Cycle News Staff | July 14, 2019
2019 Laguna Seca MotoAmerica Results
Sunday
MONTEREY, CA (July 14, 2019)– Garrett Gerloff fulfilled a life-long dream today in the Championship of Monterey, the 23-year-old Texan winning the first MotoAmerica Superbike race of his career in front of a record crowd at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
2019 Laguna Seca MotoAmerica Results
In what was his 32ndcareer Superbike race in his sophomore season in the class, Gerloff was dominant. The two-time Supersport Champion was second off the start behind Toni Elias, made the pass early, and was never headed, pulling away to a 4.449 second win.
With Gerloff, who earned his second career Superbike pole position on Saturday, riding off into the sunset, the battle for second was just that. A battle. The protagonists were Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias and Gerloff’s Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing teammate Cameron Beaubier and the pair exchanged body blows to the bitter end with Elias coming out on top by just .326 of a second after 23 laps of the 2.2-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
“It feels so good,” Gerloff said. “I was telling the TV earlier, I know it’s just a race win and these guys get wins all the time and I used to, but I haven’t for a while. There’s been a lot of emotions the past year and a half, getting used to the Superbike and everything. These guys haul ass everywhere. It’s tough, stiff competition out there. It’s been a long road. There’s been a lot of ups and downs. To finally get it and to do it here even more in front of the World Superbike guys and everything, it’s just something that I’ve wanted for so long, something that’s been on my bucket list forever. When I started racing, I was watching the MotoAmerica guys, AMA guys back in the day. That was one of the things that I wanted to accomplish in my life. To finally say that I got just one win, it just feels awesome. I’m ecstatic, for sure.”
The second-place finish for Elias may not have been a win on the day, but it was as far as the championship goes as he now leads Beaubier by 39 points, 246-207. Gerloff, meanwhile, is third in the series standings with 181 points after his first career Superbike victory.
“Congratulations for Garrett,” Elias said. “The first one is very special, and in Laguna Seca it’s amazing. I’m not happy about today. I’m kind of pissed off. Nothing came as I was struggling today. I made a couple of changes. The bike this morning was feeling so great, much better than yesterday in cold conditions but when the races start, I was losing the rear, the front. Mistake with the setup today, but it’s okay. We tried to manage the situation. My strategy didn’t work, too. I was thinking that I was able to catch Garrett, but it was impossible. Also, I had a false neutral, like last year. We didn’t have this problem in all this season, but sometimes happen and it happened today. But my team is giving me everything they can. They are working so, so good. We are in a good situation. Always it’s him. Always it’s Cam (Beaubier). When Cam is there, he’s right behind me. Unfortunately, we fight each other and I’m just trying to open the gap little by little, but it’s difficult to open the gap. Difficult not to do mistakes. Like Road America in the last corner. So, let’s continue like this. It’s going to be so difficult, so long. Anything can happen. Try to win the most races as possible. If not, second as today is good. Five points more. It’s good for the championship. I’m happy for leading a little bit more. I had some extra, but let’s continue.”
Beaubier was third for the second day in a row after controlling most of practice and qualifying.
“Yeah, that was a tough one,” Beaubier said. “That was a tough pill to swallow. Yesterday was a pretty frustrating race. Last night we went over some stuff. Made some good changes. I was feeling really confident, really good going into today’s race. Just didn’t pan out like I wanted to. Hats off to my teammate, Garrett. He rode incredible. I know exactly how that feels. I wish I was up there dicing with him. Had a really tough battle with Josh (Herrin) and Toni, and I felt like us roughing each other up just let that gap open pretty quick. There was no way we were closing it. Like I said, I was pretty damn frustrated coming off the track. I was pretty heated, especially getting beat by Toni there at the end. But Garrett put me in a good mood, seeing how happy he was. I’m just really happy for him. I got an amazing support system. Just want to thank everybody for their support. Thanks all the fans for coming out. And we’ll move onto Sonoma.”
Fourth place went Elias’ Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Josh Herrin, the Georgian in the mix for second place early in the race before fading back to the clutches of Attack Performance Estenson Racing’s JD Beach, the Kentuckian beaten up from a morning crash in the first of two World Superbike races on Sunday. Herrin was able to beat Beach to the line by some two seconds.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz rebounded from a race crash yesterday to finish sixth today, the South African holding off Scheibe Racing BMW’s Jake Gagne at the finish. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis was eighth with Omega Moto’s Cameron Petersen and Uribe Racing’s Jayson Uribe rounding out the top 10 finishers.
