The following is from Yamaha…
Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha riders Cameron Beaubier and Jake Gagne scored a dominant 1-2 finish on Sunday, May 31, in race two of the opening MotoAmerica round in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Lining up in their Saturday qualifying positions of pole position and second, both riders got off the line well but Beaubier missed the holeshot and was passed into Turn 1. Fighting back immediately he forced his way back in the lead in the next turn and built a gap of three seconds by the fifth lap.
Behind Beaubier, teammate Gagne was engaged in a repeat of Saturday’s thrilling three-way podium battle. Swapping positions in a hard-fought race, Gagne was chasing in fourth until a crash involving two riders ahead on lap seven promoted him to second. From there he ran strongly to the checkered flag to take his second podium for the team.
Ahead of Gagne, Beaubier made the most of Sunday’s warmer weather to set a blistering pace and broke the outright lap record on just his second tour with an incredible 2’11.033. Lapping consistently in the 2’11 and 2’12s, the four-time Superbike champ cruised to the finish line 13 seconds ahead of Gagne to score a second win and wrap up a perfect start to 2020.
Sunday’s double podium puts the Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing team in an excellent position at the start of the 2020 MotoAmerica Superbike season. With a 50-point lead, reigning champion Beaubier and teammate Gagne will be back in action in just under a month when MotoAmerica returns to Road America for the second round.
Richard Stanboli – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing Team Manager
“We keep trying to mess Cameron up but he won’t let us. We keep making the challenge higher and he keeps stepping up to it. We had an issue in morning warm up, but we were able to get it fixed and it was great it didn’t happen in the race. We’ll go back to the shop and just cross our T’s and dot our I’s and go on to the next one.
“We’re pretty happy with the result. We were real close to that 10 (2’10) that I think we’re all kind of shooting for. Cameron’s kind of racing himself right now more than racing anyone else, but I’m sure everyone will get caught up. They all had a long time off. They’re all rusty. So we’ll see how it goes. Jake’s really doing well. I think it’s just a matter of time. He’s going to be giving Cameron some grief for sure.”
Cameron Beaubier – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“It’s been an incredible weekend. I haven’t started off my season like this since I was on a 600. I just really got to give it up to the team. My bike has been so good all weekend. We had a couple little problems here and there in practice where we didn’t get as many laps as we wanted, but the thing just gives me so much confidence. When I lined up in the race I was ready to go, even with limited amount of laps. It just goes to show how hard those guys are working. It’s been great. Like I said yesterday, I don’t want to get too excited. I’ll go home and keep working. We’re coming back here in a month, so will try and keep the momentum rolling.”
Jake Gagne – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“I’m happy to be leaving the first round with a couple podiums, a second and third. Our number one goal is to get in some good, solid races with no mistakes, finish the race and get on the podium. We made some changes after yesterday to get the bike working better on new tires, and I was feeling better for sure going into race two. I went faster in the beginning, but I really started struggling a lot more than yesterday once the tires started wearing off a little bit, so it kind of flip-flopped. happy to bring it home in second. That was a bummer when Bobby (Fong) hit Mat (Scholtz) like that. I think we were in store for another good battle like yesterday, but that’s how it goes. We learned a lot this weekend and made a lot of progress. I’m happy with the crew. I can’t wait for the next one.”
