One mistake. In the heated competition of MotoAmerica Superbike racing, one mistake can cost you a victory. Starting from the pole in Sunday’s Superbike Race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park, defending Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier ran off the track in the first turn of the opening lap, and the race win eluded him.
Rejoining the fray back in 14th place, Cameron worked hard to race himself back up to third place--which included passing his teammate and four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes--and he ultimately finished on the last step of the podium in third.
Meanwhile, Josh got a much better start than did Cameron, and he was quickly in the lead pack. But, as the laps wound down, he started to lose precious seconds to Roger Hayden and Toni Elias, and then, Cameron passed him. With the two Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha teammates running in tandem, the hope was that Cameron and Josh could work together to move closer to the front. However, Cameron pulled away from Josh, but he couldn’t close the gap on Hayden and Elias.
“I got a good jump, and it felt good to get off the line decent,” Cameron said. “But then, I made a mistake in turn one, and ran wide. I didn’t want to cause a crash, so I had to wait a little bit till the traffic cleared for me to rejoin the race. I made a good push up through the guys, but once I got past Josh and into third, I wasn’t able to make up any time on Rog and Toni, so I had to settle for third.”
After Saturday’s Superbike Race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park, Cameron leads the 2016 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship by 10 points over second-place Josh. In Superbike Race 2, both riders will be extra-motivated to improve on their results from Race 1.
