgage banker, held off Stefano Mesa to get the win. Third place went to Andrew Lee.

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Geoff May – Road America 2019

Stock 1000 Race 1 Results (Saturday)

  1. Geoff May (Kawasaki) 18:23.735
  2. Stefano Mesa (Kawasaki) +0.015
  3. Andrew Lee (Kawasaki) +15.466
  4. Travis Wyman (BMW) +15.578
  5. Michael Gilbert (Kawasaki) +20.087

Superstock 1000 – Sunday

In MotoAmerica’s Stock 1000 class on Sunday Stefano Mesa moved up a spot from the second-place result that he got in Saturday’s race to grab the victory on Sunday.

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Andrew Lee – Road America 2019

Andrew Lee finished second and Kawasaki rider Corey Alexander was third. Ironically, neither Mesa nor Alexander have been regulars in the MotoAmerica series, and both of them finished on the AMA Supersport podium at Road America seven years ago when Mesa won.

Stefano Mesa

“The bike and I worked very well this weekend, so we’re happy with the progress,” Mesa said. “Hopefully, we can keep going this season, since we’re leading the championship now.”

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Stefano Mesa – Road America 2019

Stock 1000 Race 2 Result (Sunday)

  1. Stefano Mesa (Kawasaki) 18:29.506
  2. Andrew Lee (Kawasaki) +0.174
  3. Corey Alexander (Kawasaki) +12.573
  4. Miles Thornton (Suzuki) +33.482
  5. Aaron Risinger (BMW) +33.492

Stock 1000 Standings

  1. Stefano Mesa 81
  2. Andrew Lee 74
  3. Michael Gilbert 56
  4. Travis Wyman 42
  5. Rhett Norman 34
  6. Corey Alexander 26
  7. Geoff May 25
  8. Miles Thornton 22
  9. Bradley Ward 21
  10. Garrick Schneiderman 21

Twins Cup

At a track that favors top speed and horsepower, the expectation in MotoAmerica’s Twins Cup class was that Michael Barnes and his Quarterley Racing Ducati Monster 797 would dominate Sunday’s race. As it turned out, Barnes was at a disadvantage against the smaller-displacement bikes due to their ability to draft past the Ducati.

Draik Beauchamp got a great jump at the start and kept himself in the lead pack throughout the eight-lap sprint. He was challenged by both Barnes and Alex Dumas. Beauchamp took the lead and kept it to record his first career Twins Cup victory, while Dumas’ second-place finish was his first career Twins Cup podium, while Barnes finished third.

Draik Beauchamp

“I started off on the second row in sixth. My main goal was just to get up there and be part of the fight and have something for the guys out front. I got up there and I actually had more pace than I thought. I was like, okay, let’s get up there early and just keep them behind me at that point. I ran that strategy. Kept them behind me. I was like, let’s run this all the way home. So I did and we got the job done. I want to thank my team, my sponsors, everybody, my dad for busting his butt out here. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and hopefully sitting back in this seat again.

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Draik Beauchamp – Road America 2019

Twins Cup Race Result (Sunday)

  1. Draik Beauchamp (Yamaha) 20:19.647
  2. Alex Dumas (Suzuki) +0.319
  3. Michael Barnes (Ducati) +0.372
  4. Kris Turner (Suzuki) +0.459
  5. Darren James (Yamaha)  +4.620

Twins Cup Standings

  1. Chris Parrish 69
  2. Michael Barnes 66
  3. Draik Beauchamp 64
  4. Curtis Murray 63
  5. Alex Dumas 41
  6. Joseph Blasius 31
  7. Jason Madama 30
  8. Jeffrey Tigert 30
  9. Robert Fisher 25
  10. Chris Bays 25

Source: MCNews.com.au

MotoAmerica | Beaubier and JD Beach share the VIR wins

2019 MotoAmerica
Round Three – VIR


Superbike Race One

Virginia International Raceway has long been a frustrating venue on the MotoAmerica schedule for Cameron Beaubier. In the first eight races at VIR, Beaubier had rather amazingly only won one of them. On Sunday that all changed with win number two, a dominant victory over Toni Elias, his rival who beat him twice here a season ago. This one, however, belonged to Beaubier, the three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion beating Yoshimura Suzuki’s Elias by 3.5 seconds on his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1.

