Yamaha MotoAmerica Racers Preview Round 2 At Road Atlanta This Weekend

The 2016 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship got under way down in Austin, TX, last weekend, and the bLU cRU is excited to get right back to racing for the second weekend in a row, as the series will be at Road Atlanta.

Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Factory Racing: Beaubier & Hayes

No one is looking forward to this weekend at Road Atlanta more than defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier, who had a tough go of it at the Circuit of The Americas last weekend. Cameron had a crash in Superbike Race 1, and the damage to his #1 Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Superbike prevented him from finishing the race. In Sunday’s Race 2, Cameron very uncharacteristically ran off the track early in the event, but he fought back hard and finished with a very respectable fourth-place result.

“I felt a little bit snake-bitten at Austin,” Cameron said. “I’m definitely looking forward to Road Atlanta where I did well last year.”

Cameron won both Superbike races at Road Atlanta last year, and he’s hoping that he and his #1 Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 return to their winning ways in Georgia.

Four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes had better results last weekend in Texas than did his teammate Cameron, as Josh recorded two third-place finishes and made two trips to the COTA podium. But, like Cameron, he wasn’t very happy with how things went in Austin.

“I don’t have a good excuse. I just got beat,” commented Josh. “But, I’m happy that I get another shot at those boys this weekend at Road Atlanta.”

Superbike Superpole (Qualifying) begins on Saturday at 2:00 PM EST. Superbike Race 1 will go green on Sunday at12:30 PM EST, and Superbike Race 2 is later on Sunday at 4:00 PM EST.

Yamaha Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha: Beach & Gerloff

In contrast to how Cameron and Josh fared at COTA, things went a lot better for defending MotoAmerica Supersport Champion JD Beach and his teammate Garrett Gerloff.

Garrett was fast all weekend long, breaking the MotoAmerica Supersport lap record at COTA during qualifying and then going on to win the race, with JD finishing second.

Both riders feel like they have momentum on their sides as they head into the weekend at Road Atlanta. Garrett and JD finished second and third, respectively, in Supersport Race 2, and then Garrett won Supersport Race 2, while JD finished third again.

“It was really special for me to win at COTA, which is my home track,” Garrett said. “But I also love Road Atlanta, and I have a lot of friends in the Atlanta area, so it also feels a little bit like a home track for me. I was glad to get on the podium twice last year at Road Atlanta, including getting the win on Sunday.”

JD said, “I was happy to get second at COTA because it’s a long season. I’m looking forward to being able to race again this weekend, and we’ll be working hard to improve on the runner-up result that we had at COTA.”

Supersport Qualifying is Saturday at 9:20 AM EST. Supersport Race 1 is scheduled for Saturday at 4:00 PM EST, and Supersport Race 2 will go green on Sunday at 2:45 PM EST.

Meet The Yamaha bLU cRU Road Racers

The Fan Walk, scheduled for 10:50 AM EST Sunday on pit lane at Road Atlanta, is a great opportunity to meet Cameron, Josh, JD, and Garrett. They’ll be handing out free, autographed posters and other team items, and you can also get your picture taken with them, as well as the Monster Energy and Yamalube Umbrella Girls.

Watch Round 2 Of The MotoAmerica Championship on BeIN SPORTS and BeIN SPORTS CONNECT