Two-time former MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier recorded the fastest unofficial lap time during a two-day test February 14-15 at Thunderhill Raceway Park, in Willows, California.
Riding his Monster Energy/Yamalube Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike on the 3.0-mile road course, Beaubier turned a 1:45.0, according to his team. That’s 0.2 second slower than Beaubier went during a three-day test at Thunderhill in December 2017, when Beaubier was also the fastest rider.
“All in all, it went good,” Beaubier told Roadracingworld.com in the paddock at Thunderhill. “It was a good test to work on myself. We had some stuff to try but not a crazy amount. We just worked on typical bike setup stuff, like we always do, seeing how the bike works differently with different setups. But we were on the standard Dunlops that we raced on last year [not the development tires the factory Superbike riders used at the test in December].”
Second-best with a lap time of 1:45.6 while testing on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 was reigning MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Toni Elias, who missed the first day of the test due to problems with his passport and visa forcing him to take a later flight to California from his home in Spain.
“I’ve been lucky to arrive for the last day because I had a problem,” said Elias. “I just received my green [U.S. Resident Alien] card, but there was some delay. I was expecting to fly on Monday [February 12], but the passport didn’t arrive and I had to fly yesterday [February 14]. I was lucky to arrive for the last day and continue the work because with the standard tires we improved. I was able to test everything I wanted, everything we had on the plan. I’m happy.”
Beaubier’s rookie teammate Garrett Gerloff was also happy with his lap time of 1:45.8, but more importantly he was pleased with his continuing work to learn how to ride and setup his new factory Superbike.
“We were just trying different setup stuff,” said Gerloff. “We’re just going through the process of trying everything so I know what I like, and where I like it, and why it’s different so I can have as much knowledge in my head before the season so when problems do come up I have more of an idea of how to handle them. That’s kind of the idea.”
Elias’ teammate Roger Hayden was not as satisfied with his test or his best lap time of 1:46.3.
“I struggled a lot, actually, with myself. But then at the end here we got the rhythm back,” said Hayden. “We changed so many things that I kind of got a little bit lost, but it ended up pretty good. It wasn’t the best test I’ve had. I’m not really in rhythm with the bike yet, but luckily we have a couple more tests lined up so I should be able to get back in the flow a little bit.”
The Monster Energy/Yamalube Yamaha and Yoshimura Suzuki teams along with several other teams and riders have a test scheduled at Sonoma Raceway later this month, and then an official MotoAmerica/Dunlop test will be held at Barber Motorsports Park in March.
The 2018 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North America Road Racing Series season starts at Road Atlanta in April.