Utah Motorsports Campus Here We Come

Only 19 Points Separate Top Four In Superbike Title Chase

COSTA MESA, CA – Roger Hayden is riding a wave of confidence following his first career MotoAmerica Superbike win at Barber Motorsports Park, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider putting himself back into championship contention heading into round seven of the 2016 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Superbike Championship at the newly named Utah Motorsports Campus, June 23-25.

“It’s nice seeing my hard work pay off,” Hayden said when asked about his win in race one at Barber. “I feel a little bit more relaxed now. I finally did it and I did it the right way. I led flag to flag and had somebody up my tailpipe that has won a lot of races. It wasn’t like a couple of guys crashed or it was wet or whatever. I’m relieved because it’s not, ‘When is he going to do this? He’s never going to beat the Yamahas…’ They can’t say that anymore.”

As for the upcoming round at the fast and flowing 3.048-mile Utah Motorsports Campus, Hayden thinks the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000s will be just fine.

“I like the track in Utah,” Hayden said. “I’ve always done pretty good there. The only thing we struggle with is a little bit of acceleration, but at Barber my bike seemed pretty good off the corners compared to everybody. I think we’re figuring some little things out to make things easier. We were there at Road America and it’s kinda the same type of track so I think we have a good chance again this weekend. We’ve been there every weekend. I’m only 14 points out of the championship and one point behind Josh (Hayes) so it’s a track I like and I know I need to keep the ball going. I want to win again. I want to tighten up the points and I want to be a real contender. I have a lot of confidence right now in myself, the team and everybody so I’m looking forward to it.”

The MotoAmerica Superbike Championship is reaching a boiling point with three rounds and six races to crown a champion between the four riders still in contention – defending champion Cameron Beaubier, Josh Hayes, Hayden and Toni Elias.

Beaubier and his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha is at the top of the Fab Four, the Californian 13 points ahead of his teammate Hayes, 208-195. Hayden is just one more point behind and he’s just five points ahead of his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Elias, the Spaniard having matched Hayden’s first and second place finishes at Barber Motorsports Park, June 10-12.

Unlike last year when Yamaha won all 18 of the races, the 2016 season has seen parity between the top two brands in the Superbike class: Yamaha has won seven races (Beaubier 6, Hayes 1) and Suzuki has won five (Elias four, Hayden one).

And that parity is even stronger in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 Championship with four brands represented in the top four in the title chase. Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin leads on his Yamaha R1, Quicksilver/Latus Motors Racing’s Bobby Fong is second on his Kawasaki ZX-10R, HSBK’s Claudio Corti and his Aprilia RSV4 RF is third and Cycle World Suzuki’s Hayden Gillim sits fourth on his Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Those four also rank high in the Superbike Championship, though the order is flopped a bit with Italian Corti leading Herrin by just one point in their battle for fifth in the Superbike title chase. Then comes Fong, 10 points behind, and Gillim, who is eighth in the Superbike Championship and 26 points behind Corti.

Herrin is the rider on a hot streak, the Georgian winning the last four Superstock 1000 races and finishing fifth overall in those last four. Herrin has now won five races to Corti’s four.

Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff has won six Supersport races in 2016 and he comes into Utah Motorsports Campus with a 33-point lead in the championship. But he also comes in knowing that defending Supersport Champion JD Beach is starting to heat up, the Kentuckian sweeping both Supersport races at Barber Motorsports Park for his second and third race wins of the year.

The championship looks to be fought out between those two, with M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki’s Valentin Debise 62 points behind in third with his teammate Cameron Petersen fourth and 91 points adrift. The problem for Beach is that he needs help. If he won the remaining five races (the Supersport class races only once at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) and Gerloff finished second, Beach would come up eight points short. Stay tuned.

While the Supersport Championship battle will most certainly go to the bitter end, that’s not the case in the Superstock 600 title chase. Riders Discount/Tuned Racing’s Bryce Prince holds a commanding 93-point lead over HB Racing/Meen Motorsports’ Dakota Mamola with five races left on the schedule, including the two upcoming races in Utah. There are only 125 points up for grabs at this point in the season, so the chances are strong that Prince will get the Superstock 600 Championship wrapped up early.

One thing that’s definitely not decided is the battle for second. Mamola is just two points clear of Millennium Technologies/KWR’s Travis Wyman, 124-122, with Altus Motorsports’ JC Camacho also in the fold with 114 points. You also can’t count EMR Excel Racing’s Connor Blevins or HB Racing/Meen Motorsports’ Richie Escalante out of the equation either. Those two are 22 points and 34 points out of second, respectively.

While the Superstock 600 Championship will likely be decided early, the KTM RC Cup most definitely won’t. Brandon Paasch and Anthony Mazziotto III will most certainly fight to the end in that one with Paasch currently 10 points clear of fellow New Jersey resident Mazziotto by just 10 points. Those two are 65 and 55 points clear of third-placed Ashton Yates with Jody Barry right behind Yates in their battle for third in the championship.

Both Paasch and Mazziotto have four races wins apiece with Yates and Barry each winning a race thus far in 2016.

