TOTAL DOMINATION FOR YOSHIMURA SUZUKI AS ELIAS WINS BOTH LEGS OF COMBINED WORLDSBK/MOTOAMERICA WEEKEND AT LAGUNA SECA
Hayden Wins Fourth Superpole of the Season and is Runner Up in Both Races
Chino, CA – It was a beautiful weekend on the Monterey Peninsula for the annual combined WorldSBK/MotoAmerica weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. It was complete domination for Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing. Series leader Toni Elias swept the weekend, winning both legs of the event on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. The two victories pushed Elias’ tally for the season to eight wins and extends his series lead to 40 points after 12 of 20 races.
Elias’ winning streak now extends to five in a row, giving him firm control of the championship.
Roger Hayden had a strong weekend. He made a last-ditch effort to pass Elias on the final turn in Sunday’s race, but ran wide and finished runner-up in both rounds. Hayden continued to show amazing speed on his 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 in qualifying. He earned a series-leading fourth Superpole of the season on Saturday.
The race enjoyed great fan turnout with perfect weather. They watched the Yoshimura Suzuki duo engaged in an exciting battle for most of Saturday’s race. Hayden came up half a second short of teammate Elias at the finish. On Sunday Hayden led the majority of the race, but Elias made a pass on the final lap. Hayden fought back, but ran wide in the final turn. The margin of victory on Sunday was 1.39 seconds.
“It was an amazing weekend,” Elias said. “The conditions were a little cooler today. I struggled a bit and Roger was very strong. Fortunately, I was able to pass Roger on the last lap and get the second victory of the weekend. I’m very happy with the way the team is working together. It is perfect.
“Winning both races helped give me a gap in the standings and that is important because this season still has a lot of races. I am looking forward to going to Sonoma and I will try to continue doing what we are doing. If we can keep winning it will be perfect, but if we can’t and have to take second that will be good too.”
Hayden continues to be a serious contender and is hopeful that he’ll find the right combo for more wins.
“We got the pole again this weekend, so I was pretty excited about that,” Hayden explained. “In race one Saturday I pretty much followed Toni around. Then we made some changes to the bike and it was a lot better for today’s race. I tried to hold onto the lead, but Toni got by me in turn two there on the last lap. I tried to throw a Hail Mary on the last turn, but he was protecting the inside line. I knew it was a long shot and it didn’t quite work. I’m looking forward to getting back to Sonoma and hopefully we can finish strong in the last four events.”
Elias now has 260 points to Hayden’s 220. Third in the championship is Cameron Beaubier with 180 points.
The series now take a mid-summer break before coming back August 11-13 for the Championship at Sonoma Raceway.
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 andwww.suzukicycles.com/Racing and via YouTube at www.yoshimura-racing.com
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:
Gerloff And Beach Finish 1-2 In Supersport Race At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca; Hayes Is 4th In Superbike Race 2
Monterey, CA – After breaking the track record during Saturday’s MotoAmerica Supersport qualifying and then starting from the pole in Sunday’s race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, defending class Champion Garrett Gerloff rode his #1 Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha YZF-R6 to victory over his teammate JD Beach.
From the start, it was a two-rider battle for the win between Garrett and JD, as JD got the holeshot, and Garrett slotted in closely behind the 2015 MotoAmerica Supersport Champion.
Unable to keep pace with the two Yamaha riders, Valentin Debise crashed out of the race, which left JD and Garrett with a more-than-comfortable gap back to Benny Solis in third place.
JD and Garrett battled each other hard with each rider taking turns at the front until Garrett got by JD and was able to stretch out a significant lead.
At the checkers, Garrett won the race by 1.5 seconds over JD and put himself back into the Championship lead by four points over JD.
After the race, Garrett said, “I’m really happy to get this win! We had a good race today, and I think I left a little rubber on JD! It was close racing, but he’s my teammate, and we know each other well. Not only do I want to beat him, but I want us to finish 1-2 every time. To win this race today in front of such a great crowd, and also, the entire World Superbike paddock, is very special for me.”
