ROAD RACING
NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 6 / JULY 12-14, 2019
LAGUNA SECA / MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
P66
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
T
he MotoAmerica Superbike Champi-
onship boys put on a show at Laguna
Seca, with two thrilling races in stark
contrast to the processional WorldSBK races
held over the same weekend.
It would turn out to be a golden weekend
for both Toni Elias and Garrett Gerloff, but
it would be Elias who would strike first with
Saturday race win.
Elias would cross the stripe for the race
one win 0.778 seconds ahead of Garrett Ger-
loff (Monster Energy Yamaha), with Gerloff's
teammate and reigning champion Cameron
Beaubier coming home third, 2.5 seconds
from Elias.
The win would hand Elias a 35-point
championship lead over Beaubier heading
into Sunday's race two.
"It's been a really nice day," Elias said after
the win. "Yesterday, we tried many ways to
understand what we need here. We know
from earlier years, but every year is different.
So today we put everything together. From
the first lap, it was so good. I was super con-
fident for the race. I know Cameron had an
incredible few laps here because every time
he'd go in, he was struggling on the first lap,
Toni
Gerloff
with
points
That First-Time
Feeling