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Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)

Both Beaubier and Elias had difficult Superpole sessions on the first two-day MotoAmerica event of the season. Beaubier crashed so early in the session that his lap that put him second on the grid actually came on race tyres – not very confidence-inspiring for those going slower than him on qualifying tyres. Elias, meanwhile, had bike troubles and was ultimately stranded on the track for the majority of the time. He started the race from the third row after qualifying eighth. Pole position went to Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff, the Texan’s second of the season.

Beaubier didn’t start the race in the lead, but he was in second place when race leader Mathew Scholtz crashed out on the second lap. From there it was all Beaubier, the defending champion inching away to ultimately win by 3.5 seconds for this second win of the season.


Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)

“Just started off today feeling pretty good,” Beaubier said after the 34th Superbike win of his career. “I felt pretty comfortable on the R1 out there. We were able to get up to pace pretty quick. I feel like I’ve kind of struggled getting that pace here in the past. This one just feels really, really good. I know how fast these guys are at this track and this year. It felt really good to be able to win with a little bit of a margin. I’m sure tomorrow is going to be tougher. Both these guys are going to go back and it’s going to be a dog-fight tomorrow. Just in the past we’ve always been fast here. I feel like the R1 works pretty good here. I think I have one win to my name at this track in the past five years or something like that. That’s frustrating for a track that we know that we’re pretty strong at. This one felt really good. Got a couple things I might try in the morning depending on wet or dry. It’s going to be tough but looking forward to racing.”

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Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)

Elias rebounded from his difficult day with second place, despite starting from the third row.

Gerloff was hot on Elias’ heels when he ran off in turn one, losing out on a chance to get second place.

Fourth place went to Attack Performance Estenson Racing Yamaha’s JD Beach, some four seconds behind Gerloff and 13.2 seconds ahead of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis.

Lewis, in turn, was way ahead of Scheibe Racing BMW’s Jake Gagne, who had his hands full to the finish with FLY Racing/ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony. Omega Moto’s Cameron Petersen battled muscle-cramping to finish eighth with KWR Ducati’s Kyle Wyman and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounding out the top 10.


Superbike Race One Video Highlights


EBC Brakes Superbike Race One

  1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
  2. Toni Elias (Suzuki)
  3. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
  4. JD Beach (Yamaha)
  5. Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
  6. Jake Gagne (BMW)
  7. David Anthony (Kawasaki)
  8. Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
  9. Kyle Wyman (Ducati)
  10. Max Flinders (Yamaha)

Superbike Race Two

Sunday was all about JD Beach at VIRginia International Raceway as the two-time MotoAmerica Supersport Champion put a smile on everybody’s face when he earned his first career AMA Superbike victory with a 3.7-second win in the Championship of Virginia.

A week after winning his first career AMA Grand National Flat Track at the Super TT in Arizona, Beach went out and did it again, winning a race he’d been dreaming about since he was 16 years old.

Beach’s day was made even more emotional for three reasons: Today marked the anniversary of his good friend Ethan Gillim’s passing 12 years ago; Beach became the first rider to win a Superbike National and a Flat Track National in the same season since his good friend and hero Nicky Hayden accomplished the feat in 2002; and his best friend and housemate Hayden Gillim also won the Supersport race earlier in the day.

Beach was impressive in a race that started in iffy conditions but ended in bright sunshine and on a dry racetrack. Once he got past early leader Kyle Wyman, who had fitted rain tires to his KWR Ducati in the hopes that the track wouldn’t dry, and his old Supersport rival Garrett Gerloff, Beach put his head down and opened a four-second gap. He maintained that lead to the finish, besting Gerloff by 3.759 seconds and riding a wave of emotion that will last him until Road America in four weeks.


