ROAD RACE
MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1 / CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
AUSTIN, TEXAS / APRIL 10, 2016
P66
Superbike/Superstock 1000
Riding stand-in for the injured
Jake Lewis at Yoshimura Suzuki,
it was a case of good fortune
and great riding that shifted Elias
onto the top step of the podium.
A red flag, due to Kyle Wyman's
Yamaha YZF-R1 grenading
itself down the back straight,
brought a stop to race one while
Yoshimura Suzuki teammate
Roger Hayden was over two
seconds up the road in the lead.
This resulted in a five-lap dash
to the flag, and after Elias had
a broken sensor on his Suzuki
fixed during the oil clean up, he
busted through the pack for his
first MotoAmerica win in his very
first start.
In race two however, Elias
had to do it the old fashioned
way, taking the lead from Roger
Hayden with 13 laps left to run
and streaking away to his sec-
ond win of the weekend.
Hayden kept his teammate
honest in the second race but
had no answer for the late race
speed of the Spaniard, finishing
behind in second. He was philo-
sophical about the race one red
flag incident, admitting, "Some-
times they help, sometimes not.
This time, not.
"In the second race, Toni's
pace was incredible and the
last couple of laps I was sliding
around too much. But I'm really
Elias (24) leads
defending champ
Cameron Beaubier
(1), who had a
terrible start to his
title defense.
