Cameron Beaubier stays on top at the Circuit of The Americas. PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J NELSON
AUSTIN, TX, APRIL 10 – Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier earned the first pole position in the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship’s Superbike class at the Circuit of The Americas. The series had very little track time as the morning session was cancelled due to delays in the MotoGP World Championship schedule—first a shortage of corner workers and then a red flag in MotoGP FP1 due to a dog out on the track. With the time crunch, the series dropped the Superbike /Superstock 1000 Top 12 Qualifying Shootout for a shortened 35-minute single qualifying session at the end of the day.
In the final moments of the session, Beaubier laid down a 2:09.653 to edge out teammate Josh Hayes by .545 of a second.
“To get pole here in the first Moto America round is pretty special to me,” Beaubier said. “It was in front of the GP paddock and guys I haven’t seen in a long time… It started off a little bit rough. I just was kind of struggling to get my flow going. I came in, saw Jake [Gagne] and Josh [Hayes] were already in the low 10’s. I put on a new tire and just put my head down with five minutes to go. I saw 2:09 on my dash and I was like, whoa. Came in and found out I had the pole. I’m really happy. Our team has been working so hard over the off-season getting the new bikes going for us. It’s shaping up to be a good year. I’m looking forward to the races.”
Although Hayes was bumped out of the top spot in the end, he was happy to be on the front row after struggling in yesterday’s practice session.
“Today was all about my team,” Hayes said. “Yesterday I felt like I was really struggling. I came in just like, oh, woe is me, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I was trying so hard. And then they came up with some good answers for today. We only got 25 minutes. We threw some stuff in there which is pretty much a different bike than it was yesterday. Things went pretty well. Still feel like I’m killing myself; my eyes were closed for most of the laps that I did, not just one, most of them. But I’m happy with the result. I’m glad to be up here. Cameron was pretty darn fast but I’m going to try to force him to do 15 of them if I can help it.”
Joining Beaubier and Hayes on the front row was Road Race Factory Yamaha’s Jake Gagne on Superstock 1000 machine.
Leading the second row of the grid was Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden who was .796 of a second down on Beaubier and the last rider in the 2:10s. Behind Hayden was teammate and Superbike rookie Jake Lewis. Rounding out the second row in sixth was Aprilia HSBK Racing’s Dustin Dominguez.
HMC Racing KTM’s Chris Fillmore was seventh ahead of a pair of privateer Yamaha Superstock machines—Tyler O’Hara and Taylor Knapp. Rounding out the top 10 was Geico Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich.
Leading the way in Supersport was fellow Yamaha rider Garrett Gerloff.
In the Supersport class it was Yamalube Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff. Hailing from the nearby Houston area, Gerloff beat yesterday’s fast man Bobby Fong on the Latus Motors Racing Triumph by .764 of a second. Wheels in Motion Motorsport.com Meen Yamaha’s Josh Herrin overcame bike woes to lay down a lap good enough to land that final spot on the front row.
Gerloff’s teammate JD Beach was fourth ahead of Joe Roberts on the other Meen Yamaha. In sixth was M4 Suzuki’s David Anthony. Road Race Factory Yamaha’s Tomas Puerta was seventh ahead of Kyle Wyman on a privateer Yamaha.
Rounding out the top 10 was Puerta’s teammates—Cameron Petersen and Ben Young, finishing ninth and 10th, respectively.
2015 MotoAmerica
Circuit of The Americas
Superbike/Superstock 1000
Qualifying Results
1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2:09.653
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 2:10.198
3. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 2:10.286
4. Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 2:10.449
5. Jake Lewis (Suzuki) 2:12.075
6. Dustin Dominguez (Aprilia) 2:12.342
7. Chris Fillmore (KTM) 2:13.185
8. Tyler O’Hara (Yamaha) 2:15.551
9. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha) 2:16.083
10. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki) 2:16.125
2015 MotoAmerica
Circuit of The Americas
Supersport Qualifying Results
1. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 2:13.082
2. Bobby Fong (Triumph) 2:13.846
3. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 2:14.067
4. JD Beach (Yamaha) 2:14.094
5. Joe Roberts (Yamaha) 2:14.731
6. David Anthony (Suzuki) 2:14.983
7. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha) 2:15.700
8. Kyle Wyman (Yamaha) 2:15.607
9. Cameron Petersen (Yamaha) 2:16.730
10. Ben Young (Yamaha) 2:18.230
