Just .153 of a second separated the top three finishers in today’s Motul Superbike race in the Dunlop Championship at Road America with Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cameron Beaubier taking victory over Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias and Roger Hayden by just .005 of a second and .153 of a second, respectively, in the closest race of the 2017 season thus far.

The race was close and so now is the championship as Beaubier is within five points of Elias after seven races with what was his second victory of the season and his first since race one at Road Atlanta. Hayden, who was in the battle for victory for the duration, is now 15 points behind Elias in third place in the title chase.

The race was full of drama and it began on the sighting lap when four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes spectacularly highsided his Yamaha R1, the bike catching fire and Hayes hobbling away, uninjured but badly beaten.

When the flag dropped, it was Hayden in the lead until Beaubier took a turn at the front on the seventh of 13 laps. Elias led for the first time on the 10th lap and he led from there until the final corner when Beaubier snuck up the inside. From there it was the high-speed run up the hill to the checkered flag and Beaubier got there first, albeit by just .005 of a second. Hayden was a shadow third.

For defending two-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Beaubier this win was number two on the season and the 21st Superbike win of his career.

“That was such a fun race, just clean, hard, fun racing between all three of us (Toni Elias and Roger Hayden),” Beaubier said. “It was awesome. Going into turn five I got my doors blown off by those guys and it really woke me up. It was a crazy race. It felt so good to stand on that top step of the podium again since it’s been quite a few races since I grabbed a win. Big thanks to my team, they’ve been working really hard, and the R1 works great here at Road America.”

Was the move in the final corner planned?

“I felt like I had some strengths and some weaknesses compared to these guys and the final corner I believe was one of my strengths, so when Toni bobbled and got close to the grass I knew that was my chance,” Beaubier said. “I was able to stay close enough to Toni in the final section and got the job done.”

Elias saw his points lead get cut in half with his sixth podium finish of the season, but he was still relatively pleased with how the day went.

“After the mistake and crash I had this morning it was nice to walk away with second today,” Elias said. “I left the door open in the final corner and got on the gas to slow, allowing Cameron (Beaubier) to come up the inside of me. We lost by nearly nothing at the finish line, but we still lost at the end of the day. If you take the right side of the track like I did, it changes to much, which causes you to lose valuable time like I did.”

For Hayden the third-place finish came just 12 days after the death of his brother Nicky and a few hours after his lap of honor kicked off a 69-second moment of silence.

“I thought maybe I could go faster when I was in the lead, it seemed like I was kind of stuck in one speed and once these guys got by me I was able to pick it up,” Hayden said. “It was just hard because everyone was breaking so deep. I tried to get close enough to them on the last lap, thinking Cameron (Beaubier) was going to go up the inside of Toni (Elias) where he did, but I hit a little bit of a neutral. All in all, it was a good race, it’s nice to be back at the race track and that race was the most fun I have had in several weeks. It felt good to just be battling at the front and going for the win.”

Hayden said his therapy comes from being on the bike.

“The only therapeutic part of being back at the track is while I am on my bike and don’t have my phone,” Hayden said. “I know everyone means well, but during the signings and pit party with the fans everyone keeps telling me they are sorry for my loss. I just want to focus and not think about, but I wish Sunday night I could just thank everyone and talk to them for all of the support I have received. It’s just how it is. Nicky [Hayden] and my family are well liked and loved by a lot of people in the sport. I was worried coming into the weekend, not knowing how I would be, but I was able to block everything out on the track and put in a good run.”

Fourth place in today’s first of two Motul Superbike races went to Helmet Sounds/Western Services/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin just .451 of a second clear of fifth-placed Jake Lewis, who was the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 winner on his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki.

With his second Bazzaz Superstock 1000 win of the season, Lewis topped Quicksilver Latus Motors Kawasaki’s Bobby Fong by a tick over half a second. Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was right on Fong at the line, finishing seventh overall and third in the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 class.

Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda’s Jake Gagne, TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick and Helmet Sounds/Western Services/Meen Motorsports’ Bryce Prince rounded out the top 10.

Fong now leads the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 championship by 13 points over Lewis with Scholtz a further six points behind in third.

“That was my strongest race of the season for sure, just because this is the first race I’ve won straight up,” Lewis said. “I knew coming into the weekend that this is one of my favorite tracks and I went good here last year on the old bike. This bike is a lot better, so I was looking forward to the weekend. I qualified really well, which helped me a lot because I could breakaway with the fast guys. From the beginning, I just tried to stick with the Superbikes and it worked pretty well because (Josh) Herrin stayed with the front three there for a little while. Once I caught up, with him being on a Superbike, I couldn’t make the pass.”

Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Motorsports’ Garrett Gerloff won his third Supersport race of the season, beating his teammate and championship rival JD Beach by 3.3 seconds in a race that was run on a wet but drying racetrack. The win puts Gerloff nine points clear of Beach in the championship points chase after six races.

“Tricky conditions today, the track dried out really fast, but the Dunlops worked well enough for me and JD [Beach] to break away from the field,” Gerloff said. “I’m just happy to be on the box since you never know what can happen in these conditions, but today it played out in our favor. Like JD said, I knew Nicky (Hayden) a little bit, not as well as he did, but I just want to give his family my thoughts and prayers while they’re going through this difficult time.”

Team H35 Honda’s Benny Solis finished third for the third successive race, the Californian barely holding off the Superstock 600s of Connor Blevins and New Zealander Shane Richardson. Jody Barry was fourth overall on his Supersport-spec Kawasaki with Jason Ferrell and JC Camacho giving chase. Camacho would end up third in the Superstock 600 class.