FEATURE I AMERICAN RACING TEAM
P74
Now in its fourth season in
the intermediate category of
MotoGP, much is expected of
the American Racing Team and
in particular, Beaubier, in 2022.
With a year under his belt and
some notable performances, in-
cluding his breakout ride in front
of his home fans at Circuit of The
Americas, he knows it's time to
make that final step and become
a permanent front runner in
arguably the most competitive
championship in the world.
"I'm just stoked to get that first
year out of my way. I've learned a
lot," Beaubier said matter-of-fact-
ly. "Increasing the comfortability
has been important. I wouldn't
say I'm totally comfortable; defi-
nitely not like when I was riding
my superbike at home, but way
better than we started the year
last year. I know what I'm getting
myself into. I know the bike I'm
riding. I know most of the tracks,
and I feel like I'm slowly adapting
my style to this bike."
Beaubier's career has predomi-
nately been on production-based
machinery, with the Californian
taking five MotoAmerica Super-
bike Championship victories in six
seasons for the factory Yamaha
team. However, a Moto2 bike is
vastly different to a superbike, in
more ways than one.
"On the superbike, it has so
much decel [deceleration] and
you can do so much with the rear
of the bike. The electronics were
so advanced that you could have
the engine brake do exactly what
you want in going into a corner.
You could rely on traction control
as a barrier, so you could be
aggressive with the bike, and the
chassis was so much less rigid
than a Moto2 bike.
"On a superbike, you crank
the thing over on its side, carry
a bunch of lean angle and carve
through the corner. You don't
necessarily have to hang off that
much, but the way these things
[Moto2 machines] are you can't
lean the thing over as far. I don't
know if it's the chassis or if it's
the larger front wheel or tire, but
you have to pick the bike up,
Beaubier's breakout ride at COTA for the Red Bull Grand Prix of
The Americas proved he could run the front runner's pace.
