An audacious pass and a last-second error shake up MotoAmerica Superbike

Elias' new teammate, Josh Herrin, showed amazing corner speed through the carousel during the race. On the last lap, he used that speed to pull up beside Elias on outside. Could someone pass the fastest guy in MotoAmerica EBC Brakes Superbike on the outside?

Well, no, but just pulling up beside Elias put Herrin in position to pass in the following chicane and take the lead. Several corners later, Elias lost the front of his Suzuki as Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing's Cameron Beaubier tried to put a pass on him just before the run to the finish line.

The crash helped Beaubier close the points gap to Elias, but it was Herrin's pass for the lead that everyone was talking about.

"I just knew that on the last lap I wanted to make a pass somewhere that I knew for sure he wasn't expecting it," said Herrin. He noticed that he was carrying more corner speed through the middle of the long carousel turn and was having to slow to keep from hitting Elias from behind.

"I knew it was enough that if at that exact spot on the track I pushed a little harder than I normally would, I could at least get on the side of him and then I'd have the crossover on the other side going into the chicane. It worked perfect."

"I saw it and I was like, 'What's he doing?'" said Beaubier.

"I just wanted to take a chance," Herrin added. "I don't want to go to bed on Sunday night regretting not trying something and I felt that was my best chance."

With Herrin in the lead and Beaubier "just holding on," in his words, Beaubier tried a move in the final corners, hoping to gain another spot and a few more points. Elias ran a bit wide and lost traction at the front tire, his Suzuki skidding into the gravel. The bike was still running but the clip-on was broken off. Since he couldn't make it to the finish line, he recorded a DNF and no points. Beaubier, instead of hoping to gain four points on Elias, gained 20.

"Coming into this round I had a lot of confidence, given the record we have here," Beaubier said. "I love this track. It suits my R1 really well. It suits my riding style really well. But we've just kind of been a little off all weekend. I really wanted to win, but coming out of this weekend with two seconds and riding as hard as I could... I can be happy with that."

Elias' crash was also a gift to the other Yamaha Factory rider, Garrett Gerloff, who had been part of the tight leading pack until a mistake a few laps from the end caused him to lose touch and fall back. He eventually finished six seconds behind Herrin. Attack Performance/Estenson Racing's J.D. Beach and Westby Racing's Mathew Scholtz were another five seconds further back in fourth and fifth.

EBC Brakes Superbike
Toni Elias	151
Cameron Beaubier	142
Garrett Gerloff	104
J.D. Beach	100
Josh Herrin	96

Genuine Broaster Chicken/SC Project/KWR Ducati rider Kyle Wyman finished sixth on the Ducati V4R and beat Schiebe Racing's Jake Gagne to the line by a fraction. Gagne set the fastest top speed of the race at 183.4 mph on the BMW S 1000 RR. Jake Lewis of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki was eighth, Cameron Petersen on his Omega Moto Yamaha YZF-R1 was ninth and FLY Racing's Sam Verderico finished 10th on a Yamaha. Only 11 riders made the start of the Superbike race.

Supersport

It was an M4 ECSTAR Suzuki one-two finish as veteran Bobby Fong controlled the Supersport race despite constant pressure and his 17-year-old teammate, Sean Dylan Kelly, played his strategy right to draft past Rickdiculous Racing's Hayden Gillim at the finish line by 0.022 seconds.

The win was Fong's second of the year and moved him into second place in the points standings. A few changes from Saturday, when he finished second, including a switch from the soft tire to the extra-soft compound, helped him move up to the top step of the podium.

"We made a few changes with the engine braking just to help me get into the corner a little bit better," said Fong. "I struggled going into the corners. It seemed to help a little out there and hopefully we can keep on improving so when we get to the tighter tracks I can brake a little deeper and use the acceleration of the Suzuki to get the win."

Gillim said he was happy to come out of the weekend with the points lead, since Road America, with its long straights, is one of the tracks where he has a slight disadvantage, due to his larger size on the 600 cc Yamaha YZF-R6.

"This has always been one of my weak tracks and last year I got beat up on pretty bad," said Gillim. "To come out of here with the points lead and actually to be on the bike all race long in both races this weekend is really good."

Supersport
Hayden Gillim	97
Bobby Fong	90
Richie Escalante	81
Sean Dylan Kelly	78
P.J. Jacobsen	76

Celtic HSBK Racing's P.J. Jacobsen finished a lonely fourth, six seconds behind the front three while Brandon Paasch edged Richie Escalante for fifth after a long battle.

Kelly may be a young racer, but the graduate of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup showed his experience with his race strategy, and not just his last-second pass of Gillim at the finish line.

"The pace was really strong from the first moment," said Kelly. "I just decided to save my tires because that's something I messed up on yesterday. I pretty much burned up my tires in the middle of the race and I had nothing at the end. Today I just decided to save a little bit mid-race and I guess it worked out because I had a little bit extra the last lap."

Liqui Moly Junior Cup

Rocco Landers won for the fifth time in six races as the top three riders separated themselves at Road America in the small-displacement class. Landers, Kevin Olmedo and Dallas Daniels broke away from the rest of the field and exchanged positions throughout the seven-lap race. Landers drafted past Olmedo on the front straight to win by 0.092 seconds. All three were covered by just a gap of 0.152 seconds.

Liqui Moly Junior Cup
Rocco Landers	130
Dallas Daniels	109
Kevin Olmedo	65
Dominic Doyle	56
Damian Jigalov	56

"After I passed Dallas I just tried to get a good run out of the corner," Landers said of the final lap. "It was a great race."

Damian Jigalov ran with the top three for the first part of the race until a mistake caused him to lose touch. He finished fourth. Dominic Doyle and Isaiah Burleson finished fifth and sixth, another three seconds back in a tight battle.

The second-place finish by Olmedo moved him into third place in the standings.

Stock 1000

Stefano Mesa led an all-Kawasaki podium as both Travis Wyman on his BMW and Saturday race winnner Geoff May crashed out while battling for the Stock 1000 win Sunday.

Stock 1000
Stefano Mesa	81
Andrew Lee	74
Michael Gilbert	56
Travis Wyman	42
Rhett Norma	34

Andrew Lee, still riding with a badly injured finger that almost had to be amputated, finished second and Corey Alexander was third. The eventful race shook up the standings as points leader Michael Gilbert also failed to finish due to a mechanical problem.

Mesa was almost caught up in May's crash.

"He got on the gas way too soon. I knew something was about to happen," said Mesa. "I went into the grass and I barely missed his bike. I got on the gas too soon and almost high-sided."

Despite running off to avoid May's crash, Mesa was able to catch up to the front and take the race win and with it the points lead. The next challenge will be finding the funding to finish the full season. Leading the points is no guarantee.

"It's going to be hard but I hope we're going to make it," Mesa said.

Twins Cup

The youngsters came into their own in Twins Cup at Road America.

Recent Liqui Moly Junior Cup graduates Draik Beauchamp and Alex Dumas beat veteran rider Michael Barnes to the line. It was the first win in the class for Beauchamp and first podium for Dumas, who was last year's Junior Cup champ.

Barnes is 15 years older than the two other podium finishers combined.

Twins Cup
Chris Parrish	69
Michael Barnes	66
Draik Beauchamp	64
Curtis Murray	63
Alex Dumas	41

Beauchamp was able to set the pace at the front on his Yamaha MT-07 despite qualifying sixth. Dumas, riding a Suzuki SV650, was asked if the transition from Junior Cup has taken longer than he expected.

"For sure," Dumas said. "It's been harder than I thought."

Kris Turner finished fourth, also on an SV650, as the top four broke away from the rest of the field in the race.

Despite strong finishes at the first three races, Barnes said he is not sure he'll be able to race the entire season.