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/970089
ROAD RACE ROUND 1 / APRIL 13-15, 2018 ROAD ATLANTA / BRASELTON, GA P78 MOTOAMERICA CHAMPIONSHIP Bobby Fong (50) went fourth in race one in his Yamaha debut. thought that was the time to con- tinue pushing to the end. My sur- prise was when Mathew passed me. He was doing a good job. At that moment, I thought, 'Man, this is not good.' My pace was good. It was time to push, and I was doing that all the time, so at the end it was perfect." Scholtz proved last year's season-ending race two win at Barber Motorsports Park was no flash in the pan as he ran Elias hard, ultimately settling for his second podium in a row in sec- ond place. "I'm very, very happy," he said. "I finished quite a few seconds behind Toni, which, being right there until the last couple of laps was good, but being there at the end is something that we need to work on." Monster Energy/Yamalube/ Yamaha Factory Racing's Garrett Gerloff capped what had been an impressive debut Superbike ride to date by qualifying in fifth and racing to third, albeit 12.9 seconds down on Elias at the flag but 9.5 sec- onds clear of fourth-placed Bobby Fong (Quicksilver/Lexin Moto/ off to a bad start by crashing on the opening lap, although he did remount and charge back to ninth to salvage seven champion- ship points. The same bad luck befell Elias' Yoshiumra Suzuki team- mate Roger Hayden, another early crasher, but the Kentuckian bashed his GSX-R up to the point where he was unable to continue and recorded a DNF. Tenth in race one went to Josh Herrin (Attack Performance/Her- rin Compound Yamaha), although his was a somewhat hindered race as the home rider had to use his track bike, a Yamaha YZF-R1S, that was hastily put into race trim because his real Hudson Motorcycles Yamaha). "I was a little nervous, but I thought I had a good pace today," Gerloff said. "We've done a lot of testing, so I'm comfort- able on the Superbike. I'm glad that I got to see what [Elias and Scholtz] were doing in first and second, but they had a pretty good gap over me." With Fong coming home fourth, fifth went to Jake Lewis (M4 Ecstar Suzuki) ahead of Kyle Wyman (KWR Yamaha) from Danny Eslick (Scheibe Racing BMW) and David Anthony (Fly Street Racing Kawasaki). For two-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier, his 2018 season got