Ten seasons ago, MotoAmerica rolled into the Circuit of The Americas for its racing debut full of pith and vinegar, but with the added pressure of holding its first-ever weekend of racing in front of the world. While running its first round in conjunction with the MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas brought with it obvious advantages, it also meant that if things were to go wrong, they’d go wrong in front of a lot of people.
Fortunately, despite a downpour on Saturday that meant the first of the Wayne Rainey-led races were held on a Rainey Texas afternoon, Sunday brought sunshine and spectacular racing, and the opening round of the 2015 MotoAmerica Championship was deemed a success.
The series was off and running.
In 2015, MotoAmerica ran three classes and two races as the undercard to MotoGP – Superbike, Superstock 1000 (a race within a race with Superbike) and Supersport.
The two Superbike races were hard-fought affairs between Yamaha teammates Josh Hayes and Cameron Beaubier, with Hayes winning race one in the rain and Beaubier flipping the results with a dry win in race two.
In 2022, MotoAmerica returned to COTA for the first time on its own, running Superbike, Supersport, Mission King Of The Baggers, Twins Cup and the Super Hooligan National Championship. The biggest difference? Since ’22, MotoAmerica now runs a full slate of classes at COTA as a standalone event, sans MotoGP.
Fast forward to 2024, and the MotoAmerica Championship is readying to head back to COTA for its eighth of nine championship rounds, September 13-15, headlined by three Steel Commander Superbike races in addition to the support classes.
So, with the series in its 10th year, we’ve opted to find out what the top 10 finishers in that first Superbike race at COTA in 2015 are up to now.
Josh Hayes – 1st/2nd
Fittingly, the winningest rider in AMA road racing history was the first winner of a MotoAmerica Superbike race in April of 2015 at Circuit of The Americas. The four-time AMA Superbike Champion never managed to win a fifth title with MotoAmerica, but he did win an additional 14 MotoAmerica Superbike races to bring his total to 61 – a mark that was only recently topped by his former teammate Cameron Beaubier.
Last year, Hayes made history by breaking the all-time AMA win mark across all classes with his 87th career win coming in the Supersport race at Brainerd International Raceway.
Although he has yet to compete this year, Hayes can still be found in the MotoAmerica paddock, coaching young riders and helping his wife, Melissa Paris, who currently runs her own Supersport team in the series.
Cameron Beaubier – 2nd/1st
Cameron Beaubier won his first-ever MotoAmerica Superbike race in race two at COTA in 2015 after finishing second in race one to his then-teammate Josh Hayes. Since taking that first victory, Beaubier hasn’t looked back, earning 63 AMA/MotoAmerica Superbike wins to move past Hayes and into second all-time behind Australian Mat Mladin and his 82 victories.
Those wins have taken the 31-year-old Beaubier to five MotoAmerica Superbike Championships.
After spending two years in the Moto2 World Championship, Beaubier returned to MotoAmerica in 2023, winning five races and contending for the title prior to his season being cut short by injury. Beaubier is currently in the fight and trying to earn a sixth Superbike title in this year’s series on his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
Roger Hayden – 3rd/3rd
Roger Hayden opened his MotoAmerica Superbike scorecard with two third-place finishes at COTA in 2015
Hayden retired from racing after the 2018 season with seven career Superbike victories, but he didn’t pack up and head home to Kentucky never to be heard from again. Instead, Hayden has taken up the challenge of a new career as a color commentator for MotoAmerica’s live streaming and on-demand service, MotoAmerica Live+.
Hayden’s popularity as a racer might just be surpassed by the work he’s done in the booth as a color commentator, thanks to his immense knowledge of the sport and signature southern accent.
Bernat Martinez – 4th/7th
Sadly, Bernat Martinez lost his life in a multi-rider accident at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in July of 2015. The 35-year-old Spaniard was a fast (as evidenced by his fourth- and seventh -place finishes in his MotoAmerica debut at COTA) and popular racer in the MotoAmerica paddock in our first season.
