Cameron Beaubier Matches Josh Hayes’ All-Time Win Total Across All Classes With Win #89 At Road Atlanta.
Cameron Beaubier is now tied with Josh Hayes atop the all-time win list across all AMA road race classes, with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion racing to his 89th career victory on Sunday at Road Atlanta. The win was his third of the young season and his 68th career AMA Superbike victory.
Beaubier and his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR nailed the holeshot and wasted little time gapping the field, ending his weekend with two victories – one in the rain on Saturday, and today’s race in the dry.
The man who came closest to matching Beaubier was Bobby Fong, with the Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing rider clawing into Beaubier’s lead mid-race and keeping the pressure on to the finish, where he eventually ended up 2.3 seconds behind at the completion of 19 laps.
Fong was safe in second, with some 10 seconds in hand over Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin, who matched his third-place finish from Saturday. Fong, meanwhile, was 11th in the rain on Saturday after crashing and remounting.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly was fourth, some three seconds behind Herrin and another three seconds ahead of Fong’s teammate Jake Gagne. Gagne, who finished a close second to Beaubier in the rain on Saturday, had his hands full in the closing laps with Kelly’s teammate Richie Escalante.
Escalante ended up just .197 of a second behind Gagne at the finish line.
A day after earning his career-best Superbike finish of fifth, FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith raced to seventh on Sunday, holding off the fast-closing twosome of Hondas ridden by Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates and Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim. Yates and Gillim came up a bit short and finished eighth and ninth, respectively.
Tenth place went to Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach, who in the process kept his perfect Superbike Cup record intact with a fourth straight victory.
With two rounds and four races in the books, Beaubier leads Gagne by 23 points, 95-72. Herrin is third with 59 points, three more than Fong. Kelly rounds out the top five with 52 points.
Superbike Race 2
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- Benjamin Smith (Yamaha)
- Ashton Yates (Honda)
- Hayden Gillim (Honda)
- JD Beach (Honda)
Cameron Beaubier – Winner
“Today being able to win with a little gap there felt awesome. It seems like this place brings good racing, good battles. It’s hard to get away from people here in the past compared to other tracks. So, I was pretty happy with being able to run away a little bit at the beginning. I was looking at the timesheets and I knew Bob (Fong) had really good pace on used stuff every dry session we did. He showed it there. Towards the end of the race, he was bringing that gap down. Truthfully, I was in management mode a little bit, but when I tried to start going again, the gap wasn’t opening. If anything, it was staying the same or coming back down. So, hats off to Bob. Hats off to Josh (Herrin). They ran really good. It’s going to be a long, tough season. I’d say especially yesterday that race felt so good for me, getting the first win on the BMW in the wet, especially after the struggles we’ve had on the thing the last couple years in the wet. So, overall, amazing weekend. Awesome to have my wife and kid here, running amok in the pits. It’s been a fun weekend.”
Bobby Fong – Second Place
“It’s cool to get on the podium. It would be nice to get my teammate up here. Two Yamahas would be nice. But battling with these two guys, I think it’s going to be a long year. It’s going to be a lot of fighting with (Josh) Herrin and Cam (Beaubier), and I’m sure Jake (Gagne) is going to be up there along with them four guys. It’s cool to get some points. I’ve always done pretty well here over the years even though I definitely dislike this place as well. But we’re going to keep the ball rolling. I definitely made a step in the wet from last year. I’m definitely happy about at least yesterday, our forward momentum in the wet. We’re just going to do some work from here to Road America, and then we got possibly some concessions on the Yamaha. Hopefully, it will pay off a little bit at Road America. But I’m happy with the team, honestly. On a Sunday leaving to the airport, it’s a nice feeling knowing that you had a decent Sunday. There’s no worse feeling going to the airport and you had a sh*&^ weekend. It’s nice to put the Progressive Yamaha up here.”
Josh Herrin – Third Place
“I don’t want to be finishing third, but leaving the second race way, way better off than we were last year makes me happy. I want to do better and want to get closer to Cam and Bobby, but you got to take what you get sometimes and be happy with it. I almost threw it away there in the chicane. I was really frustrated with myself but luckily was able to put it back on track and pull back away from SDK (Sean Dylan Kelly). I think the team and I both… I think they expected a little bit more this weekend, but this has never been a track that I just went well at without really trying super hard. So, it’s not just one of those tracks that comes easy to me on this bike. So, for me, I was just wanting to survive the first two rounds and to leave here with as many points as we have, and especially to climb back and get two podium finishes in the rain now after two years of a lot of struggling in the rain feels super good. I know that we have that in our back pocket now, so I’m not going to be stressing out if there’s bad weather coming in the forecast. I’m just excited to keep going for the rest of the season. I think the only track that I kind of have a question mark in my head for this bike is VIR, but every other track we seem to roll good at. I’m excited to keep going. Got a lot on my mind this coming month because the twins are due in about a month. It’s getting pretty stressful. But try to go back and put in as much work as we can and be ready for Road America.”
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