Copyright 2019, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By Michael Gougis
One of the best reasons to hit the Superbike World
Championship/MotoAmerica round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is its spot
on the calendar. It is in the middle of the summer, peak of the riding season,
and the Monterey Bay usually offers spectacular weather as a backdrop to the
gorgeous scenery.
But Laguna also falls smack in the middle of the season for
motorcycle road racing. And by this point in the year, the story lines have
formed, yet the conclusion is still wide open. That makes the event
captivating, with every place in every race something worth chasing, and a
backdrop of several races to give every lap the context that frames the highest
levels of competition.
In MotoAmerica, the battle at the front of the EBC
Superbikes class has been a fascinating tightrope all season long between
consistency and the desperate need to hang it all out right at the edge – and
often a bit beyond.
(Above) Toni Elias (24) leading Josh Herrin (2) and Cameron Beaubier (1) at Road America. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Heading the points is Toni Elias, who has taken his
Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing GSX-R1000 to five wins in the 10 races to date
in 2019. Elias has backed up his wins with a crushing consistency, standing on
the podium in all but one of those races.
But it hasn’t been easy, nor anything like a runaway for the
former Moto2 World Champion and one of the few racers who has beaten Valentino
Rossi in a straight fight–twice. Elias ended the second race at Road America
in the gravel trap, and his margins of victory have often been narrow. Elias is
pushing hard for every point, and his DNF in Wisconsin illustrated just how
close to the edge he is.
(Above) Cameron Beaubier (1) has been very consistent so far in 2019. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Consistency is what has kept Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha
Factory Racing’s Cameron Beaubier in the hunt. The three-time MotoAmerica Superbike
Champion and Daytona 200 winner has only two wins to Elias’ five, but has been
on the podium eight times, and sits just 26 points behind Elias. And after a
tough start to 2018, Laguna was part of a mid-season run of wins and podiums by
Beaubier that put him solidly in the lead and in control of the Championship.
After taking the double at Laguna, Beaubier won three of the next four races in
2018. It was part of a 13-race run of podiums that allowed Beaubier to wrap up
last year’s title with races to spare.
Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff rides a string of
podiums into Laguna. In second year racing in Superbike, he’s already notched
his first pole position, and sits third in the Championship, ahead of Elias’
teammate Josh Herrin, the 2013 AMA Pro Superbike Champion. Herrin has shown the
speed necessary to run at the front, with two wins, and is missing only the
consistency that his Suzuki teammate has shown.
(Above) Some of MotoAmerica’s top Superbike privateers: Mathew Scholtz (11), JD Beach (95), Jake Gagne (32), and Kyle Wyman. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
While the four factory riders have been at the front, they
haven’t had things their own way. Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz has led on his
Yamaha YZF-R1, and J.D. Beach actually won a mixed-conditions race at VIRginia
International Raceway on his Attack
Performance Estenson Racing Yamaha YZF-R1. Beach plans to maximize his
track time at Laguna, racing in both MotoAmerica Superbike and as a wild card
in World Superbike. That’s five races in two days!
Every time the green flag drops in MotoAmerica Superbike,
there are six riders with a legitimate shot at the win, and that has led to
some of the best racing the series has seen in years.
(Above) MotoAmerica Supersport Championship contenders Hayden Gillim (69) and Bobby Fong (50). Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
The MotoAmerica Supersport battle has been equally tense,
with Rickdiculous Racing’s Hayden Gillim and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong
battling at the sharp end of the field. Both have shown blazing speed, both
have crossed the line and tossed it away in spectacular fashion, and that means
that going into Laguna, Gillim and his Yamaha YZF-R6 are a mere seven points
ahead of Fong and his Suzuki GSX-R600.
(Above) PJ Jacobsen (99) and Richie Escalante (54). Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Elsewhere in the Supersport field there are storylines
worthy of a movie script. Four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes is riding
a YZF-R6 entered by wife and fellow racer Melissa Paris, and Patrick “P.J.”
Jacobsen is back in the U.S. after years racing – and winning – at the
International level. Hayes has racked up podiums in pursuit of the handful of
wins he needs to become the all-time AMA Pro Road Racing win leader; Jacobsen
notched his first win in years earlier this season, taking the Celtic HSBK
Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 to victory in Virginia.
(Above) Josh Hayes with his infant son Hawk on the MotoAmerica Supersport podium at VIRginia International Raceway. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
The Superbike World Championship looked like a runaway at
the beginning of the year. MotoGP refugee Alvaro Bautista, who had spent years
on a MotoGP Ducati Desmosedici, jumped on the new Ducati Panigale V4 R –
patterned after the MotoGP bike – and just crushed the field, slashing his way
to win after win.
(Above) Alvaro Bautista (19) on his Ducati Panigale V4 R.
Aided by the “competition adjustments” in the Superbike
rulebook that allowed the Aruba.it Racing Ducati a far higher rev limit than
the competition, Bautista simply rode past competitors on the straights with
speed in hand.
But the Ducati has proven to be a finicky beast, and
Bautista has thrown it into the gravel on multiple occasions. Meanwhile,
defending and four-time Superbike World Champion Jonathan Rea has gotten on
with business, making the absolute best of his Kawasaki ZX-10RR, winning when
he could, taking points when he could not win, and capitalizing on Bautista’s
mistakes.
(Above) Alvaro Bautista (19) leading the start of World Superbike Race Two at Jerez.
Incredibly, from a 61-point deficit, Rea has clawed his way
not only back into contention, but into a 24-point lead going in to Laguna Seca.
And the short straights and twisty confines of the dry lake bed are custom-made
for the sweet-handling ZX-10RR, which also has shown itself to be dead-stable
on the brakes. No one expects a Ducati runaway at Laguna.
(Above) Alvaro Bautista (19) and Championship rival and four-time Superbike World Champion Jonathan Rea (1).
The end result is that the title chase is far closer than
anyone imagined it would be at this point in the season, and it promises to get
tighter. The PATA Yamaha WorldSBK Team machines are getting nearer to the front
all the time, with Michael van der Mark winning confidently in Spain and teammate
Alex Lowes leading and fighting for podiums.
(Above) Alvaro Bautista (19), after winning his 11th race in his 11th start, at Assen.
And BMW, which re-entered the series as a factory effort for
2019, is quietly moving up the ranks, with talented and speedy veteran Tom
Sykes – 2013 Superbike World Champion and all-time Superpole win record-holder
– taking the still-developing 2020 S1000RR to the podium at Misano and
Donington Park, and actually putting the BMW on pole at Donington.
(Above) Former Superbike World Champion Tom Sykes (66) on his 2020-model BMW S1000RR.
At this point in the season, every lap, every position
matters. The battle lines have been drawn, but the final chapter is far from
written.