Defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier gathered up a double victory on the Sunday at Road America, and his entire Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Factory Racing team feasted on the success.
Cameron’s victory in Superbike Race 2 was his second of the day, and his sixth on the season. Meanwhile, his teammate Josh Hayes (aka “Mr. Road America”) recorded his second podium result of the day and his eighth podium this year.
Josh started from the pole, but he had to settle for second going into turn one as fast-starting Toni Elias took the lead. Josh and Cameron slotted into second and third, respectively, and were immediately in a battle with Toni and his teammate Roger Hayden. Josh passed Toni in short order and took the lead, and then Cameron managed to also get past Toni.
Josh and Cameron began swapping the lead back and forth as Roger moved into third in front of Toni. On the final lap, with Cameron in the lead and Josh in second, Toni moved into second and tried to take the lead over Cameron. He ran wide in turn five, and Cameron maintained the lead, while Josh moved back into second. Cameron took the checkers, and Toni just barely nipped Josh at the line.
After his second victory of the day, Cameron said, “That was a tough race. You’ve got to ride on the edge if you’re going to beat these guys. I’ve never doubled here, but I always seem to have a good weekend at Road America. That was a fun race, and we were all in a battle. Coming to the last lap, I thought it was just Roger and Josh, but here comes Toni, and I was like ‘Where did you come from?’ So I was glad to cross the finish line first because all four of us were going for it.”
Josh commented, “I felt like I rode a really good race, and I rode as fast and consistent as I could. I wasn’t too surprised when Cam came past me, so I knew that I had to be as relentless as I could for the rest of the race. Toni was able to draft past me to the line, and it was close, so I wasn’t happy to get third today. But I’ll take it and move on to next week at Barber.”
The Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Factory Racing team will be back in action again next weekend as the MotoAmerica Championship will be at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 10-June 12.
