Cameron Beaubier and Joe Roberts were the top dogs on Wednesday, the first day of the two-day MotoAmerica Pre-Season Test Powered by Dunlop at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), near Austin, Texas.
Riding his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 while using a developmental rear Dunlop race tire, Beaubier lapped the 3.4-mile road course in 2:09.352. Not only was that time nearly two seconds faster than any other rider at Wednesday’s test, it was faster than Beaubier’s pole position time of 2:09.653 from last year’s race at COTA.
“This morning I felt really good as soon as I got on the bike,” Beaubier told Roadracingworld.com. “Then it felt like we went through a little bit of a slump, like I was fighting the bike a little bit. We had a couple of things go wrong, just little issues. Then I felt really good at the end of the day. I kind of loosened up on the bike and started riding like I know how.
“Honestly, it’s pretty cool to come here after one year. We came here with a bike that was almost stock [last year], so it’s really cool to see how far the bike’s come.”
Roger Hayden was the best of the rest with a time of 2:11.233 on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. Hayden was just ahead of former Moto2 World Champion and MotoGP race winner Toni Elias (2:11.351), who is filling in for Yoshimura Suzuki’s injured Jake Lewis. Elias told Roadracingworld.com that he will fill in for Lewis at the first two races of the MotoAmerica season if Lewis is unable to return to action.
Claudio Corti, another refuge from the MotoGP World Championship, was the quickest rider in the Superstock 1000 category (and fourth overall) with a 2:11.611 on his HSBK Racing Aprilia RSV4 RF. Like Elias, Corti has raced at COTA before but has had very little time on his new motorcycle.
Jake Gagne ranked fourth in the Superbike class and fifth overall Wednesday with a time of 2:11.636 on his Broaster Chicken/RoadRace Factory Yamaha YZF-R1. Gagne, the 2015 MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Champion, said he spent most of the day and did his fastest lap on his 2015 Superstock 1000-spec bike while his team finished sorting out the advanced electronics on his Superbike YZF-R1.
Beaubier’s teammate, four-time Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, focused on testing new parts and tires Wednesday and ended up fifth among the Superbike riders with a time of 2:12.486.
Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff led three of the four Supersport/Superstock 600 test sessions Wednesday, but in the final session Joe Roberts, the 2015 MotoAmerica Superstock 600 and a rookie in the current Supersport class, stole bragging rights with a lap of 2:13.149 on his Wheels in Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Yamaha YZF-R6.
“My day started off really good,” said Roberts. “I was up there with Garrett, and then we got a little lost with the bike in the middle of the day. Then we tried something new in that last session, and I put my head down just to see what kind of time I could do. I ended up on top.
“It was a fun lap. It didn’t seem too crazy to me. I definitely see more time coming tomorrow, if we can get the bike just a little better in certain areas. I’m kind of struggling in the long corners to get the bike coming around. This track’s really weird. You can set up a bike for the really long corners, but then it won’t handle in the tighter stuff. So it’s all about finding a good balance.”
Gerloff ended up second in Supersport with a best effort of 2:13.392. M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki’s Valentine Debise impressed many by posting the third-fastest time in Supersport, a 2:13.954, in his first day ever at COTA and his first day on his new GSX-R600 racebike.
Gerloff’s teammate, defending MotoAmerica Champion JD Beach, ended his day with the fourth-quickest lap time, a 2:14.072.
The top rider in the Superstock 600 division was Dakota Mamola, the son of Grand Prix racing legend Randy Mamola, who did a 2:17.804 on his HB Racing/Meen Yamaha YZF-R6.
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
MotoAmerica/Dunlop Test Gets Rolling At COTA
Beaubier, Roberts Lead Day One Of Two-Day Test
AUSTIN, TX, MAR. 23 – The two-day MotoAmerica Preseason Test powered by Dunlop Motorcycle Tires got started today at the Circuit of The Americas with Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier and Wheels in Motion/Motorsport.com/Meen Yamaha’s Joe Roberts leading the way on the timesheets in the Superbike and Supersport classes, respectively.
