MotoAmerica Press Office

The 2017 MotoAmerica series is officially underway with Qualifying Practice 1 taking place today at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin.

Toni Elias led the way in the Motul Superbike Class, followed by defending champion Cameron Beaubier and Roger Hayden.

1. Toni Elias (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2:11.384, Lap 12

"It was nice to set the fastest lap in practice today, however, I did not feel as comfortable as I would have liked. We're [the team] still testing and have some work to do, but the other riders probably share the same feelings as me in terms of comfort. It's just the first practice and we'll look to improve each time out on the track throughout the weekend."

2. Cameron Beaubier (Monster Energy Yamaha) 2:11.422, Lap 5

"Today went all right. It takes the edge off to get to ride on a Thursday because we get limited track time this weekend. To be honest, it didn’t feel like a race weekend yet, but it was good to get out on track and get a feel for things. We were able to try a few things and I put a new tire on at the end when the session was red flag and it felt good right away. Everyone is close on lap times and I'm looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow."

3. Roger Hayden (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2:11.593, Lap 9

"It wasn’t that great. We had some things to try and they weren’t much of an improvement. We had another problem and lost a lot of time and the session was cut short. We will take what we learned today and look forward to tomorrow."