Alton, VA - May 14, 2017 – In Sunday’s MotoAmerica Superbike and Supersport races at VIRginia International Raceway, Yamaha’s “Fast Four” captured the wins and dominated the podiums, as Josh Hayes notched the 61st Superbike victory of his storied career and teammate Cameron Beaubier also finished on the podium in third, while JD Beach won his second Supersport race of the season and his teammate Garrett Gerloff was runner-up.
Improving on the so-so starts that they got in Saturday’s Superbike Race 1, Josh and Cameron rocketed off the starting line aboard their Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory YZF-R1 machines in Sunday’s Superbike Race 2, with Josh getting the holeshot and Cameron slotting in right behind him in second. Cameron got around Josh, and started to stretch out a lead as Josh got busy fending off the tandem of Toni Elias and Roger Hayden.
A mistake by Cameron caused him to run off the track for the second day in a row, but he was able to quickly regain his composure and return to the pavement in eighth position. As he did yesterday, Cameron methodically passed rider after rider until he was in fourth place. Meanwhile, Josh ran fast, smooth laps and stretched out his lead at the front. Roger Hayden ran off the track, handing third place to Cameron, which is where he finished the race. Josh took the checkered flag with a lead of nearly 4.5 seconds over Elias.
Talking about his return to form, Josh said, “On the grid, I kept telling myself, ‘You’ve done this before. You can do this!’ I finally got a good start, and I made up my mind that I was going to be relentless and make everybody run my pace. It was nice to be able to stretch out a comfortable lead, and then manage it. I’m happy to get this win for my team.”
Text：“YamahaMotorUSA” | Alton, VA - May 14, 2017
