MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series
Circuit of The Americas
Austin, Texas
April 22, 2017
Provisional Supersport Race Results (All on Dunlop tires):
1. JD Beach (Yam YZF-R6), 8 laps, Total Race Time 17:44.593, Best Lap Time 2:12.630
2. Valentin Debise (Suz GSX-R600), -4.930 seconds, 2:13.281
3. Garrett Gerloff (Yam YZF-R6), -5.408, 2:12.934
4. Benny Solis, Jr. (Hon CBR1000RR), -20.753, 2:15.550
5. Daytona Anderson (Yam YZF-R6), -28.516, 2:15.741
6. Nick McFadden (Suz GSX-R600), -30.397, 2:16.128
7. Brandon Paasch (Suz GSX-R1000), -34.177, 2:16.866
8. Lucas Silva (Yam YZF-R6), -44.146, 2:17.967
9. JC Camacho (Suz GSX-R600), -45.878, 2:18.244
10. Caroline Olsen (Yam YZF-R6), -49.016, 2:18.039
11. Gauge Rees (Yam YZF-R6), -67.388, 2:21.026
12. Joseph Giannotto (Yam YZF-R6), -67.774, 2:20.805
13. Jody Barry (Kaw ZX-6R), -70.863, 2:19.547
14. Brandon Cleland (Suz GSX-R600), -8 laps, DNF, crash
Championship Point Standings (After 1 of 19 races):
1. Beach, 25 points
2. Debise, 20
3. Gerloff, 16
4. Solis, 13
5. Anderson, 11
6. McFadden, 10
7. Paasch, 9
8. Silva, 8
9. Camacho, 7
10. Olsen, 6
11. Rees, 5
12. Giannotto, 4
13. Barry, 3
14. Cleland, 0
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Elias Wins MotoAmerica Opener At Circuit of The Americas
JD Beach takes Supersport class victory at COTA
AUSTIN, TX (April 22, 2017) – Toni Elias did it again today, the Spaniard storming to his third straight win at the Circuit of The Americas as he beat his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Roger Hayden by 1.7 seconds after Hayden’s last-lap attempt at victory came up short. Elias swept to both Motul Superbike wins last year at COTA in his MotoAmerica debut and this year gave the new GSXR-1000 its debut victory in Texas.
Elias led for the majority of the race with Hayden in his shadow. On the final lap, Hayden tried a late-braking move into turn 12, went under Elias, but drifted wide and allowed Elias to come back past. That was all the former Moto2 World Champion and MotoGP race winner needed to win his seventh career MotoAmerica race.
“COTA is one of my favorite tracks of the season and I’ve had a lot of success here the past couple of years,” said Elias. “Roger [Hayden] was riding really good, I tried to open a gap on him, but he kept me honest the entire race. I found some new lines the last few laps and was able to hold on for the win.”
Hayden gave it all he had, but came up short. It was his third straight second-place finish at COTA.
“The plan was to try and make a pass stick somewhere where he [Elias] would least expect it,” said Hayden. “It was close, but I came in to the turn a little too deep and was finished just short. Overall, it was a good race and I’m happy to start the season off with a podium on the new bike.”
Third place today went to the impressive Bobby Fong on the Quicksilver/Latus Motors Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R and it also gave him the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 victory as Fong was able to mix it up with the top Superbike men for most of the race. The Californian finally ran out of grip and dropped to 10-some seconds behind, but he was well clear of fourth-placed Mathew Scholtz on the Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1. Scholtz was second in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class. Fong also had the fastest lap of the race on lap three and ended a Superbike podium drought for Kawasaki that dates back to 2008 and Jamie Hacking.
“I was riding 110 percent in order to keep pace with these two guys [Elias and Hayden],” said Fong. “Running with the Superbike guys puts a little bit of pressure on myself for the rest of the season, but I’m just going to take it race-by-race and do my best each time out. This track suits my style, braking is one of my strong points, I’m going to try and repeat my performance tomorrow.”
Fourth place went to Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the South African ending up second in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class.
Jake Gagne finished fifth in this Honda debut on the Genuine Broaster Chicken CBR1000RR SP2, besting M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis, who finished third in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class.
Josh Herrin finished seventh after a rough week on the RiderZ Law/Western Services/Meen Yamaha.
And what of the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Team? Two-time defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier crashed out of the battle for the lead, remounted and finished eighth. And his teammate Josh Hayes was even worse off after getting taken out by the crashing Kyle Wyman early in the race. Hayes remounted to finish 14th, scoring just a single point in the opening round of the series. Wyman was lucky to escape injury, but didn’t remount.
TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick and Cycle World/Suzuki’s Hayden Gillim rounded out the top 10 finishers and were fourth and fifth in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class.
