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Disaster and redemption for Yamaha at Road Atlanta

Apr 17, 2016

If 2015 in MotoAmerica was the year of Yamaha domination, 2016 so far has been a season of disappointment edging toward disaster with a bit of redemption.

When I wrote the MotoAmerica season preview, one of the three key questions I raised was whether someone other than Yamaha could win a race. Yoshimura Suzuki answered that question immediately and emphatically, with fill-in rider Toni Elias and Roger Hayden going 1-2 in the first two races at Circuit of the Americas.

Road Atlanta Superbike race
Josh Hayes leads the Superbike and Superstock 1000 field into extreme downhill braking zone of the final turn at Road Atlanta. The perfect weekend weather was a great contrast to the deluge that affected last year's race here. Photo by Lance Oliver.
Defending champion Cameron Beaubier began the work of restoring his season this weekend at Road Atlanta with pole position and he took the early lead in race one, closely pursued by his teammate, Josh Hayes, with the two Suzukis forming a four-rider breakaway. Then, disaster on lap 13. Hayes touched Beaubier's rear tire, causing both to crash. They had a long conversation in the gravel trap while Elias and Hayden went off to contest the win.

Toni Elias
Toni Elias is happy to be in the United States, racing for Yoshimura Suzuki and making new fans. Photo by Lance Oliver.
"In T1 I am struggling a lot all weekend," Elias said, referring to the first section of the track. "I could catch in T2 and T3, especially in the last secton. I had arm pump. My fingers were sleeping a little bit."

Despite that, Elias was able to get past Hayden in the final laps and take the lead for the first time. Hayden challenged on the last lap, but said he was thwarted by a lack of top speed on the long back straight at Road Atlanta.

After several split-second second-place finishes last year, and three to start this season, Hayden looked very much like a man tired of finishing second. He drew laughs when he said in the post-race news conference, "For sure I want to win, but I'm not going to do anything dumb. I'm not that desperate... yet."

Roger Hayden
Roger Hayden looks like a guy who is tired of so many second-place finishes. Photo by Lance Oliver.

Hayes was unhurt but dejected after the race-one crash.

"I feel really bad for the situation," Hayes said. "It's not supposed to be the two blue bikes on the ground. It all happened pretty fast. It's a part of the race track that's hard to get right and consistent every time.

"You couldn't have two more contrasting riding styles and unfortunately we found ourselves in the same place at the same time on the race track and I just ran over him. The end result is just terrible. There's no excuse. It'd be one thing if I was trying to pull off a last-lap move for the win, but it was nothing like that."

mechanics work on Josh Hayes' motorcycle
After race one, Graves Yamaha mechanics had to rush to repair both Josh Hayes' and Cameron Beaubier's bikes. Step one was removing the soil samples from the gravel trap. Photo by Lance Oliver.

Superbike race two

In the second Superbike race, Beaubier and Hayes finally found a little redemption. After two DNFs and a fourth in the first three races, Beaubier took the win less than half a second ahead of Hayes, with Hayden right behind in a podium that looked like 2015. And where was Elias? An early mistake sent him through the grass, separating him from Hayes, Beaubier and Hayden by three seconds. Elias mounted a furious charge that turned out to be a bit too furious and he crashed spectacularly in turn six when he had almost closed the gap to Hayden.

Meanwhile, anyone who thought Hayes and Beaubier would be cautious after the race-one disaster was mistaken. The two Yamaha riders swapped the lead several times in the second half of the race, always with Hayden sitting just behind. In the end, Beaubier held off Hayes for the win.

"I was really happy to just get back on the podium and get a win after the disaster weekend we had at COTA and then the first race. All in all, I felt good. I was an awesome race, dicing back and forth with Josh," Beaubier said.

Roger Hayden
Roger Hayden. Photo by Lance Oliver.

MotoAmerica Superbike
points standings
Roger Hayden 76
Toni Elias 75
Josh Hayes 52
Jake Gagne 44
Cameron Beaubier 38

The third-place finish for Hayden actually put him in the points lead, one ahead of Elias.

"I wanted to start the season out really strong and be up there every race and I've done that," Hayden said. "I feel a lot better than I left here last year. Last year I didn't finish either race. I almost thought I'd quit after that.

"I just want to win a race and everything else will fall into place."

New winners in Superstock 1000

The Yamaha monopoly ended not just in Superbike, but also in the other 1000 cc class, Superstock. Claudio Corti, the other high-profile international newcomer to the series this year, along with Elias, won the first race on his Aprilia HSBK Racing RSV4 RF, to follow the win by Latus Motors Racing's Bobby Fong at COTA on a Kawasaki ZX-10R. Josh Herrin finally gave Yamaha a win in the class in the second race at Road Atlanta.

Josh Herrin
Josh Herrin gave Yamaha a win in Superstock 1000 in race two at Road Atlanta. Photo by Lance Oliver.

Gerloff and Yamaha control Supersport

Yamaha's control may have been broken in the 1000 cc classes, but it's alive and well in Supersport. Garrett Gerloff remains undefeated, following up his win at COTA by taking both victories at Road Atlanta by more than 10 seconds on his Yamaha YZF-R6. Valentin Debise of France and defending champ J.D. Beach finished second and third in both races.

Despite his dominant start, Gerloff said he's not taking anything for granted.

"Last year, J.D. was kicking all our butts the same way," Gerloff said. "It's never easy and it's never something that's going to last. It's feeling good right now. I'm just trying not to think too much and just twist the throttle."

The MotoAmerica series moves to New Jersey Motorsports Park in two weeks.