Page 12 - PULSE-LS2-ISSUE 2_BIG-BOYS-TOYS

MOTO AMERICA
2018
Following an off-season that brought the introduction of two new classes and the mending of a few others, the 2018 MotoAmerica season began in high-flying fashion with the Suzuki Championship at Road Atlanta, the opening weekend of the 10-round series.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias has made a habit of dominating the opening round of the MotoAmerica series -- no matter the location. In his first two years as a MotoAmerica competitor, it seemed as though that was due to his unquestionable speed at Circuit of the Americas where he’s a perfect four-for-four. In actuality, Elias is just a start of the season maestro as he dominated the first round of proceedings at the newly located Suzuki Championship of Road Atlanta, representing the event’s namesake well by putting the manufacturer on the top of the box in both races. A dry win on Saturday and a wet
win on Sunday, Elias was head and shoulders above the field in both kinds of conditions. Elias stalked Monster Energy/Yamalube/ Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cameron Beaubier in the second race, eventually passing him on the inside into turn one to start the penultimate lap. At that point, Elias went on to throw down his personal best lap of the race and eventually clawed out a 1.639 second gap at the checkered flag, securing the 18th Superbike win of his career.
“This was a perfect way to start the season,” Elias said. “Of course the competition will be difficult this year, but after this weekend I am very happy for the work the team has done. We continue to make our racebike even better than it was last season and I am gaining so much confidence. This is the first rain race that I’ve won since 2001, so that also makes me very pleased to know that we can perform at the highest level no matter the conditions.” Yamalube/Westby Racing Mathew Scholtz had an eventful ride to third place, the South African forced off track to avoid the crashing Jake Lewis in turn one to start the race. After a run through the Georgia mud, Scholtz recovered and worked his way through the pack to finish on the podium for the second straight day. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden led much of Sunday’s race, but fell in the tricky conditions at the halfway point. In a gritty performance, Hayden managed to re-join and rallied back to finish fifth. Following a challenging weekend, the Kentuckian has some work to do to get back into the title chase, going to COTA ranked eleventh in the series. Meanwhile, Garrett Gerloff’s hopes of beating Saturdays’ third-place finish in race one were lost when he crashed shortly after the start of race two on Sunday, losing out to the treacherous conditions. Uninjured, with his R1 till in rideable condition, Gerloff managed to salvage ninth place, adding valuable points to his title chase in his rookie year in the Motul Superbike class. >>
12 THE PULSE • ISSUE TWO
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias