Beaubier takes MotoAmerica double alongside WSBK

Cameron Beaubier takes MotoAmerica Round 5 win

JD Beach tops Supersport

Dumas wins Junior Cup race – Madama takes Twins race win

Cameron Beaubier has turned his 2018 fortunes around, recording another two race wins to his name, this time at Laguna Seca, which was run alongside the WorldSBK round. This leaves him 29 points clear of Toni Elias, with five rounds remaining.

Meanwhile in Supersport JD Beach won the weekend’s race, with Jason Madama the Twins Cup victor, and Alex Dumas the Liquid Moly Junior Cup victor.

Motul Superbike Race 1

Race 1 at Laguna Seca marked Cameron Beaubier’s third straight win, taking a strong hold on the championship lead, and making the most of the sunny conditions for some great racing.

Beaubier, who won the Motul MotoAmerica Superbike title in 2015 and 2016, beat early race leader Josh Herrin by 5.403 seconds with the rider exhausted after taking part in both the MotoAmerica and World Superbike races on Saturday.

For Beaubier, it was win number three on the season and win number 27 of his Superbike career. He is now one short of tying Ben Spies for fourth on the all-time Superbike win list.

In addition to winning on the racetrack, Beaubier also won big in the championship as his rival Toni Elias crashed his Yoshimura Suzuki twice in the race, ending up 14th and earned just three points. Beaubier, who started the day two points ahead of Elias, is now 24 ahead, 178-154, after taking home the maximum haul of 25 points.

Herrin, who earned his first MotoAmerica Motul Superbike pole position earlier in the day, led the first eight laps before giving way to Beaubier.

Roger Hayden also put in a day’s work today, the Kentuckian starting all the way back in 12th and on the fourth row of the grid after crashing on the first lap of Superpole. Hayden got a good start and worked his way through the pack for his second third-place finish in a row.

Fourth place today went to Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff, the Texan some three seconds behind Hayden and some four seconds ahead of Mathew Scholtz. Danny Eslick qualified on the front row and pushed hard in the opening laps, but eventually faded back to sixth by the end of the 23-lap race. Still, the result matched his best effort of the season.

Cameron Petersen ended up seventh, racing mostly alone and finishing two seconds ahead of Jake Lewis. Kyle Wyman and David Anthony rounded out the top 10. For Elias it was a tough day at the office with two crashes both caused by false neutrals.

Motul Superbike – Race 1 Results

1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
3. Roger Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
5. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)

Motul Superbikes Race 2

Beaubier completed his perfect weekend in the MotoAmerica Championship of Monterey on a sunny Sunday on the Peninsula, the Californian racing in front of his friends and family to complete the two-race sweep of the Motul Superbike class at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Beaubier, who lives some 150 miles away from the track in Roseville, did the double for the second straight race after also winning both races at Road America three weeks ago. He now leads Toni Elias by 29 points, 203-174, as the series heads into its second half at the Utah Motorsports Campus for round six in a month’s time.

For the second straight day, Beaubier found himself in a battle with Josh Herrin, the two running in tandem for the first 19 of 24 laps. Beaubier had taken over from Herrin on the 16th lap and the Georgian was keeping him honest when he suffered a crash in Rainey Curve that knocked him out of the race.

The win was the fourth of the year for Beaubier and the 28^th of his Superbike career. He’s now tied with former AMA Superbike and World Superbike Champion Ben Spies for fourth on the all-time list.

Cameron Beaubier

“It was a perfect weekend, from the first lap Friday I just felt really comfortable with my R1. I just have fun around this place. It’s such a good vibe for me coming here just being so close to home. I know we have Sonoma back on the calendar, but I treat this as my home race. Like I said up on the podium, thanks to all my family and friends for coming out and cheering me on. Definitely made me dig a little deeper. Hats off to (Josh) Herrin. He was riding so good. He was just reeling off the laps there at the beginning, all the way midway through the race. 24’s, 24’s, 24’s, and I was just kind of yo-yo’ing. He made a mistake going into one and I got in the lead and I just put my head down and started clicking off laps. I was able to do the same times he was when he was in front. I don’t know if it was just like the yo-yo effect when you’re behind and you’re trying to make some up on the brakes. Hats off to him for doing that back to back (with World Superbike). I’m just really, really happy to get out of here with max points. Really looking forward to the rest of the season. Hats off to my Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha team. They’re behind me 100 percent. I love those guys.”

