AMA Pro Road Racing: Hayes Over Roger Hayden in AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Race 1 at Barber

Hayes Tops Hayden in AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (June 22, 2013) - GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing superstar Josh Hayes continued to claw his way back into National Guard SuperBike championship contention with another standout performance today at Barber Motorsports Park.  The defending triple champ claimed his third consecutive victory at the Triumph SuperBike Classic presented by America's First Federal Credit Union at Barber Motorsports Park in a wild contest on Saturday afternoon.  Hayes' 36th-career National Guard SuperBike race win came in anything but conventional fashion as he found himself forced to simultaneously overcome one rival on the timing boards and another one on track.

 

The start of the race led to a wild turn of events in the contest's opening stages, as Hayes, second qualifier Roger Hayden (National Guard Jordan Suzuki), Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing's Larry Pegram, M4 Sportbike TrackGear.com Racing's Chris Ulrich, and Neyra Racing's Huntley Nash all rolled forward ahead of the race's official start.  Hayes, who immediately let a number of his competitors by in an early attempt to avoid being penalized for his miscalculation, had to slash back past his Monster Energy Graves Yamaha teammate Josh Herrin and points leader Martin Cardenas (Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing) on track and then set after race leader Hayden. 

 

Hayes dove up the inside of the Michael Jordan Motorsports pilot entering Turn 5 on lap 5 and was shown in the lead as they crossed the stripe to open lap 6.  However, moments later, Hayes and Hayden were dropped to third and fourth as they, Pegram, Ulrich, and Nash were all hit with a five-second penalty for anticipating the start.

 

 

 

Josh Hayes on the #1 Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R1 leads Roger Hayden on the #54 National Guard/Jordan Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000 during the running of race 1 in the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Series at Barber Motorsports Park today.  Hayes took the win over Hayden by just a .245 second margin after being assessed a 5-second penalty due to jumping the start of the 21-lap main event.  AMA Pro Road Racing photo by Brian J. Nelson.

 

 

 

 

Soon enough, Hayes and Hayden's dogfight moved them back to the head of the charts as they broke free from the pack and easily eclipsed their penalties, displacing Cardenas to third and Herrin to fourth once again.  Hayden's challenge never withered, however, as he pressured Hayes to the very end.  The Kentuckian closed to just 0.172 seconds back on the final lap and made an unsuccessful attempt to glide past up the inside on the race's final corner.  Hayes just held on by 0.245 seconds at the stripe.  Aided by Hayden's second-place run, the Mississippian picked up another eleven points in the championship rankings.  He now trails Cardenas, who finished third but faded to 13.170 seconds back (18.170 on track), by 23 points.  After the race, Hayes said, "Oh man -- that was a really fast race. Like my season, I kind of made it a challenge for myself from the beginning.  The light was held for a long time and I saw Rog creeping and I ended up creeping too.  Once I got into the lead, I was kind of waiting to see how it would turn out. I figured something was coming -- I didn't know what.  When I saw the '+5' on the board, I knew what was going on immediately. I said, 'okay, let's see what we can do,' and just tried to put together every lap as good as I could."

 

Runner-up Hayden said, "Pretty good race. It's a little bittersweet to be that close to actually beating Josh and him getting me just by a little bit there at the end.  He was just a little bit better than I was today, so for tomorrow's we'll try to improve some.  The start... I don't know what happened.  The light was on forever and then I was just reading the '+5' board and it didn't come until the eighth or ninth lap.  Then I saw on my board I was third, but then it finally went up to second, so I knew where the gap was behind me.  And I saw Josh's name on the board too, so I knew I was pushing that hard just to win on track and not really get the win. I'm pretty happy -- the first two races haven't started out that good.  I knew we were a lot better than we showed at Daytona and Road America. Hopefully this is a turnaround for my season."

 

Third-placed Cardenas admitted, "My race was a little bit tough. Physically, I think for everybody, but I thought I had a little bit better rhythm going into the race. But early on I found out that I wasn't as fast as these two guys.  I tried my best and tried to stay as close as possible, but halfway through the race I lost a lot of time.  I just tried to finish in third place and get some points. We'll think about a few things to try tomorrow and try to improve a little bit."  Herrin claimed a lonely fourth, followed by KTM/HMC's Chris Fillmore and the aforementioned Pegram (who was the only rider to actually lose a position in the final order due to his penalty).

 

Team Hero's Geoff May finished seventh aboard his EBR 1190RS with Jordan Suzuki's Danny Eslick charging back to eighth after dropping down to 14th following an early-race incident.  Motosport.com Motul Fly Racing David Anthony and Team AMSOIL/Hero EBR's Aaron Yates completed the top ten.

 

Hayes will attempt to further close the gap on Sunday by completing his second straight perfect points haul weekend, both this season and here at Barber Motorsports Park.

 

AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike

 

Cameron Beaubier of the Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha team won his third AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike race of the year at Barber Motorsports Park, topping rival Jake Gagne (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull) and Jason DiSalvo (Latus Motors Racing Triumph).  While all three podium finishers led the race in the hectic opening laps, Beaubier consolidated the lead before halfway.  Beabuier was eventually able to pull away from Gagne, who won the last time out in Wisconsin, to take a 5.185-second victory in the 21-lap race.

