MotoAmerica Heats Up Utah
MotoAmerica road racing resumed at Utah Motorsports Park this past weekend after a brief summer break. The temps were hot, and so was the racing.
In the Superbike 1000 class, 2017 defending champion Toni Elias took race one after crashing and burning his bike in qualifying, in what he termed “a little Japanese-American barbecue.” After a rebuild, Elias stalked then pounced on two-time champ Cameron Beaubier in the closing laps of race one, breaking Beaubier’s four-race win streak and claiming a historic 200th victory for Suzuki in AMA/MotoAmerica road racing. 2013 AMA Superbike champion Josh Herrin rounded out the podium.
Supersport 600, Valentin Debise was sidelined with mechanical issues, so the battle for the front ensued between points leader JD Beach and Hayden Gillim. In the end, Beach took the checkered with Gillim and Cory West taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Liqui Moly Junior Cup saw points leader Alex Dumas notch his 6th victory, besting Ashton Yates and Cory Ventura to the finish line.
Twins Cup leader Chris Parrish claimed his 2nd win and 5th podium of the season, topping Danielle Diaz and Justin Filice to the finish line.
Sunday saw many podium shake-ups, in all classes.
In Superbike, Beaubier jumped to an early lead and never gave it up, leaving Elias to give chase then crash out on the 6th lap. The battle for 2nd ensued between Jake Lewis, Roger Hayden, Garrett Gerloff and Mathew Scholtz, with Gerloff and Lewis filling out the podium in the end. Beaubier leads the championship with 248 points and cracks the top 4 in total AMA/MotoAmerica wins with 28.
Supersport witnessed another epic battle between JD Beach and Valentin Debise, with Beach once again edging out the French challenger. Hayden Gillim crashed out, opening the door for Braeden Ortt to take the third spot on the podium. Beach now holds an 82-point lead in the championship.
Junior Cup saw two new riders to the circuit take podium spots in race two from the veterans. Brazilian Renzo Ferreira had stepped in over the weekend to ride for Quarterley Racing and took the checkered, while Jay Newton claimed 2nd, bumping current points leader Alex Dumas to 3rd.
Stock 1000 also witnessed a podium shakeup, with weekend warrior and full-time realtor Chad Lewin notching the win in his first-ever MotoAmerica race, besting points leader Andrew Lee by about half a second to the line. Local club racing champ Oleg Pianykh, who literally built his OPR Yamaha just in time to compete, took the 3rd spot on the podium. Lewin, who lost both his parents about three years ago, stated, “This is for my mom and my dad, so I hope they’re proud. Back to work tomorrow to sell some houses.”
MotoAmerica racing moves on to round 7 August 15-17 at Sonoma Raceway, California. Check out MotoAmerica.com for tickets and details, tune in via BeIN Sports USA for broadcast action, and BeIN Sports on YouTube for race archives.
Rob Brooks