Toni Elias scored a perfect season-opening weekend in the Suzuki Championship at Road Atlanta as the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion completed a weekend sweep by winning both races on Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Sunday's victory It marked his 18th MotoAmerica Superbike victory and combined with his win in Saturday’s season opener, Elias leaves Road Atlanta with a perfect 50 points, giving him an early 14-point lead in the standings.
For Elias, the weekend was especially encouraging since he won in both dry and wet conditions. In Sunday’s race he took over the lead from rival Cameron Beaubier with two laps to go and won by a margin of 1.639s.
“This was a perfect way to start the season. Of course, the competition will be difficult this year, but after this weekend I am very happy for the work the team has done," said Elias.
"We continue to make our race bike even better than it was last season and I am gaining so much confidence. This is the first rain race that I’ve won since 2001, so that also makes me very pleased to know that we can perform at the highest level no matter the conditions.”
This is the third consecutive season that Elias has opened the season with a weekend sweep. He did the same at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in 2016 and 2017 and now here in Georgia.