Supersport – Fong Takes Over
To wrap up the weekend, the Supersport class took to the track for their one scheduled race at the MotoAmerica Championship of Monterey, and it was a good one, especially for M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong. The California rider got a great jump off the front row at the start, and also got the holeshot over Rickdiculous Racing Yamaha rider Hayden Gillim. Fong was never headed in the race, and Gillim ultimately crashed out unhurt, which contributed to Fong taking the victory over second-place finisher PJ Jacobsen aboard the Celtic HSBK Racing Yamaha and 2 Wheel Legal – Hudson Motorcycles Yamaha rider Richie Escalante in third. The win vaulted Fong into the Supersport Championship lead with an 18-point advantage over Gillim in second.
After his third Supersport victory of the season, Fong said, “On my pitboard, I saw plus zero. I never knew I had a one-second gap, so I just kept on pushing. Honestly, I was making quite a few mistakes and going a little bit slower than I felt like I should have been. My guys gave me the chill board, and I had to back it down a little bit. I came back around and then I saw the plus two and I was like, ‘Okay, we’ve got a little cushion.’ I don’t know what happened. I try not to look back really when I’m racing. I just ran consistent pace the whole time and just raced my board, basically. It was good. My guys were on it with the board today. I’ve got to give it up to them. It was a short weekend for us. We didn’t have much track time. The first two sessions we were kind of all over the place but thank God I’ve got a good crew and they figured it out overnight. We made some good changes for today’s race, and it paid off.”
Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Landers Dominates
Sunday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race was another dominant performance by Ninja400R.com/Norton Motorsports/Dr. Farr Kawasaki rider Rocco Landers, who started from the pole and led from start to finish to notch his seventh win out of nine races so far this year.
The order of finish for the other two podium finishers was hotly contested between Quarterley Racing/On Track Development Kawasaki’s Dallas Daniels and Altus Motorsports Kawasaki’s Kevin Olmedo. The two riders diced back and forth throughout most of the race, and Olmedo made a brave move on Daniels coming into the last turn on the final lap of the 12-lap contest, but Daniels was able to fend off his rival and cross the finish line second with Olmedo coming home third.
“My plan was to just go as fast as possible in the beginning, and make a little gap,” Landers said. “I just tried to never look back. I didn’t believe it. Coming into the last corner, I was like, ‘I did not expect to do that.’ Then I just tried to push and tried to make really good lap times.”
EBC Brakes Superbike
- Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
- Toni Elias (Suzuki)
- Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Suzuki)
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Jake Gagne (BMW)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- Jayson Uribe (Honda)
Supersport
- Bobby Fong (Suzuki)
- PJ Jacobsen (Yamaha)
- Richie Escalante (Yamaha)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki)
- Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
- Bryce Prince (Yamaha)
- Jason Aguilar (Yamaha)
- Nick McFadden (Yamaha)
- Lucas Silva (Suzuki)
- Caroline Olsen (Yamaha)
Liqui Moly Junior Cup
- Rocco Landers (Kawasaki)
- Dallas Daniels (Kawasaki)
- Kevin Olmedo (Kawasaki)
- Josh Serne (Kawasaki)
- Karen Ogura (Yamaha)
- Dominic Doyle (Kawasaki)
- Jackson Blackmon (Kawasaki)
- Gauge Rees (Kawasaki)
- Branden ketelsen (Kawasaki)
- Hunter Dunham (Kawasaki)
For ticket information on the MotoAmerica Series, click HERE
For How To Watch information on the MotoAmerica Series, click HERE
Saturday
MONTEREY, CA (July 13, 2019)– Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias may not have led any of the practice or qualifying sessions at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but he led the only thing that paid points today as the Spaniard raced to his sixth EBC Brakes Superbike win of the season in the Championship of Monterey.
2019 Laguna Seca MotoAmerica Results
Elias won a battle between himself and the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing duo of Garrett Gerloff and Cameron Beaubier, the Texan getting the better of his three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion teammate Beaubier to finish second, and .778 of a second behind Elias.
