ROAD RACE
2017 MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING
ROUND 2 / APRIL 29-30, 2017
ROAD ATLANTA / ATLANTA, GEORGIA
P86
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J NELSON
A
t long last, it appears
we might have a rivalry
in MotoAmerica Super-
bike. It's been years since the
AMA Championship has heard
anything other than courteous
compliments between riders,
but now it looks like there's a bit
of simmering tension between
the two biggest riders in the
championship—current champ
Cameron Beaubier former
Moto2 World Champion Toni
Elias.
The southeast played host
to two dramatic races with the
country's best two-wheeled stal-
warts at the helm, a weekend
that saw a win apiece to Beau-
bier and Elias in some proper
hard bastard superbike racing.
Road Atlanta also saw Garret
Gerloff return to the top step
of Supersport in race one. In
Sunday's race two, we saw
the second career Supersport
victory to Frenchman Valentin
Debise in what was a red-letter
weekend for Team Hammer with
Nick McFadden taking double
trumps in the Superstock 600
category.
And in the KTM RC Cup, we
again saw a double victor in
Quarterley Racing/On Track
Development's Benjamin Smith.
SUPERBIKE/
SUPERSTOCK 1000
Cameron Beaubier (Monster
Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha
Factory Racing YZF-R1) took
the Superbike win in race one
on Saturday, Yoshimura Suzuki
Factory Racing's Toni Elias took
the win in race two on Sunday.
Sounds simple enough, right?
Not exactly.
The race was initially led by
Beaubier's teammate, Josh
Hayes, with Elias' teammate
Roger Hayden also making a
