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Common Tread

Who's riding dirty? Clashing fairings and a war of words at Road America

Jun 03, 2018

It was as close a battle as a race can be — just 0.002 seconds at the line — and a war of words after the checkered flag was put away. One of those words was “dirty.”

Cameron Beaubier slipped past Josh Herrin on the drag race from the final corner uphill to Road America’s finish line to win by inches and get his first victory of the season, but even bigger drama happened earlier on the last lap and left defending champion and current points leader Toni Elias in the gravel trap at Canada Corner.

Elias got his usual great start and led early. The front group consisted of eight riders, then five, but dwindled to three former series champions: the Yoshimura Suzuki Racing and Monster Energy/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha Factory riders Elias and Beaubier against the Attack Performance/Herrin Compound privateer, Herrin.

Superbike finish
That's how close a 0.002-second finish looks. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.

All three led at one point, but beginning the final lap, Beaubier was in first. Elias dived inside going into turn one in a hard pass. As the three charged into Canada Corner, Beaubier put a similarly aggressive pass on Elias. In the resulting contact, Elias crashed and Beaubier bobbled enough to let Herrin into the lead. But Beaubier was barely able to beat Herrin to the line by an even smaller margin than his 0.005-second win here last year.

Then began the war of words.

“It’s frustrating to have him go by you on a straightaway and dive on the brakes as hard as he can, blow the apex of the corner and then just squirt it off the corner and us not being able to do anything with it,” Herrin said of Elias.

“I saw Toni go under Cam in turn one and thought, ‘Oh, that’s pretty dirty.’ Then I passed Toni into the chicane. I went to the left and then kind of squirted out to the right. Had the pass on him. And then he just closes the door and leaves nowhere to go so you just run out of space. And that’s exactly what he did to Cameron in Canada Corner. He goes on the brakes, Cam’s got the pass. He releases the brakes, closes the door thinking ‘Screw the guy behind me, I don’t care about him.’ And then when you hit him he cries about it. It’s really dangerous. If nobody’s going to say anything, I am.”

“He’s one of the ones who talks about safety all the time but I saw him almost make Cam crash twice in one lap,” Herrin added.

Beaubier, who led fewer laps than Herrin and Elias, was plotting strategy as the other two were fighting for the lead.

“I knew the laps were winding down and I needed to get aggressive if I wanted to win this thing,” Beaubier said. “I made a couple of aggressive moves but I felt they were clean. There’s a difference between aggression and kind of dirty. Yeah, he might have got sucked in a little deep into (turn) one, bounced off me and I got angry. I gave it everything I had on the last lap just to do something. I lined him up going into Canada (Corner) and I went in there not thinking we were going to hit. I didn’t realize he went down until I came around the next lap and his bike was sitting by the Airfence.”

“I know we’re fighting hard out there but sometimes I think it goes a little overboard,” Beaubier said.

Elias took exception to the statements by Herrin and Beaubier that his riding style was “dirty.”

“I think this is racing,” Elias said. “Racing is what Cameron did all the race. Racing is what Josh Herrin did all the race. Racing is what I did all the race. Dirty for me is not the correct word to say what has been the race. For, me dirty is what happened in Canada Corner when somebody falls and loses 25 points.”

All three riders and a representative from each team were summoned to meet with Race Direction after the race but no penalties were handed down.

“As a rider I have to respect that,” Elias said of the decision, but he also suggested the decision not to penalize Beaubier was made to keep the championship race close. Then he added, “I am angry.”

Road America
The longest track on the MotoAmerica circuit, Road America offers a variety of spectator viewing areas. Photo by Lance Oliver.

The other factory Yamaha rider, Superbike rookie Garrett Gerloff, finished 5.764 seconds behind and felt his inexperience in the top class with drafting at a fast track like Road America cost him the chance to vie for the win. He was among the first group early in the race but lost touch when he ran wide and off track.

“I’m pretty disappointed because I felt I had pace to be right there,” Gerloff said. “I’ve just got to figure out how to race a track like this with a bunch of straightaways and a bunch of drafting.”

Yamalube Westby Racing rider Mathew Scholtz, who came into the race tied for second in the standings with Beaubier, also ran off and crashed. He resumed but was only able to score two points with a 14th-place finish.

