The following is from Yamaha…
Cameron Beaubier scored a dominant win for the Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing team on Saturday, May 30, at the Road America circuit. He was joined on the podium by his teammate Jake Gagne in third at the first round of the 2020 MotoAmerica Superbike season.
Returning to action after a long wait for the season to start, Beaubier put his R1 in prime position for Race 1 with a stunning performance in Superpole earlier in the day, taking pole position by 0.4 of a second from Gagne.
Lining up 1-2 on the grid, when the lights went out the reigning champion delivered a strong launch to lead into Turn 1, followed by Gagne. As Beaubier raced into a clear track ahead and built a gap on the pack, his teammate was engaged in a thrilling fight with Bobby Fong for second. Fong pushed past towards the end of the first lap, but Gagne bit straight back into Canada Corner to retake the position.
At the front Beaubier’s lead grew, his first flying lap time of 2’11 on race tires surpassing his own pole time and laying down a serious marker for his rivals. Leading by 2.4 seconds at the start of lap four, his position at the top went unchallenged for the remaining eight laps.
Behind him, a fierce battle for second and third place was heating up between Gagne, Fong and Mathew Scholtz. Holding his rivals off well, Gagne ran slightly wide at Turn 7, dropping him to fourth. On lap 10 he forced his way back into third and hounded Scholtz in second, coming home just 0.7 of a second behind him to take the third step on the podium.
Lapping consistently in the low 2’12s for most of the race, Beaubier was faultless in his Race 1 performance and took the first checkered flag of the year 7.8 seconds ahead of second place.
After their impressive double podium on Saturday, the Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing squad head into Sunday’s Race 2 in an excellent position to consolidate their strong start to 2020.
Richard Stanboli – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing Team Manager
“We had some challenges for the first race of 2020. We just kept working and I think we nailed it for the race. Cameron is an awesome rider and everybody did their part to make this program work, so we’re super happy about that. Jake did really well in his first race for the team. We struggled in the last few tests to find a baseline for him, but we finally found it and all of a sudden, he just figured it out. I think it’s just going to get better from here.”
Cameron Beaubier – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“It feels so good just to be at the racetrack. I keep saying it, but I really am just so pumped to be back at the races. We were pretty much ready to go racing right after the Barber test, and then everything hit with COVID-19. So it’s been a long time waiting to get back racing.
“As soon as I got on the bike, I just felt so good this weekend. I was able to beat the track record yesterday, I’ve just been feeling so strong on this thing. Yamaha and Attack Performance put their heads together and came up with a great package. I think at first everyone wasn’t sure how the new team would measure up, but we came out swinging. It feels so good to get this win for them. They’ve been working really, really hard. I don’t want to get too excited, I just want to keep the ball rolling.”
Jake Gagne – Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing
“We’re on the podium at the first race! That’s it. That’s a good day. We started off yesterday a little bit slower for sure. From what we’ve been testing at Button Willow, this track is just quite a bit different. We definitely found a good step forward, getting the front end more comfortable for me this morning in that first practice.
“I was happy going into the race. I wanted to try to see if we could get a little bit closer to Cam, because he is really going good. I got a good first couple laps then I started struggling with grip a little bit more than I thought. We need to smooth it out for tomorrow, but I’m happy. We’re on the podium. This Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha R1 is up here. I’m happy for these guys. They’re working really hard. So we’ll see if we can make a couple little tweaks for tomorrow and get it up there on top.”
