| May 7, 2021
Cameron Beaubier is working hard at becoming the next American MotoGP star. Neil Morrison managed to grab five with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion to see how it’s going.
Cameron Beaubier was always the baby-faced assassin in MotoAmerica but now he’s in the piranha pit of Moto2, he’s fighting with the best.
By Neil Morrison | Photography by Gold & Goose
Put yourself in Cameron Beaubier’s shoes. Having enjoyed a spell of near total success in America’s national championship for six years, you up sticks and move to a new series (and continent) at the age of 28.
In the space of two months and a handful of preseason tests, you have a new bike and a prototype chassis to learn, a new team to meet. There’s the small matter of a series of new tracks to learn and re-learn. And there are 29 riders, who grew up racing these circuits, many of them on these bikes, to gauge. What’s more, they often give the impression they’d rather punch you in the face over learning your name.
And that’s before we add that the watching world is forever sizing you up, with the reputation of your national championship resting on your results. The list of riders to have been chewed up and spat out by Moto2 includes ex-world champions and riders with great national pedigree. Sound intimidating? Well, three races into 2021 (at the time I chatted with Beaubier) and it would be fair to say Beaubier has long been comfortable with these challenges.
Portimao was an indication of Beaubier’s potential with an excellent ninth place.
The Algarve International Circuit in Portugal was the scene of round three. The Californian posted his second point-scoring finish of the year, and his first in the top 10. John Hopkins, the American Racing Team’s Racing Director, asserted late last year, that a realistic aim was to finish inside the top 10 by the end of the year. By that measurement, he’s well on track.
And go deeper into the details, and Beaubier’s talent is already making itself clear. Take, for example, his late race speed at round one, when he lapped as quick as the men fighting for the top six. Or how he was the fifth fastest rider on track in race two. Then he was among the three fastest names in two of the Algarve International Circuit’s splits during qualifying. The fact the 28-year has acquired very promising results (11th in round one, ninth in round three) while doing the aforementioned suggest he is well on his way to becoming a distinguished grand prix rider.
His speed was apparent in Qatar but a crash in race two’s Doha Grand Prix was a low point.
Not bad for a man who hasn’t been world championship regular since 2009. The five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion had won all in sight on the national scene and then won it again, and then again. 2020 was his most dominant year to date, with 16 of 20 races going in his favor. It was time for a new challenge.
“The goal was to always get back to Europe,” Beaubier recently told Cycle News. “I thought my path was going to be more of a World Superbike route. I had been riding production bikes for so long. But Eitan (Butbul, American Racing Team boss) and my manager (Bob Moore) came up with this idea to go Moto2 racing. I was like, ‘Man, I never thought I’d get a chance back in the MotoGP paddock.”
John Hopkins, who is in his corner, is the man who helped Joe Roberts so much last year.
Beaubier’s last experience of life in grand prix couldn’t have been more different. Back in 2009, he was a rookie, thrown in at the deep end in the 125cc class with no base to speak of. The then 16-year-old stayed on colleagues’ couches between races and was apart from his parents for long spells. They were, he now recognizes, far from ideal circumstances.
“It’s so different from when I was last here,” Beaubier said of the year in which he scored just three championship points. “I was just bumming a ride to the hotel and back to the track. Luckily, I was staying with a couple of people here and there. I guess I was never comfortable; I was just a kid, 16. The most comfortable was when I was at the track. And that wasn’t the case for who I was racing against. I couldn’t go home. My parents have good jobs, but it’s not like they could just wrap up what they were doing to come over here. They couldn’t afford it for one. They did everything they could to get me where I am. But I struggled pretty bad that year.
Having Joe Roberts (left) in the paddock, an old sparring partner from MotoAmerica, is a help for Beaubier.
“Now it’s pretty cool to be living the life in Europe. I rented a house for the year outside Barcelona on the water, in Sant Pere de Ribes. It’s a super-cool spot. My buddy Cam [Gish] is with me, my Bell [Helmets] guy and long-time friend from home. And my fiancé Shelby came over in April. I can show her the nice areas around where we live, the little restaurants and pizzerias we like. I brought my road bike over, so it’s cool learning the roads, too.”
With a settled life in Catalonia, Beaubier can dedicate all his focus on the job at hand. And it’s been a considerable one. MotoAmerica was a fine base for the Californian to hone his craft, but Moto2 is a class with a depth of talent like no other.
The striking livery of the American Racing Team has well and truly put a spotlight on talent coming from America.
Consider his final qualifying session in his Superbike finale last October. Beaubier was 1.4s faster than Jake Gagne in second while 2.5s covered the top eight. At the most recent Moto2 round, 1.1s covered first to 25th. And that tightness is predictably apparent in the racing.
“It’s impressive how fast everyone is and how close everyone is,” Beaubier said. “You see it on TV, but it’s a different story once you’re in it! The first lap is just like a dogfight out there. Everyone wants that piece of tarmac. They’re aggressive. It’s the world level. It was cool! [In Qatar], I definitely got shuffled back pretty good but felt like I was making some good moves. I’d make a pass then slow myself up. Then I’d get passed by someone else up the inside. But things get a bit spread out and you get into a rhythm. [During the Doha GP)] I was able to catch the group in front of me and it was a big, old train of bikes—fifth place to 14th. It’s a crazy class, man, pretty nuts!”
Media attention in Moto2 is intense.
Not that he was expecting anything less. He started the year working alongside Luca Capocchiano, the crew chief of Enea Bastianini during his championship year in 2020. But from Jerez, Capocchiano was out and Stuart Shenton, the man who fettled Freddie Spencer’s NSR250 in 1985 and was the architect of Kevin Schwantz’s 500cc title in 1993, was drafted in. Beaubier certainly has the expertise and experience around him to understand what’s needed in the class.
On adapting his riding style from a production-based bike to the stiffer prototype frame, and Triumph 765 triple engine used by all bikes in Moto2, Beaubier said, “I feel like I’m getting better. It’s just about picking the thing up more and not make the lap time on the brakes. That’s what you end up doing when you’re behind. It’s easy to think you can make up some of that time on the brakes, but that’s not always the case. I’m just trying to hang off the thing more. I have some stuff that will definitely help me. They’re fun race bikes. They’re rigid, they corner really good, and you feel everything. It’s cool. But at the same time, all these guys from the first lap out [of pit lane], they know the bike, know the track, know all this stuff. That’s just what I’m lacking right now, and that’s just because I haven’t been here.
Going bar-to-bar with Petronas Kalex rider Jake Dixon at Portimao.
“I was really happy with how I rode in the first race. I was able to come through the pack and do some really good times. I ended up 11th. I felt good. Going into the second round, obviously as a racer you want more. I got a bad start and got held up at the back. I started making some passes and I felt I was starting to ride pretty good. I just kept pushing but had the same exact crash I had on Friday—a slow, front-end tuck. That was a bummer. I felt I was just getting a really good feeling and everything was starting to come good. That’s how it goes sometimes. But I’m just excited to be here. Obviously, it’s not going to be easy, and I have to just keep chipping away.” CN