JD Beach

“It just feels like the stars just aligned this whole week,” Beach said. “For me to get my first win last week, and to get this win today with Hayden (Gillim) winning the 600 class, it’s just amazing. These guys are so fast. I looked up to Toni (Elias). He’s won the Moto2 World Championship, and Garrett (Gerloff) has kicked my ass so many times. Even with how this track was today, I was having flashbacks because he (Gerloff) lapped me when we had rain tires here. So, to beat him here, it’s just amazing. I just got to thank my team, the whole Attack Estenson Racing team. They believed in me. They gave me a shot on this bike when nobody else would. It feels good to get the win, but it feels good to reward them too. We’ve still got a lot of races to go. These guys aren’t going to let up. We’re going to keep fighting. We’ve got two dirt track races and then I’m going to Road America, so it will be fun.”

Beach compared the flat track win last week to the Superbike win this week.

“They’re both amazing,” he said. “The desire to win last weekend was like a childhood goal. It’s kind of like when you’re a kid you’re like, I want to be a firefighter or whatever. For me when I was a kid that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a dirt tracker. I wanted to win races, and I still do. To win this Superbike race is something I’ve looked forward to my whole adult life, since I was 16. So, they both feel amazing, but this has a little bit of a sweeter feel to it. To do it on the day that I did it and for the last person to do it (Nicky Hayden), it’s amazing.”

MotoAmerica Rnd VIR Superbike JD Beach Sun ImageBrianJNelson
JD Beach

Gerloff was emotional in defeat and also fought back tears during the victory celebration as he was disappointed in the fact that this was one he thought he could have won.

Third place went to Toni Elias, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider holding back three others to the finish to earn the final podium spot.  It was also good for his championship aspirations as his closest rival Cameron Beaubier, who won Saturday’s EBC Brakes Superbike race at VIR, crashed his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 and didn’t score any points.

Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was fourth, the South African nipping at Elias’ heels in the closing laps but coming up just short at the finish. Right behind those two came M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis, the Kentuckian barely holding off Omega Moto’s Cameron Petersen. Petersen ran as high as fourth in what was essentially a four-rider battle for the final podium spot.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Josh Herrin finished a disappointing weekend with a seventh place to go with his non-finish on Saturday. Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders, FLY Racing’s David Anthony and Wyman rounded out the top 10 with those three gambling on different variations of rain/slick tires.

As mentioned earlier, Beaubier crashed out of the battle for third and he now trails Elias by 24 points, 126-102. Beach is third in the series point standings with 78 points, six points clear of Gerloff. Lewis rounds out the top five with 62 points.

EBC Brakes Superbike Race Two

  1. JD Beach (Yamaha)
  2. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
  3. Toni Elias (Suzuki)
  4. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
  5. Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
  6. Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
  7. Josh Herrin (Suzuki)
  8. Max Flinders (Yamaha)
  9. David Anthony (Kawasaki)
  10. Kyle Wyman (Ducati)

Superbike Race Two Video Highlights


MotoAmerica Superbike Championship Points

  1. Toni Elias 126
  2. Cameron Beaubier 102
  3. JD Beach 78
  4. Garrett Gerloff 72
  5. Jake Lewis 62
  6. Josh Herrin 58
  7. Mathew Scholz 58
  8. David Anthony 52
  9. Cameron Petersen 48
  10. Kyle Wyman 38

Image by Brian J Nelson

Source: MCNews.com.au

Elias & Herrin join Rins with Suzuki wins at COTA

2019 MotoAmerica Superbikes

Round 2 – Circuit of the Americas

You couldn’t have written a better script for Suzuki in the combined MotoGP/MotoAmerica weekend at the Circuit of the Americas. At the biggest motorcycle racing event in America, the Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing team came away both MotoAmerica Superbike race wins and Superpole.

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA elias herrin
Toni Elias and Josh Herrin duke it out at COTA MotoAmerica

Icing on the cake came in the form of Team SUZUKI ECSTAR also winning the MotoGP race, with Alex Rins and his GSX-RR giving Suzuki a clean sweep of all races it participated in this weekend.

Toni Elias got the Texas party started by winning MotoAmerica Superpole aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. He then followed up with a thrilling victory in Superbike Race One on Saturday, with a last-lap, last-turn pass on rival Cameron Beaubier, bringing the crowd to their feet.

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Elias and Herrin shared the COTA wins

Then in Sunday’s Superbike Race Two, it was Yoshimura Suzuki finishing 1-2, with newest team member Josh Herrin breaking through to score his first win of the season. Elias was second.