Herrin’s blunder left the battle for second to fall to Elias, the Spaniard beating his teammate Roger Hayden to the line by .322 of a second. Elias had rebounded from several mistakes that dropped him back as far as seventh. Hayden, meanwhile, had fought through to the podium for the second straight day after starting the race from 12^th on the grid.

Toni Elias

“Today has been one of the more difficult races of my life. My team did an amazing job giving me a nice bike to ride. The frame was working much better than yesterday. I think I was able to go with these guys, but since the first lap I started in neutral like yesterday. Neutral, another one, another one. At the end, I couldn’t brake late because every time I tried to brake late the bike… I think I was able to catch these guys, but I was catching just a little bit another neutral. I have to say we’ve been lucky. I’m so happy with this second position. We just lose five points to be 15 points, but it’s like this. I’m so happy for that. This second position for us today is like a victory. We’re still positive. We will work hard. The frame and suspension is coming. I hope we will solve this problem for the next round. This is long championship and we will fight again.”

Hayden was back on the podium for a third straight race after turning his early-season blues into strong finishes.

Roger Hayden

“It was definitely an entertaining race for me. It was a little bit tougher than yesterday. A lot of guys were going a lot faster, so it made it a lot more difficult to come through the pack, but we made it up. I knew Toni (Elias) was behind me the last couple laps. I really tried to stay close to him that last lap and make the pass. I made a mistake going into turn one. But it was a good weekend. It was my best weekend so far this season. I’m excited about that. We have some work to do to catch Cameron (Beaubier). Even Josh Herrin was riding really well. We appreciate all the fans’ support and we’re looking forward to Utah.”

Mathew Scholtz ended up fourth after also battling for the final podium spot. Ditto for Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff, the Texan holding third for 14 laps before being caught and passed by Elias, Hayden and Scholtz. Gerloff ended up fifth.

Jake Lewis finished sixth, some 18 seconds ahead of Kyle Wyman and at the tail end of the group fighting for what would be second place. Danny Eslick, David Anthony and Cameron Petersen rounded out the top 10 finishers.

With Beaubier extending his championship lead to 29, Elias grew the gap back to Herrin third to 39 points. Scholtz is fourth in the title chase, just six points behind the non-finishing Herrin.

Motul Superbike Race 2 Results

1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
2. Toni Elias (Suzuki)
3. Roger Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
5. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)

Motul Superbike Standings

1. Cameron Beaubier 203
2. Toni Elias 174
3. Josh Herrin 135
4. Mathew Scholtz 129
5. Garrett Gerloff 98
6. Jake Lewis 95
7. Kyle Wyman 82
8. Roger Hayden 79
9. Danny Eslick 75
10. David Anthony 63

Twins Cup – Saturday

There was one Twins Cup race on the docket for MotoAmerica at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and polesitter Jason Madama made the most of it as he won the pole on his Yamaha FZ-07/MT-07, pulled the holeshot at the start, and ran a flawless race to take the checkers by nearly nine seconds over second-place finisher and current points leader Chris Parrish, the Tennessee rider aboard his Suzuki SV650.

Third place went to Twins Cup series newcomer Cody Newman, who put his Yamaha FZ-07/MT-07 on the podium in his very first race in the class. Parrish, who is four for four in podium finishes this season, continues to lead the championship but by just two points over Madama.

Jason Madama

“The plan was to set a gap at the beginning and just check out, and it worked out. I’ve never raced here before, so it was awesome to come and just keep picking up time and picking up time. I got to thank my sponsor, BJ. He came out this weekend to watch, and I got a win for him with Conquest. My team Altus has been awesome this weekend, my crew chief, my chassis tech. Everybody’s been kicking butt, and it shows. Like I said, this is awesome. Second win in a row. I’ll keep them coming.”

