MotoAmerica: Beaubier steals pole
Cycle News Staff | April 16, 2016
Cameron Beaubier took the first step towards putting his nightmarish opening round behind him today, the Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha rider earning his first pole position of the season in a riveting Superpole session at Road Atlanta, the site of round two of the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship.
Beaubier, who crashed and finished fourth in the two races at Circuit of The Americas a week ago, rebounded to earn the sixth Superbike pole position of his career on a sunny day at Road Atlanta during qualifying for the Suzuki Superbike Shootout of Georgia.
“After last weekend, it was just nice to come here and not touch the bike and just put our original base setting there and just pound out laps,” Beaubier said. “I think I did almost 60 laps yesterday. It was good to just clear my mind and get my confidence back. I felt really good in Superpole. That Superpole tire ended up lasting for two laps so I got two back-to-back pretty good laps with maybe one mistake. I think for all of us it’s just a little tough to cruise around and then just hammer one lap and get everything out of the tire. Overall, I feel good and my race pace was good.”
Beaubier was the only rider to dip into the 1:24s, with his 1:24.844 on the new Dunlop qualifying tire putting put him .224 of a second ahead of Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias, the Spaniard continuing his torrid start to the season as the replacement rider for the injured Jake Lewis.
Beaubier’s teammate Josh Hayes will complete the front row for tomorrow’s two Superbike races, the four-time AMA Superbike Champion ending up .301 of a second behind his teammate.
Row two will be led by COTA pole sitter Roger Hayden, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider the final rider to crack the 1:26 barrier as he lapped at 1:25.480 in Superpole 2. Hayden will be joined by Wheels In Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin, the Georgia resident lapping at 1:26.145 on his Superstock 1000-spec Yamaha R1. Herrin was the top Bazzaz Superstock 1000 qualifier. Latus Motors Racing’s Bobby Fong, on the Superstock-spec Kawasaki ZX-10R, will complete row two.