Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013 Cameron Beaubier won his 12th Daytona SportBike race of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the Yamaha star bouncing back from a knee and ankle injury suffered in practice to do so. lap 10. He then moved into second with a carbon-copy maneuver on Beach four laps later. Next Beaubier sized up the on-form Lewis, capitalizing on Lewis' wide line through turn two to snatch away the lead with less than three laps remaining. Lewis attempted to counter, but Beaubier simply proved too solid to effectively attack. The win was Beaubier's 12th in 13 races in 2013, adding to his single-season Daytona SportBike wins record. He also earned every pole on the year, including the last six with record-breaking laps, underlining his complete domination of the class in 2013. "I had a pretty good crash [Saturday] and destroyed the bike and tweaked my knee and ankle a little bit," Beaubier said. "I iced it down last night and took some ibuprofen. This morning I was pretty stiff in the warm-up. I didn't really know what to expect for the race. I kind of slotted in and everyone was going really fast at the beginning. I just followed them and towards the end I started getting more comfortable. My knee was hurting a little bit through the race, but I was able to track Jake down... I just put my head down on the last lap and was able to come home for the win." While the race appeared to follow the script set by the patient Beaubier, he admitted it wasn't quite as simple as that under his helmet. "I was actually kind of stressing out because they were going fast and I just didn't have a good flow going," he said. "I just tried to relax and start moving through." The runner-up result completed an eye-opening conclusion to the season for Lewis, who emerged as Beaubier's stiffest challenger over the last few races. "I got off to a great start behind JD and DiSalvo," Lewis said. "I wasn't sure if they were on the soft tire, but their pace was really fast and I wanted to stick right there with them. I slowly made my way past them and settled into a good rhythm. Out front it was hard to stay focused and my pit board said, '+0' every lap. "Cameron did what he did all year - he took his time and slowly made his way to the front. I think with three or four laps to go he passed me. At that point, I felt like I had the pace to win still. I kind of made a mistake with two laps to go and after that I was just thinking I didn't need to pitch it away after this good race I've had going on and 'Rookie of the Year' was in the back of my mind." Lewis' strong finish saw him edge National Guard/Celtic Racing's James Rispoli for top rookie honors. The two came into Laguna Seca equal in points, but P83 Briefly... Chris Fillmore is happy with the season the KTM/HMC team has had in 2013. "It has been a good year," Fillmore said after qualifying fourth on the factory KTM RC8R on Saturday. "It's been consistently better and consistent for the first time in a long time. There are some tracks that we struggle at a little bit, but for sure overall we have been faster at every single track that we've gone to this year and I want to put the nail in the coffin here at the last race and show everybody what we can do and what we've been working on all year. It's cool. I wanted to come in here and get on the podium and yesterday it was looking like that and starting on the front row. Hopefully, I still have a chance here and obviously that's been the goal of mine and KTM's for the whole season. Right now I think we're in a position to have our best shot at it." Fillmore had the KTM in third place on the final lap when it ran out of gas on the run to the checkered flag. He pushed the RC8R across the line in seventh place. Fillmore said the KTM was much improved with the new tire Dunlop brought to the race and later pulled. "The new tire immediately calmed the whole bike down, Fillmore said. "It was what we were looking for. We made some changes from the last two races since we've been here and I think we're making the right progress with the bike. With the tire, it was pretty magic. Unfortunately, they [Dunlop] are taking all those back so it throws a wrench in the plan for the race. I think it's the same for everybody so hopefully we can just run like we did the last time we were here and be consistent." continued on next page

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