Southern Comfortable: Hayes Rallies to Win Big Kahuna Title at Road Atlanta
|
BRASELTON, Ga. (April 22,
2012) - Reigning AMA Pro National Guard
SuperBike Champion Josh Hayes responded to rival Blake Young's shocking Saturday
victory with a Road Atlanta triumph of his own to conclude the Triumph Big
Kahuna Atlanta presented by Dunlop Tire and LeoVince.
While Young's wins are almost
always taken in dramatic fashion (and none more so than yesterday's), Hayes'
more often come in the form of domination.
The Monster Energy Graves Yamaha
star imposed his will on the field on Sunday early, breaking the Yoshimura
Racing Suzuki pilot's pursuit with a string of blisteringly quick laps while
still in the race's developing stages. Hayes pushed his No. 1 Yamaha YZF-R1
around the 2.55-mile circuit with a string of laps faster than his pole time,
including a 1:24.922, which stood as nearly a half-second better than his
qualifying best.
Hayes worked his advantage up at
a clip around a half-second per lap during the stretch, ultimately pushing his
margin of victory to 5.214 seconds in the one-sided affair.
After scoring Yamaha's first-ever
AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike victory at Road Atlanta, the weekend's 'Big
Kahuna' said, "I'm excited about it. This has always been a pretty good track
for me and I've always had pretty good speed here. I'm glad to be able to put
one together this afternoon and put some good strong laps down.
"Yesterday's race was the first
time we came in and did a good debrief and tried to make some improvements. This
morning I rode the bike and thought it was the right direction to go. We decided
to stick with it for the race and we were able to put down some good laps. "It's not how I expected the race
to go -- I expected a race a lot like yesterday. It's a lot easier on my ticker
to be able to get away a little bit and ride by myself."
Young was pulled free of the
remainder of the group in his early chase of Hayes and rode a lonely race from
there. He did his best to stay in touch with his title rival and was rewarded
with a second-placed points haul in the end. The result was a relatively welcome
one considering Young's Sunday chances came under threat when he felt something
wrong with his racebike on the warm-up lap.
"I was a little bit sore when I
woke up this morning, but I got warmed up and stretched out and felt pretty good
by the time I got on the bike this morning," Young said. "I was ready for the
race but we had a little bit of drama with the bike when I rolled out. I had to
come in and get the other bike and was just happy they let me grid up in the
second spot this time instead of putting me on the back row. "I found it a little difficult to
settle in and it just took a minute for Josh to click off some quick laps and
get his gap. There wasn't much I could really do with it then."
A spirited battle raged behind to
decide the final podium position. Hayes' Monster Energy Graves Yamaha teammate,
Josh Herrin, held down third pretty much throughout the 20-lap content, but
never with any significant breathing space as he felt the constant pressure of
National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden.
Hayden made an attempt on the
brakes entering Turn 10 at the end of the back straight on the penultimate lap,
but Herrin held strong and solidified third as he came out on top of a
side-by-side swing through the chicane. "I didn't see Roger until the
second-to-last lap in Turn 10," Herrin said. "That gave me a little boost for
the last lap because I knew he was right there. It was a really good race -- I
had fun just keeping Josh and Blake in my sights for the first seven laps or so.
That felt good. I'll go home and work on my strength -- I just need to be a
little stronger to throw these bikes around."
Another showdown decided fifth. A
big pack of riders aboard varied machinery contested the spot with Larry Pegram
narrowly laying claim to it aboard the Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing BMW
S1000RR. The National Guard SuperBike vet finished fractions of a second ahead
of RidersDiscount.com/Vesrah Suzuki's Taylor Knapp, KTM/HMC's Chris Fillmore,
and Attack Performance Kawasaki's Steve Rapp.
Team Hero EBR's Danny Eslick fell
off that tussle late to accept ninth with Young's Yoshimura Racing teammate,
Chris Clark, completing the top ten. Team Amsoil/Hero EBR's Geoff May
was running a solid fifth early before being forced to pit with a mechanical
issue. The home track hero returned to climb his way back up to 13th in the end.
Meanwhile, Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom was an early DNF, crashing out on the
race's second lap.
Hayes' second victory of the
season has catapulted him back in front of Young in the 2012 AMA Pro National
Guard SuperBike title fight, 116-110.
Martin Cardenas, riding the GEICO
Suzuki, took his 18th career AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike win in a race-long
battle with Tommy Hayden on the Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha. Cardenas had his hands
full with Hayden but the Colombian pulled away in the last two of 20 laps as he
eased a slight gap of 1.220 seconds to sweep Road Atlanta's GoPro Daytona
SportBike races.
"Today's race was a lot tougher
than yesterday," said Cardenas, who now leads the points. "Tommy was on my back
the entire race and he wasn't backing up. I rode as hard as I could to try to
put some gap between us but it wasn't possible. So I tried to maintain a very
good rhythm to the end. Two laps to the end we found some lappers. I was in
front so I passed them first and they held him a little bit. It gave me a little
gap and it was enough to secure the position and win the race."
Hayden upped the ante and had a
quicker pace throughout after conceding he could not hang with the Suzuki rider
on Saturday.
Dane Westby (M4 Broaster Chicken
Suzuki) earned another podium finish when he took third. Westby had a good fight
with Jake Zemke (Ducshop Ducati) around the scenic Georgia circuit, with Westby
earning the spot with another late-race push. Aside from Cardenas, Zemke was the
only other rider to officially lead a lap during today's contest. The
Californian surged to the front from the start to lead the 30-bike field across
the stripe on the first circuit.
After a Saturday crash, Jake
Gagne (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull) managed to earn the top-five finish that had
eluded him recently. Bobby Fong (Meen Motorsports) took the top spot in a three
rider pack that included JD Beach (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull) and LTD Racing's
Huntley Nash.
Jake Lewis won his first AMA Pro
race when he was declared victor in the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com
SuperSport race at Road Atlanta. Lewis, who battled with James Rispoli
yesterday, was engaged in another fight 'til the end. Lewis and Rispoli traded
places several times and looked to be even around the 2.55-mile circuit. Rispoli
happened to be leading Lewis when the race was red flagged just after the two
crossed the line on lap 12, but Lewis had led the last completed lap and thus
took the victory.
Dustin Dominguez (Castrol
Triumph) took third place less than six seconds back, ahead of Hayden
Gillim (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull) and Kneedraggers.com rider Stefano Mesa.
Tyler O'Hara led home a Bartel's
Harley-Davidson 1-2 in the weekend's AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series
race. O'Hara, who started from pole, was engaged in a three-man scrap for the
lead with teammate Michael Barnes and Harv's Harley-Davidson's Steve Rapp deep
into the contest. Rapp, however, encountered a mechanical issue while leading
the pack with just over two laps to go, leaving O'Hara and Barnes to settle the
race between themselves.
Rapp's loss was Kyle Wyman's
gain. The KLR Group/Vesrah rider crashed in oil on the race's original opening
lap, resulting in a short red flag period. Wyman switched to his backup machine,
forcing him to start from the back of the field when the group lined up for a
complete restart. He then pulled a mini-Blake Young, racing forward and
ultimately landing on the bottom step of the podium.
Next Event
AMA Pro Road Racing will next
head west for Round 3 with a stop at scenic Sonoma, Calif. The Great Clips West
Coast Moto Jam will take place at Infineon Raceway in two weeks time, May 4-6.
For tickets and event information, please visit www.infineonraceway.com.
|
|
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
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep it nice, but keep them coming!
---Please note---You can leave comments anonymously, but you can also leave them while logged into Google, Yahoo and other platforms.
We'd love to hear from you!
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.