The bitter spoonful from the day before just did not go down, bested by less than half a second under the checkered flag by none other than his number 1 rival, but he reacted as champions know how to do.
Cameron Beaubier evened things up at the Utah Motorsports Campus on the ‘long’ version of the track located on the salt lake, not far from Bonneville where two-wheeled speed records are set and broken. The Californian dominated the Sunday race, riding his team Monster factory R1 to the lead and managing the situation until Elias crashed out, then managing his lead without trouble.
While the Suzuki riding Spaniard had reopened the games on Saturday, his crash in Race 2 compromised (perhaps) the path to his second title, however, it is still too early to crunch the numbers and Beaubier knows it: “We’ve been working on our starts this year and I felt like today was pretty good. I was pretty decent in the first section - the number 6 rider revealed at the end of the race - I was able to get around Toni in the first couple of corners. I came around the last section and I saw yellow flags. I saw the pit board and it said I had a decent gap, so I backed it down. I was just trying to hit my marks and be consistent and take as little risk as possible. That was the most stressful for me, just try and make it to the finish. I feel really relieved after today to be able to win here and get a second place and come out with the points lead makes me feel really good going into the remaining races. Looking forward to getting back on the bike in a couple weeks’ time and try to continue on this roll.” With this win, Beaubier surpasses Spies thanks to 29 total victories. Ben - shown in the photo below - won three titles with Suzuki, whereas Cameron is at two with Yamaha.
Elias also had a comment about the remaining races: “The season is still long - he said- and my bike was even better today. Unfortunately, I lost the front end and crashed, but I am going to remain positive and keep doing what I can to try to come back in this championship.”
While the two title contenders were hard at work on and off the asphalt, Garrett Gerloff and Jake Lewis were celebrating their podium finishes. Second place for the Yamaha riding Texan and third for the young Suzuki rider from Kentucky, who many in the sector feel would do well in international championships other than MotoAmerica.
Fourth place went to South African Mathew Scholtz and Roger Lee Hayden finished fifth. BMW got close to the top five with Danny Eslick, seventh, the two Hondas ridden by Petersen and Uribe (protagonist in the CEV championship) both finished in the top ten, as well as Bruno Silva's Kawasaki. Josh Herrin, on the podium the day before, was unable to participate in the race due to this painful (for the bike) crash during the warm up session.
Overall rider standings: Beaubier 248, Elias 199, Scholtz 152.
In Supersport, who else but JD Beach dominated, doing the double at Utah Motorsports Campus. The wild-haired and extravagant Yamaha rider was the fastest with his R6 and he - rightly - leads in the overall rider standings. On Saturday, JD beat out Gillim and West, and then on Sunday he bested Debise and Ortt. No rival appears to be able to hinder his race for the title.
Overall rider standings: Beach 215, Gillim 133, West 95.