Cycle News

AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 52 ISSUE 29 JULY 21, 2015 P107 checkers but he left the door open and Beaubier showed no mercy, taking the win by .084 of a second, and more importantly, bringing the championship back to a stalemate. "I'm glad I redeemed myself after race one," Beaubier said. "I pretty much got schooled by Josh out there. It wasn't too fun. I just struggled a little bit right at the beginning. Half wet, half dry conditions [race one], that was tough on me. Second race I At first that answer was rather subtle. Hayes led the way. Yoshimura Suzuki's Roger Hayden latched on and wouldn't let Hayes put on his disappearing act. Hayden eventually got past Hayes and when it looked like maybe it might be Hayden's time, Beau- bier caught up, passed his teammate and then eventually Hayden. Hayden tried one last time in the final corner before the yesterday. I just can't thank them enough for that. I'm going to go back and see what I can change for the second race and get some confidence back going into race two and go for it." RETURNING SERVE Those doubters that looked at race one and thought, 'man, that Beaubier kid sure blew his shot at impressing the world stage by getting whooped by Hayes,' well, Beaubier had an answer for that. HECKLES FIRST It was another case of youth versus experience in the Superstock 1000 class. And as with Superbike, tire choice was key. So in the first of the two combined MotoAmerica Super- bike/Superstock 1000 races at Laguna Seca, Ryder's Alley Racing's Mark Heckles made the choice to go with slicks and came out on top to take his first win in the championship. The 39-year-old from Liverpool, England, raced at Laguna Seca in the World Super- bike Championship 13 years ago, and he was overjoyed with his win. "Thirteen-years ago I was getting lapped and I was doing the lapping today," Heckles said. "That's real nice. It's been a great week. We've been fast all weekend." As for the tire selection, he gave credit to an inside tip from a fellow Brit—World Superbike points leader Johnny Rea. "We didn't really roll the dice," he said. "I went to see Johnny Rea before the race and I got to thank him. I said, 'If you were racing in 10 minutes what tires would you put on? And he said slicks. So I've got a big thanks to Johnny coming. Maybe a couple of beers tonight, you never know." Joining Heckles on the podium was Atom Racing's Steve Rapp. The longtime AMA Superbike regular made his MotoAmerica debut at Laguna Seca and he was happy to land on the podium so quickly with his new team, especially after missing most of the season. "I got to be honest with you, I really didn't expect it," Rapp said. "When you come into a championship like this every- one, else has had got the whole year to get things dialed in and it's really hard. You're behind the eight ball the whole time. "I've had a lot of experi- ence in these conditions before and I did the parade lap on the rains and I knew right from the get-go there was no way it was going to work. So I pulled in the pit lane, threw on the slicks and I didn't know if I was going to make it through the first couple laps, but I knew if I did it would be a lot better. So it worked out." TOBC Yamaha's Taylor Knapp was third, which helped him close the gap on series-points leader Jake Gagne on the RoadRace Factory Yamaha. Gagne made the wrong choice with tires and finished back in sixth. In fourth was GN Gonzales Racing Yamaha's Tyler O'Hara ahead of San Jose BMW's Cory Call. Northern Californian Tyler O'Hara also chose wets and was running up front early on his Chisum/Motul Racing Yamaha. It didn't last long as he crashed after passing Beaubier for second, but he was able to remount and finish seventh in the class. Yamalube/Westby Racing's Josh Day was eighth ahead of HSBK Racing Aprilia's Sheridan Morais. Rounding out the top 10 was Oleg Pianykh on the Moto- station Yamaha. Mark Heckles shined in the race one mixed conditions to score his first win in the championship.

• Cover