JD Beach had a tough off season. The 2015 MotoAmerica Supersport Champion suffered a broken leg in an off-season motocross accident, struggled to get movement back, and was bested by his teammate Garrett Gerloff at every off-season test. But that changed on a cloudy day at COTA with Beach dominating the race to win by 4.930 over M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise, the Frenchman coming out on top of a race-long battle with defending Superstock Champion Gerloff. Debise beat Gerloff to the line by .478 of a second.
“The off-season was difficult this year coming off of a broken leg and it feels good to breakthrough with a win at the first race,” said Beach. “I spent a lot of time the past few months training with fast guys like Roger [Hayden] and I feel like it really helped me elevate my riding and come into the season a better rider.”
Debise was second and knew he didn’t have the pace to match Beach.
The restart was a huge benefit for me after I crashed in the opening laps of the race,” said Debise. “I lost confidence due to my crash and it kept me from pushing as hard as I would have liked. It was a good battle with Garrett [Gerloff] and I was able to make the pass back on him in the final corner.”
Gerloff thought the two would have been better fighting less with each other in order to try and stay with Beach.
“My riding felt good today, but I just lacked speed to run at the front,” said Gerloff. “The restart allowed for me to get off of the line a little bit better and regroup. Valentin [Debise] was riding awesome, we passed each other back and forth, but maybe next time we should try to push forward towards JD [Beach] instead of holding each other up.”
Fourth place in the Supersport race went to Team H35 Honda’s Benny Solis, the CBR600RR-mounted Californian some 15 seconds behind the Debise/Gerloff battle and 7.7 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Daytona Anderson.
M4 medAge Suzuki’s Nick McFadden was sixth with KTM RC Cup Champion Brandon Paasch seventh in his Supersport debut on the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R600. Lucas Silva, JC Camacho and Caroline Olsen rounded out the top 10 finishers in the opening round of the series.
The Motul Superbike class will be back on track at COTA for race two tomorrow afternoon. The Supersport Championship resumes next weekend at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia.
Results
Motul Superbike
1.Toni Elias (Suzuki)
2.Roger Hayden (Suzuki)
3.Bobby Fong (Kawasaki)
4.Mathew Scoltz (Yamaha)
5.Jake Gagne (Honda)
6.Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
7.Josh Herrin (Suzuki)
8.Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
9.Danny Eslick (Yamaha)
10.Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
Bazzaz Superstock 1000
1.Bobby Fong (Kawasaki)
2.Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
3.Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
4.Danny Eslick (Yamaha)
5.Hayden Gillim (Suzuki)
6.Bryce Prince (Yamaha)
7.Tyler O’Hara (Kawasaki)
8.Max Flinders (Yamaha)
9.Anthony Kosinski (Yamaha)
Supersport
1.JD Beach (Yamaha)
2.Valentine Debise (Suzuki)
3.Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
4.Benny Solis (Honda)
5.Daytona Anderson (Yamaha)
6.Nick McFadden (Suzuki)
7.Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
8.Lucas Silva (Yamaha)
9.JC Camacho (Yamaha)
10.Caroline Olsen (Yamaha)
More, from a press release issued by Team Hammer:
Team Hammer Opens 2017 MotoAmerica Season With Double Podiums On Saturday At COTA
Team Hammer came out swinging in a pair of podium performances on the opening race day of the 2017 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship season on Saturday at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise led the charge, storming through on the final lap of the MotoAmerica Supersport race to claim a hard-earned runner-up finish.
That bold maneuver was the final piece of an impressive bounce-back effort after the Frenchman crashed out of the fight for the lead early in the race. Shortly after his fall, Debise benefited when a red flag flew to signal a complete restart.
He proved himself a factor up front once again; while the leader escaped, Debise took full advantage of his GSX-R600’s sweet-handling characteristics, making a number of creative line choices and launching attack after attack to keep a rival within striking distance throughout.
By doing so, he gave himself an opportunity to make one last-gasp bid to steal away second on the brakes and made the most of it.
After the race, Debise said, “Unfortunately, I didn’t choose the right tire. I was pushing maybe a little bit too hard early and the wind had changed from yesterday. I made a mistake as a result, but lucky me, the red flag came out. My team did a fantastic job and fixed the bike perfectly before the restart.
“After the second start, the tire worked even less well and I had to rebuild my confidence after the crash. I knew right away I couldn’t fight for the win, but I thought I might be able to hang on and fight for second if I managed to slow down the pace. Going into the last corner, I braked as late as I could and used a lot of rear brake to get the bike stopped. It was hard to get the bike turned, but I managed to great a great drive.
“Overall, it’s been a great weekend. We are much closer to the front compared to last year, and if I had chosen the right tire, we could have battled for the win. Considering this track is not one of the better ones for our bike, I have a lot of confidence looking forward to the rest of the year.”
