ROAD RACE
MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 8 / JULY 10, 2016
LAGUNA SECA / MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
P76
SUPERBIKE/SUPERSTOCK 1000
In what has proved to be the pattern of the
season, the two Laguna Seca Superbike
races were distilled to a battle of blue bikes
as the factory Yamahas and Suzukis went
head to head at this most famous of venues,
the Yamaha men coming out on top on both
occasions.
It was hard not to feel sorry for Josh Hayes
in race one after the veteran four-time Mo-
toAmerica Superbike Champion did the ma-
jority of the donkey work out front, only to lose
out to a smart-riding Cameron Beaubier with
two laps to go. Current number-one Beau-
bier bided his time as Yoshimura Suzuki's
Toni Elias and Hayes went at each other with
everything but the kitchen sink. The Spaniard
was dive-bombing Hayes time and again into
the ultra-tight turn two with Hayes eventually
christening him "the Spanish Scud Missile."
Beaubier kept his powder dry and when
another dive-bomb went wrong for Elias and
caused the Spaniard to run wide, Beaubier
was up to second with three laps to go, and in
the lead a lap later.
Hayes eventually finished third after Elias
ran him high in turn two with one lap remain-
ing to steal the second spot on the podium.
"I feel okay because I push to the maxi-
mum, as always, and, like playing cards, I go
all in," said Elias. "I lose this time, but I can be
happy with how I ride. Today was very tough."
Roger Hayden was in the mix for half of the
race until he lost the front end of his factory
GSX-R at the entry to turn two, crashing out
of the race.
It was much the same in race two, with
Elias, Beaubier and Hayes once again clear-
ing off from the field. Hayden kept it on two
wheels this time but simply didn't have the
pace of the leading trio, Elias again, dive-
bombing past the factory Yamahas on multiple
occasions into turn two, and running wide
nearly every time.
The Superstock 1000
action was intense
and Claudio Corti
(71) made more than
just a statement by
winning race two.
