PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier topped the timesheets at the two-day Dunlop tire test at the Circuit of the Americas in preparation for the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship season opener in three-weeks time.
After leading the first day in mixed conditions, Beaubier improved on his time to drop down in the 2:10s with a 2:10.730 in the final session.
“We started out strong today and put in a solid race stint,” Beaubier said via release. “This track is super physical and I just wanted to make sure I was solid in a race situation, a race stint. I felt good. I was plugging away at laps and not pushing like crazy. Kinda riding around at 80 percent and getting a good flow going. I felt really good. We put some new tires on for the last session and went out and did some fast laps. I didn’t get a perfect lap in and I made a couple of mistakes and ran into a couple of guys, but I think coming back here for the race we’ll be ready. I can’t thank my guys enough for all the hard work they put in. It’s been crazy. They’ve been staying up until 2 in the morning getting ready for the test. It’s pretty cool they’re working that hard. I just need to keep my hard work up too and get ready for the season.”
Beaubier’s edged out teammate, and defending AMA Superbike Champion, Josh Hayes by .349 of a second.
“I’m very thankful that MotoAmerica had this test prior to the race,” Hayes said. “This was super beneficial for me. We started off a little bit frustrated yesterday but we found some better direction today and I feel better about today than yesterday. I feel like it’s going to be a long couple of weeks before we come back here because I want to keep working. Fortunately, with the MotoAmerica format we’re going to have a bit more time to where we can sort out the motorcycles rather than racing on the very first day that we show up. I’m looking forward to getting back to work.”
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden also set his fastest time in the final session. While the Owensboro native was pleased at the progress he’d made during the test, he wasn’t happy at being third and looks forward to some redemption at the season opener.
“For the most part, I’m happy,” Hayden said. “I got going pretty quick this afternoon and consistently so I’m pretty happy with that and we got the tire life a little bit longer too. You’re never happy when you’re a half a second off, but at the same time yesterday we were a lot farther off than that. And I could do those times now by myself. We’re satisfied. As always we could be a little better, but I think we have a good setup for when we come back her for the race. I’m not fighting any big problems. We just have a few little things that we could get working a little better at the low :11s pace, which would have been nice if I could have gotten to the lower :11s a little sooner. Overall we’re happy, but you never leave a test completely happy when you’re third quick.”
In the 600 classes,Yamalube/YES Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff also topped the timesheets both days.
“I’m really happy we got to come test here with everybody and see everybody on the same track, in the same weather conditions,” Gerloff said. “We can see where everybody stacks up so that was really good. It’s also really cool being so close to my hometown of Houston, so it’s all good things. I think we worked a lot and hopefully we’ll come back here with some more speed.”
The fastest of the Superstock 1000 riders was Yamahalube/Westby Racing’s Dane Westby, the Oklahoman putting his Yamaha R1 fourth overall in the combined Superbike/Superstock sessions.
The Superstock 600 class was led by Meen Motorsports’ Joe Roberts with a lap that would have put him fifth overall in the combined 600 timesheets.
2015 MotoAmerica
Circuit of the Americas
Pre-Season Test Combined Times:
SUPERBIKE
1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2:10.730
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 2:11.079
3. Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 2:11.311
4. Jake Lewis (Suzuki) 2:12.289
5. Chris Fillmore (KTM) 2:13.219
6. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki) 2:14.733
7. Elena Myers (Suzuki) 2:19.341
8. Johnny Rock Page (Suzuki) 2:23.172
SUPERSTOCK 1000
1. Dane Westby (Yamaha) 2:11.580
2. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 2:11.622
3. Dustin Dominquez (Aprilia) 2:14.372
4. Devon McDonough (Aprilia) 2:17.933
5. Marcel Irnie (BMW) 2:18.224
6. Max Flinders (EBR) 2:20.067
SUPERSPORT/SUPERSTOCK 600
1. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 2:13.420
2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 2:13.465
3. Bobby Fong (Triumph) 2:13.925
4. JD Beach (Yamaha) 2:14.754
5. Joe Roberts (Yamaha) 2:14.850 (SUPERSTOCK)
6. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha) 2:15.310
7. Benny Solis (Yamaha) 2:15.743
8. David Anthony (Suzuki) 2:15.822
9. Cameron Petersen (Yamaha) 2:16.862
10. Ben Young (Yamaha) 2:17.950
11. Kyle Wyman (Yamaha) 2:18.460
12.Tucker Lancaster (Kawasaki) 2:20.862
13. Hayden Gillim (MV Agusta) 2:20.880
14. Jay Newton (Yamaha) 2:21.151 (SUPERSTOCK)
15. Kaleb de Keyrel (Yamaha) 2:22.245
16. Kris Lillegard (MV Agusta) 2:25.360