MotoAmerica COTA Race 1

Elias won a scintillating battle with Cameron Beaubier to win his sixth out of seven starts in Texas. After 15 laps of the 3.426-mile Circuit of The Americas, Elias beat Beaubier by just .089 of a second after a battle that went to the final two corners. And Beaubier’s teammate, Garrett Gerloff, was just .248 of a second behind in third place – despite starting the race from the back of the grid.

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA Toni Elias beat Cameron Beaubier BJN
Toni Elias – Image by Brian J. Nelson

Josh Herrin, who led at times early in the race, ended up fourth, 1.9 seconds behind his teammate Elias. JD Beach rode to fifth, some four seconds clear of fellow Kentuckian Jake Lewis.

Mathew Scholtz ran off the track once, crashed and remounted to finish seventh, barely besting David Anthony and Cameron Petersen with the trio separated by just .454 of a second. Kyle Wyman rounded out the top 10 finishers.

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA toni elias
Toni Elias claims the win from Beaubier & Gerloff

EBC Brakes Superbike Race 1

  1. Toni Elias (Suzuki)
  2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) +0.089
  3. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) +0.248
  4. Josh Herrin (Suzuki) +1.913
  5. JD Beach (Yamaha) +15.560
  6. Jake Lewis (Suzuki) +19.165
  7. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) +35.247
  8. David Anthony (Kawasaki) +35.344
  9. Cameron Petersen (Yamaha) +35.798
  10. Kyle Wyman (Ducati) +48.056

MotoAmerica COTA Race 2

Yoshimura Suzuki won its second straight race at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday, but it wasn’t the one ridden by yesterday’s winner Toni Elias. This time it was Josh Herrin on the top step of the podium after winning the seventh AMA Superbike race of his career in the MotoAmerica Championship of Texas.

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA Josh Herrin BJN
Josh Herrin – Image by Brian J. Nelson

Herrin battled for 13 of the 15 laps with his teammate Elias, with Cameron Beaubier always within striking distance. In the final two laps, Herrin was able to put his head down and he crossed the line .958 of a second ahead of Elias with Beaubier 1.6 seconds behind in third.

Fourth place went to Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff, the Texan coming on strong at the end of the race to finish 3.2 seconds behind Herrin. Gerloff, in turn, was well clear of fifth-placed Jake Lewis.

Cameron Petersen finished sixth, some three seconds ahead of Kyle Wyman. David Anthony, Travis Wyman and  Max Flinders rounded out the top 10 finishers.

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA toni elias
Toni Elias now leads the standings

Elias now has a 13-point lead over Beaubier, 90-77, with Herrin moving past Scholtz and into third with 49 points to Scholtz’s 45. Beach and Lewis are tied for fifth with 40 points each.

Josh Herrin

“Just mentally, I feel like I was a lot more prepared today. We spent a lot of time at the track last night. We ran a different tire today, but it’s two totally different weather conditions today, so I don’t think that really had much to do with it for us. Just made the right choice, I guess. It’s just been, like Toni said, every day I think I get more comfortable on the bike. Each time I can race it and actually put in those hard laps I learn a lot. We have a lot of data to look at and I can learn what I’m doing wrong, what I’m improving on. Like I said on the podium, it’s been such a crazy off-season. I had super highs coming into it and then, once the season started, I was bumming pretty hard because I just wasn’t riding like myself. I think I was just getting so excited at the beginning of the races that I was kind of blowing it for myself, riding like a rookie a little bit. I just had to kind of reset my brain and just relax a little bit. It feels so good to be able to get a win for Suzuki. Two wins this weekend. They won a MotoGP race, so it’s a big day for them. Thank you to everybody at Suzuki and Yoshimura for believing in me.”

