Cameron Beaubier swept the Superbike doubleheader at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Sunday, vaulting himself back into championship contention. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
MILLVILLE, NJ, MAY 1 – Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier had a perfect day in imperfect weather at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion winning both races on a rainy day to vault himself back into championship contention.
Beaubier, who started the day seventh in the championship, scored a perfect 50 points in trying conditions as rainstorms invaded south New Jersey and wreaked havoc on a hectic Sunday at NJMP. When the day concluded at dusk, Beaubier had gone from seventh to second in the series standings – just four points behind his teammate Josh Hayes. Hayes, the four-time series champion, finished second in both races but wasn’t able to match the pace thrown down by his young teammate.
For Beaubier the two victories were the 13th and 14th of his Superbike career with those two wins moving him into a tie for 10th on the all-time AMA Superbike win list with former World Champions Eddie Lawson and Scott Russell.
“To be honest at the beginning I was kind of stressed out,” Beaubier said after his race-two win. “I felt a lot better than in the first race today, feeling-wise I felt a little bit faster. I came by and I had half a second and the next lap I was like ‘Oh, man this is going to be good.’ I came back around and it said (plus) .0. I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ I put my head down and just kept pushing. I knew Josh was right there and it seemed like he made a little bobble and I came by and it said ‘Plus 2.’ It just started growing from there and I just tried to ride as smart as I could and eased my way around the track at the end. And I was able to do the double.”
Hayes moved into the championship points lead with his two second-place finishes today, the 41-year-old veteran making the most of Roger Hayden’s second-race crash to take the top spot. Hayes has 92 points to Beaubier’s 88 with Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden dropping to third with 83 points. Hayden had finished ninth in race one after struggling with the treacherous conditions.
“There’s not too many times in my career that I can say that I settled for a position,” Hayes said after race two. “Really early on I kinda made a run at Cam (Beaubier) but the risk factor was going up extremely high. I don’t know if his bike was handling a little bit better than mine that he could continue to ride like that. We had a big gap and it was hard not to just say, ‘Oh, well, I don’t have the pace and I’m not fast enough to ride with Cam and I’m going to take what I’ve got here.’ I figured the guys would beat me with a hammer if I came back in the crash truck from that race.”
Hayden’s teammate Toni Elias also struggled, the Spaniard finishing out of the points in race one and then finishing 12th in race two. Elias is now fourth in the championship with 79 points – 13 points behind Hayes.
If Beaubier had a great day, then so too did Claudio Corti, the Italian and his HSBK Aprilia finishing third overall in both Superbike races and first in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class. The two Superstock wins vaulted him into the championship points’ lead with 111 points – nine clear of Wheels In Motion/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin.
“I lose many positions (avoiding the crashing Jake Gagne on the first lap),” Corti said. “I was scared because I almost hit him. I had to brake hard and almost stop and then restart, but I had to keep concentrated because it was only the first lap. There were 15 laps to go and I kept pushing. After a few laps I saw Hayden Gillim in front of me so I tried to catch him and I did. I’m pretty happy and I have to say thanks to the marshals for cleaning the track and everyone for working so hard the last two nights because I crash. And here we are again and I can’t wait for the next race.”
Two others had noteworthy days in the Superbike class: Larry Pegram and Hayden Gillim. Pegram ended up fourth and sixth on the M4 Suzuki as the replacement rider for the recently retired Chris Ulrich; and Cycle World Suzuki’s Gillim earned his first career Superstock 1000 podium with his second-place finish (and fourth overall) in race two. Gillim was 10th in race one.
The second Supersport race was also held on Sunday at NJMP with M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki’s Cameron Petersen scoring his first career win. The South African was chasing Joe Roberts in the second part of the re-started Supersport final when Roberts crashed out, handing the victory to Petersen.
“It was a tough race,” Petersen said. “I knew that I stood a better chance in these conditions. The first part of the race this morning before the re-start was tricky. There was a lot of standing water. Like these guys said, thanks to MotoAmerica for keeping our safety in mind. We just had to put that behind us (the crash) because we knew it wasn’t our fault. I lined up for the second part, got a pretty good start and then once Joe passed us it seemed like he had a really good pace. I followed him around for most of the race and on the last lap he was pushing hard and pulled a gap on me. Then he kind of gifted me the win and I couldn’t be happier.”
Second place went to Petersen’s teammate Valentin Debise, the Frenchman ending up 7.6 seconds behind Petersen and some nine seconds ahead of Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha’s JD Beach, the winner of Saturday’s race one.
Beach’s third-place finish combined with Garrett Gerloff’s crash in the first portion of the race (a crash that also involved Beach and Petersen) and non-start in the second part, moved Beach to within two points of Gerloff in the championship. Gerloff now leads Beach, 95-93. Debise is third in the standings with 87 points and Petersen has 59 points in fourth. Roberts slips to fifth with 53 points after his crash in race two.
There was another first-time winner on Sunday with Double B Racing’s Jody Barry taking his first career win in the KTM RC Cup. Barry beat Saturday’s winner Brandon Paasch to the line by just .333 of a second with Josh Serne earning his first career KTM Cup podium in third. Serne was just .365 behind Barry.
“I was thankful for the rain today,” Barry said. “In the dry I just wasn’t getting it because the draft was killing me. With my size, I can maybe get a little better grip in the corners in the wet.”
SUPERBIKE RACE 1: 1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha); 2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha); 3. Claudio Corti (Aprilia); 4. Larry Pegram (Suzuki); 5. Jake Gagne (Yamaha); 6. Corey Alexander (Ducati); 7. Ryan Jones (Yamaha); 8. Danny Eslick (Yamaha); 9. Roger Hayden (Suzuki); 10. Hayden Gillim (Suzuki).
SUPERBIKE RACE 2: 1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha); 2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha); 3. Claudio Corti (Aprilia); 4. Hayden Gillim (Suzuki); 5. Corey Alexander (Ducati); 6. Larry Pegram (Suzuki); 7. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha); 8. Ryan Jones (Yamaha); 9. Danny Eslick (Yamaha); 10. Josh Herrin (Yamaha).
SUPERSPORT RACE 2: 1. Cameron Petersen (Suzuki); 2. Valentin Debise (Suzuki); 3. JD Beach (Yamaha); 4. Dakota Mamola (Yamaha); 5. Andy DiBrino (Yamaha); 6. JC Camacho (Yamaha); 7. Benny Solis Jr. (Honda); 8. Travis Wyman (Yamaha); 9. Bryce Prince (Yamaha); 10. Mark Rhoades (Kawasaki).
KTM RACE 2: 1. Jody Barry; 2. Brandon Paasch; 3. Josh Serne; 4. Anthony Mazziotto III; 5. Cory Ventura; 6. John Knowles; 7. Alejandro Gutierrez; 8. Ashton Yates; 9. Jaret Nassaney; 10. Jackson Blackmon.
