Membership
Riders Preferred Membership
Shop by Vehicle
Track Order
Contact Us
There were a couple of Superbike races Sunday. Josh Herrin fighting to find a way to pass Toni Elias. Garrett Gerloff, Mathew Scholtz and Jake Lewis scrapping behind them. But none of those were a race for the win.
That was more like the Sonoma Raceway Cameron Beaubier celebration laps, as the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing rider seized the lead on the first lap and pulled out 6.4-second lead in the first five laps. He led by as much as 10 seconds and then calmly managed that gap to the end.
The win was just the last step in the definition of a perfect weekend in MotoAmerica Motul Superbike racing. Beaubier led every session all weekend, broke a 10-year-old lap record, won pole position and dominated both races. Not surprisingly, he leaves Sonoma with a 63-point lead in the championship and his competitors all but conceding the title.
"The championship right now, we have to forget it because these guys are so strong," Yoshimura Suzuki Racing rider Toni Elias said of Beaubier and his team. "Today and yesterday, all we could do was fight for the second or third position."
Since Dunlop introduced its new rear tire at Road America, Elias has given up 103 points to Beaubier in eight races.
"The most important thing is we know what is the problem," said Elias. The bad part is the team doesn't have an immediate solution. On top of those struggles, Beaubier is riding better than ever.
"In the three years since I arrived in MotoAmerica, I never seen him riding perfectly like this, fast like this, and mature like this," Elias said of Beaubier. Elias said it was the way he felt in pre-season and the early rounds, when he won five of the first six races, "but the situation changed." Now it's Beaubier with the kind of confidence that allows unblemished, record-setting weekends.
"It really was a perfect weekend," Beaubier said. And he joked from the podium, "I wish all the races were here."
| MotoAmerica Motul Superbike standings | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cameron Beaubier | 298 |
| 2 | Toni Elias | 235 |
| 3 | Josh Herrin | 187 |
| 4 | Mathew Scholtz | 163 |
| 5 | Garrett Gerloff | 157 |
Behind Beaubier — well behind him — Elias and Josh Herrin of Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Yamaha fought over second place. With three laps to go, Herrin tried to make a move but ran off the track, ending his challenge. Beaubier's rookie teammate, Garrett Gerloff, finished fourth after finally separating himself from a three-way battle with Yamalube/Westby Racing's Mathew Scholtz and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki's Jake Lewis, who eventually finished fifth and sixth.
The next stop of the series is Pittsburgh International Race Complex in two weeks.
Supersport
J.D. Beach won his ninth race of 2018 Sunday, the most wins he's ever had in one MotoAmerica season — and he still has six more chances to add to that total.
Six race wins in a row, including the two wins at Sonoma this weekend, give the Monster Energy/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha rider a 100-point lead in the standings. He could clinch the championship at the next round, two rounds early, if he scores at least 10 points and outscores Hayden Gillim.
Sunday's Supersport podium was the same as Saturday's, and the race was similar, as well. Beach, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki's Valentin Debise and Gillim of Rickdiculous Racing, the three dominant riders in the class, were first off the line, followed by Quicksilver/Lexin/Hudson Motorcycles' Richie Escalante in fourth. But Beach set a pace at the front that fewer and fewer could match. By lap eight, the top three had opened a gap on Escalante, who came under pressure from Lucas Oil/Kyle Wyman Racing's Bryce Prince. By lap 11, only Beach and Debise were still in the 1:37 range as Gillim lost touch. After lap 12, only Beach could stay below 1:38.
| MotoAmerica Supersport standings | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | J.D. Beach | 265 |
| 2 | Hayden Gillim | 165 |
| 3 | Valentin Debise | 125 |
| 4 | Nick McFadden | 110 |
| 5 | Richie Escalante | 108 |
"Today's pace was a lot faster than yesterday's and we were able to do a lot of 37s, and low 38s," said Debise. "For sure, even if it's not a win, and I want to win really bad, I feel like everything I did is an improvement. I won't give up."
"This year's been great," said Beach. "Everything is kind of falling together. I've got a great crew and a great bike. I feel great. I'm really looking forward to these last three rounds because I think we're all getting really strong."
Escalante and Prince finished fourth and fifth. Former points contender Cory West of TSE Racing crashed on lap five and the DNF dropped him out of the top five in the standings.
Liqui Moly Junior Cup
Cory Ventura got the holeshot on the start of Sunday's Liqui Moly Junior Cup race and that was the last pass at the front as he held on for his first win this year in a race that was cut short by two laps due to a red flag.
| Liqui Moly Junior Cup standings | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Dumas | 186 |
| 2 | Ashton Yates | 159 |
| 3 | Cory Ventura | 129 |
| 4 | Sean Ungvarsky | 121 |
| 5 | Jay Newton | 120 |
Ventura, on the MP13 Racing Yamaha YZF-R3, was followed at the start by his two fellow front-row starters, pole-winner Ashton Yates of Yates Racing on a Kawasaki Ninja 400 and Alex Dumas of KTM Orange Brigade/JP43 Training on a KTM RC390. AGVSport America MonkeyMoto's Jay Newton, also on an R3, slotted into fourth and that group pulled a gap on the rest of the field. But while the four at the front were probing each other for a chance to pass, that chance evaporated when Nate Minster of Minster Racing and Draik Beauchamp of Altus Motorsports collided on the front straight as they crossed the finish line with two laps to go. The collision sent Minster skidding down the track, but uninjured, and with Minster's YZF-R3 lying in a precarious spot, race officials threw a red flag.
Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Yamaha rider Gavin Anthony led the second pack of riders across the finish line to finish fifth.
With the win, Ventura jumped from fifth to third in the standings. It was also the first win for Yamaha in the new class.
Stock 1000
After second-place finishes in all four previous Stock 1000 races, Andrew Lee made the most of home track advantage and rode to a solid 11-second win Sunday on his Kawasaki ZX-10R in a Stock 1000 race that was shortened by two laps due to a crash and subsequent red flag. That consistency has given Lee a 30-point lead over Weir Everywhere Racing's Travis Wyman, who finished third Sunday on his BMW S 1000 RR behind Chad Lewin of Team Lewin Estates on a Yamaha YZF-R1.
Lee, who also competed in the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race recently, and Wyman are the only two racers to have competed in every round of the new Stock 1000 class and therefore the only two in the title chase, as the grid has been filled out mostly by local or regional riders. Because the class only races once each weekend, only three races remain.
Image Gallery
