Cycle News

AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 22 JUNE 3, 2014 P37 From there Beaubier was inch- perfect and Hayes was unable to find any way back through. The three-time champ was forced to watch as his rookie teammate hit the stripe just three tenths before him. Beaubier's Saturday win and pole combination put an end to two straight years of Hayes' Wis- consin weekend sweeps, while snapping his streak of five con- secutive wins at Road America. "Josh has this place dialed," Beaubier said after the race. "Coming into this weekend I knew I was going to have to do everything I could just to stay on pace with him. To come out like I did… I can't think of a better day. That was probably the best race of my career right there." Runner-up Hayes admitted, "I thought I was going to be okay there for a little while but he closed the gap immediately." Colombian Martin Cardenas picked up a lonely third while Yoshimura teammate Roger Hayden was an even lonelier fourth. "The race was pretty good - especially the first part," Carde- nas said. "The last half I lost contact with the guys - they were faster than me. I did the best I could but I didn't have anything for them in the second half of the race." ADR Motorsports' David An- thony outlasted third Yoshimura man Chris Clark to take the final spot in the top five and keep his run of 2014 top fives intact. NOT SO FAST Following his impressive Satur- day showing, Beaubier looked well capable of setting himself apart in the early-season title fight on Sunday. If he had dou- bled at Road America, Beaubier Briefly... ings and is only seven points out of third. "It was a really good weekend," Beach said. "Not as good as Jake's [Gagne], but it was a lot of fun. We had a third and a second. The team's worked really hard. We've still got a bit to go to race with Jake. I had a good battle with Dane [Westby, in Sunday's race]. Going into Barber I know my team's going to work really hard and we'll see what we can do." Daytona SportBike's one-bike rule was put to the test at Road America when two of the championship's leading contenders demolished their bikes in crashes. Garrett Gerl- off trashed one of his Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha in the high-speed carousel in qualifying. Gagne talked about the incident. "I hit some bumps and tucked the front end," said Gagne, who won this race last year. "I was off the bike, but the bike kind of turned and the tires caught and it kicked up and hit me in the chest pretty hard. I couldn't breathe for 30 seconds. I thought I broke some ribs or some- thing." Since the frame was broken Gerloff was allowed to use a new motorcycle. The same goes for Day- tona 200 winner Danny Eslick, who put his Riders Discount Racing Tri- umph Daytona 675R into the wall in Saturday's race. He ran a completely new machine Sunday. According to one AMA Pro Racing official, intermediate tires were available for the Superbike teams after Sunday's red-flag stop. Even though the track was largely dry on the restart, radar readings showed rain was imminent. Surprisingly none of the team managers decided to mount intermediates for the second leg of the race. Martin Cardenas (36) leads Hayes (4) and Beaubier (2) early in Saturday's race. Cardenas would finish behind the two Yamahas in third place.

• Cover