Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/847300
VOL. 54 ISSUE 27 JULY 11, 2017 P83 RACING CHAMPIONSHIP My Own Race: 1 GARRETT GERLOFF 1ST SUPERSPORT "Man, it was tight," said Supersport winner Garrett Gerloff. "I was trying to get out front and ride my own race. And once I passed [Beach] I started protecting the inside because he likes to control the race flow and I wanted to do my own thing. And it worked once I got past him the second time. I just put in some good laps and the gap was yo-yoing a bit. The last lap I didn't need to push as hard but I still wanted a good lap. I thought [JD] was right there on the last corner, so that's why I went right to the inside, but I'm glad it worked out. The curbing here has a lot of grip, and I hit a seam and folded the front and picked it up on my knee—I don't want to do that anymore! I got a little bit of headshake and it pushed the pads back so I went for the brakes and they weren't there; I couldn't get the bike stopped and left a bit of rubber on JD's leathers!" 95 JD BEACH 2ND SUPERSPORT It was a change of pace for the Supersport racers, who only had one race, but runner-up JD Beach made the most of his time at Laguna. "'It's a weird one because we don't get much track time, but from Saturday to Sunday we closed the gap to Garrett a lot; we just didn't have the pace in the end," said Beach. "We made some good improvements, now we have a bit of a break and we can look forward to Sonoma. I kept closing a lot going into turn one but I'd lose it going out, so one lap I decided to back it up into one to try and get better drive, but at the same time Garrett went deeper into one and he pulled a little gap that I just couldn't close with two laps to go." 11 MATHEW SCHOLTZ 1-1 SUPERSTOCK 1000 "This was one of my favorite tracks," exclaimed Mathew Sholtz, whose enthu- siasm was marked by his 1-1 sweep of the Superstock 1000 class. "I was really looking forward to coming here. At some of the previous rounds we were looking to try and get the outright pace instead of setting up for the full race length, and this weekend, we really focused on putting 20 laps on the tires and making sure we were consistent. Both of the races I had a pretty decent jump off the line and I put my head down and charged and fortunately got the win in both heats. I'm looking forward to the break now—I'm heading back to South Africa with my girl- friend so that'll be nice to enjoy the summer break with the championship lead. It feels like this Yamaha is finally a bike that suits me." 4 JOSH HAYES DNF-4 SUPERBIKE "Umm… the weekend was less than ideal," said a rather dejected Josh Hayes. "It was a very tough weekend, and I don't have a lot of answers right now. Having just come off the track I feel more hurt, not physically, but I need to give myself some time to relax, exhale, debrief and come up with some answers. I told a friend of mine if I were at the tennis courts right now I'd have smashed every rac- quet in the bag, put it behind my car and backed over it in the parking lot. That's how I feel right now, but superbikes are a little expensive to do that. I got some regrouping to do." 1 CAMERON BEAUBIER 3-DNF SUPERBIKE Defending champion Cameron Beaubier started off his weekend with a podium finish, but on Sunday his luck took a turn for the worse. "I got a pretty good start today, and I felt a lot better than I did yesterday. So, I was able to get past Herrin and then Toni, and I started chipping away at Roger's lead. I felt like I had a good pace going, and I was catching Rog. I was looking for a way around him, but he was riding really well. Coming out of the Corkscrew, I went a little wide in Rainey Corner in order to set myself up to try to make a pass on Rog in Turn 10, but I lost