Beaubier led two of the four sessions, held under sunny but windy skies, including the final one when he ripped off an impressive 2:09.352 to best Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden by a whopping 1.881 seconds. For comparison’s sake, Beaubier led last year’s test at COTA with a 2:10.730 and then qualified on pole for the 2015 season opener in Texas with a 2:09.653. He’s already under that mark and it’s only day one of the two-day test.
“It went good,” the 2015 MotoAmerica Superbike Champion said. “We started off good and felt comfortable and then we kind of went through a little slump. We ran into a couple of little issues there, but overall at the end I felt really good and back to myself on my bike, on the R1. I’m looking forward to another full day tomorrow and hopefully the wind stays away a little bit. Overall, everything felt good.”
Tomorrow the majority of the Superbike men will take a run at the new Dunlop qualifying tires and Beaubier believes he might be able to get into the 2:08s with the soft-compound tire mounted.
“It’s hard to say what we can do with the qualifiers on, with the wind and how warm it is, but it would be really cool to get down to the 8s,” Beaubier said. “Who knows, though? We will have to see.”
Hayden ended up second fastest of the 24 Superbike class riders who took part in today’s opening day, the Kentuckian lapping at 2:11.233 in the fourth and final session after clocking a nearly identical 2:11.234 to lead the third session.
“Honestly, it went pretty good,” Hayden said. “We worked on a few things and got more comfortable. We tried some engine-braking strategies that seemed to work better. We got up to speed fairly quick so I’m pretty happy with the way the day ended up. We have a positive place to start tomorrow and it was nice to get some good weather and some good riding in. That was the most important thing to me really. I’m already pretty close to the lap times I did last year at the race and I’m well under last year’s test time so it seems to be good. The track is getting better where they grinded it down. I feel like we’ve got a good start this afternoon and I used some old tires at a pretty consistent pace. I just have to keep improving.”
Toni Elias made his MotoAmerica debut a good one, the former Moto2 World Champion doing an admirable job of filling in on the second Yoshimura Suzuki for the injured Jake Lewis. The Spaniard was fast all day and cut his quickest lap in the third session – a 2:11.351 that put him third fastest overall.
Fourth fastest went to another foreigner – Italian Claudio Corti on the HSBK Superstock 1000-spec Aprilia RS. Corti did his best lap in the fourth and final session – a 2:11.611.
Jake Gagne did his best lap in the third session on his Broaster Chicken/Roadrace Factory Yamaha R1, the defending Superstock 1000 Champion riding last year’s Superstock-spec bike until the afternoon session when he used his Superbike R1 for the first time. Gagne’s best lap was a 2:11.636.
Surprisingly, four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes was only sixth fastest, the Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha rider putting in his quickest lap in the final session – a 2:12.486.
Although Yamaha Extended Services Garrett Gerloff led three of the four Supersport sessions today, it was Wheels in Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports Yamaha’s Joe Roberts snatching the top spot away from the Texan in the final session. Roberts ripped off a 2:13.149 in session four to best Gerloff’s 2:13.392 (set in the third session) by .243 of a second. French newcomer Valentin Debise ended up third fastest on the M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki GSX-R600.
Defending MotoAmerica Supersport Champion JD Beach ended day one fourth fastest.
Superbike Overall Day 1: 1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2:09.352; 2. Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 2:11.233; 3. Toni Elias (Suzuki) 2:11.351; 4. Claudio Corti (Aprilia) 2:11.489; 5. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 2:11.636; 6. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 2:12.486; 7. Sheridan Morais (Yamaha) 2:12.629); 8. Josh Day (Yamaha) 2:12.910; 9. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 2:13.100; 10. David Anthony (Kawasaki) 2:13.444.
Supersport Overall Day 1: 1. Joe Roberts (Yamaha) 2:13.149; 2. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 2:13.392; 3. Valentin Debise (Suzuki) 2:13.954; 4. JD Beach (Yamaha) 2:14.072; 5. Cameron Petersen (Suzuki); 2:14.878.