AUSTIN, TX, APR. 12 – Cameron Beaubier turned the tables on his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha teammate Josh Hayes today at the Circuit of The Americas, the 22-year-old Californian beating Hayes by .445 of a second in a thrilling race two of the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship of Texas, the opening round of the 2015 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Superbike Championship.
Hayes, who won Saturday’s rain-sodden race one, pushed Beaubier for the full 12 laps with the battle coming down to the final corner. That’s when Hayes tried to put his Yamaha YZF-R1 where there simply wasn’t room. Beaubier held his line as Hayes tried to stuff it up the inside, the pair coming together with Beaubier sprinting off to the checkered flag for his fourth career AMA Superbike win. Hayes, meanwhile, gathered himself up to still finish a close second.
The pair now head to Road Atlanta with a win apiece and an identical points tally of 45 points.
For the second day in a row, Yoshimura Roger Hayden finished third with the Suzuki rider much more competitive in the dry than he was in Saturday’s wet race. The Kentuckian led some laps early, despite getting his GSX-R1000 completely sideways through the esses on the opening lap. Hayden eventually lost touch with the lead duo and fell into a battle with RoadRace Factory’s Jake Gagne. Hayden prevailed for his second third-place finish in a row with Gagne holding on for fourth overall and a runaway victory in the Superstock 1000 class, which runs with the Superbikes but is scored separately.
Aprilia HSBK Racing’s Dustin Dominguez finished second in the Superstock 1000 class for the second time on the weekend, the Texan ending up 36.7 seconds behind Gagne on his RSV4. Taylor Knapp improved to finish third in today’s Superstock final on the FourFour Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R1.
“Going into today we made a little front-end change, raised it up a little bit just to try it,” Beaubier said. “We’ve been struggling a little bit getting off some off some of the tighter corners yesterday. I was actually struggling pretty good in the beginning. Roger [Hayden] and Josh [Hayes] had some pace on me. I slowly started connecting the corners a little bit better and getting some more confidence. I finally got by those guys. I put my head down the last few laps and I knew Josh was right there.”
Beaubier was expecting Hayes to try something in the final corner and he was ready for it.
“I saw him coming in to the last corner and I was like, ‘No, this is my frickin race.’ It was pretty cool to get it done today. I looked back to make sure he was up and then looked at my leg and there was some rubber there. But it’s a lot of fun racing these guys. I feel like we have respect for each other, but at the same time we can lean on each other pretty hard. I’m looking forward to this year.”
SUPERBIKE FINAL:
1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
3. Roger Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Jake Lewis (Suzuki)
5. Chris Fillmore (KTM)
6. Elena Myers (Suzuki)
7. Bernat Martinez (Yamaha)
8. Aaron Hersh (Suzuki)
9. Ricky Orlando (Kawasaki)
SUPERSTOCK 1000 FINAL:
1. Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
2. Dustin Dominguez (Aprilia)
3. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha)
4. Geoff May (Yamaha)
5. Devon McDonough (Aprilia)
6. Tyler O’Hara (Yamaha)
7. Mark Heckles (Yamaha)
8. Marcel Irnie (BMW)
9. Barrett Long (Ducati)
10. Jeff Wrobel (Suzuki)