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA herrin rins elias
Herrin, Rins and Elias celebrate
Toni Elias

“I just was trying to do my race, my pace. There is still something I am missing, because it’s me. Riders we have to choose the tires, the things. Mistake a little bit before the race. I choose the same tire as yesterday, when yesterday I wasn’t happy. I choose it again because I was thinking today with more temperature was better but is the same tire. Last year in Barber I had some bad feeling, too. So, I think today it’s been a good advice to cancel the tire for the future. I’m not going to use it anymore, for sure. But anyway, I was there. I was doing my pace. The team is working so good. We don’t change anything on the bike, just the track condition was much better than yesterday. But I didn’t expect at the end to have this little issue with the shifter. After that, I lost everything, and I couldn’t fight. It’s okay. These things happen in race. A little bit pissed off because I could fight a little bit more. Maybe we could have a big battle with Josh. But anyway, I’m happy for him. 1-2 for Suzuki is so, so good. He deserves this more than anyone. So, very happy for him, for the team, too. After all, I’m happy to take this second place. Let’s continue like this. This is going to be long. Let’s see.”

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA elias herrin
Toni Elias
Cameron Beaubier

“I gave 110 percent that race just to hang onto those guys. They were riding so good. The pace was a second and a half faster than it was yesterday. I don’t know where the hell they found that. I was just hanging on for dear life. All in all, I’m really happy that I was even able to keep pace with the Yosh boys this weekend. This is always a pretty tough track for us. It just gives me confidence going into the rest of the year. Hats off to both these guys. I’m excited for a really tough year and battling it up with these guys.”

MotoAmerica Rnd COTA elias herrin
Josh Herrin takes a well earnt win in Race 2

EBC Brakes Superbike Race 2

  1. Josh Herrin (Suzuki)
  2. Toni Elias (Suzuki)
  3. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
  4. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
  5. Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
  6. Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
  7. Kyle Wyman (Ducati)
  8. David Anthony (Kawasaki)
  9. Travis Wyman (BMW)
  10. Max Flinders (Yamaha)

EBC Superbike Championship Standings

  1. Toni Elias 90
  2. Cameron Beaubier 77
  3. Josh Herrin 49
  4. Mathew Scholtz 45
  5. JD Beach 40
  6. Jake Lewis 40
  7. Garrett Gerloff 36
  8. David Anthony 36
  9. Cameron Petersen 30
  10. Kyle Wyman 25

Riders head back east to Virginia International Raceway for round three of the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship in Alton, Virginia, on May 4-5th.

Source: MCNews.com.au

Beaubier & Elias share MotoAmerica 2019 opener wins

MotoAmerica 2019

Fong & Gillim share Supersport wins

Landers dominates Junior Cup – Barnes does the Twins Cup double

Andrew Lee tops Superstock 1000 opener

Images by Paul Carruthers/MotoAmerica


EBC Brakes Superbike – Saturday

Toni Elias didn’t know what it was like to lose the series opener and Cameron Beaubier didn’t know what it was like to win one. Now they both know. Beaubier beat Elias by 2.732 seconds today at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the Californian ending Elias’ perfect streak of winning every season opener since the Spaniard came to the MotoAmerica Series in 2016.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Beaubier
Cameron Beaubier – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Beaubier was happy to start the season so well, given that it’s not the norm. The first EBC Brakes Superbike race was everything we thought it would be with six riders fighting at the front until two of the front runners crashed out.

Pole sitter Garrett Gerloff crashed on the third lap while battling for the lead and Josh Herrin followed suit on the 11th lap while also battling at the front.

That left four to battle with JD Beach and Mathew Scholtz in the fight at the front with Beaubier and Elias. The battle for victory would come down to Beaubier vs. Elias with Elias running off track in the final corner with four laps to go, handing the win to his rival. The miscue dropped Elias to fourth, but he battled back to finish second, passing Beach right at the finish line.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sun Toni Elias
Toni Elias – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Elias thought the Yoshimura Suzuki teammates would have been better off not racing each other and slowing each other down. Beach may have been beaten at the line by Elias, but it was still his first-ever Superbike podium in his MotoAmerica Superbike debut.

Scholtz ended up fourth, some four seconds behind Beach with David Anthony fifth on his Kawasaki ZX-10R. Kyle Wyman, Jake Lewis, Jake Gagne, Cameron Petersen and Geoff May rounded out the top 10.

