SUPERBIKE/SUPERSTOCK 1000
MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN
ROUND 2/APRIL 19, 2015
ROAD ATLANTA/BRASELTON, GEORGIA
P106
>>MOTOAMERICA? RIDERS SAY ALL THE RIGHT MOVES
Things are far from perfect. In its
first stand-alone event, MotoAmerica
experienced some ups and downs.
Rider participation is down, particu-
larly glaring in Superbike. Fan turnout
was not strong, although that could
largely be attributed to a terrible
weather weekend. There are predict-
able teething issues with a new timing
and scoring system and website, but
from the riders' perspective Mo-
toAmerica officials made all the right
moves at Road Atlanta. It's obvious
that the riders are giving wide latitude
to the new group running professional
road racing in America.
But if ever there was a challenging
weekend that could have exposed
weakness in the new team, Road
Atlanta was it. On again and off again
rain all weekend, torrential downpours
on Sunday that resulted in track flood-
ing. Where riders in the past have
voiced concerns over racing in the rain
at Road Atlanta, there was nary a word
about it this weekend. One reason
was MotoAmerica took its time on
Sunday, didn't have live TV timeframes
to worry about, so it waited out the
bad weather and flooding and still got
the program in, albeit with reduced
laps.
"They made perfect calls all week-
end," Cameron Beaubier said when
asked about MotoAmerica's perfor-
mance. "They didn't send us out in any
dodgy conditions. They got the water
cleaned up in [turn] five the best they
could and I felt like in both races the
Rookie Jake
Lewis earned his
first Superbike
podiums, finish-
ing 3-2 over the
weekend.