With Elias winning and Beaubier finishing third, the points gap has grown to 35 points, 226-191, heading into tomorrow’s second of two EBC Brakes Superbike races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
“It’s been a really nice day,” Elias said. “Yesterday we tried many ways to understand what we need here. We know from earlier years, but every year is different. So today we put everything together. From the first lap, it was so good. I was super confident for the race. I know Cameron (Beaubier) had an incredible few laps here because every time he go in, he was struggling on the first lap, being super quick on race tires. That was our strategy. We tried to stop that. In the first lap I passed four riders.
“I’m happy. My team did an amazing job. My family is here. My son is here. It’s his first race ever for him. Thirty-five points now in the lead of the championship, but as you all know, you can’t get too comfortable. Mistakes can happen. You’ve got to stay calm. There’s still many, many races to go. Today has been a really good race but doesn’t mean anything tomorrow. These guys will improve some details. The championship is so long, and many things will happen. My championship lead had some advantage riding in one race in MotoAmerica, and then in the corner of the race I crashed. So, I lost almost everything. But we are increasing it again, so that’s good. Let’s keep doing every race like this, keep going, working like this. We are doing a great job.”
Gerloff finished on the podium for the eighth time this season and for the seventh race in a row. It was also his third runner-up finish of the year as he searches for his first career Superbike win.
“That was the most frustrating part, just seeing him pull me in the first section and me catching the back of him the last three (sections),” Gerloff said. “And not being able to make any ground. That was frustrating, but I felt like I had a really good race. I felt good battling with these guys and the first couple laps we were definitely putting it in there every other corner. You don’t want to get in the back of these guys because they’ll eat you up. I was just trying to stay towards the front. I’m pretty happy. This guy (Elias) is going quick. I feel pretty strong for tomorrow, so we’ll see.”
Beaubier was visibly disappointed with third place and his ninth podium finish of the season.
“To be honest, it was a pretty frustrating race there at the beginning,” Beaubier said. “I knew I had a really good pace all weekend. My team and I have been working really hard yesterday and this morning. I felt like I had such a good bike underneath me. We got a little time now on race tires in practice, and for whatever reason I just couldn’t get down to anywhere close to where I was in practice. So that was pretty frustrating. I was just trying to find my way up front and try to put my head down, but none of these guys would let me. I felt (Josh) Herrin clip my right elbow. I looked over and he’s off the track. It was a wild race. Today wasn’t our day. Congrats to these guys. We’re going to go back and do our homework tonight and come back swinging tomorrow.”
Herrin crashed after making contact with Beaubier, the Georgian battling for the lead at the time.
Fourth place went to Attack Performance Estenson Racing’s JD Beach, the Kentucky resident in the mix at the front until the closing laps. He finished 7.8 seconds behind Elias but was well clear of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis, the Kentuckian racing to fifth all alone.
FLY Racing/ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony was sixth, narrowly topping Omega Moto’s Cameron Petersen. FLY Racing’s Sam Verderico, Superbike Underground’s Jeremy Coffey and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounded out the top 10 finishers.
In addition to Herrin, Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, Uribe Racing’s Jayson Uribe and Cycle Gear/SC Project/KWR Racing Ducati’s Kyle Wyman all crashed out of the race. Uribe and Wyman went down together in turn two on the opening lap with Wyman suffering a suspected broken wrist.
Twins Cup – DeKeyrel Gets His First
In Saturday’s Twins Cup race, former MotoAmerica Supersport racer Kaleb DeKeyrel returned to the series after a couple of years away, and aboard his 1833CJKnows/Roaring Toyz Yamaha, notched his first career MotoAmerica victory. DeKeyrel started from 12th on the grid, but through patience and determination, he moved to the front and passed the current points leader Michael Barnes aboard his Quarterley Racing Ducati and the race leader at the time, Roadracing World Young Guns Suzuki rider Alex Dumas. Dumas and Barnes ultimately finished in second and third, respectively.
“Qualifying obviously didn’t go so hot, so I knew we had to make some serious changes in order to be there for the race,” DeKeyrel said. “I put my head down last night. Was writing a bunch of stuff down, figuring a bunch of stuff out so, hopefully, we could come out here today and put on a show for the fans. We had an incredible bike for the race. I’ve got to give a huge shout-out to Roaring Toyz and 1833CJKnows for getting me out here. Without them, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be here.
