New-look MotoAmerica series marches on.
Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha teammates Cameron Beaubier and Josh Hayes split victories on Sunday at Road America, with Beaubier extending his championship lead to 26 points.
Beaubier came into round four of the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM Superbike Championship with a 16-point lead over Hayes, but he managed to increase that to 26 after his solid day of 1-2 finishes while Hayes crashed in race one, remounted and finished sixth, before ending his day with a victory in the second race.
In race one, Beaubier had his hands full with Roger Hayden, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider coming up just 0.136s of a second behind the championship leader, while third place went to Hayden’s rookie teammate Jake Lewis.
Come race two Hayes took advantage of a electronics problem that Beaubier encountered in the opening laps. Hayes shot out to a solid lead while Beaubier tried to sort through his problems. Once he did, he started to eat into his teammate’s lead, but the gap at the finish was 4.5 seconds after Beaubier had closed to within 2.5 seconds at one point. Third was again Lewis.
Fifth place in both Superbike races went to Turbo Turtle Racing Honda’s Danny Eslick, though he was beaten both times out by Superstock 1000 winner Jake Gagne, the RoadRace Factory Yamaha rider sweeping to victories in both races.
South African Sheriden Morais made his MotoAmerica debut a good one with second and third-place finish in the two Superstock 1000 races on the Aprilia HSBK Racing RSV1000.
In Saturday’s wet opening Supersport encounter Herrin was in a battle for almost the duration as he watched those around him fall by the wayside. When all was said and done, Herrin kept his Wheels In Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports Yamaha out of harm’s way to win his third race of the season.
At the end of the race, Herrin had almost 27 seconds in hand over RoadRace Factory’s Tomas Puerta, the Colombian putting in a solid effort for his first podium in the class. Puerta’s teammate Ben Young also did well in the tricky condition to also take his first career podium in the class.
The Supersport final on Sunday was by far the best race of the day with the top the crossing the line together in a photo finish that was won by Yamalube/Y.E.S. Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Beach by just 0.009s of a second over Herrin, with Garrett Gerloff just 0.012 of a second behind his teammate Beach in third place.
Australian David Anthony had a mixed weekend on his M4 Suzuki, suffering a crash in the opening race before bouncing back for sixth in the second leg. Beach and Herrin leave Wisconsin tied at the top of the championship point standings with 140 points, while Anthony is tied for fourth on 76 points.
2015 MotoAmerica Championship
Round four – Road America
Superbike race one results:
1. Cameron Beaubier
2. Roger Hayden
3. Jake Lewis
4. Danny Eslick
5. Chris Fillmore
6. Josh Hayes
7. Elena Myers
8. Bernat Martinez
9. Stefano Mesa
Superbike race two results:
1. Josh Hayes
2. Cameron Beaubier
3. Jake Lewis
4. Roger Hayden
5. Danny Eslick
6. Chris Fillmore
7. Bernat Martinez
8. Elena Myers
Superbike championship standings:
1. Cameron Beaubier 176
2. Josh Hayes 150
3. Jake Lewis 116
4. Roger Hayden 101
5. Bernat Martinez 84
6. Elena Myers 70
7. Chris Ulrich 54
8. Danny Eslick 48
9. Stefano Mesa 35
10. Chris Fillmore 32