SUPERBIKE
AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUNDS 3-4/MAY 31-JUNE 1, 2014
ROAD AMERICA/ELKHART LAKE, WISCONSIN
P36
GENERATIONAL CONFLICT
The two settled in for a straight
fight to the checkered flag at
Road America on Saturday after
breaking the challenge of Yo-
shimura Suzuki's Martin Carde-
nas just short of the race's mid-
point. In genuine Mladin/Spies
fashion, the two opened up more
than 15 seconds to third by the
time their fight concluded, with
nearly a half-minute of separation
back to fourth.
Hayes showed his mettle
when he clawed his way out of
a .963-of-a-second deficit, capi-
talizing on a minor mistake from
Beaubier entering turn one on
lap nine. Beaubier made a big-
ger mistake entering turn five that
same lap and handed Hayes a
healthy 1.6-second advantage
with just four laps remaining in
the 13-lap race.
However, the Superbike prod-
igy demonstrated his superior
pace, reeled that gap back in,
and sliced by his vastly-more
experienced teammate entering
turn one on the race's final lap.
BEAUBIER GETS FIRST AMA SUPERBIKE POLE
A new qualifying procedure
similar to the ones utilized in
MotoGP and World Superbike
was introduced to the AMA Su-
perbike class at Road America.
In the AMA's version, the top
12 riders following Qualifying 1
and Qualifying 2 advance to a
shootout session in which the
front four rows of the grid are
determined.
While the knockout-style
procedure didn't actually do
much knocking out (only 15 Superbikes were in the
field at Road America), the brief session did add a bit of
urgency to final qualifying.
During the 15 minutes allotted,
rookie Cameron Beaubier turned
four laps at speed. His final three
were all more than two tenths
quicker than anyone else man-
aged during the session. And his
pole time of 2:12.437 was over
fourth tenths faster than Josh
Hayes' best (2:12.869) and nearly
a second quicker than the time
of final front-row qualifier Roger
Hayden (2:13.419).
The pole was the first of Beau-
bier's young AMA Superbike career.
"I'm really happy about it," he said. "At Daytona, Rog
[Hayden] got me. I just want to continue my pace."
Sunday's race
turned into a
debacle, but Hayes
(4) was able to
keep his slick-
shod R1 upright
to take the win
and keep himself
in championship
contention.
