MotoAmerica Championship of Monterey
MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Monterey, California
July 13, 2019
EBC Brakes Superbike Race One Results (all on Dunlop tires):
1. Toni Elias (Suz GSX-R1000), 23 laps, Total Race Time 32:50.909, Best Lap Time 1:24.950
2. Garrett Gerloff (Yam YZF-R1), -0.778 second, 1:24.939
3. Cameron Beaubier (Yam YZF-R1), -2.427 seconds, 1:25.020
4. JD Beach (Yam YZF-R1), -7.481, 1:25.007
5. Jake Lewis (Suz GSX-R1000), -24.254, 1:25.461
6. David Anthony (Kaw ZX-10RR), -45.511, 1:26.491
7. Cameron Petersen (Yam YZF-R1), -45.622, 1:26.731
8. Sam Verderico (Yam YZF-R1), -1 lap, 1:29.636
9. Jeremy Coffey (BMW S1000RR), -1 lap, 1:29.596
10. Max Flinders (Yam YZF-R1), -2 laps, pitted, 1:30.313
11. Mathew Scholtz (Yam YZF-R1), DNF, crash, 1:25.336
12. Jake Gagne (BMW S1000RR), DNF, retired, 1:27.178
13. Josh Herrin (Suz GSX-R1000), DNF, crash, 1:24.934
14. Kyle Wyman (Duc Panigale V4 R), DNF, crash, no lap time recorded
15. Jayson Uribe (Hon CBR1000RR), DNF, crash, no lap time recorded
Championship Point Standings (after 11 of 20 races):
1. Elias, 226 points
2. Beaubier, 191
3. Gerloff, 156
4. Beach, 124
5. Herrin, 119
6. Lewis, 108
7. Scholtz, 100
8. Anthony, 76
9. Petersen, 74
10. Wyman, 55
11. TIE, Gagne/Flinders, 53
13. Verderico, 47
14. Samuel Trepanier, 19
15. Uribe, 16
16. Geoff May, 14
17. Mathew Orange, 13
18. Travis Wyman, 12
19. Jeremy Coffey, 7
20. TIE, Bradley Ward/Felipe MacLean, 4
(Above) Garrett Gerloff (31) leads eventual race winner Toni Elias (24), Cameron Beaubier (1) and JD Beach (95) in Saturday’s first EBC Brakes Superbike race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Elias Wins Race One At WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
De Keyrel, Lee Win Twins Cup And Stock 1000
MONTEREY, CA (July 13, 2019)- Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias may not have led any of the practice or qualifying sessions at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but he led the only thing that paid points today as the Spaniard raced to his sixth EBC Brakes Superbike win of the season in the Championship of Monterey.
Elias won a battle between himself and the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing duo of Garrett Gerloff and Cameron Beaubier, the Texan getting the better of his three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion teammate Beaubier to finish second, and .778 of a second behind Elias.
With Elias winning and Beaubier finishing third, the points gap has grown to 35 points, 226-191, heading into tomorrow’s second of two EBC Brakes Superbike races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
“It’s been a really nice day,” Elias said. “Yesterday we tried many ways to understand what we need here. We know from earlier years, but every year is different. So today we put everything together. From the first lap, it was so good. I was super confident for the race. I know Cameron (Beaubier) had an incredible few laps here because every time he go in, he was struggling on the first lap, being super quick on race tires. That was our strategy. We tried to stop that. In the first lap I passed four riders.
“I’m happy. My team did an amazing job. My family is here. My son is here. It’s his first race ever for him. Thirty-five points now in the lead of the championship, but as you all know, you can’t get too comfortable. Mistakes can happen. You’ve got to stay calm. There’s still many, many races to go. Today has been a really good race but doesn’t mean anything tomorrow. These guys will improve some details. The championship is so long, and many things will happen. My championship lead had some advantage riding in one race in MotoAmerica, and then in the corner of the race I crashed. So, I lost almost everything. But we are increasing it again, so that’s good. Let’s keep doing every race like this, keep going, working like this. We are doing a great job.”
Gerloff finished on the podium for the eighth time this season and for the seventh race in a row. It was also his third runner-up finish of the year as he searches for his first career Superbike win.
