Press Release | August 12, 2018
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias scored a pair of podiums at the Sonoma Raceway MotoAmerica Superbike weekend. (Brian J. Nelson photo)
Sonoma, CA (Aug. 12, 2018) — Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s Toni Elias tallied a solid weekend in MotoAmerica Superbike Championship racing at Sonoma Raceway. Elias raced his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a pair of podium finishes with a third in Saturday’s race one, then improving to finish runner up in Sunday’s race.
In his last race in Sonoma, fellow Yoshimura Suzuki rider Roger Hayden nailed down two top-10 finishes, with a sixth and seventh at the doubleheader weekend in the heart of Northern California wine country.
Elias got great starts and battled up front all weekend, but ultimately no one could match the pace of series leader Cameron Beaubier, who won both races.
“We came away with a couple of podium finishes and found improvements with the bike in Sunday’s race,” said Elias, the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion. “Cameron has a fantastic feeling for this track and he is riding the best I’ve seen since I’ve been here.
“Obviously I would like to get the feeling for the bike I had earlier in the season, but sometimes you do not have it and this is where we are at the moment. We will continue to work hard to find solutions and my goal is to get back to winning races so that we might be able to apply a little pressure on the competition.”
For Hayden the Sonoma weekend was bittersweet. He was racing in his first event since announcing his retirement from racing at the end of this season. He was overwhelmed by the well wishes he received from fans, but was not satisfied with his results on the track. He experienced arm pump in both races.
Fans graciously let Roger Hayden know just how much they thought of him in Sonoma, as the popular rider raced his final event at the Northern California circuit. (Brian J. Nelson photo)
“For whatever reason I’ve never got along with this track and that carried over to this weekend,” Hayden said. “But on the positive side I was taken aback by the warmth of fans here. They were so thoughtful in telling me how they followed my career and how they wished me well as I move on to the next stage in my life. For that alone I’ll always have a good memory of my last race here.”
“Now we move on to Pittsburgh. I had pretty good luck there last year, so I’m hoping to find it again this time around.”
Elias remains second in the series after 14 of 20 races. He is 63 points behind Beaubier. Hayden moved up a position from ninth to eighth in the MotoAmerica Superbike standings.
Next up for Yoshimura Suzuki is the Championship of Pittsburgh, MotoAmerica round eight scheduled for August 24-26 at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. For ticket information visit www.MotoAmerica.com. You can also watch all the action televised on beIN Sports.
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For team media guide click here.
For additional information visit: www.motoamerica.com
You can keep up with the team’s progress by visiting yoshimura-racing.com and www.suzukicycles.com/Racing and via YouTube at www.youtube.com/SuzukiCycles
