Cycle News Staff | May 14, 2016
Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier earned his third Superbike pole position of the season and the eighth of his career today during qualifying for Sunday’s two races in the Yamaha Superbike Challenge of Virginia at VIRginia International Raceway.
Beaubier lapped at a best of 1:24.358 on his Yamaha R1 to best Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden by a scant .187 of a second with Hayden’s teammate Toni Elias finding his form again to put his GSX-R1000 on the front row.
Beaubier’s time was a tick over half a second quicker than Josh Hayes’ pole-position time from a year ago at VIR.
Elias, meanwhile, has struggled with front-end feel since he turned his first laps in what is his VIR debut. He has more work to do in Sunday’s warm-up session to try to find a setup that will allow him to race for 25 laps.
The second row of the grid will be led by Josh Herrin on the Superstock-spec Wheels In Motion/Meen Motorsports Yamaha R1, the Georgian .380 of a second behind Beaubier and just .050 of a second ahead of the Yamaha Superbike of Broaster Chicken/Roadrace Factory’s Jake Gagne. Italian Claudio Corti, the winner of the last two Bazzaz Superstock 1000 races, will fill row two on the Superstock-spec HSBK Aprilia.
TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick, Latus Motors Racing Kawasaki’s Bobby Fong and MotoEverything/DieselOps Racing’s Taylor Knapp will make up row four.
The biggest surprise of Superpole came from the performance of Hayes, the four-time Superbike Champion forced off track by Herrin and Corti as they were on their cool-down lap while he was on his hot lap with his qualifying tire. After riding off into the grass, Hayes rejoined the track but his lap and qualifying session were effectively ruined. He will start both races from the fourth row of the grid after qualifying an uncharacteristic 10th.
Following a storm that featured canopy destroying winds and a deluge of rain, the Supersport race went to the grid with tire decisions to be made that would ultimately determine the finishing order. Championship points leader Garrett Gerloff and his Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha crew made the right choice: slicks on both ends of his R6. His teammate JD Beach, however, gambled that the track would stay wet enough to make his rain tires last. It did not and the drying track destroyed his tires and allowed the field to catch up after he’d blitzed away at the front and opened a lead of up to 12 seconds. Beach would struggle to bring his rain-tire shod Yamaha home in 14th place, earning him just two championship points.
The first person to reel in Beach at the front was Wheels In Motion/Meen Motorsports Yamaha’s Joe Roberts. Roberts had chosen a combination of rain front tire with a slick rear tire. That combination worked good enough to finish on the podium but not good enough to hold off the advances of both Gerloff and New Jersey Motorsports Park race-two winner Cameron Petersen, the M4 Sportbike TrackGear.com Suzuki rider, like Gerloff, going with full slicks on his GSX-R600.
Californian Michael Gilbert won his second career Superstock 600 race, the Michael Gilbert Racing rider working his way all the way to fourth overall and ahead of fifth placed Benny Solis Jr. on the Team H35 Honda CBR600RR. Travis Wyman and Bryce Prince were second and third, respectively, in the Superstock class and sixth and seventh overall.
Deion Campbell, Valentin Debise and Nick McFadden, in his first race of the season after suffering an off-season injury, rounded out the top 10 overall.
Gerloff now holds a healthy 25-point lead over Beach in the championship, 120-95. Debise is now just a single point behind Beach in third with 94 points with Petersen (79) and Roberts (69) rounding out the top five.
New Jersey’s Anthony Mazziotto III won his second KTM RC Cup race of the season after pulling away from his pursuers on the final lap to win by .521 of a second in a race that was held under brilliant sunshine and warm temperatures. The win also moved into a tie for the lead in the championship with rival Brandon Paasch, who was fourth today after being caught out by not knowing the last lap was the last lap. The pair has two wins apiece and 103 points each.
Second place in Saturday’s KTM RC Cup race went to to Yates Racing’s Ashton Yates, the Georgian earning his second podium finish of the season and his best finish to date. He was .521 of a second behind Mazziotto and .694 of a second ahead of Alejandro Gutierrez, who earned his first career MotoAmerica podium finish in third. Paasch and Jody Barry rounded out the top five finishers.
Superbike Qualifying: 1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 1:24.358; 2. Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 1:24.545; 3. Toni Elias (Suzuki) 1:24.662; 4. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:24.738; 5. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:24.788; 6. Claudio Corti (Aprilia) 1:24.986; 7. Danny Eslick (Yamaha) 1:25.382; 8. Bobby Fong (Kawasaki) 1:25.450; 9. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha) 1:25.500; 10. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:25.602.
Supersport Race 1: Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha); 2. Cameron Petersen (Suzuki); 3. Joe Roberts (Yamaha); 4. Michael Gilbert (Yamaha); 5. Benny Solis Jr. (Honda); 6. Travis Wyman (Yamaha); 7. Bryce Prince (Yamaha); 8. Deion Campbell (Yamaha); 9. Valentin Debise (Suzuki); 10. Nick McFadden (Yamaha).
KTM RC Cup Race 1: Anthony Mazziotto III; 2. Ashton Yates; 3. Alejandro Gutierrez; 4. Brandon Paasch; 5. Jody Barry; 6. Brandon Altmeyer; 7. Josh Serne; 8. Draik Beauchamp; 9. Benjamin Smith; 10. Jackson Blackmon.