Source: Supplied.

Former Moto2 World Champion and MotoGP race winner Toni Elias made the most of his opportunity as a replacement rider on the Yoshimura Suzuki team today, the Spaniard riding to a maiden MotoAmerica victory in a red-flag interrupted season opener at Circuit of The Americas.

Elias was struggling in the opening portion of the race with a bad sensor on his GSX-R1000, but he more than made up for it after the red flag as he stormed to victory.

He was able to hold off his temporary teammate Roger Hayden and Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes for a popular victory in front of his MotoGP friends, former teammates and mechanics.

For Hayden it was a reversal of fortune, his two-plus-second lead in race one going for naught when Kyle Wyman’s motorcycle blew up on the backstraight, dropped oil and ultimately caught fire, bringing a stoppage to the race after four completed laps.

When the race was re-started for a five-lap dash, Hayden lacked grip and found himself embroiled in a last-lap battle for second with Hayes and ultimately thwarting the Yamaha rider’s attempt at a last-corner pass.

Fourth place went Broaster Chicken/Roadrace Factory’s Jake Gagne with Latus Motors Racing’s Bobby Fong impressive in his debut on the new Kawasaki ZX-10R, besting Wheels In Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin by just 0.054 of a second at the flag to win the Superstock 1000 category.

Yamahalube/Westby Racing’s Josh Day was seventh and third Superstock 1000, some five seconds clear of MotoEverything/DieselOps Racing’s Taylor Knapp. Team Rabid Transit’s Sheridan Morais and TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick rounded out the top 10.

If Elias winning in his debut was big news, so too was the fact that 2015 MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier crashed out of the race while leading on just the second lap.

The DNF puts the defending champion on his back foot going into tomorrow’s race as he’s 25 championship points down on Elias, 20 down on Hayden and 16 behind his teammate Hayes.

Garrett Gerloff followed up his his pole-earning performance of yesterday to win the opening round of the 2015 MotoAmerica Supersport Series, the Texan taking victory in his home race by 1.004 seconds over his teammate JD Beach, the defending series champion.

The Y.E.S. Graves pairing were locked together for the entire race, but Beach could never find a way around his teammate. Third place went to M4 Sportbike TrackGear.com Suzuki’s Valentin Debise.