JD said, “That race was a blast! We were battling hard at the front, for sure. But, the way Garrett and I race against each other, you can tell that we have a lot of respect for one another. Garrett was riding so well this weekend, so my team and I will have to go back, do our homework, and try to get him at the next round.”
In Sunday’s Superbike Race 2 from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, things looked promising for two-time and defending MotoAmerica Champion Cameron Beaubier and his teammate and four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes. Their race started off well, with both riders near the front of the pack. Cameron worked himself into second, and was closing on Roger Hayden in the lead, when he suffered a tipover in Rainey Curve, which is the first turn after Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s famous “Corkscrew.”
Josh rode a solid, but quiet, race where he battled for position early on with Josh Herrin and Cameron, but then, he settled into fourth position and maintained it all the way to the end.
“I got a pretty good start today, and I felt a lot better than I did yesterday,” Cameron said. “Josh (Herrin) got by me early, Toni (Elias) was in front of me, and I saw Roger (Hayden) getting away at the front. So, I was able to get past Herrin and then Toni, and I started chipping away at Roger’s lead. I felt like I had a good pace going, and I was catching Rog. I was looking for a way around him, but he was riding really well. Coming out of the Corkscrew, I went a little wide in Rainey Corner in order to set myself up to try to make a pass on Rog in Turn 10, but I lost the front. I was able to pick up my bike again and get going, but I only managed to do so much because my handlebars were bent.
“So, now, we’ve got a break. I’m looking forward to going home and working on getting stronger. Next, we’re going to Sonoma, which is even closer to my home than Laguna, so I will have a lot of family and friends there. We haven’t raced at Sonoma in couple of years, so it’ll be great to be there again.”
Josh commented, “After a less-than-ideal weekend, I’m currently struggling to come up with a good answer as to what went wrong. I was definitely missing something this weekend, and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board. Luckily, we have five weeks to figure it out. I believe in my crew, and we’ll work hard to find an answer before Sonoma.”
2017 MotoAmerica Superbike Standings 7/9/17
Pos. Rider Points
1 Toni Elias – Suzuki 260
2 Roger Hayden – Suzuki 220
3 Cameron Beaubier – Yamaha 180
4 Josh Hayes – Yamaha 124
5 Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha 106
2017 MotoAmerica Supersport Standings 7/9/17
Pos. Rider Points
1 JD Beach – Yamaha 196
2 Garrett Gerloff – Yamaha 192
3 Benny Solis – Honda 127
Yamaha’s Factory Superbike and Factory-Supported Supersport Teams will be back in action on August 11-13 for the Championship at Sonoma Raceway in northern California.
For more Yamaha racing news, results, photos, and videos, visit http://www.YamahaMotorsports.com/Racing
Also, check out “YamahaMotorUSA” on your favorite social media site.
More, from a press release issued by Team Hammer:
MCFADDEN AND ANDERSON SHINE FOR TEAM HAMMER AT LAGUNA SECA
Team Hammer closed out the combined MotoAmerica/WorldSBK weekend at Laguna Seca with yet another trophy in hand, yet pondering what might have been.
M4 medAge Suzuki’s Nick McFadden was the headliner for the squad on Sunday, claiming the fifth podium of his 2017 Superstock 600 campaign in the weekend’s solitary Supersport/STK600 contest.
The fast-rising Kentucky pilot led the STK600 race early after qualifying fastest in class the day before on his GSX-R600. A miscue dropped him back a few positions and he found himself embroiled in a heated six-rider battle for position that waged deep into the 19-lap affair.
Despite still battling back towards full fitness after breaking his collarbone just over a month ago, McFadden ultimately took the STK600 checkered flag in third place (seventh in the combined order). He currently sits fourth in the Superstock 600 title fight with 120 points and two wins.
McFadden said, “It was a good weekend for us. I was on pole position and running up front for the first few laps of the race, but then I hit a false neutral and lost some time. I wasn’t able to catch back up to first and second, but it is great to be back up on the podium again.
