Cycle News Staff | May 1, 2016
Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier had a perfect day in imperfect weather at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion winning both races on a rainy day to vault himself back into championship contention.
Beaubier, who started the day seventh in the championship, scored a perfect 50 points in trying conditions as rainstorms invaded south New Jersey and wreaked havoc on a hectic Sunday at NJMP. When the day concluded at dusk, Beaubier had gone from seventh to second in the series standings – just four points behind his teammate Josh Hayes. Hayes, the four-time series champion, finished second in both races but wasn’t able to match the pace thrown down by his young teammate.
Hayes moved into the championship points lead with his two second-place finishes today, the 41-year-old veteran making the most of Roger Hayden’s second-race crash to take the top spot. Hayes has 92 points to Beaubier’s 88 with Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden dropping to third with 83 points. Hayden had finished ninth in race one after struggling with the treacherous conditions.
Hayden’s teammate Toni Elias also struggled, the Spaniard finishing out of the points in race one and then finishing 12th in race two. Elias is now fourth in the championship with 79 points – 13 points behind Hayes.
If Beaubier had a great day, then so too did Claudio Corti, the Italian and his HSBK Aprilia finishing third overall in both Superbike races and first in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class. The two Superstock wins vaulted him into the championship points’ lead with 111 points – nine clear of Wheels In Motion/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin.
The second Supersport race was also held on Sunday at NJMP with M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen scoring his first career win. The South African was chasing Joe Roberts in the second part of the re-started Supersport final when Roberts crashed out, handing the victory to Petersen.
Second place went to Petersen’s teammate Valentin Debise, the Frenchman ending up 7.6 seconds behind Petersen and some nine seconds ahead of Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha’s JD Beach, the winner of Saturday’s race one.
Beach’s third-place finish combined with Garrett Gerloff’s crash in the first portion of the race (a crash that also involved Beach and Petersen) and non-start in the second part, moved Beach to within two points of Gerloff in the championship. Gerloff now leads Beach, 95-93. Debise is third in the standings with 87 points and Petersen has 59 points in fourth. Roberts slips to fifth with 53 points after his crash in race two.
There was another first-time winner on Sunday with Double B Racing’s Jody Barry taking his first career win in the KTM RC Cup. Barry beat Saturday’s winner Brandon Paasch to the line by just .333 of a second with Josh Serne earning his first career KTM Cup podium in third. Serne was just .365 behind Barry.
SUPERBIKE RACE 1: 1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha); 2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha); 3. Claudio Corti (Aprilia); 4. Larry Pegram (Suzuki); 5. Jake Gagne (Yamaha); 6. Corey Alexander (Ducati); 7. Ryan Jones (Yamaha); 8. Danny Eslick (Yamaha); 9. Roger Hayden (Suzuki); 10. Hayden Gillim (Suzuki).
SUPERBIKE RACE 2: 1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha); 2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha); 3. Claudio Corti (Aprilia); 4. Hayden Gillim (Suzuki); 5. Corey Alexander (Ducati); 6. Larry Pegram (Suzuki); 7. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha); 8. Ryan Jones (Yamaha); 9. Danny Eslick (Yamaha); 10. Josh Herrin (Yamaha).
SUPERSPORT RACE 2: 1. Cameron Petersen (Suzuki); 2. Valentin Debise (Suzuki); 3. JD Beach (Yamaha); 4. Dakota Mamola (Yamaha); 5. Andy DiBrino (Yamaha); 6. JC Camacho (Yamaha); 7. Benny Solis Jr. (Honda); 8. Travis Wyman (Yamaha); 9. Bryce Prince (Yamaha); 10. Mark Rhoades (Kawasaki).
KTM RACE 2: 1. Jody Barry; 2. Brandon Paasch; 3. Josh Serne; 4. Anthony Mazziotto III; 5. Cory Ventura; 6. John Knowles; 7. Alejandro Gutierrez; 8. Ashton Yates; 9. Jaret Nassaney; 10. Jackson Blackmon.