Beaubier Earns Pole For WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier earned the 28^th and perhaps final pole position of his Superbike career on a sunny Friday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion signing a contract this week that will see him move to the Moto2 World Championship for the American Racing Team in 2021.

Beaubier’s best was a 1:23.194 and that put him 1.421 seconds clear of his teammate Jake Gagne, who in turn was just .001 of a second ahead of Warhorse HSBK Ducati New York’s Lorenzo Zanetti with the Italian set to fill the first row of the grid for this weekend’s three HONOS Superbike races.

M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong had a lap time that would have put him second on the grid, but that time was taken away from him when he was given an exceeding-track-limit penalty, which dropped him to fourth. Fong will be joined by his teammate Toni Elias and Ducati Richmond/KWR Ducati’s Kyle Wyman on the second row of the grid.

Westby Racing’s fill-in rider Niccolo Canepa ended the day seventh with Josh Herrin eighth, the Scheibe Racing BMW rider getting baulked by Zanetti on his fast lap and spending the cool-down lap letting the Italian know about it.

Rock and Sons Racing’s Jayson Uribe ended up ninth on his Honda CBR1000RR, just a tick quicker than 10^th-placed Michael Gilbert on the FLY Racing ADR Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Times were tight as can be in Supersport Q1 on Friday with M4 ECSTAR Sean Dylan Kelly just .019 of a second ahead of newly crowned Supersport Champion Richie Escalante on the HONOS Kawasaki. Escalante, in turn, was just .028 of a second faster than JD Beach, who was road racing for the first time all season on the Celtic HSBK Yamaha YZF-R6. In total, nine riders ended the day on the same second.

Newcomer Max Toth rode his Floyd’s of Leadville T3 Racing Kawasaki Ninja 400 to the best time in the Liqui Moly Junior Cup, the 14-year-old beating two-time class champion Rocco Landers. In Twins Cup action, BARTCON Racing’s Cooper McDonald was fastest on the day, topping newly crowned class champion Rocco Landers and Dominic Doyle.

Altus Motorsports’ Cameron Petersen ended up the quickest Stock 1000 rider on the day, the South African who recently clinched the 2020 MotoAmerica Stock 1000 title, lapped at 1:26.155 to top Ride HVMC Racing’s Corey Alexander and Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman.

The Drag Specialties King of the Baggers class made its debut on Friday with Tyler O’Hara leading all three sessions on the S&S Indian Challenger. O’Hara ended up 3.9 seconds quicker than Roland Sands Designs’ Frankie Garcia with Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim ending the day third fastest.

Superbike Qualifying