 EBC Brakes Superbike – Saturday

  1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
  2. Toni Elias (Suzuki) +2.732
  3. JD Beach (Yamaha) +2.733
  4. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) +6.906
  5. David Anthony (Kawasaki) +31.018

 EBC Brakes Superbike – Sunday

Toni Elias won his first race of the 2019 Series on Sunday, the Spaniard besting Mathew Scholtz by 1.839 seconds under sunny skies in the Suzuki Championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sun Toni Elias
Toni Elias – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

The win, combined with his second place from Saturday, gives Elias the early lead in the EBC Brakes Superbike Championship with 45 points – four more than Saturday’s race winner Cameron Beaubier, who was third today.

As was the case yesterday, the Superbike race began with six riders running together at the front with those three – Elias, Scholtz and Beaubier – joined by Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff, JD Beach and Josh Herrin.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Beaubier
Cameron Beaubier – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Gerloff was the first to have issues, the Texan slowed by a front fender flapping in the wind. Despite repeated attempts at kicking the bodywork off his bike, Gerloff eventually had to pull over to remove the fender. He would continue onward and eventually finish ninth.

Herrin, meanwhile, lacked the pace to stay with the top four with the race coming down to just three in the final laps as the trio pulled slightly clear of Beach. Then both Beaubier and Scholtz were bauked badly by a back marker with two laps to go, costing them any shot at Elias and also allowing Beach to move to the tail of the battling duo. Scholtz ended up getting the edge on Beaubier to take second with Beach finishing just .3 of a second off the back of the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion.

Apparently, the birth of his son just a few weeks ago hasn’t slowed Elias who leaves the opening round with the points lead for the fourth straight season.

Toni Elias

“This winter the team worked so good. But, honestly, I was thinking to be more comfortable in these first rounds. Last year to be more competitive we took a good direction. I was thinking this would change a little bit… but then we arrive here and seems different… all the time the bike is moving a lot around. We were going to do some changes for this morning, but we couldn’t try anything. For everybody it was the same. Same tire. Harder than yesterday. I was not thinking yesterday to do that slow pace. I think it’s the race. A little bit frustrated. I couldn’t do what I wanted. In the mid part of the race I start to lose a lot of grip, maybe less than JD and Mathew. But Cameron was so strong. I missed something there. Anyway, for today I was going to use the same tire as Dunlop wanted, and it was really good. The tire has been super consistent all the race, but we still have to improve in some areas. Anyway, yesterday 20 points. Could be zero. Now 25 (points), so perfect Sunday.”

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sun Toni Elias
Toni Elias – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Scholtz was much happier on Sunday, the South African putting his Yamaha second after fighting with Elias for most of the race. Based on his past results in the season opener, Beaubier was also pleased with how things went over the course of the weekend and he leaves with a solid point score of 41 after a win and third-place finish.

Herrin ended up fifth in his second race on the Yoshimura Suzuki, the Georgian having crashed out of Saturday’s race. Jake Lewis was sixth, well behind Herrin and ahead of David Anthony, the team owner rider having a solid weekend with sixth- and seventh-place finishes.

Geoff May finished eighth with Gerloff and Cameron Petersen rounding out the top 10. Kyle Wyman and Jake Gagne both failed to finish. Wyman crashed the KWR Ducati and Gagne had mechanical issues with the Scheibe Racing BMW.

EBC Brakes Superbike – Sunday

  1. Toni Elias (Suzuki)
  2. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) +1.839
  3. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) +2.096
  4. JD Beach (Yamaha) +2.393
  5. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) +17.180

EBC Brakes Superbike

  1. TBA…

Supersport – Saturday

Saturday’s Supersport riders put on quite a show for the fans at Road Atlanta in race one, with polesitter Bobby Fong, who competes for the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team, having a battle royale with last year’s class championship runner-up Hayden Gillim.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Hayden Gillim
Hayden Gillim – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

At the start, Fong got the holeshot and Gillim streaked forward from the second row and into second place right on Fong’s tail. The two riders passed and re-passed each other, touched fairings on several occasions, and even used a little bit of “body English” on each other to try to gain an advantage.

As the race wound down, Fong had a couple of missed shifts, which enabled Gillim to pull a little bit of a gap. At the checkers, Gillim won by a little more than four-and-a-half seconds over Fong. Sixteen-year-old Sean Dylan Kelly, Fong’s M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammate, finished third in his MotoAmerica debut.

For Gillim and Fong, apparently all’s fair in love and motorcycle road racing because the two were all smiles after the race.

