Millville, New Jersey: Spaniard Toni Elias wasted no time making his mark on the MotoAmerica Superbike championship last year, and now he’s the 2017 title holder.
Elias locked up the championship in the first race of the weekend at the MotoAmerica Championship of New Jersey, amassing an insurmountable point lead to take the title. He followed that up with another win on Sunday, his tenth of the season. Apart from a crash that was not his fault, Elias never finished worse than second all season long.
For Elias it was a dream come true as he had come out of MotoGP retirement to race in America for the Superbike title. For the Yoshimura/Suzuki team, the win ended a streak of Yamaha Superbike championships that started in 2010.
“I’m so happy, for many reasons, first of all because Suzuki gave me this important deal last year,” said the 34-year-old Elias. “This year the new bike has been amazing. It is an amazing feeling for me (and) for all this group. I’m so happy and proud of these people. I decide to quit racing between five or six hundred days ago, and look at how the situation can change… I will continue doing my best. I will enjoy this moment, and congratulations to my rivals, Josh [Hayes], Roger [Hayden], and Cameron [Beaubier]. They have been so strong.”
South African Mathew Scholtz also took a race win in New Jersey on his Yamalube/Westby Racing R-1 to lock up the 2017 MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Championship in his first full season with the team.
Dunlop is the official tire of MotoAmerica, and all of the 1000cc and 600cc class teams race on slicks made in Dunlop’s Buffalo, New York manufacturing plant.
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