Twins Cup – Saturday

1. Jason Madama (Yamaha)
2. Chris Parrish (Suzuki)
3. Cody Newman (Yamaha)
4. Danielle Diaz (Kawasaki)
5. Robert Fisher (Suzuki)

Twins Cup Standings

1. Chris Parrish 85
2. Jason Madama 83
3. Curtis Murray 32
4. Xavier Zayat 25
5. Ryan Roth 25
6. Shane Perry 20
7. Carl Price 17
8. Cody Newman 16
9. Dustin Dominguez 16
10. Dustin Ducote 15

Supersport

Sunday’s Supersport race, the only one of the weekend, was a tale of two battles as championship points leader and Yamaha YZF-R6 rider JD Beach diced the whole race with polesitter and Suzuki GSX-R600 rider Valentin Debise. Meanwhile, Hayden Gillim sparred aboard his R6 with Cory West.

Beach got the holeshot in the race, but he could not shake Debise. In fact, the Frenchman managed to pass Beach, but it was short-lived as Beach got back past Debise and stayed there all the way to the checkers to take the win, his fifth of the season, with Debise coming home second.

Third place was very much in flux until the last lap as West hung tight to the back of Gillim throughout almost the entire contest, but he crashed in Turn 5 with his bike cartwheeling spectacularly through the gravel.

JD Beach

“(Debise) was pushing hard, every turn, I’d get into the apex and then I’d hear his bike. It was fun. I knew this year, he would be really fast. It’s been great racing with him and Hayden (Gillim). They both race really hard. It’s been a lot of fun. I kept thinking, ‘When’s (Debise) going to make a move?’ Then, on the last lap, I just stayed calm and pushed and we did it.”

Supersport

1. JD Beach (Yamaha)
2. Valentin Debise (Suzuki)
3. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)
4. Richie Escalante (Yamaha)
5. Nick McFadden (Suzuki)

Supersport Standings

1. JD Beach 165
2. Hayden Gillim 113
3. Cory West 79
4. Nick McFadden 70
5. Valentin Debise 65
6. Richie Escalante 65
7. Anthony III Mazziotto 64
8. Braeden Ortt 60
9. Bryce Prince 57
10. Jason Aguilar 41

Liqui Moly Junior Cup

The weekend’s only Liqui Moly Junior Cup race was an action-filled event as the challenging layout of Laguna Seca proved to be a handful for MotoAmerica’s youngest riders. There were a total of 13 crashes in the race, which had to be restarted at one point, and a five-lap sprint to the checkered flag decided the winner.

Points leader Alex Dumas rode his RC 390 R to his fifth victory out of seven races so far this season. Sean Ungvarsky, who had a tough qualifying session earlier on Sunday morning and lined up 12th on the starting grid, kept his KTM upright and took advantage of the attrition to notch his fifth podium of the season. Dallas Daniels finished third on his Kawasaki Ninja 400 for his first podium result this year.

Polesitter Ashton Yates, who crashed in qualifying but still started first on the grid, unfortunately crashed again in the first lap of the restarted race, and he was unable to finish aboard his Yates Racing Kawasaki Ninja 400.

Alex Dumas

“I had a really good start, and I was really happy with how the race was. But then, two guys passed me. I was fourth or something. I managed to get back to second and then the red flag came out. Then, when we restarted, I was fifth. I saw Ashton (Yates) crash in the first lap or something. I felt pretty good. I just did it at my pace. I kind of slowed down a little bit just to make sure I could keep it up and finish first.”

Liqui Moly Junior Cup

1. Alex Dumas (KTM)
2. Sean Ungvarsky (KTM)
3. Dallas Daniels (Kawasaki)
4. Jamie Astudillo (Kawasaki)
5. Jaret Nassaney (Kawasaki)

Liqui Moly Junior Cup Standings

1. Alex Dumas 125
2. Sean Ungvarsky 99
3. Ashton Yates 98
4. Cory Ventura 68
5. Gavin Anthony 66
6. Jamie Astudillo 59
7. Jay Newton 58
8. Jackson Blackmon 53
9. Dylan Deutschlander 49
10. Kevin Olmedo 40