Supersport – Saturday

  1. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)
  2. Bobby Fong (Suzuki) +4.624
  3. Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki) +12.194
  4. Richie Escalante (Yamaha) +12.780
  5. Bryce Prince (Yamaha) +13.116

Supersport – Sunday

In Supersport, Saturday’s second-place finisher Bobby Fong came back strong on Sunday and notched the race win aboard his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Hayden Gillim Bobby Fang
Hayden Gillim – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Second-place finisher PJ Jacobsen kept Fong honest throughout the majority of the 18-lap race to record his first MotoAmerica podium result in his second race aboard his Celtic HSBK Racing Yamaha.

Yamaha rider Richie Escalante finished third and dedicated the race to his grandfather after getting the sad news earlier in the day that he had passed away.

Bobby Fong

“I’m definitely excited. It’s good to be on top of the box for sure. After yesterday’s misfortune, it’s good to be back up here. PJ rode a great race. I was just trying to do consistent laps out there. I knew I could stay in the 28s for the whole race, and that’s the goal. Late last night, I couldn’t even sleep because all I was thinking about was strategizing how am I going to out-brake Hayden Gillim? Unfortunately, he wasn’t there.  I saw PJ and I didn’t expect to see PJ there for sure. I knew he was going to be in the group, but I didn’t know that when I hit the false neutral during the race, and I actually hit another false neutral in the last turn, that he was going to be right there. I thought for sure Hayden was just going to slam me right off the track. But it was good battling with PJ. Our bike definitely jumped off the corners compared with theirs. We definitely used our advantages today.”

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Hayden Gillim
Hayden Gillim – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Supersport – Sunday

  1. Bobby Fong (Suzuki)
  2. PJ Jacobsen (Yamaha) +2.373
  3. Richie Escalante (Yamaha) +15.658
  4. Jason Aguilar (Yamaha) +16.598
  5. Bryce Prince (Yamaha) +19.686

Supersport Standings

  1. Bobby Fong 45
  2. Hayden Gillim 31
  3. P.J. Jacobsen 30
  4. Richie Escalante 29
  5. Sean Dylan Kelly 26
  6. Jason Aguilar 22
  7. Bryce Prince 22
  8. Xavier Zayat 17
  9. Nick McFadden 11
  10. Lucas Silva 11

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Saturday

In Liqui Moly Junior Cup, MotoAmerica’s class with the youngest riders, 14-year-old Rocco Landers took the field to school with a start-to-finish victory in his very first MotoAmerica race.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sun Rocco Landers
Rocco Landers – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

The polesitter, who competes aboard a Landers Racing Kawasaki, got a great jump off the line and pressed his advantage all the way to the checkers to win by more than 16 seconds over Dallas Daniels. South African Sam Lochoff, who was also making his MotoAmerica debut, finished third aboard his Westby Racing Yamaha.

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Saturday

  1. Rocco Landers (Kawasaki)
  2. Dallas Daniels (Kawasaki) +16.226
  3. Samuel Lochoff (Yamaha) +17.852
  4. Teagg Hobbs (Kawasaki) +18.144
  5. Dominic Doyle (Kawasaki) +18.245

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Sunday

Rocco Landers did the double and took the round win on Sunday. Almost a carbon copy of Saturday, he got a great jump off the line from the pole position, led the 11-lap race from start to finish, and pulled a gap of nearly five seconds.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Rocco Landers
Rocco Landers – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Dallas Daniels, the second-place finisher from Saturday’s race, once again finished second on Sunday. Altus Motorsports rider Kevin Olmedo finished third to complete the podium.

Rocco Landers

“It felt faster, honestly. I could see the times and stuff, but (we) were flying. I could see on the first lap he got by me and I was like, this is going to be a battle. I enjoyed it a lot.”

