Second-year Superbike rider Cameron Beaubier was the fastest man Wednesday on the first day of an official MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing series test at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), in Austin, Texas.
Riding his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha YZF-R1, Beaubier lapped the 3.4-mile road course in 2:11.910.
“It went really good,” said Beaubier. “It was my first time ever here, so I got to learn the track a little bit in the rain. I did 10 laps this morning and just figured out where I was going. I think that was good for me going into the dry sessions this afternoon.
“We’re still getting comfy on the new bike on the new track, changing suspension, raising the bike up and down, a little bit of gearing and stuff. Just getting comfy. I was running one of the harder rear tires pretty much all day. We switched to the softer, Medium rear and it was completely different. The old tire was completely shagged, and the new tire felt awesome. I went out and felt comfy, and the lap times came pretty easy. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and trying to improve my times a little bit.”
Roger Hayden, one of the only riders at the test to have ridden at COTA previously, was third-fastest in the last session but second-best overall with a time of 2:12.339 on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. Hayden said he changed his gearing in the final session and lost his rhythm, resulting in slower times, but he was able to fix the gearing problem and get back in the groove before the day ended.
Right behind Hayden in the overall Superbike test times was Beaubier’s teammate Josh Hayes (who did a track day on a modified streetbike at COTA in 2014) with a time of 2:12.475. Hayes, the four-time and defending AMA Superbike Champion, said, “We’re plugging away on the new Yamaha, and we still have a way to go. We got our laps in, and we’re going to continue tomorrow. We’re still getting familiar with the racetrack. There’s so many things here and so much to learn.”
Jake Gagne, the 2014 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Champion, showed the potential of the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 in Superstock 1000cc trim by recording a 2:13.886 on his Roadrace Factory/Red Bull-sponsored machine Wednesday, the first day for Gagne at COTA and only his third day on his new motorcycle.
The only rider known to have crashed was Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha’s Dane Westby, who was not injured in a fall during the third session of the day.
Testing continues at COTA on Thursday.
The 2015 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing series opens at COTA April 11-14.
MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series
Circuit of The Americas
Austin, Texas
March 18, 2015
Unofficial Superbike/Superstock 1000cc Test Session Four Result (all on Dunlop tires):
1. Cameron Beaubier (Yam YZF-R1), 2:11.910, Superbike
2. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), 2:12.475, Superbike
3. Roger Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:13.225, Superbike
4. Jake Gagne (Yam YZF-R1), 2:13.886, Superstock
5. Chris Fillmore (KTM RC8R), 2:14.316, Superbike
6. Jake Lewis (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:15.848, Superbike
7. Dane Westby (Yam YZF-R1), 2:16.188, Superstock
8. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:16.346, Superbike
9. Dustin Dominguez (Apr RSV4 Factory), 2:18.372, Superstock
10. Devon McDonough (Apr RSV4 Factory), 2:19.665, Superstock
11. Marcel Irnie (BMW S1000RR), 2:20.187, Superstock
12. Chad Swain (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:22.690, Superstock
13. Elena Myers (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:23.439, Superbike
14. Max Flinders (EBR 1190RX), 2:24.083, Superstock
15. Johnny Rock Page (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:26.229, Superbike
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Beaubier Leads First Day Of MotoAmerica/Dunlop Test
The stars of MotoAmerica take to the track at Circuit of The Americas
AUSTIN, TX, MAR. 18 – The MotoAmerica stars were given a chance to test their motorcycles on two completely different racetracks today at the Circuit of The Americas – one soaked by a rainstorm for the morning sessions and one dried by sunny skies in the afternoon – during the opening day of the two-day Dunlop tire test.
For most of the 30 riders in attendance at the first-ever MotoAmerica test, today was a day of learning as the vast majority of them had never ridden at COTA before. And with 20 turns packed into its 3.4 miles, learning COTA doesn’t come easy.
The exceptions to the rule were returnees Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden, Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes and Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin. Hayden and his team tested here after last year’s MotoGP, Hayes had been a guest of a riding school last summer, and Herrin competed in the 2014 Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in the Moto2 class.
But at the end of the day the fastest of the fast was a rider who’d never turned a wheel at COTA prior to this morning: Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier. Beaubier lapped at a best of 2:11.910.
“It went really good,” Beaubier said. “At the beginning of the day it was my first time ever here so I got to learn the track a bit in the rain. We did 10 laps this morning and just figured out where I was going, and I think that was good for me going into the dry sessions this afternoon. We’re still getting comfy on the new bike, and on the new track and changing suspension, raising the bike up and down, and little a bit of gearing and stuff.”
“I was running the hard rear pretty much all day, and we switched to the medium rear and it was a completely different,” Beaubier added. “The old tire was pretty shagged and the new tire was awesome. I felt comfy and the lap times came easy so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and trying to improve my time a little bit and get a little more comfortable on the bike on this track.
All four classes of MotoAmerica (the KTM RC 390 Cup starts later in the season) are being featured at the track for the two-day test, broken into two divisions (600 and 1000cc). The two divisions were on the track for four sessions today and they’ll resume tomorrow with four more sessions apiece.
Beaubier led the soaking wet first session for the Superbikes and Superstock 1000s with Hayes leading the second session, which was also held in the wet. Sessions three and four were held on a dry racetrack with Hayden leading session three and Beaubier stepping up to lead the fourth and final session with the best lap of the day.
Herrin used his track experience to lead the first 600cc session, but Yamahalube/Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff took over in the second session and was never headed again, the youngster dominating the day with a best of 2:13.594. Like Beaubier, Gerloff had never ridden at COTA until today.
“Today was really good,” Gerloff said. “The two previous tests we’ve done at Thunderhilll before we arrived at COTA really helped us get my bike dialed in. Everything was rocking today and going really well. My Yamaha was going fast and I’m looking forward to continuing to develop my bike tomorrow and improving my time.”
ADDITIONAL QUOTES…
Roger Hayden (Yoshimura Suzuki)
“It was kinda cool to actually do some testing in the wet so it was all pretty good. And then in the dry we got right up to speed pretty quick. We had a little bit of an advantage from testing here last year, but I’m almost just as quick as I was at the end of the two full days. I’m pretty excited about that. The bike feels good. We just have some areas where we have to fine tune it and stuff like that. Overall it’s a pretty good start. We just have to find a little bit more speed and we should be okay.”
Josh Hayes (Monster Graves Yamaha)
“At least we now have some experience here in the wet and it seems to have pretty good grip in the wet. Fortunately, I had done a few laps around the racetrack so I knew my way around. At least I knew the direction and where the turns went. But as far as riding a racebike around here, we’re still learning quite a bit. This morning was just kind of go out and do as many laps as you can and get up to speed on your brain and a little bit of everything – what gear we were going to be and things like that. With the sun out and we start pushing on the bikes a little bit, we start figuring out where we are with the machine. On my end, it looks like we still have quite a bit of work to do. The guys [his crew] were firing away pretty hard just to get here and now we’re having some issues that I’d like to get sorted out so we’ll keep working away on some chassis things and see what we come up with.”
Testing resumes tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in Austin. Live timing will be available at http://www.motoamerica.com/results
About MotoAmerica
MotoAmerica is the new North American road racing series created in 2014. MotoAmerica is an affiliate of KRAVE Group LLC, a partnership that includes three-time 500cc World Champion, two-time AMA Superbike Champion, and AMA Hall of Famer Wayne Rainey, ex-racer and former manager of Team Roberts Chuck Aksland, motorsports marketing executive Terry Karges, and businessman Richard Varner.