“Now we have some time off and I can rest my collarbone area. This weekend was easier for me than Utah. There wasn’t as much pain, but the strength wasn’t there yet.”
M4 Rickdiculous Racing Suzuki’s Daytona Anderson was the racer who actually won out in the aforementioned six-rider fight aboard his Supersport-spec GSX-R600. After running second in the pack for much of the race, Anderson got a superior launch out of the race’s final corner to spring ahead just as he hit the stripe. That enabled him to claim fourth in the overall results by a scant 0.033-second.
Anderson’s perfectly executed strike also saw him elevated to fifth in the Supersport title rankings with 79 points to his credit.
Meanwhile, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Cleland finished well in the points and just outside the STK600 top 10 in 11th (17th overall). Cleland is also ranked 11th in the Superstock 600 championship, just two points removed from the top 10.
Unfortunately, the race ended early for M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise. The Frenchman got away strongly from his front-row grid position, but crashed out of third place in Turn 3 on the opening lap.
The DNF ended a three-race streak of podium finishes for Debise, including a victory last time out. Despite his misfortune, he’s currently fourth in the Supersport points standings (124).
Debise said, “I went a little bit wide but wasn’t too far off my usual line. I released the brake and crashed with no brakes, so I’m a little bit confused about what happened. Maybe I made a mistake that I don’t understand. We’ll have to look at the data to understand what was going on.
“It’s really disappointing because this morning in the warm-up I was feeling really great on the bike and had really improved our race pace. It’s a disappointing result but that’s a part of racing.”
It was also a disappointing day for M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis. Lewis carried hopes of victory following Saturday’s come-from-behind charge to the Superstock 1000 podium. However, despite getting a much better start on Sunday aboard his GSX-R1000, Lewis was ultimately forced out of contention while running in second position due to a mechanical issue.
Lewis is third in points despite today’s DNF with 190 points and nine podiums, including a pair of wins.
The 2017 AMA/FIM North American Road Race Championship will now go on its summer break before picking back up August 11-13 for Round 7 as the series makes its long-awaited return to Sonoma Raceway, in Sonoma, California.
About Team Hammer
The 2017 season marks Team Hammer’s 37th consecutive year of operating as a professional road racing team. Racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 67 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National races, have finished on AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National podiums 174 times and have won five AMA Pro National Championships, as well as two FIM South American Championships. The team has also won 134 endurance races overall (including seven 24-hour races) and 13 Overall WERA National Endurance Championships with Suzuki motorcycles, and holds the U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24-hour race. The team also competed in the televised 1990s Formula USA National Championship, famously running “Methanol Monster” GSX-R1100 Superbikes fueled by methanol, and won four F-USA Championships.
More, from a press release issued by Yamalube/Westby Racing:
Winner! Winner! Seafood Dinner! Scholtz Does The Double And Follows Up His MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Race 1 Win At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca With Another Win In Race 2
Monterey, CA – July 10, 2017 – For the second day in a row, Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz won the MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca near the California seacoast.
Mathew backed up his fifth-place overall finish on Saturday in the combined Superbike/Superstock 1000 race with a sixth-place overall finish on Sunday, and he took the checkered flag just .232 of a second behind Superbike rider Kyle Wyman.
“It was pretty much a perfect race for me,” Scholtz said. “I led the Superstock guys from the first lap and opened up a slight gap, maybe up to about 2.5 seconds. And then, Bobby Fong caught up to me with probably seven or eight laps left. I was kind of just holding him off from there. I’m really happy heading into the break. We have a decent lead in the Superstock 1000 Championship.”
After the weekend’s two race wins, which were Mathew’s fourth and fifth class victories of the season, the South African now leads the 2017 MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Championship by 43 points over second-place Bobby Fong.
The Yamalube/Westby Racing team, along with the rest of the MotoAmerica riders and teams, will take a short summer break and return to action at the Championship at Sonoma Raceway in northern California on August 11-13.
For more updates on Yamalube/Westby Racing, including news, photos, and videos, visit https://www.westbyracing.com
Also, visit “Westby Racing” on your favorite social media site.