“That was the most frustrating part, just seeing him pull me in the first section and me catching the back of him the last three (sections),” Gerloff said. “And not being able to make any ground. That was frustrating, but I felt like I had a really good race. I felt good battling with these guys and the first couple laps we were definitely putting it in there every other corner. You don’t want to get in the back of these guys because they’ll eat you up. I was just trying to stay towards the front. I’m pretty happy. This guy (Elias) is going quick. I feel pretty strong for tomorrow, so we’ll see.”
Beaubier was visibly disappointed with third place and his ninth podium finish of the season.
“To be honest, it was a pretty frustrating race there at the beginning,” Beaubier said. “I knew I had a really good pace all weekend. My team and I have been working really hard yesterday and this morning. I felt like I had such a good bike underneath me. We got a little time now on race tires in practice, and for whatever reason I just couldn’t get down to anywhere close to where I was in practice. So that was pretty frustrating. I was just trying to find my way up front and try to put my head down, but none of these guys would let me. I felt (Josh) Herrin clip my right elbow. I looked over and he’s off the track. It was a wild race. Today wasn’t our day. Congrats to these guys. We’re going to go back and do our homework tonight and come back swinging tomorrow.”
Herrin crashed after making contact with Beaubier, the Georgian battling for the lead at the time.
Fourth place went to Attack Performance Estenson Racing’s JD Beach, the Kentucky resident in the mix at the front until the closing laps. He finished 7.8 seconds behind Elias but was well clear of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis, the Kentuckian racing to fifth all alone.
FLY Racing/ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony was sixth, narrowly topping Omega Moto’s Cameron Petersen. FLY Racing’s Sam Verderico, Superbike Underground’s Jeremy Coffey and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounded out the top 10 finishers.
In addition to Herrin, Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, Uribe Racing’s Jayson Uribe and Cycle Gear/SC Project/KWR Racing Ducati’s Kyle Wyman all crashed out of the race. Uribe and Wyman went down together in turn two on the opening lap with Wyman suffering a suspected broken wrist.
Twins Cup – DeKeyrel Gets His First
In Saturday’s Twins Cup race, former MotoAmerica Supersport racer Kaleb DeKeyrel returned to the series after a couple of years away, and aboard his 1833CJKnows/Roaring Toyz Yamaha, notched his first career MotoAmerica victory. DeKeyrel started from 12th on the grid, but through patience and determination, he moved to the front and passed the current points leader Michael Barnes aboard his Quarterley Racing Ducati and the race leader at the time, Roadracing World Young Guns Suzuki rider Alex Dumas. Dumas and Barnes ultimately finished in second and third, respectively.
“Qualifying obviously didn’t go so hot, so I knew we had to make some serious changes in order to be there for the race,” DeKeyrel said. “I put my head down last night. Was writing a bunch of stuff down, figuring a bunch of stuff out so, hopefully, we could come out here today and put on a show for the fans. We had an incredible bike for the race. I’ve got to give a huge shout-out to Roaring Toyz and 1-833-CJ-Knows for getting me out here. Without them, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be here.
“I drove over 110 hours just to make this race happen. But I also knew that the Yamaha was a great platform as far as handling and everything. So, I knew we would have a decent bike coming here. It would just be fine-tuning it for the track. But I’ve been training a lot. I’m training really hard with my buddy Garrett Gerloff, even though I haven’t been at the MotoAmerica races in a couple of years. I live down in Texas right next to him, so we’ve been training hard. I’m hoping I get more opportunities in the future to show my talent to the paddock.”
Stock 1000 – Lee Keeps The Momentum Going
Home cooking proved to be a benefit for Californian Andrew Lee as the Franklin Armory/Graves Motorsports Kawasaki rider won Saturday’s Stock 1000 race and extended his championship lead to 11 points over the day’s third-place finisher, Mesa37 Racing Kawasaki rider Stefano Mesa. Former World Superbike competitor Geoff May finished second in the race aboard his Ameris Bank Kawasaki.
Lee started from the pole with Mesa and May gridded right next to him on the front row, and the race was a battle from the get-go. As the laps wound down, Lee made strategic use of a few backmarkers and tiptoed through them to win by just under a second at the checkers.
“Coming into this weekend, I knew I had some momentum coming off of Utah, so I just wanted to really continue that,” commented Lee. “I knew it was going to be difficult with Geoff and Stefano right there behind me. I’m just happy I got to accomplish my goals this weekend. It was a really good battle. I knew coming through Rainey Curve that there were some lappers up-ahead going up over turn one, and I knew I had to get there before Geoff did. Coming into the last lap, there was a big group ahead of me. I was like, that’s going to be pretty intimidating. Thankfully, I got over the hill and got one backmarker in-between Geoff and me, and I made it down the hill and crossed the line first.”
