Hayes Earns AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Revenge in Race 1 at Daytona International Speedway; Cardenas on Pole for 71st DAYTONA 200
Rispoli Takes AMA Pro
Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport Win; Wyman Pulls off Another
One
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DAYTONA
BEACH, Fla. (March 16, 2012) - Reigning AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Champion Josh
Hayes accomplished what he could not one year ago in Friday's season opener at
Daytona International Speedway. Hayes once again led from the green flag, but
unlike last year the veteran was able to hold off rival Blake Young in National
Guard SuperBike Race 1 to take his first SuperBike win at the historic
venue.
Making his way into the lead just
as the pack hit the line to complete the first lap, Hayes put his head down,
took full advantage of his No. 1 Monster Energy Graves Yamaha YZF-R1's newfound
legs, and clicked off a series of blazing laps to break the pursuit of his
challengers.
Meanwhile, last season's double
Daytona winner, Blake Young, found himself in a brawl for second with Hayes'
first-year National Guard SuperBike teammate, Josh Herrin, and National Guard
Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, and was helpless to do anything about Hayes' rapid
escape during the race's early stages.
The contest became further
stretched out when Herrin lost the front and crashed from third place on lap 6
of 15. The 21-year old, who led all but the final meters of the opening lap of
his Superbike debut before being double drafted by Hayes and Young, remounted
and briefly re-entered the fray before eventually retiring.
Hayden lost ground as well,
running wide in Turn 1 and losing touch with Yoshimura Racing Suzuki ace Young
in the race for the runner-up position.
Hayes continued on in flawless
fashion at the front to score his 18th career AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike
victory, boasting an 8.332-second margin of victory over Young.
Prior to the contest, Hayes
claimed that he and his team had put forth a great deal of effort in the
offseason to ensure they came out stronger this season than in 2011. The
36-year-old Mississippian's performance backed up those statements while serving
notice to the rest of the field.
"It was a pretty good day, I'd
say," Hayes said. "It's a tough field. Blake rode really well last year. Tommy
(Hayden) was all over me. Rog was taking all the necessary steps to be a big
pain at the end of the year and Herrin has been fast in testing. So I just went
home and worked really, really hard to try to take another step in my game and
the team has been working really hard on the machine. This is the payoff.
Daytona is one of the tracks last year where we were fast but couldn't get it
done. This year we were able to take it another step and I hope we'll be able to
do that at every racetrack this year."
"I'm pretty disappointed with my
performance today," Young said. "I feel like my team worked really, really hard.
I feel like all weekend long I've been just a little bit behind on the curve. I
haven't really got out and run faster than Josh all weekend and that obviously
makes for a difficult weekend. Like I said, I'm not happy with today's race.
Whether I have to get out of bed on the other side tomorrow or put my left sock
on before my right like I did today... Whatever I need to do, I need to not let
this happen again."
Hayden completed his lonely ride
to the final podium position, taking the checkered flag some 16 seconds behind
the race winner.
"It's a good way to start the
season, finishing on the podium," Hayden said. "But at the same time, it's not
very satisfying with the gap to Blake and the gap to Josh being a little bigger
than we wanted. But we'll regroup tonight and try to change the bike and try to
put a better show on tomorrow."
Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom was
another high-profile crasher, falling from fourth moments after taking the
position away from Motorcycle-Superstore.com/Big Kahuna/LeoVince Attack
Kawasaki's Steve Rapp near half-distance.
However, despite Bostrom's
mistake, Rapp was ultimately unable to lock down the position, losing out at the
stripe to Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing BMW's Larry Pegram by a scant 0.001
seconds -- a dramatic moment in an otherwise largely processional race.
Team Amsoil/Hero EBR's Geoff May
earned sixth, with Evan Steel Performance BMW's Jake Holden, Team Venezuela's
Robertino Pietri, Yoshimura Racing Suzuki's Chris Clark, and
Kneedraggers.com/Motul/Fly Racing's David Anthony rounding out the top ten.
The battle for the DAYTONA® 200
pole position is always a heated affair, with the prize of a Rolex Cosmograph
Daytona watch ready to stoke the already competitive fires. GEICO Suzuki's
Martin Cardenas, a former class champion who rarely shows his ultimate form in
qualifying, stepped up on Friday afternoon to claim just his second-ever AMA Pro
pole position. Despite the closing rally of better marks, Cardenas' best lap of
1:49.560 was unsurpassed as time expired.
