Fourth place went Broaster Chicken/Roadrace Factory's Jake Gagne with Latus Motors Racing's Bobby Fong impressive in his debut on the new Kawasaki ZX-10R, besting Wheels In Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports' Josh Herrin by just .054 of a second at the flag to win the Superstock 1000 category.
Yamahalube/Westby Racing's Josh Day was seventh and third Superstock 1000, some five seconds clear of MotoEverything/DieselOps Racing's Taylor Knapp. Team Rabid Transit's Sheridan Morais and TOBC Racing's Danny Eslick rounded out the top 10.
If Elias winning in his debut was big news, so too was the fact that 2015 MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier crashed out of the race while leading on just the second lap. The DNF puts the defending champion on his back foot going into tomorrow's race as he's 25 championship points down on Elias, 20 down on Hayden and 16 behind his teammate Hayes.
"I suffer a lot in the beginning of the first race," Elias said after victory.
"I try to follow Roger (Hayden) and Cameron (Beaubier), but was impossible. First of all I thought it was a rear tire, maybe something was wrong. I couldn't control the rear slides. After two or three laps it start to lock on braking the rear wheel, go straight and (I make) many mistakes. I be lucky when I see the red flag because I go straight to them (the crew) and say, 'Something is wrong.' Yesterday was much more comfortable and it was not the tire, not the track. It was a little sensor that was broken and they finally find the problem and the second race the bike was perfect, just like yesterday. I had grip and it was controllable. I push a lot, but I had some attacks from Josh (Hayes), but I want to win. And finally we did it and I'm happy. I want to thank Yoshimura Suzuki for giving me this opportunity."
