Cameron Beaubier and Jake Gagne cap their weekend with stellar results | Photo credits: Yamaha Racing
Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Beaubier had a stellar weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park with another victory in Sunday’s race two. The 27-year-old further extends his points lead in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship. Teammate Jake Gagne rebounded from a tough weekend in Millville, New Jersey, to take the runner-up spot by .014 of a second.
Beaubier got off to a great start from pole position with his teammate slotted right behind him going into Turn 1. Unfortunately, the race was red-flagged due to a crash further back in the final corner on the first lap. The duo lined up on the front row for a complete restart of a shortened 14-lap race. On his second try, Beaubier got off to an even better start, leaving everyone in his dust with a commanding holeshot. He then scored his 11th victory of the season. With three rounds remaining and 200 points on the table, Beaubier has a healthy 84-point lead in the championship.
After a tough start to the weekend with a crash on Friday and in Saturday’s race one, Gagne was once again second on the restart with fellow Yamaha rider Matthew Scholtz on his heels. Gagne’s efforts allowed him to keep his runner-up spot in the standings and extend his gap to six points over Scholtz.
“It was a great result today. Cameron had a perfect weekend, and it was a good recovery for Jake after the crash he had yesterday. That closed the gap between second and third in the points, but he picked up some today with his second-place finish. As I said to him, it’s important to maintain a nice second-place spot in the championship. Everyone’s been riding great: Cameron, Jake, and (Mathew) Scholtz on the Westby Yamaha for another Yamaha 1-2-3. The Yamaha R1 is such a great platform and we have been working hard to give our guys the best bikes out there. I also want to thank Dunlop for helping us make the right decisions on the tires this weekend. We’re looking forward to being back at it next weekend at Barber.”
“It was an incredible weekend. I was pretty excited coming into this round because I knew how fast JD (Beach) was here last year on the Attack R1. He was giving us fits here both days. I knew that the bike was pretty dialed in, and he was riding good, so I was excited to try it myself. Our bike was incredible this weekend around this place. I had a lot of fun. The weather wasn’t great on Friday, but then Saturday and Sunday it was perfect conditions. I’m happy that we were able to make the harder option tire work in both races. Everything is going really well right now. I don’t want to get too excited, so we’ve got to keep trucking along. We’ve got three rounds left, and I just want to finish strong.”
“This was one of the toughest weekends I’ve had in a while. We had a big crash on Friday and got a little banged up, and then another crash yesterday on the first lap of the race, which was a bummer. We missed out on learning from race one, but we rebounded today. I got off to a good start and had a pretty decent pace. Cam had some pace on us, but Mat (Scholtz) and I had a good little battle there. I’m glad we brought it down to the last lap. I was strong in the last turn, so I knew if I could get the perfect run, get the perfect draft, we might be able to get it, and we were just able to sneak by. It was cool to have a photo finish and a Yamaha 1-2-3.”