Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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ROAD RACE MOTOAMERICA FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6 / JULY 20-22, 2018 UTAH MOTORSPORTS CAMPUS / TOOLE, UTAH P76 BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J NELSON C ameron Beaubier went into the sixth round of the 2018 Mo- toAmerica Superbike Champion- ship with a comfortable 29-point lead over defending champion, Toni Elias, after a stellar double victory at Laguna Seca last month. By the time he was getting ready to board the plane back home to Califor- nia, Beaubier had increased his title advantage to a massive 49 points after winning race two with four rounds and 200 points remaining, as Elias—who won race one to take Suzuki's 200th AMA Superbike victory—crucially crashed out while running second. Beaubier had earlier set the Super- pole time on his Monster Energy/Yama- lube/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 with a massive 0.703 second advantage over Elias (Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000) with M4 Ec- star Suzuki GSX-R1000 rider Jake Lewis third, 0.823 seconds off Beaubier. The first race distilled into a battle of the two talents who have had the run of the championship for the past three years, as Beaubier led Elias for the first 14 laps. The Spaniard sliced past at the end of the pit straight on lap 14, but Beaubier refused to give in, sticking strong to the back of the factory Suzuki and making the over-under pass halfway around the final lap to put himself on course for win number five in a row. Yet Elias wasn't finished. Two corners later the former Moto2 World Champion dived up the inside of Beaubier, who ran wide off track and later suffered a couple of small front-end losses in the final turn, sealing the win for Elias and Yoshimura Suzuki. Third went to Attack Performance Herrin Compound Yamaha YZF-R1's Josh Herrin from Garrett Gerl- off (Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha YZF-R1) and Lewis. "It is nice to get that 200th victory for Suzuki," Elias said. "We started off the weekend with a little Japanese- American barbecue (Elias referring to his flamed-out bike after a crash on Friday) but at the end, my team put the bike back together, so I could continue the plan. But I found a tough guy (in The Utah round may very well prove critical in the race for the 2018 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship as Cameron Beaubier put the screws to defending champ, Toni Elias TURN AND BURN