More, from a press release issued by Westby Racing:
Sunny Skies On Saturday At WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Yield A Not-So-Sunny Result For Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz
Monterey, CA – July 13, 2019 – On Saturday afternoon, under the bright sunshine at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, things didn’t turn out quite so sunny for Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz as “The Corkscrew,” Laguna Seca’s iconic, signature feature, reached up and bit him, resulting in him crashing his #11 Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike out of race one, ironically, on lap 11 of the 23-lap event.
Starting from the second row of the grid after qualifying fifth in Superpole, Mathew was running in fifth place and looking to hunt down the race leaders when he lost the front end of his Yamaha at the top of turn 8 and ended his day.
“Yesterday, we kind of missed the first qualifying practice because we had a little bit of a mechanical issue, so the second qualifying practice was a little bit of catching up for us,” commented Mathew as he talked about his weekend so far. “We knew that the bike wasn’t set up perfectly yet, and I was still getting into my groove. For this morning’s practice, we changed a few things, and I definitely got faster. With Superpole right after that, we didn’t want to make any changes, and I ended up qualifying fifth, which wasn’t too bad.
“We made a couple of changes before the race, and they were definitely beneficial. I was running fifth in the race and going backwards and forwards slightly, then, coming into The Corkscrew, I lost the front and slid out of the race. I’m really disappointed because I was barely on the edge, doing a comfortable pace, and I just crashed out. I have to say sorry to my Westby crew because I shouldn’t have crashed. We looked at the data, and we definitely found out where we can make the bike better. So, in tomorrow morning’s warmup, we’ll try the new settings and see if we can improve in tomorrow’s race.”
As Mathew alluded to, he and the team will try again tomorrow when Superbike Race 2 goes green at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday at 3:15 PM Pacific Time.
For more updates about Westby Racing, including news, photos, and videos, visit https://www.WestbyRacing.com
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More, from a press release issued by Attack Performance/Estenson Racing:
Mixed Day for Beach Pulling Double Duty at Laguna Seca
It was a day of mixed results for JD Beach as he tackled back-to-back races on Saturday, July 13, in the FIM Superbike World Championship and MotoAmerica Superbike Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. A technical issue cut his race short in WorldSBK, but he was able to put in a solid effort in his national superbike championship and cross the line fourth.
Beach’s goal for his debut in WorldSBK was to put in a solid top-10 finish. He was on his way to achieving that with a good start in the race that had him in the hunt for that position. The dirt/road racer worked his way into ninth, but lost a few spots in the four-way battle. Beach was making ground in that fight until a technical issue forced him to pull into the pits and take him out of a points-paying position.
There was no time to dwell on the misfortune as Beach and his Attack Performance Estenson Racing team had to switch gears to the MotoAmerica race that followed on the heels of the World Championship. Once again, Beach got off to a good start and found himself in the lead pack with the factory four. The pace was hot, and he did what he could to hang on, but he ultimately had to salvage a fourth-place position to take valuable points.
JD Beach — MotoAmerica Superbike #95:
“The World Superbike race started out well. I was feeling good. The group started to pull a little bit of a gap, but then I started to bring it back. Then I went down the corkscrew and went to shift to third gear and the shifter was down. One of the stock parts just broke on the shifter and just made it to where the bike was stuck in second gear. I had to pull into the pits, which sucked, but it was an easy fix. We’ll be back on track tomorrow.
“In the MotoAmerica race, I got off to another great start and was right there in the lead group. There were five of us going back and forth. The race pace was really good. After about midway, I was starting to lose a little bit of front grip. With about four laps to go or so, the grip got really bad. I was starting to get a little bit of chatter. So, at that point, I had lost the top three a little bit and just wanted to bring it home in fourth.
“Doing both races in one day was tough, but luckily I had a ton of help as far as making sure I was eating, I was drinking, and my gear was ready. It was definitely a long day. I think tomorrow, even though we have three races, it shouldn’t be as long of a day. I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
MotoAmerica Superbike race two at Laguna Seca will be aired on FS2 Sunday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m. ET. You can also stream all the action live on MotoAmerica Live+ starting at 12:15 p.m. ET.