FINAL ROUND/SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA/MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
DAYTONA SPORTBIKE
P82
AMA GOPRO DAYTONA SPORTBIKE SERIES
BY CHRIS MARTIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
T
he 2013 AMA Pro Daytona
SportBike season was
delivered a fitting conclusion at Laguna Seca in the form
of one final Cameron Beaubier
masterclass.
The AMA Superbike-bound
Y.E.S. Monster Graves Yamaha
star came into the finale having already locked up the title. A
painful crash in Saturday's qualifying session might have made it
tempting for Beaubier to consider sitting the race out or at least
taking it easy in the 20-lap race.
However, as Beaubier demonstrated throughout a campaign in
which he routinely overwhelmed
the competition, he's a self-motivated competitor who is unwilling
to allow his rivals any sort of opportunity to chip away at his hardearned place atop the pecking
order.
A number of up-and-comers,
most prominently Meen Motorsports' Jake Lewis, RoadRace
Factory's JD Beach, and Beaubier's Yamaha teammate Garrett
Gerloff, saw the Laguna Seca
round as an opportunity to not
only score a first-career Daytona
SportBike win, but also as one
last shot at Beaubier before he
graduated to the premier class.
Those three, along with the
Triumph-mounted duo of Jason
DiSalvo and Bobby Fong, came
out swinging early in the contest.
Meanwhile, a stiff and sore Beaubier slotted into sixth, falling as
ONE
MORE TIME
CAMERON BEAUBIER SHOWS
THEM HOW IT'S DONE AGAIN
much as 1.8 seconds off the lead
as the race took shape.
One could almost accuse
Beaubier - who has made a habit
of easing away at the start before
systematically working his way
forward - of giving his rivals false
hope if it weren't for his qualifying
fall.
But as the laps wound down,
Beaubier finally loosed up and
made his charge. He dropped
Gerloff to fourth with an inside
pass entering the Corkscrew on