Jake Lewis – 5th/4th
Jake Lewis was a member of the almighty Yoshimura Suzuki team as a Superbike rookie in 2015 and he opened the season with a fifth in race one and a fourth in race two at COTA.
An off-season training injury cost him his Yoshimura ride in 2016, and Lewis was forced to jump around a bit following his return to racing. Although he’s bounced between classes and teams, the Kentuckian has always landed on his feet.
In 2021, Lewis won the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 Championship with Altus Motorsports, the team he currently races for in Supersport. Lewis will do triple duty this year at COTA as he competes in Supersport, Mission King Of The Baggers and the Super Hooligan National Championship, the latter two as a member of the Saddlemen Harley-Davidson team.
Chris Ulrich – 6th/DNF
Chris Ulrich’s last full season as a racer was also MotoAmerica’s first full season – 2015. Like several others in the paddock, Ulrich may have retired from racing, but he didn’t go far.
Since hanging up his leathers, Ulrich has been a busy man as Vice President of Operations for Team Hammer, which owns and operates the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team that competes in the MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike Championship.
Ulrich has also given more than 1600 rides in the team’s popular two-up Superbike program that takes passengers (media, fundraising donors, industry big-wigs, etc.) on laps at all of the MotoAmerica race weekends on a full-blown Suzuki Superbike built for two.
Elena Myers 7th/6th
Elena Myers, the first woman to win a professional AMA road race, finished seventh and sixth in the first two MotoAmerica Superbike races as a 20-year-old at COTA.
Now, 30, Myers is a stay-at-home mom to three children aged one to five. Myers and her family live in Senoia, Georgia, where she is also in the process of flipping her first investment property.
Chris Fillmore – DNF/5th
Chris Fillmore may not race a Superbike at this point in his career, but that doesn’t mean he won’t race whatever he can get his hands on. At least if it’s a KTM, the company he works for in many aspects – from testing new motorcycles to managing race teams. His current title? Street Media Relations and R&D Manager.
Fillmore suffered a DNF in race one at COTA in 2015 but bounced back to finish fifth in race two on his KTM 1190 RC8 R.
Mathew Orange – 8th/DNF
Mathew Orange rode his BMW to a top-10 finish in the first MotoAmerica Superbike race in 2015 but suffered a DNF in race two. He ended the season ranked 10th in the Superbike Championship.
The lifelong resident of Half Moon Bay, California, is a father, mechanic, general contractor, plumber, heavy machine operator… and he also builds race engines for local racers while still throwing his leg over a race bike periodically on the local level in Northern California.
Ricky Orlando – 9th/9th
Ricky Orlando’s first MotoAmerica Superbike race was also his last as the Coloradan retired from professional racing shortly after scoring a pair of ninths at COTA in 2015.
Orlando has since sold his motorcycle school and retired, but it hasn’t kept him completely off motorcycles. Orlando races in a few AHRMA events and has been helping Ace Motorcycles in Fort Collins by leading street and dual-sport rides from the dealership. In addition to riding his new Aprilia Tuareg, Orlando plays a lot of golf and keeps his competitive streak going by slalom water-skiing. He also teaches a few motorcycle-riding classes a year in order to keep his MSF instructor certification current.
Aaron Hersh – 10th/8th
Aaron Hersh finished 10th and eighth in the two Superbike races at COTA in 2015 on a Team Syndicate Racing Suzuki in what were his only Superbike starts that year.
What’s he up to now? Well, the Colorado resident owns and operates a burgeoning trucking business but still somehow finds the time to pursue his passion of being a one-on-one rider coach with Legion Moto Trackdays at High Plains Raceway in his home state.
Hersh works with both new racers wanting to get their club-level racing license and existing racers wanting to find out how to go faster. The former Navy man who spent his early years working on aircraft carrier flight decks, says nothing puts a smile on his face more than when his students “get it” and the lightbulb comes on.
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