Aussie Dave Anthony fourth in Supersport standings.
Cameron Beaubier and Josh Hayes both knew what they had to do coming into the MotoAmerica season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Hayes knew he had to go out and win both races, then sit back and see how his young teammate Beaubier responded to the pressure. Beaubier knew he had to at least finish second in the first race so he could take away some of that pressure in race two.
Turns out Hayes did his part and Beaubier did his. The end result was Hayes taking his ninth and 10th victories of the season in Sunday’s two races while Beaubier finished second and third to earn the 2015 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North America Superbike crown.
Hayes’ two wins kept Yamaha’s unbeaten season alive in the 2015 season with his 10-win total combined with Beaubier’s eight wins on the Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports R1 keeping the brand perfect in MotoAmerica’s debut season of racing. In winning the Superbike title, Beaubier became the 20th different rider to earn an AMA Superbike crown.
“I was riding so timid,” the 22-year-old Beaubier said after earning the title in race two. “I was doing everything I could to not risking crashing or anything. I was making sure I was staying off the inside curbs; I was definitely riding pretty timid.”
Although Yamaha won every round, that was not due to a lack of effort on the part of Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden. And today was no different. Hayden finished third in the red-flag interrupted race one, but was less than half a second from victory.
In race two, he fought Hayes to the bitter end, coming up just .044 of a second short of victory. The two podium finishes were the 14th and 15th of Hayden’s season and leaves him champing at the bit to get the 2016 season started where he hopes to be armed with a new GSX-R1000.
Jake Gagne also earned a title today, the Roadrace Factory Yamaha rider sweeping to his 12th and 13th wins of the season in the Superstock 1000 class to wrap up the championship. He also took advantage of Beaubier’s caution in race two to finish third overall behind Hayes and Hayden, but it was his race-one victory that earned him the Supersport 1000 crown.
Today’s Supersport class was won by Wheels In Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin, the Georgia resident battling back from his disappointing day on Saturday to win his fourth race of the season.
The victory also vaulted him past Garrett Gerloff and into second in the title chase behind JD Beach, the Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Motorsports R6-mounted rider who had wrapped up the title in the last round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Herrin beat his teammate Joe Roberts, who won Saturday’s Supersport race in the rain, by just 0.205s of a second with Gerloff just as close in third place. Beach and Roadrace Factory’s Cameron Petersen rounded out the top finishers.
In the final championship standings, Beach ended the season with 310 points with Herrin beating Gerloff by just five points, 255-250. M4/SportbikeTrackGear.com’s David Anthony ended up fourth in the final standings after going 4-8 in New Jersey.
2015 MotoAmerica Championship
Round nine – New Jersey Motorsports Park
Superbike/Superstock 1000 race one results:
1. Josh Hayes
2. Cameron Beaubier
3. Roger Hayden
4. Jake Gagne
5. Kyle Wyman
6. Josh Day
7. Taylor Knapp
8. Danny Eslick
9. Shane Narbonne
10. Geoff May
Superbike/Superstock 1000 race two results:
1. Josh Hayes
2. Roger Hayden
3. Jake Gagne
4. Taylor Knapp
5. Joshua Day
6. Cameron Beaubier
7. Kyle Wyman
8. Danny Eslick
9. Chris Ulrich
10. Chris Fillmore
Superbike championship standings:
1. Cameron Beaubier 372
2. Josh Hayes 368
3. Roger Hayden 281
4. Jake Lewis 223
5. Elena Myers 152
6. Chris Ulrich 148
7. Bernat Martinez 127
8. Chris Fillmore 102
9. Danny Eslick 92
10. Mathew Orange 40