Debise was joined by a pair of Team Hammer teammates in the top 10 of the Supersport race; M4 medAge Suzuki’s Nick McFadden piloted his Superstock 600-spec GSX-R600 to sixth place, while 16-year-old Brandon Paasch came home 7th in his Supersport debut aboard his M4 The 22 Project Suzuki GSX-R600. Unfortunately, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Cleland did not finish, crashing out of the race after qualifying inside the top 10.
Following the conclusion of the Supersport race, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis backed up Debise’s podium by claiming a trophy of his own in the Superstock 1000 category.
Despite having extremely limited time aboard the all-new 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 prior to the season opener, Lewis immediately demonstrated its immense potential by guiding it to third in class (sixth in the combined Superbike/Superstock 1000 order).
Lewis said, “My start wasn’t too good and I lost a few positions right away. I had to work my way back up to the front. I had a little trouble getting by some guys but finally got going pretty good about six or seven laps in. I chased down second in the Superstock class but ultimately just ran out of time. We were struggling with a few things, but we’ll get them adjusted for tomorrow’s race.
“I’m super happy with the new bike. This result shows just how much potential the new GSX-R1000 has. Obviously, it’s a great platform and the team has been working hard. We still haven’t had much development or seat time with it, so to start off on the podium is a great indication of what it will be capable of… not to mention that it also went 1-2 in the Superbike class!”
Lewis will be back in action on Sunday for the second half of the weekend’s MotoAmerica Superbike/Superstock 1000 doubleheader.
About Team Hammer
The 2017 season marks Team Hammer’s 37th consecutive year of operating as a professional road racing team. Racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 61 AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National races, have finished on AMA Pro and MotoAmerica National podiums 155 times and have won five AMA Pro National Championships, as well as two FIM South American Championships. The team has also won 134 endurance races overall (including seven 24-hour races) and 13 Overall WERA National Endurance Championships with Suzuki motorcycles, and holds the U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24-hour race. The team also competed in the televised 1990s Formula USA National Championship, famously running “Methanol Monster” GSX-R1100 Superbikes fueled by methanol, and won four F-USA Championships.
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:
Beach Unbeatable On New R6 In MotoAmerica Supersport Race At COTA, While Teammate Gerloff Also Podiums; Beaubier & Hayes Both Suffer Tipovers In Superbike Race
Austin, TX – April 22, 2017 –Saturday at The Circuit of The Americas produced a full range of emotions for Yamaha’s Factory-Supported Supersport and Factory Superbike teams, from the ecstasy of Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha rider JD Beach’s runaway victory and teammate Garrett Gerloff’s hard-fought podium result, to the agony of both Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing teammates Cameron Beaubier and Josh Hayes suffering off-track excursions that led to uncharacteristic results for the multi-Championship-winning tandem.
In the afternoon’s Supersport race, JD got the jump on his polesitting teammate Garrett, not just once, but twice since the race was red-flagged, had to be shortened to an eight-lap sprint due to scheduling conflicts, and was re-started.
JD, who won the Supersport Championship in 2015, gave his 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6 a memorable MotoAmerica debut as he clicked off consistently fast laps from start to finish and took the checkered flag with a gap of nearly five seconds back to second-place finisher Valentin Debise.
After his win, JD said, “The off-season this year was a bit harder than usual for me because I broke my leg, and that’s the first major injury that I’ve ever had, so I had to come back from that. Being at home and training hard was good for me. So, the season has started, and it’s great to be back and close to 100% healthy. I came here to race, and I’m glad to get this win. It’s a long season, but I’m happy with where we’ve started.”
All race long, Garrett was in a battle with Debise that he wished he could have avoided because, while the two fierce competitors gave the fans a show with multiple passing back and forth, that only served to stretch out JD’s lead even more. In the end, Debise made the final pass, which moved Garrett back to third place, and that is ultimately where he finished the race.
“First of all, the two starts that I had definitely didn’t help me out. I felt good today, and I thought I rode well. My 2017 R6 is fast, but Valentin and I should have worked together to get the two of us closer to JD. Instead, we just kept passing each other, which enabled JD to get away. It’s just the start of the season, though, so I feel good about where we are right now, and I’m looking forward to next weekend at Road Atlanta.”
In Saturday’s Superbike Race 1, what everyone anticipated would be a Yamaha vs. Suzuki battle royale didn’t materialize after four-time Superbike Champion Josh was caught up by Kyle Wyman’s crashed motorcycle, which sent him off the track. He was able to get his #4 Yamaha YZF-R1 re-fired and re-joined the race.
Shortly after Josh’s misfortune, two-time and defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron lost the front-end on his #1 R1 and slid into the gravel. Like Josh, Cameron was able to pick up his bike and get back in the race.
By the time the checkers flew, Cameron had raced his way back up to an 8th-place result, while Josh finished 14th.
Both Superbike riders will have a chance to redeem themselves in Sunday’s Superbike Race 2 from COTA, which is scheduled to start at 3:45 PM CST. The race will be broadcast live on beIN Sports.
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