“I drove over 110 hours just to make this race happen. But I also knew that the Yamaha was a great platform as far as handling and everything. So, I knew we would have a decent bike coming here. It would just be fine-tuning it for the track. But I’ve been training a lot. I’m training really hard with my buddy Garrett Gerloff, even though I haven’t been at the MotoAmerica races in a couple of years. I live down in Texas right next to him, so we’ve been training hard. I’m hoping I get more opportunities in the future to show my talent to the paddock.”
Stock 1000 – Lee Keeps The Momentum Going
Home cooking proved to be a benefit for Californian Andrew Lee as the Franklin Armory/Graves Motorsports Kawasaki rider won Saturday’s Stock 1000 race and extended his championship lead to 11 points over the day’s third-place finisher, Mesa37 Racing Kawasaki rider Stefano Mesa. Former World Superbike competitor Geoff May finished second in the race aboard his Ameris Bank Kawasaki.
Lee started from the pole with Mesa and May gridded right next to him on the front row, and the race was a battle from the get-go. As the laps wound down, Lee made strategic use of a few backmarkers and tiptoed through them to win by just under a second at the checkers.
“Coming into this weekend, I knew I had some momentum coming off of Utah, so I just wanted to really continue that,” commented Lee. “I knew it was going to be difficult with Geoff and Stefano right there behind me. I’m just happy I got to accomplish my goals this weekend. It was a really good battle. I knew coming through Rainey Curve that there were some lappers up-ahead going up over turn one, and I knew I had to get there before Geoff did. Coming into the last lap, there was a big group ahead of me. I was like, that’s going to be pretty intimidating. Thankfully, I got over the hill and got one backmarker in-between Geoff and me, and I made it down the hill and crossed the line first.”
EBC Brakes Superbike
- Toni Elias (Suzuki)
- Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)
- Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
- David Anthony (Kawasaki)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- Sam Verderico (Yamaha)
- Jeremy Coffey (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Twins Cup
- Kaleb DeKeyrel (Yamaha)
- Michael Barnes (Ducati)
- Alex Dumas (Suzuki)
- Draik Beauchamp (Yamaha)
- Kris Turner (Suzuki)
- Jason Madama (Yamaha)
- Chris Parrish (Suzuki)
- Cooper McDonald (Yamaha)
- Curtis Murray (Suzuki)
- Joseph Blasius (Suzuki)
Stock 1000
- Andrew Lee (Kawasaki)
- Geoff May (Kawasaki)
- Stefano Mesa (Kawasaki)
- Travis Wyman (BMW)
- Michael Gilbert (Kawasaki)
- Andy DiBrino (Yamaha)
- Sebastiao Ferreira (Kawasaki)
- Miles Thornton (Suzuki)
- Doug Frenchak (Kawasaki)
- George Myshlyayev (Kawasaki)
For ticket information on the MotoAmerica Series, click HERE
For How To Watch information on the MotoAmerica Series, click HERE
Friday
MONTEREY, CA (July 12, 2019) – Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cameron Beaubier started his weekend in immaculate fashion in the Championship of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion leading both sessions on a sunny day on the Monterey Peninsula.
2019 Laguna Seca MotoAmerica Results
Beaubier’s best lap came in the second of two sessions, the Californian ripping off a 1:24.118 to lead his teammate Garrett Gerloff by just .099 of a second. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias was third fastest on the day with his best time, a 1:24.894, coming in the first session. His teammate Josh Herrin was next with a 1:24.908 set in session two.
Those four were the only riders to dip into the 1:24s with Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz ending the day fifth with his 1:25.138 from the second session.
“I was actually kind of surprised how fast we went in the first practice,” Beaubier said. “Just because for whatever reason Friday’s seem to be off the pace a little bit here at Laguna. Everything felt good. The track’s in great shape and the R1 is working really good around here this weekend. It’s a good start for me and Garrett (Gerloff) with us one-two on the R1s up front and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Friday Combined Results
- Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 1:24.118
- Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 1:24.217
- Toni Elias (Suzuki) 1:24.894
- Josh Herrin (Suzuki) 1:24.908
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:25.138
- JD Beach (Yamaha) 1:25.184
- Jake Lewis (Suzuki) 1:25.430
- Jake Gagne (BMW) 1:25.606
- Kyle Wyman (Ducati) 1:25.628
- David Anthony (Kawasaki) 1:25.628
To purchase tickets to any MotoAmerica event, visit https://motoamerica.com/tickets/
For How To Watch, visit https://motoamerica.com/watch