CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 55 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 P71
The Spaniard went 1-1 at Barber,
taking his eighth and ninth wins of
the season to put him one ahead
of title winner and Barber pole sit-
ter Beaubier, and cementing his
second place overall in the series.
His win in race two—the 25th of
his MotoAmerica career—puts him
equal with Ben Spies at fifth on the
all-time winner's list.
Starting seventh on the grid in
race one, Elias charged through
to a seven-second win over Josh
Herrin (Attack Performance/Herrin
Compound/Yamaha), the two both
ahead of Beaubier when he hit the
deck in spectacular fashion on the
14th of 21 laps. The 2018 series
champion was bashed and bruised
after the tumbling fall, but remount-
ed to gain second place in race two
behind Elias and maintain a touch of
championship pride.
Elias was concerned Herrin's
late-season speed would net him
second in the championship, saying
after race one, "After the mistake in
Pittsburgh, I was a little bit worried
about it because this guy [Herrin] is
fast in wet, he's fast in dry. So, my
second place in the championship
was not safe. A new setup we found
works perfectly for this tire and this
heat. We found something like we
didn't find before. I was pretty confi-
dent. Finally, the result confirms our
work."
Herrin led race one early but still
suffering the pain from a back injury
suffered at Laguna Seca in June
found the pace too strong, settling
for a safe second place.
"Yeah, I think I had to kind of go
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
T
he final round of MotoAmerica
2018 proved to be a Suzuki
benefit in a Yamaha season,
with Yoshimura Suzuki's Toni Elias
taking two wins to finish the cham-
pionship 51 points behind Monster
Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory
Racing's Cameron Beaubier.
In the Supersport class, Hayden
Gillim (Rickdiculous Racing Yama-
ha) finally scored a double victory
by a whisker over good friend JD
Beach (Monster Energy/Yamaha
Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha
Racing); Andrew Lee (RiderzLaw
Racing Kawasaki) capped off a
title-winning season with another
win in Stock 1000, as did Alex
Dumas (KTM Orange Brigade/JP43
Training KTM RC390) with a double
win in the Junior Cup. And Robert
McLendon III upset the pack by
claiming a debut MotoAmerica win
in the Twins class as the title went to
Chris Parrish.
Superbike
Toni Elias made good on his hope
of winning the most races of the
MotoAmerica Superbike season—
even if he didn't win the title.
Cameron Beaubier may
have won the war at the
previous round at New
Jersey, but Toni Elias
won the final battle of
MotoAmerica 2018 with a
resounding double win at
Barber Motorsports Park
Battles and Wars
