AMA SUPERBIKE SERIES
VOL. 51 ISSUE 11 MARCH 18, 2014 P45
ferently in turn one. He'd been
tipped off earlier in the week by
friends.
"I kinda had an idea that's
how he was riding down there,"
Hayes said. "I had some friends
who were out watching and just
telling me the difference between
us and also the guys had told me
some differences in brake pres-
sure and things like that. I knew
he was doing it different than
me; I just didn't quite know how.
There's a reason I don't go out
there. Not only is it high risk be-
cause it's off-camber out there,
but it leaves a big hole out there.
He's going to have to learn how
to adapt because when you're
taking three Superbikes in there
you're moving over 200 mph ver-
sus your 600 going 175. It's a
pretty big difference in trying to
slow them down, but he's a smart
kid and he'll figure it out."
Turns out, Hayes was right.
Beaubier did figure it out. He
tried outside maybe once in the
second race, but didn't make any
mistakes in racing to victory. He
gave credit to a spring change on
the rear of his R1.
"We made a little spring
change and went a little stiffer on
the rear shock which was better
when the tire was fresh, but when
it went off I was sliding around
pretty good," Beaubier said. "I
couldn't drive off the corners
quite as well as everyone else.
I'm really lucky my bike had some
steam on these guys. They were
riding really good and I'm looking
forward to going to some road
courses."
Nothing Came Easy
Although he was hanging at the
back of the four-rider battle for
the lead in the first Superbike
race on Friday, Cardenas was
struggling. He was gritting his
teeth and was over his head in
keeping pace. That rarely works
and the Colombian found himself
on the deck.
"This weekend has not been
very good to me because the
bike was very difficult to ride,"
Cardenas said. "Yesterday in the
race we made a wrong choice
on setup and it had no grip and it
was making a very big arc on the
corners. That time I tried to tight-
en it up a little bit and immediately
lost the front. Yesterday I couldn't
run the pace of those guys. I was
struggling a lot with the bike."
Things got better on Saturday,
but he knew he didn't have the
pace to win.
"Today's race was much better
than yesterday," the Yosh rider
said. "The bike worked much
better for me. It was a good bat-
tle for the whole race until Hayes
had a problem and had to retire,
but then it was just Cameron,
Roger and I. The last few laps
we passed a few times and I was
positioned in third and thinking
of making a run in the draft, but
it wasn't possible today. I think it
was a good result for me consid-
ering yesterday's race. "
What's The Point?
Beaubier not only won his first
career Superbike race, he also
left Daytona with the champion-
ship points lead – albeit by just a
single point over Hayden, 51-50.
Yosh Boys: Hayden (95) came within a combined
margin of .115 of a second of winning both
Superbike races at Daytona. Cardenas (36)
crashed and remounted for 12
th
on Friday and
then finished third on Saturday.