"Yesterday, we played with the
setup and found something," said Cardenas. "We kept up the pace today and in the
afternoon I started good but ran off the track. I re-entered and then put in a
couple of fast laps. I got held up on the first one, but I rode as hard as I
could and I was able to secure the pole. I was close to getting the pole in 2010
but this time I was finally able to get it."
Youngster Cameron Beaubier
qualified second for the prestigious race, not exactly a surprise after the
Californian challenged at the front of Daytona SportBike races last season as a
class rookie. The Yamaha-mounted rider was able to turn in a sub 1:50-lap with a
best time of 1:49.742 to finish second best despite being pitted against a very
deep field.
"I got a good lap in and I wanted
pole," said Beaubier, who is making his race debut with Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha
this weekend.
Provisional polesitter Jason
DiSalvo wasn't able to better his time in the afternoon session and was
disappointed not to have won pole after leading every prior session on his Latus
Motors Triumph.
"Going forward, we're just
focused on the race. That result wasn't indicative of what our team is capable
of doing here. Sometimes, no matter how dialed in you are, it just doesn't
happen for you," said DiSalvo. "We're prepared to go the 200 miles and show what
we can do in the race."
Joey Pascarella and the P1A March
of Dimes entry earned with a time of 1:50.155. The upstart team, which fielded
Jake Zemke in last year's 200, hadn't tested the machine before arriving at
Daytona but has shown the ability to contend for the 71st DAYTONA® 200 winner's
trophy.
Two-time AMA Supersport national
champion Tommy Hayden was a last-minute addition to the field, flying down from
his home in Kentucky on Friday night after getting the call to fill in as
Beaubier's teammate at Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha following the Thursday injury of
Garrett Gerloff. Hayden qualified in 13th despite the considerable challenges
presented by the eleventh hour entry.
Last year's AMA Pro
Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport title winner James Rispoli resumed where he
left off by winning a multi-rider pack battle in the season opener, edging Jake
Lewis by just 0.031s at the conclusion of the 10-lap race. Rispoli and his
Celtic Racing Suzuki GSX-R600 were a factor throughout and led the entire last
lap despite harassment from Lewis. The pair battled on the banking one last time
during the sprint to the stripe. Lewis, mounted on a Riders Discount/Vesrah
Suzuki GSX-R600, was relentless but ran out of time to make his pass.
Kneedragger.com/Galfer Racing's Stefano Mesa took third place, 0.592s back.
The AMA Pro Vance & Hines
XR1200 Series season opener set the bar high for the rest of the year's racing,
featuring a four-rider drafting battle to the checkered flag. Kyle Wyman used
the double draft aboard his Kyle Wyman Racing/Vesrah Harley-Davidson to blast
past Bartel's Harley-Davidson teammates Tyler O'Hara (second) and Michael Barnes
(third) at the stripe to win his second consecutive Vance & Hines XR1200
Series race at Daytona International Speedway by 0.116 seconds.
AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com
SuperSport Race 2 will open Saturday's race action at 10:00 a. m. local time,
followed by National Guard SuperBike Race 2 at 11:00 a.m. The opening ceremonies
for the 71st running of the DAYTONA® 200 will start at 12:00 p.m. with the
historic race featuring the AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike contenders scheduled
to officially get underway at 1:00 p.m.
Live Timing & Scoring of all on-track sessions will
be available at http://live.amaproracing.com/rr/.
Between the races, stay connected with AMA Pro Road Racing at www.twitter.com/AMAProSBK and
www.facebook.com/AMAProRoadRacing; keep up with Daytona International Speedway via
Twitter (www.twitter.com/DISupdates) and
Facebook (www.facebook.com/DaytonaInternationalSpeedway).
For
tickets and additional event information, visit www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or call 1-800-PITSHOP. For information related to AMA
Pro Road Racing, please visit www.amaproracing.com.
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AMA Pro Racing is the premier
professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full
schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines.
Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com.
For additional information
contact:
AMA Pro Racing Communications, (386) 492-1014, communications@amaproracing.com
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