A suddenly tighter race and some sore feelings could make Sunday’s race very interesting.

“I’m sure tomorrow’s race is going to be even crazier,” said Herrin.

MotoAmerica Motul Superbike standings:

  1. Toni Elias, 138
  2. Cameron Beaubier, 128
  3. Mathew Scholtz, 105
  4. Josh Herrin, 95
  5. Jake Lewis, 68
  6. Garrett Gerloff, 64
  7. Kyle Wyman, 60
  8. Danny Eslick, 49
  9. David Anthony, 45
  10. Bobby Fong, 37

Supersport
Valentin Debise (53) returned from injury to join J.D. Beach (95) and Hayden Gillim (69) as the class of the Supersport field. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.

Supersport

In the best way possible, Valentin Debise completed his comeback from the high-flying high-side crash in the Daytona 200 that caused him to miss the first four MotoAmerica Supersport races of the year. The M4 ECSTAR Suzuki Racing rider prevailed in a race-long battle with points leader J.D. Beach.

How good a battle was it? Beach set his personal fastest lap of the race on the final lap, trying to catch Debise. But it wasn’t enough, because Debise set the fastest lap of the race on his last lap. It’s safe to say they couldn’t have been trying harder.

“For sure, I’m even more than happy,” Debise said of the win. He said his goal for the weekend was to focus on riding well rather than aiming at a specific lap time or race finish.

“I just tried to be good in my riding,” said Debise. “That was my main goal. I could see my speed was OK. Not as good as I want. I’m here and it was a great battle. I enjoyed so much fighting J.D. and Hayden. I still have some work to do to get back where I was this winter.”

Supersport race
Valentin Debise (53) and J.D. Beach (95) battle for the Supersport win. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.

Beach got the holeshot on his Monster Energy/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha YZF-R6 but Debise was right on his tail on his GSX-R600. In the middle part of the race, the two swapped the lead with some clean but on-the-limit passes, while Rickdiculous Racing’s Hayden Gillim caught up to them after a slow start.

Behind them, Quicksilver LEXIN Hudson Motorcycles’ Richie Escalante crashed out of fourth place with two laps to go. That allowed Cory West to finish third after coming back from his own mid-race error that dropped him back to about 10th. West, who had been the replacement rider for Debise but switched to TSE Racing when Debise returned, held on to third in the standings with his fourth-place finish. Debise’s 25 points put him 12th in the standings.

Supersport standings:

  1. J.D Beach, 115
  2. Hayden Gillim, 81
  3. Cory West, 66
  4. Braeden Ortt, 52
  5. Nick McFadden, 48

Liqui Moly Junior Cup
Alex Dumas (23) leads the Liqui Moly Junior Cup field. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.

Liqui Moly Junior Cup

So far this season, the only thing that has been able to beat Orange Brigade/JP43 Training KTM rider Alex Dumas in the Liqui Moly Junior Cup has been a mechanical problem. Dumas got his fourth win in five races, with the only loss being a DNS at Road Atlanta.

Yates Racing’s Ashton Yates finished second, 8.25 seconds back on his Kawasaki Ninja 400. Yates was able to stay with Dumas for the first half of the race but then lost touch. Meanwhile, Orange Brigade/Ghilliman Racing’s Sean Ungvarsky on another RC390 won a frantic four-way battle for the last podium spot with Gavin Anthony, Cory Ventura and Jackson Blackmon.

The race finish mirrored the points standings:

  1. Alex Dumas, 100
  2. Ashton Yates, 73
  3. Sean Ungvarsky, 63
  4. Gavin Anthony, 53
  5. Jay Newton, 48

Twins Cup
Jason Madama (213) and Chris Parrish (128) fought for the win Saturday at Road America in the Twins Cup and are also the two contenders in the season championship. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.

Twins Cup

Yamaha got its first win in the new MotoAmerica Twins class as Jason Madama got past Suzuki rider Chris Parrish when Parrish bobbled and nearly crashed on the last lap.

Those two are also the only two riders who have finished all three rounds of the Twins Cup, which is a new class this season. Parrish leads with 65 points to Madama’s 58.