Beaubier Podiums & Hayes Finishes Fourth In Superbike Race 2 At Utah; Beach & Gerloff Remain 1-2 In Supersport Championship
Tooele, UT – It was an up-and-down day for Yamaha’s “Fast Four” road racers on Sunday at Utah Motorsports Park, and that statement should be taken literally. On the “up” side, Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing teammates Cameron Beaubier and Josh Hayes finished third and fourth, respectively, aboard their Yamaha YZF-R1 motorcycles in the afternoon’s MotoAmerica Superbike race. Cameron kept his #1 R1 upright in the 17-lap contest and finished solidly on the podium after falling down a couple of times earlier in the weekend, including in Saturday’s Superbike race.
On the “down” side, Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha teammates Garrett Gerloff and JD Beach tangled (yes, literally) on the final lap of Sunday’s MotoAmerica Supersport race. Both riders went down in unison, and their Yamaha YZF-R6 machines got stuck together, which delayed both riders’ ability to rejoin the race and prevented either of them from winning the race. They both did manage to finish, albeit in 17th position for Garrett and 19th for JD.
On the “up” side, JD retained his one-point lead over Garrett in the Championship, with Valentin Debise winning the race and taking over third place in the standings, 47 points adrift of Garrett and 48 points behind JD.
After the Superbike race, Cameron said, “It’s great to get a podium after how horrible the past two days have gone. It’s frustrating. I started out feeling like it was going to be a good weekend. The R1 is good around here, and I like this track a lot. I had a lot of problems this weekend, so hats off to my team for working so hard to rebuild my bike more than once over the past couple of days. It feels good to get back on the podium again, and give that to my team. Laguna Seca is next, and I’m looking forward to racing there. My family and friends will be there, and I really like the track a lot. It’s been a good track for me.”
Josh commented, “I felt like we improved my R1 a lot from yesterday. The first half of today’s race went better than yesterday, but my body let me down a little bit. This is the first race weekend of the season that I haven’t been on the ground, and those get-offs have taken their toll. I just wasn’t able to maintain my pace. Once Cameron caught up to me, as much as I would have liked to fight for the position with him, I was a wounded duck out there. I let him through and managed my race. So, it was an unfortunate fourth place for me. I can do better that, and my team deserves better. So, I’m going to go home and work on some solutions for (Mazda Raceway) Laguna Seca.”
Following the Supersport Race, Garrett said, “After yesterday’s race, we worked on some things to make my R6 a little bit better, and I really had a good bike for the race. I saw “plus-zero” on my pitboard, so I knew it was JD right behind me. On the last lap, I tried to do everything I could to ride perfectly. The first sector was really good. I felt really strong, and then, going into turn five, I had a little moment where I almost crashed. I was able to save it, but I lost some time. I had to defend the inside, and I thought I had it covered, but JD, at the last second, put it up underneath me, snagged my handlebar, and we both ended up going down. We picked the bikes up and got going again. No points today, which is unfortunate, but all in all, it was a racing incident. We’ll both be back, stronger at Laguna. I lived to fight another day, and fight, I will.”
JD said, “In the last lap, when Garrett tucked the front in turn five, I was able to get a little bit of a drive on him going into turn six. It looked like he went just a little bit wide, and I tried to get up underneath him. I went for it, and there just wasn’t enough room. Today are the races you would like to forget. I’m sorry to Garrett, his crew, and the whole team for costing them a win. I want to move past this and go to Laguna.”
2017 MotoAmerica Superbike Standings 6/25/17
Pos. Rider Points
1 Toni Elias – Suzuki 210
2 Roger Hayden – Suzuki 180
3 Cameron Beaubier – Yamaha 162
4 Josh Hayes – Yamaha 111
2017 MotoAmerica Supersport Standings 6/25/17
Pos. Rider Points
1 JD Beach – Yamaha 172
2 Garrett Gerloff – Yamaha 171
3 Valentin Debise – Suzuki 124
Yamaha’s Factory Superbike and Factory-Supported Supersport Teams will be back in action on July 7-8 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California for the Championship of the Monterey Peninsula.
For more Yamaha racing news, results, photos, and videos, visit http://www.YamahaMotorsports.com/Racing
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More, from a press release issued by Yoshimura Suzuki:
ELIAS SWEEP PROVIDES PERFECT WEEKEND IN UTAH FOR YOSHIMURA SUZUKI
Hayden Sets Track Record on Suzuki GSX-R1000 and Team Goes 1-2 in Both Races
Chino, CA (June 26, 2017) – Race weekends don’t get any better than what Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing experienced at Utah Motosports Complex (UMC) in MotoAmerica Superbike action in Tooele, Utah. Toni Elias swept the weekend, winning both legs of the event on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, extending his series lead to 30 points. Teammate Roger Hayden finished runner-up in both rounds and won Superpole, breaking a longstanding MotoAmerica/AMA Superbike UMC track record in the process.
In testimony to the racing prowess of the new 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000, this marked the fifth time this season that Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing has finished 1-2 in MotoAmerica Superbike.
Elias has now earned a series-leading six MotoAmerica Superbike victories in 2017.
His Utah clean sweep pushed his series lead to better than a full race’s worth of points. Elias has 210 points. Hayden, who now owns eight podium finishes in 2017, moved back into second in the standings with 180 points.
The weekend started off on a high note for the team when Hayden used the power and handling of the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 to break the MotoAmerica UMC track record in Superpole. Hayden’s pole-winning time of 1:48.941 eclipsed the old MotoAmerica/AMA Superbike lap record for the 3.048-mile Outer/Perimeter Course at UMC (formerly Miller Motorsports Park) of 1:49.167 set by Ben Spies in 2006, also on a Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Then it was Elias’ turn to shine. He made up for a mistake in the first turn of race 1 on Saturday, which dropped him well back in the pack. From there the former world champion methodically worked his way through the field to earn a stunning come-from-behind victory. On Sunday, his victory came after battling with Hayden up front most of the way. He opening up a small gap on the final lap. Elias’ margins of victory were 2.461 seconds on Saturday and 0.459 seconds Sunday.
“I am so happy about this weekend,” Elias said after Sunday’s victory. “We won both races and the team did a great job with the bike. Yesterday I got so lucky after running off the track. I came back step by step, passed some riders, caught the lead group and won the race. Today I was there up front for the whole race. Two wins for the weekend was very important for the championship. We must continue like this.”
For Hayden, the track record was the highlight of the weekend.
“The record stood for a long time, so I’m really happy about that,” he said. “I’m proud of our performance. The team is working really hard and I’m looking forward to Laguna Seca.”
At the mid-point of the season, newly-redesigned 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 has won a total of seven of the 10 MotoAmerica Superbike races.
The series kicks off the second half of the season when it moves to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, on July 7-9 for the sixth of 10 MotoAmerica events.
For additional details on the upcoming event visit www.MotoAmerica.com
You can keep up with the team’s progress by visiting www.yoshimura-racing.com and www.yoshimura-racing.com and via YouTube at www.yoshimura-racing.com