In Sunday’s Superbike Race 2 from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, things looked promising for two-time and defending MotoAmerica Champion Cameron Beaubier and his teammate and four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes. Their race started off well, with both riders near the front of the pack. Cameron worked himself into second, and was closing on Roger Hayden in the lead, when he suffered a tipover in Rainey Curve, which is the first turn after Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s famous “Corkscrew.”
Josh rode a solid, but quiet, race where he battled for position early on with Josh Herrin and Cameron, but then, he settled into fourth position and maintained it all the way to the end.
“I got a pretty good start today, and I felt a lot better than I did yesterday,” Cameron said. “Josh (Herrin) got by me early, Toni (Elias) was in front of me, and I saw Roger (Hayden) getting away at the front. So, I was able to get past Herrin and then Toni, and I started chipping away at Roger’s lead. I felt like I had a good pace going, and I was catching Rog. I was looking for a way around him, but he was riding really well. Coming out of the Corkscrew, I went a little wide in Rainey Corner in order to set myself up to try to make a pass on Rog in Turn 10, but I lost the front. I was able to pick up my bike again and get going, but I only managed to do so much because my handlebars were bent.
"So, now, we’ve got a break. I’m looking forward to going home and working on getting stronger. Next, we’re going to Sonoma, which is even closer to my home than Laguna, so I will have a lot of family and friends there. We haven’t raced at Sonoma in couple of years, so it’ll be great to be there again.”
Josh commented, “After a less-than-ideal weekend, I’m currently struggling to come up with a good answer as to what went wrong. I was definitely missing something this weekend, and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board. Luckily, we have five weeks to figure it out. I believe in my crew, and we’ll work hard to find an answer before Sonoma.”
TEXT：YamahaMotorUSA
