The 2016 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship arrives at NJMP this week following two rounds of scintillating races at Circuit of The Americas and Road Atlanta and a weekend off to catch its breath. So what have we learned so far in the early days of the new season?
For one, there’s a newcomer to the series who is a force to be reckoned with and his name is Toni Elias. Secondly, his Yoshimura Suzuki team seems to have a bit of swagger after winning three of the first four races and holding down first and second in the championship with Roger Hayden leading Elias by a single point heading into NJMP. The third thing we’ve learned is that Hayes’ teammate Cameron Beaubier seems to be back, the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion winning race two at Road Atlanta to end what was a miserable run of bad luck to open his 2016 campaign. Even though he got that first win of the season, the road back to the top of the championship will take a bit longer as he’s currently 38 points behind Hayden and seventh in the title chase entering round three.
And then we come to Hayes – third in the title chase and 24 points behind Hayden after finishing third twice at COTA and second once at Road Atlanta. The other race at Road Atlanta was one that Hayes is trying to forget. While racing for the lead with Beaubier, Hayes made a mistake and ran into the back of his teammate, causing both to crash out of the race and handing first and second to Yoshimura Suzuki teammates Elias and Hayden. So Hayes is winless and happy to be heading to a place where his fortunes have been plentiful.
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Elias may have won race one in the Suzuki Superbike Shootout of Georgia after Beaubier was knocked out of the lead in a two-rider crash with his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha teammate Josh Hayes, but then it was Elias’ turn to show a chink in his armor as he crashed out of race two.
With Elias, Hayes and Beaubier all suffering crashes, the man who emerged from Road Atlanta with the biggest smile on his face was Roger Hayden, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider leap-frogging to the top of the championship table after two rounds and four races. Hayden, with his four podium finishes in four races, heads the points table with 76 points – one better than his teammate Elias. Hayes is third with 52 points and Beaubier, who is 38 points behind Hayden, is all the way back in seventh. But it could have been worse for the defending champion if Elias had finished race two.
Both races were thrillers with the top four together for the majority of both. Leading on the 13th lap, Beaubier was hit from behind by Hayes and the pair tumbled off into the gravel on the exit of turn 10B. Hayden took over at the front, but Elias was with him and with a few laps to go the former World Champion took over and held on to win by .343 of a second.
“My plan was not this one,” Elias said. “I’d been surprised at the beginning. In turn one I had been struggling a lot all weekend. I wasn’t surprised when Roger (Hayden) passed me. Today in warm-up he was really fast. He could stay with us for the race and he showed me on the second lap. After that I made a mistake and I lose one second, one second and a half, and in two laps I could catch the group again and that gave me a lot of motivation. I could catch again, especially the last section, but I suffer all day. I try to keep calm and try to not come too tired, I have arm pump. Finally, I push and where I want to pass Roger every lap was yellow flags, yellow flags, yellow flags. I did my best and he was there all the time. We got lucky because the Yamaha guys crashed and I’m sorry because they had good rhythm.”
Jake Gagne rode the Broaster Chicken/Roadrace Factory Yamaha R1 to third and his first career Superbike podium. Fourth place and top Bazzaz Superstock 1000 rider was Italian Claudio Corti, the HSBK Aprilia rider coming out on top of an epic battle with Wheels In Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin, Latus Motors Racing’s Bobby Fong and MotoEverything/DieselOps Racing’s Taylor Knapp.
Cycle World Suzuki’s Hayden Gillim ended up eighth with Team Rabid Transit’s Sheridan Morais and Millennium Technologies/KWR’s Kyle Wyman rounding out the top 10.
In race two Beaubier wasn’t to be denied, the Californian battling with his teammate Hayes for the duration with Hayden lurking in their shadow. Elias was with the three until running through the grass in the esses, first falling back and then starting to reel the lead trio back in. But things went bad for the Spaniard on the 14th lap as he crashed out of fourth place in turn six.
Beaubier fought off Hayes’s challenge to win by .415 of a second with Hayden a close third. It was the 12th Superbike win of Beaubier’s career, which puts him in a tie with MotoAmerica rider representative Doug Chandler for 14th on the all-time list.
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