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Rocco Landers
Rocco Landers – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Sunday

  1. Rocco Landers (Kawasaki)
  2. Dallas Daniels (Kawasaki) +4.924
  3. Dominic Doyle (Kawasaki) +21.548
  4. Gauge Rees (Kawasaki) +30.647
  5. Damian Jigalov (Kawasaki) +30.753
MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sun Rocco Landers
Rocco Landers – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Standings

  1. Rocco Landers 50
  2. Dallas Daniels 40
  3. Dominic Doyle 27
  4. Gauge Rees 21
  5. Damian Jigalov 20
  6. Samuel Lochoff 16
  7. Jackson Blackmon 15
  8. Toby Khamsouk 15
  9. Teagg Hobbs 13
  10. Kevin Olmedo 10

Twins Cup – Saturday

The MotoAmerica Twins Cup class has had a major influx of entrants this season, and there is a large disparity in the age of the competitors: from 16 all the way to 50. In Saturday’s race one, those riders at the upper end of the age range showed their prowess, and the oldest of the group won the race.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Michael Barnes
Michael Barnes – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Fifty-year-old Michael Barnes, whose motorcycle road racing career has spanned three decades, won the race aboard his Quarterley Racing Ducati. He bested Curtis Murray, who finished second, and 42-year-old defending class champion Chris Parrish.

Twins Cup – Saturday

  1. Michael Barnes (Ducati)
  2. Curtis Murray (Suzuki) +4.641
  3. Chris Parrish (Suzuki) +4.709
  4. Jeffrey Tigert (Suzuki) +9.458
  5. Alex Dumas (Suzuki) +18.292

Twins Cup – Sunday

The same podium finishers in Saturday’s Twins Cup race were again on the podium in Sunday’s race, and Quarterley Racing Ducati rider Michael Barnes was the race winner for the second day in a row.

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sun Michael Barnes
Michael Barnes – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Barnes once again showed that experience (age) is the secret to success as he had the measure of his competitors. Defending class champ Chris Parrish improved on his Saturday third-place result by finishing second on Sunday aboard his Ghetto Customs Suzuki, and RBoM Racing’s Curtis Murray rounded out the podium in third.

Michael Barnes

“I got a horrible start, popped a wheelie off the start and just got eaten up in turn one. It was just everybody was coming around me and I was just dodging everybody from every angle. The Ducati really does run off the corner, but I was looking at the mile an hour and those little Suzuki’s seemed to be okay mile-an-hour-wise. So I wouldn’t say I had that much of an advantage in horsepower when it just seems to come off the corner a little bit better. Maybe I’m picking up the throttle earlier, I don’t know. Regardless, the Moto Corse Performance Quarterly Racing Ducati is really good. Like I said on the podium, I think you might see more Ducati’s on the grid after this first round. I just couldn’t be more pleased with coming back and doing a double.”

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sat Twins Cup Michael Barnes L
Michael Barnes – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Twins Cup – Sunday

  1. Michael Barnes (Ducati)
  2. Chris Parrish (Suzuki) +2.860
  3. Curtis Murray (Suzuki) +7.557
  4. Draik Beauchamp (Yamaha) +21.663
  5. Alex Dumas (Suzuki) +22.251

Twins Cup Standings

  1. Michael Barnes 50
  2. Chris Parrish 36
  3. Curtis Murray 36
  4. Draik Beauchamp 23
  5. Alex Dumas 21
  6. Jeffrey Tigert 21
  7. Jason Madama 20
  8. Joseph Blasius 15
  9. Chris Bays 14
  10. Hofman 10

Stock 1000 – Sunday

Last year’s Stock 1000 champion Andrew Lee got his 2019 season off to a flying start with a win in Sunday’s race. The Northern Californian is defending his title, stalking second-place finisher Michael Gilbert, who led the majority of the race until Lee made his decisive move and took the checkers. Stefano Mesa came in third, making it a Kawasaki podium sweep.

Andrew Lee

“I knew coming into this year with the number-one plate that I was going to have a big target on my back, especially with these two guys next to me. They’re both riding phenomenally.”

MotoAmerica Rnd Atlanta Sun Andrew Lee
Andrew Lee – 2019 MotoAmerica Round 1 – Atlanta

Stock 1000 – Sunday

  1. Andrew Lee (Kawasaki)
  2. Michael Gilbert (Kawasaki) +0.130
  3. Stefano Mesa (Kawasaki) +5.014
  4. Travis Wyman (BMW) +6.593
  5. Chad Lewin (Yamaha) +24.333

Stock 1000 Standings

  1. TBA…

Source: MCNews.com.au