2018 Road America MotoAmerica Results
Yamaha YZF-R1 and YZF-R6 machinery once again dominated the MotoAmerica series, the latest victories arriving this past weekend at Road America in Wisconsin.
In the Motul Superbike Championship, Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cameron Beaubier doubled from pole, earning his first victories of the season.
In the single Supersport race, Monster Energy/Yamaha Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha’s JD Beach fought to the very end to claim his fourth win of the season at round four of 10 in the 2018 MotoAmerica Championship.
Following are the official MotoAmerica recaps from Road America. The series now breaks for three weeks ahead of Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway.
2018 Road America MotoAmerica Superbike Recap
Beaubier, a two-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion, came into the Dunlop Championship at Road America winless, 35 points behind Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias. And desperate. He leaves Wisconsin with pole position, two Motul Superbike wins, a two-point lead in the championship and feeling pretty good about things.
With his double win combined with Elias’ crash on Saturday and fourth-place finish on Sunday, Beaubier takes over at the top of the MotoAmerica Motul Superbike Championship, 153-151, over Elias.
Beaubier had his hands full in Sunday’s race with Elias and Attack Performance/Herrin Complex Yamaha’s Josh Herrin and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden early in the red-flag-interrupted race. Then Elias ran wide and lost touch with the top three, the MotoAmerica Superbike Champion holding off Quicksilver/LEXIN/Hudson Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong by less than a second for fourth place.
Following Elias’ miscue, that left three at the front: Beaubier, Herrin and Hayden. Hayden made a mistake on the final lap, leaving it down to Beaubier and Herrin, and then Herrin erred in the final corner and that was all Beaubier needed to streak to his second win of the season and the 26th of his AMA Superbike career.
“I wasn’t aware of the two-point game, but I’m really, really happy with how the weekend went,” Beaubier said after learning he’d taken the championship points lead. “My bike felt perfect from the first session on. I think we were able to lead all the sessions this weekend too, which I’m really happy about.
“We’ve been working so hard just trying to get that first win this year. We finally got it and we were able to back it up today. I was a little nervous there after the red flag because Josh (Herrin) and I had got into a position where I felt pretty confident for the rest of the race before the red flag. Once we lined up again, I was on the second row and I kind of got shuffled back like I did before at the beginning of the race. I was able to make my way through a little bit.
“The last few laps I just put my head down and pushed as hard as I could. I was trying to be a little protective because I know Josh is really good on the brakes. We were able to get it done. I was a little nervous going into Canada Corner behind him because I knew he had the last section dialed. I was able to sneak up the inside of him when he went a little wide. I thought I was pretty protective going into the last corner and somehow he found a way up the inside. That was a really fun race, that second half. Really, really happy that I was able to get it done for the Yamaha boys.”
Herrin ended up second again, just .195 of a second behind Beaubier after finishing .002 of a second behind yesterday. That’s an average margin of victory of .098 in the two Motul Superbike races.
Hayden held on for third, his first podium in a difficult year thus far.
Then came Elias and Fong in fourth and fifth and 1.7 seconds clear of Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis was seventh.
“For us it’s back to the office this week and we have some work to do,” Elias said. “We are having some problems with the bike under acceleration, so we must solve this. But our crew is dedicated, and we will figure it out and come to Laguna Seca and start again to fight for this championship.”
Danny Eslick rode the Scheibe Racing BMW to eighth with Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda’s Cameron Petersen and Excelsus Print Solutions/KWR’s Kyle Wyman rounded out the top 10.
The red flag came out on the second lap when Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz crashed with his bike ending up on the racing line. Scholtz escaped injury but it was his second non-finish of the weekend for the rider who came into the race tied for second in the points with Beaubier. Scholtz is now fourth in the series standings with Herrin moving to third behind Beaubier and Elias.
2018 Road America MotoAmerica Supersport Recap
Sunday’s Supersport race looked to be a carbon copy of Saturday’s race, with M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise and Monster Energy/Yamaha Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha’s JD Beach battling at the front again. This time, the script was flipped, though, as Beach held off Debise at the checkers to win his fourth race of the season.
Debise, who was Saturday’s race winner in his first weekend back from an injury prior to the start of the MotoAmerica season, barely missed out on a perfect weekend when he crossed the finish line just a little more than three one-hundredths of a second behind Beach. Rickdiculous Racing/Yamaha’s Hayden Gillim finished third for the second day in a row to complete the podium.
“With the rule change for this year, this is the first year that, being on the Graves bike, we don’t have the most power,” Beach said. “It’s weird, but that’s racing. I know a few years ago that’s how it was. I could tell when I would pass (Debise).
“I was riding hard and I couldn’t make any kind of gap at all. Every time he did draft by me, he had some speed. It was a lot of fun racing. We were racing hard. I knew with the speed I had, I had to try something coming out of the last turn. I just tried to do a different line than what I had been doing, so it would kind of surprise him. It was a good race. It was fun.”
Liqui Moly Junior Cup Recap from Road America
In Liqui Moly Junior Cup, Alex Dumas, who was Saturday’s race winner and the winner of four out of the five races so far this season, looked like he was headed for the top step of the podium again on Sunday as he got the holeshot and was running a fast pace at the front.
Unfortunately, Dumas’ pace proved to be a little too fast as he crashed out unhurt and handed the lead to Yates Racing’s Ashton Yates. The Kawasaki rider pressed his advantage at the front and went on to take the checkers by nearly eight seconds.
Second went to MP13 Racing/Yamaha’s Cory Ventura while KTM Orange Brigade/Ghilliman Racing’s Sean Ungvarsky matched his third-place result from yesterday with another third today.
Stock 1000 Recap from Road America
In Stock 1000, Woolich Racing/Kawasaki rider Shane Richardson got his first win in the class, and it was also the first MotoAmerica victory of his career. The New Zealander bested fellow Kawasaki rider Andrew Lee, who finished second for the third time in three races. Newcomer-to-the-class Andy DiBrino brought his EDR Performance/DiBrino Racing Yamaha home in third.
Lee now leads the point standings by virtue of the fact that Weir Everywhere Racing’s Travis Wyman, who was the previous points leader, crashed out of the race on the fifth lap, and was fortunately unhurt.
Motul Superbike Results (Overall)
- Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
- Roger Hayden (Suzuki)
- Toni Elias (Suzuki)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
Supersport Results
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- Valentin Debise (Suzuki)
- Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)
- Cory West (Yamaha)
- Nick McFadden (Suzuki)
Liqui Moly Junior Cup Results
- Ashton Yates (Kawasaki)
- Cory Ventura (Yamaha)
- Sean Ungvarsky (KTM)
- Gavin Anthony (Yamaha)
- Jackson Blackmon (Yamaha)
Stock 1000 Results
- Shane Richardson (Kawasaki)
- Andrew Lee (Kawasaki)
- Andy DiBrino (Yamaha)
- Dustin Dominguez (Kawasaki)
- Garrick Schneiderman (Yamaha)