INTERVIEW
P124
AMA DAYTONA SPORTBIKE CHAMPION CAMERON BEAUBIER
He's also one of the most talked about riders in the U.S. When
the question comes up as to who
could be the next American that
could do something in MotoGP,
Beaubier is at the top of the list.
Not to say that there aren't other young talented American road
racers out there, but Beaubier
from Northern California has set
himself apart from the rest.
But it's not been an easy journey. Instead it's been one filled
with both the highs and lows of
racing, including the fact that
he was on the teetering edge of
being one of the many talented
riders out of a job because of a
troubled economy and the precarious state of motorsports
funding.
Fortunately, talent, perseverance, and support from family
and others who saw his potential
have kept him in the game.
At an early age, he showed a
lot of potential. He had a good
showing in the Honda Junior Supermoto Challenge (a class similar to what would be the Rookies Cup) that came about during
the zenith of Supermoto racing.
Beaubier joined the list of many
talented young riders, aged 1215, to qualify for the final: Mike
Alessi, JD Beach, Sammy Halbert, Tommy Aquino to name a
few - by winning the race at Copper Mountain. At that race he
bested two other talented racers
– newly crowned AMA Grand National Champion Brad Baker and
the 2012 WORCS Champion,
Taylor Robert.
Beaubier's background was in
motocross, but he got more serious with racing when he hit the
asphalt with Supermoto. Then,
in 2006, Beaubier started racing a Honda RS125 in WERA and
USPRU that his dad, Sean Herrera and Roland Cushway tuned.
Beaubier took to it pretty well,
winning a few races including the
first race he ever entered in USPRU.
But it was when he was chosen as one of three Americans
to be part of the inaugural Red
Bull Rookies Cup in the MotoGP
Championship that directed
more widespread attention to his
name.
It was Bret Milan, who worked
for Shoei at the time, who told
the Beaubiers about the Red Bull
Rookies Cup and that they were
taking applications.
"So we got accepted for the try
out, went over there and I just had
to learn the track really quick and
they took a liking to me and it was
really cool," Beaubier recalls.
"That year was awesome travelling around with JD [Beach] and
hanging out. It was awesome."
