The Season So Far: MotoAmerica Looks Ahead To Utah Round
Toni Elias leads the Motul Superbike Championship as the series readies for round five.
Paul Carruthers
Toni Elias. War of words. Josh Herrin takes out Elias. Margin of victory .005 of a second.
Those are the storylines from the first four rounds of the 2017 MotoAmerica Series as the home of the AMA Superbike Championship rolls into the Utah Motorsports Campus on the outskirts of Salt Lake City for round five and the Championship of Utah.
At round one in Texas it was all Elias, the 2010 Moto2 World Champion and MotoGP race winner sweeping both races at Circuit of The Americas for the second straight year. At Road Atlanta, the storyline focused on the post-race press conference war of words between Elias and two-time defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier. As the series moved to VIRginia International Raceway there was more drama with Herrin taking out Elias as the two battled for the lead in race one. In Wisconsin, race one came down to Beaubier beating Elias by just .005 of a second at Road America.
Elias comes to Utah Motorsports Campus with the championship lead in the Motul Superbike class, the Spaniard having finished first or second in every race except for his crash with Herrin in race one at VIR. He’s armed with a new Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and he’s returning to a circuit he calls one of his favorites.
“Of course, we will suffer on the first day like always because we have to set up everything with the electronics, but it is one of my favorite tracks in the championship,” Elias said of his expectations for UMC.
Elias’ lead is 14 points over Beaubier, the defending champion, the only rider other than Elias to win more than one race (race one at Road Atlanta, race one at Road America), and 20 points over his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Roger Hayden.
Behind them comes four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, the veteran with a rather large chasm to make up as he already has two non-scoring races on his tally. Hayes is 78 points behind Elias, but there are five rounds and 10 races left to run.
Bobby Fong has his Quicksilver Latus Motors Racing Kawasaki in fifth, the Californian putting his ZX-10R on the Motul Superbike podium twice so far this year. Two non-finishes, however, have dropped Fong out of the points lead in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class as that points lead now sits in Mathew Scholtz’s lap.
As it’s been all season, the battle for the Supersport crown is tight with Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha teammates Garrett Gerloff and JD Beach separated by just four points. Each rider has three wins to their credit as they arrive in Utah, with Beach on a four-race win streak at Utah Motorsports Campus after having swept both races there for the past two seasons. The only other rider to have won a Supersport race so far this year is M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise, the Frenchman having won race two at Road Atlanta earlier in the year.
Excel Machine Racing’s Connor Blevins took over the points lead in the Superstock 600 Championship at the last round in Wisconsin, the Oklahoman taking full advantage of the injuries suffered by season-long leaders Michael Gilbert and Nick McFadden to win both races at Road America. Blevins is now 10 points clear of Gilbert with Aguilar Racing’s Jason Aguilar third, 11 points behind Blevins. McFadden slipped to fourth after suffering a broken collarbone at Road America. The Kentuckian, who won the first two Superstock 600 races at Road Atlanta, is 19 points behind and arrives in Utah fresh from surgery to repair his injury.
Benjamin Smith leads the KTM RC Cup Championship heading to UMC, the 16-year-old from Pennsylvania leading his Quarterley Racing/On Track Development teammate Draik Beauchamp by 13 points. Smith has three race wins to his credit with Beauchamp having a single victory. Third in the series standings is held by a third Quarterley Racing teamster, Jackson Blackmon. Blackmon, who turned 16 the week prior to UMC, is 30 points behind after missing the first two races with an off-season training injury.
In addition to MotoAmerica’s five classes, the Utah Motorsports Campus round will also feature a stop of the Utah Sport Bike Association Series and the Sidecar Racing Association will also be bringing its Sidecars to UMC.