Beaubier Over Cardenas In Daytona SportBike
Paul Carruthers | July 29, 2012
MONTEREY, CA, JULY 29 – Y.E.S Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier won his fourth Daytona SportBike race of the season today at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the youngster using an outside/inside move in turn two on veteran Martin Cardenas to start the final lap after sitting on the Columbian for 19 of the 20 laps.
From there the 19-year-old held off the advances Cardenas and teammate Tommy Hayden on the final go-around to beat Cardenas and his GEICO Suzuki to the stripe by .092 of a second. Hayden was right on their heels, .518 of a second behind in third place.
Ducshop Ducati’s Jake Zemke rode a solid race to finish fourth, some three seconds behind the lead trio – a spot he inherited when Bobby Fong crashed out of fourth on the 17th of 20 laps in turn six.
Jake Gagne rode his Red Bull/RoadRace Factory Yamaha to fifth, the Californian almost 25 seconds behind the race winner but well clear of the battle for sixth that went to Rider’s Discount/Vesrah Racing Suzuki’s Cory West over Kneedraggers.com’s Benny Solis, the youngster from North Hollywood, California performing well after suffering a big crash in yesterday’s final qualifying session and injuring his knees.
Daytona 200 winner Joey Pascarella was also in that battle, the teammate to West ending up just .003 of a second behind Solis and just .269 of a second ahead of JD Beach on the second Red Bull/RoadRace Factory Yamaha R6.
Fernando Amantini rounded out the top 10 on his Team Amantini Kawasaki ZX-6R.
Cardenas continues to hold a big points lead over Dane Westby, 314-249. Westby highsided in turn three on the opening lap and remounted to finish 18th. Beaubier and Hayden are now tied for third with 234 points.
Daytona SportBike Final
1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
2. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
3. Tommy Hayden (Yamaha)
4. Jake Zemke (Ducati)
5. Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
6. Cory West (Suzuki)
7. Benny Solis (Yamaha)
8. Joey Pascarella (Suzuki)
9. JD Beach (Yamaha)
10. Fernando Amantini (Kawasaki)
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
