If Cameron Beaubier wins his first MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North America Superbike Championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park in September, he will likely look back to his doubleheader sweep of the two races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the turning point. He may also want to invite Roger Hayden over for dinner a few times just to say thanks.

Beaubier came into the penultimate round of the MotoAmerica Championship at the Brickyard tied with his Monster Energy Graves Yamaha teammate Josh Hayes for the championship points lead. With his two wins at Indy, he leaves with an 18-point lead with just the two New Jersey races remaining, September 11-13. And it’s an 18-point lead because Hayden and his Yoshimura Suzuki hounded Beaubier in the pair of races, coming up just short in both, but taking away points from Hayes. So now, based on how these three have dominated the season thus far, the scenario for New Jersey is an interesting one.

And the bottom line is this: Hayes may want to start sending flowers to Hayden. If Hayes wins both races and Beaubier finishes second in both, Beaubier will take his first career Superbike title by eight points. If Hayes wins both and Beaubier slips to third in both, the pair will end the series in a tie. And the championship will go to Hayes because he would end the season with 10 race wins to Beaubier’s eight.

Beaubier ended up beating Hayden by .015 of a second in Sunday’s Superbike race – a race that was red flagged with a lap to go because of rain and wet conditions. When the running order was reverted back a lap, Beaubier was ahead. Barely. Hayes was also in the battle today after not being a factor on Saturday. He was .297 of a second behind at the finish.

Fourth place in today’s Superbike race went to Hayden’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Jake Lewis, the 18-year-old Kentuckian besting Roadrace Factory’s Jake Gagne by some four seconds. Gagne, however, was the best of the Superstock 1000s and earned his 10th victory of the season.

Sixth overall and second in the Superstock 1000 class went to Josh Day, the Westby Racing rider finishing well clear of HSBK Aprilia’s Sheridan Morais to earn his sixth podium finish of the season.

Tyler O’Hara rode his Chisum/Motul Racing Yamaha to eighth overall and fourth in Superstock 1000 with TOBC Racing’s Taylor Knapp and GEICO Suzuki’s Ulrich rounding out the top 10. Ulrich was fifth in the Superbike class.

“I’m definitely really pleased,” Beaubier said after his eighth win of the season. “Eighteen points is a decent gap, but I know how good this guy (Hayes) is at New Jersey so it’s going to be a pretty stressful-type weekend. I’m hoping for dry weather there and just do the best I can. This weekend was awesome. This race was pretty tough the last few laps when it was raining. I think all of us were riding a little timid and it seemed like whoever was in front was just going a little bit slower because they didn’t know how much grip there was. It was easier to ride around in second than to lead in those conditions. I knew the last couple of laps, it was raining pretty good, and I had a feeling they were going to throw the red flag so I was doing everything I could just to stay in front just in case it would go back a lap or whatever – if it didn’t go to the checkered.”

With eight rounds and 16 races in the books, Beaubier leads Hayes by the aforementioned 18 points, 336-318. Hayden, who has three seconds in the last three races, is third with 245 points – 22 points clear of his teammate Lewis. Elena Myers is now fifth in the Superbike standings with 133 points.
Gagne’s double win at Indy gives him a 43-point cushion over Knapp, 294-251, and with 50 points up for grabs in New Jersey he’s almost guaranteed his first MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 title. Brit Mark Heckles is a comfortable third in the series with 208 points.

Read more: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/motoamerica-sunday-superbike-race-results-indy