Larry Lawrence | June 6, 2018
Archives: Elias Fastest in History to 20 Wins
Toni Elias’ victory last month in race one of the Virginia International Raceway MotoAmerica Superbike doubleheader, marked his 20th MotoAmerica Superbike victory. That milestone alone was almost lost in the midst of a typical hectic MotoAmerica weekend. That VIR win put Elias in an elite group of just six other riders in the 42-year history of the series to accomplish that 20-win mark. The next day at VIR Elias started working on further milestones when he scored his 21st-career Superbike win aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki.
Archives: Elias Fastest in History to 20 Wins
The fact that Elias reached 20 wins in less than two-a-half seasons meant his was the fastest rider to reach the 20-win mark in terms of calendar timeframe, but the question remained, how many races did it take for Elias to reach 20 wins compared to the other riders to reach that mark? Superbike doubleheaders, which began in the early 2000s, have historically helped pad the stats for riders who raced in the current era as compared to days when there was just one Superbike National per weekend. So, the question was did Elias actually reach 20 wins in fewer races than the other six riders who earned that number of wins?
It took some research, but the answer is yes.
Here’s a look back at the history of riders getting to 20 wins in the MotoAmerica/AMA Superbike Championship.
Fred Merkel became the first rider in series history to reach the 20-win plateau when he took victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 1986 en route to earning his third-consecutive AMA Superbike Championship. Merkel went on an absolute tear in the mid-1980s. In 1984 alone Merkel won an amazing 10 races on his way to the AMA Superbike title. That record stood as one of the most impressive in the history of the series and many considered it nearly unbreakable, that is until the doubleheader era. In 2005 Mat Mladin finally eclipsed that single-season mark by scoring 11 wins. Merkel was so dominant that he compiled an amazing win percentage and when he reached his 20th-career victory at Mid-Ohio in ’86, he’s reached that milestone after only 47 races.
Merkel’s 20 wins became a benchmark that other riders strived to reach for years to come. His feat was quite remarkable, especially when compared to the riders after him to reach 20 wins.
The second rider to get to 20 wins was Miguel Duhamel at Sonoma in 1998. It took Duhamel 71 Superbike races to get to 20 wins.
Then at Road America in 2003 Mat Mladin (who would go on to become the all-time wins and championship leader in the series) got to 20 wins, but even the great Australian road racer took 95 races to get to 20 wins. As dominant as Mladin was, a lot of fans forget that he went two seasons in AMA Superbike winning no victories at all (1996 & 2002) and two seasons (1998 & 1999) where he won just a single race. It makes it all that more impressive then that Mladin compiled an all-time series record 82 wins.
Archives: Elias Fastest in History to 20 Wins
At Fontana in 2008, Ben Spies was the fourth rider to reach 20 wins. Spies had to deal with his talented Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Mladin, and a host of other factory riders, yet still managed to reach 20 wins after just 61 races, at the time the second fastest ever.
Josh Hayes became the fifth rider to get to 20 wins at Sonoma in 2012. In the highly-competitive racing environment he raced in in the first decade of the 2000s, it took Hayes the longest of the elite 20-win group to get there, running 104 Superbike races before scoring his 20th.
Then came the uber-talented Yamaha ace Cameron Beaubier. The young Californian very nearly set a new record when he got to 20 wins at Road Atlanta last year. Beaubier got to 20 wins in only 48 races, just one more than Merkel, making Beaubier the second fastest at the time to reach the milestone.
But then Elias, who came in initially as a fill-in rider for the injured Jake Lewis at Yoshimura, got off the mark in ultra-speed, winning the first three MotoAmerica Superbike races he participated in. The winning just kept on coming for the Spaniard. He won six races in 2016, then 10 last year, setting him up to reach the 20-win milestone just five races into this season. That means Elias reached 20 wins in a remarkable 43 races – four races faster than Merkel did it in 1986, establishing a new record that lasted 32 years!
So there you have it. Everyone knew Elias was one of the speediest riders in the 42-year history of the series, but now there’s clear evidence that of all seven riders in championship history to reach that mythical 20th win mark, Elias did it faster than anyone else.