Utah Motorsports Campus Notes

Cameron Beaubier is quickly moving up the all-time win list in Superbike racing. With the first of two wins in round five at Road America, Beaubier moved into a tie with MotoAmerica President and three-time 500cc World Champion Wayne Rainey for 10th on the all-time win list. A few hours later with his 17th career win in hand, Beaubier moved to ninth on the all-time Superbike win list and that puts him in a tie with 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden. Beaubier was shut out at Barber Motorsports Park in round six so he remains tied with Hayden.

Josh Hayes is the winningest active rider in the MotoAmerica Series. The four-time AMA Superbike Champion has won 59 AMA Superbike races in his career, which puts him second on the all-time list behind Australian Mat Mladin. Of those 59 wins, four have come at Utah Motorsports Campus, including his two-race sweep last year. Hayes has one other win in Utah – his victory coming in the now defunct Formula Xtreme Series in 2006. Hayes won his first career Superbike race in May of 2009 at Sonoma Raceway in California.

Hayes won his first race of the 2016 season at VIRginia International Raceway and that’s his only win of the season thus far. The 41 year old has been consistent and he led the championship going into round five Road America by 11 points. Beaubier, however, scored a perfect 50 points in Wisconsin to leave with a seven-point lead over Hayes. With this three third-place finishes in Alabama two weeks ago compared to Hayes’ two fourths, Beaubier now leads Hayes by 13 points as they arrive in Utah.

With his first win of the season and first with MotoAmerica, Roger Hayden moved himself squarely back into championship contention. Hayden, who has seven podium finishes in addition to his lone victory, is third in the championship and just 14 points behind Beaubier and one point behind Hayes.

Former Moto2 World Champion and MotoGP race winner Toni Elias also gained ground in the championship at Barber, the Spaniard matching his teammate Hayden with a win and a second-place finish as Suzuki dominated in Alabama. Elias now has four wins on the season and three other podium finishes and sits fourth in the title chase – 19 points behind Beaubier. As is the case with all the racetracks MotoAmerica has visited this season with the exception of COTA, Elias is a first-timer at Utah Motorsports Campus.

With Hayden and Elias sweeping both races at Barber Motorsports park, Suzuki now has 178 victories in the Superbike class. That’s well clear of Honda’s 116 Superbike class wins. Yamaha won all 18 races in last year’s MotoAmerica Superbike Championship and this year has seven race wins to Suzuki’s five. Yamaha has 97 Superbike wins to its credit.

Hayes is the only current rider in the Superbike class to have tasted Superbike success at Utah Motorsports Campus. Beaubier finished second to Hayes in both Superbike races last year, losing out in race one by just .280 of a second. In race two, Hayes beat his teammate by 4.2 seconds. Beaubier won both Daytona SportBike (now Supersport) races in 2013.

Bazzaz Superstock 1000 racer Josh Herrin has two victories to his credit in Utah. The Georgian, who made his professional debut at Miller in 2006, won the Daytona SportBike class here in 2011 and in 2013 he won the first of the two Superbike races en route to the Superbike title he earned that year. Martin Cardenas, who no longer competes in the series, won race two. Herrin will race in the Superbike class this year, albeit on a Superstock 1000-spec Meen Motorsports Yamaha.

Supersport Champion JD Beach won both Supersport races in Utah last year and also earned pole position. Beach’s pole time was a 1:53.721.

The winningest Superbike racer of all time at Utah Motorsports Campus is retired Texan Ben Spies. Spies won here five times during his career, including the first-ever Superbike race in Utah in 2006.

Hayes qualified on pole position for last year’s race at Utah Motorsports Campus with a lap of 1:50.494.599. It was Hayes’ fourth pole in Utah.

Last year’s two KTM RC Cup races at Utah Motorsports Campus were won by Gage McAllister and Braeden Ortt. McAllister has raced this year in Superstock 600 with Ortt currently racing in Europe. This season’s class rivals Anthony Mazziotto III and Brandon Paasch both had podium finishes in race two here last year.

HOW TO WATCH (All Times EST)

BeIN SPORTS

June 24 – Superbike Superpole 1 (Live) 4 p.m.

June 24 – Superbike Superpole 2 (Live) 4:15 p.m

June 24 – KTM RC Cup Race 1 (Live) 4:45 p.m.

June 24 – Supersport/Superstock 600 Race 1 (Live) 6 p.m.

June 25 – Superbike Race 1 (Live) 2:40 p.m.

June 25 – KTM RC Cup Race 2 (Live) 3:50 p.m.

June 25 – Supersport/Superstock 600 Race 2 (Live) 5:15 p.m.

June 25 – Superbike Race 2 (Live) 6:15 p.m.

BeIN SPORTS CONNECT

June 24 – Superbike Superpole 1 (Live) 4 p.m.

June 24 – Superbike Superpole 2 (Live) 4:15 p.m

June 24 – KTM RC Cup Race 1 (Live) 4:45 p.m.

June 24 – Supersport/Superstock 600 Race 1 (Live) 6 p.m.

June 25 – Superbike Race 1 (Live) 2:40 p.m.

June 25 – KTM RC Cup Race 2 (Live) 3:50 p.m.

June 25 – Supersport/Superstock 600 Race 2 (Live) 5:15 p.m.

June 25 – Superbike Race 2 (Live) 6:15 p.m.

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. For more information on MotoAmerica, visit www.MotoAmerica.com. Also make sure to follow MotoAmerica on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram .