Cameron Beaubier led every lap to win the eighth Superbike race of his career at the picturesque Elkhart Lake circuit in Wisconsin. His victory this Saturday puts him tied with his former teammate Josh Hayes for second place on the Road America list. If Beaubier wins the second race this Sunday, it will be his ninth victory, tying him with Mat Mladin for the most first places.
Cameron Beaubier:
" I don't know ", Beaubier said when asked if it was the best race he has ever had in his career. “We have taken a big step forward, I feel, in terms of the chassis, the electronics, and a little bit of the engine. Everything is working. »
“I feel so good on this machine. I don't want to jinx it. I just want to keep things moving forward. I had fun. We managed to beat our records during the preparatory tests at Buttonwillow. It was great to work with the whole team. Everyone gathered together. It was great. »
“So I finally got off to a good start. I had a few good laps at the start. Then I saw my gap widen a little. I just kept my head down and tried to ride as consistently as possible. Everything is working great at the moment. »
“It’s one of my favorite podiums, with my two friends on the podium with me. It's really good. But I'm definitely ready for things to get back to normal. It's a bit strange not having any fans and having to keep your distance from your team after getting a good result. I'm so motivated to race. Everything is fine. »
Matthew Scholtz:
“My departure was terrible, as usual,” Scholtz said. “I’ve gotten a little used to it now. But it actually worked well for me. We missed quite a bit of track time in practice on Friday, so I kind of got behind (Bobby) Fong and (Jake) Gagne, which allowed me to see what they were doing during both first rounds. »
“I think it really helped me understand a couple of things. Once I got behind them I saw that in some of the harder braking points I was a bit stronger than them. So I kept that to myself. »
“With five laps to go, I managed to pass Jake (Gagne) and Bobby (Fong) and made my own race from there. I was really trying to outrun them. They had their own battle going on, so it worked out well for me. »
“I want to say a big thank you to the Westby team. It was difficult to do pre-season testing with my broken collarbone. I'm really, really grateful to be back on the podium. »
Jake Gagne:
“Cam (Beaubier) got off to a great start,” Gagne said. “I knew if he could get that kind of start and I could be in second, I wanted to try to see if I could at least get a few well-placed laps in and pick up the pace. It took off immediately. »
“I attacked during the first two laps. I could see on my road sign that I was +0,2, 0,3, 0,4 at one point. Then these guys immediately started approaching. »
" I made a mistake. Mat went inside, Bobby too and from there I did a few laps to see what they were doing, which was good. I struggled a little more than I thought with the grip, but Mat really looked good. Bobby looked in good shape. It was nice to race with these guys again. »
“It’s been a while since we had a little battle!” Bobby and I had a great last ride. We passed each other several times. It was nice. Hats off to these guys. They drove very well. Hats off to my team and Monster Energy Attack Yamaha. This bike runs better and better every time we ride it, we get more and more comfortable. We'll see if we can make some little adjustments on Sunday and try to get closer to these guys. »
Photos © Yamaha, MotoAmerica