 

"We had a really good setup today," Beaubier said after the win.  "I just wanted to start out the weekend getting really comfortable on the bike.  I conserved my tires a little bit in the beginning, and that helped me as the race wore on because I was able to pull a decent gap as the laps wound down."  Gagne followed Beaubier closely for a time but was unable to mount the same style of challenge as he did in Wisconsin.  The Californian chose the medium compound tire compared to the softer choice Beaubier picked and came up just a little short on Saturday.  "Second place isn't bad but we'll work on a few issues tonight and give it another shot," said Gagne.  DiSalvo came up big at his home race.  The Triumph man had been experiencing a run of respectable finishes but hadn't done anything spectacular in 2013 until Saturday.  A day of testing after Elkhart Lake made the Triumph's settings more balanced and allowed DiSalvo to jet off with the holeshot.  He was also able to stick inside the top three the entire race, showing the improvements were substantial enough to vault DiSalvo to the podium.

 

Dane Westby (GEICO Motorcycle Road Racing) earned fourth after a shootout with RoadRace Factory/Red Bull's JD Beach and Y.E.S./Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha's Garrett Gerloff.  The trio finally sorted themselves out by the final corner, with Westby earning his best result of the year after a Daytona injury that forced him to miss that event.  Beach looked to have a great shot at the position, but Gerloff's move in turn five allowed Westby to slip past them both.  James Rispoli (National Guard/Celtic Racing) earned a lonely seventh, well clear of Bobby Fong on the D&D Cycles/Castrol/Triumph Daytona 675R.  Fong narrowly edged out Joey Pascarella (Riders Discount Racing Triumph) and Benny Solis (M4 SportBikeTrackGear.com) and less than a second separated the trio.

 

AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport

 

Joe Roberts won his AMA Pro debut on Saturday, earning a convincing win in Saturday's AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport Race at Barber Motorsports Park.  Roberts, competing for California Superbike School/Roadracingworld.com Racing, won by 8.122 seconds over RoadRace Factory/Red Bull's Tomas Puerta and Nick McFadden of TOBC Racing.  Roberts got off to a terrible start but had worked his way into the lead by the second lap. From there, he motored away in the 17-lap race.  "I think I got the worst start ever," said Roberts.  "By the end of the first lap, I was up to fourth. By the time I got to the front, I decided to push as hard as I could."

 

Puerta battled with Hayden Gillim (Team 95) and then came under attack from several riders but was able to earn second place.  "I tried to be consistent and when I went by Hayden, I rode my own race," said Puerta.  McFadden was in his first AMA Pro race like Roberts and took a fine third place just over a second behind Puerta.  "I didn't know what to expect for my first race," said McFadden, who opportunistically kept moving up the ranks until he had a podium.  "I was hoping for a top ten or a top five."

 

Team 95's Hayden Gillim finished fourth after qualifying on the front row and battling at the front with Puerta early before Roberts came past.  Miles Thornton had the save of the race.  The CTR Racing pilot nearly highsided while chasing Puerta and somehow managed to hang on until his machine regained a more stable relationship with the laws of physics.  Thornton kept rolling and finished 2.5 seconds behind Gillim.  Double Elkhart Lake winner Corey Alexander of National Guard/Celtic Racing was sixth after a Friday crash.  Meen Motorsports' Wyatt Farris topped SuperSport East points leader Stefano Mesa (Motosport.com RSRacecaft) for seventh.  BP Racing teammates Sebastiao Ferreira and Charles Weaver rounded out the top 10.

AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series

 

Reigning AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series champ Michael Barnes outpaced Road America winner Steve Rapp to claim the provisional pole for Sunday's 11-lap contest.  Barnes clocked a 1:35.139 in qualifying while Rapp (who missed the morning's practice after missing Saturday entirely in Wisconsin) posted a 1:35.894 to earn the second spot on the grid.  The two will be joined on the front row by Eco-Fuel Saver/Scrubblade's Tyler O'Hara (1:36.651) and Rapp's Suburban Harley-Davidson teammate, Ben Carlson (1:36.803).  Barnes said, "We made some changes after this morning.  We knew we were quick but we also knew we had more in store and we had to be ready for Rapp again after what he did at Elkhart.  We just did our homework on the bike and got it tuned a lot better than before. I just can't thank Spike's Harley-Davidson enough for coming on board and helping us out."

 

This weekend's GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing action is being broadcast on CBS Sports Network as part of the CBS Sports Spectacular.  AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike Race 2 will air on Sunday, June 23 at 3:00 p.m. ET/ 12:00 noon PT, followed directly by LIVE coverage of AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Race 2 at 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT.  Fans can find CBS Sports Network on their TV by using the channel finder athttp://www.cbssportsnetwork.com/channel-finder.

 

Live, high-definition coverage of Sunday's National Guard SuperBike Warm-Up session and Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport Race 2 will be streamed via AMA Pro Live beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET/ 7:30 a.m. PT at http://www.amaprolive.com/rr/. 

 

In addition to the live broadcasts, AMA Pro Live will be streaming multiple channels of behind-the-scenes video of the weekend's activities alongside Live Timing & Scoring.  AMA Pro Live puts fans in the director's chair, allowing them to choose from a variety of viewpoints including track cameras, paddock cameras and a press conference channel at http://www.amaprolive.com.

 

All weekend long, stay connected with GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing on social media at http://twitter.com/AMAProSBK and http://www.facebook.com/AMAProRoadRacing.

 

About GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing:

GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing is the premier motorcycle road racing series in North America and is universally regarded as one of the most competitive road racing organizations in the world.  The 2013 schedule consists of nine rounds of competition on the country's finest road courses.  The Series is comprised of four production-based classes: AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike, AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike, AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport and the AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series. Learn more about GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing at www.amaproracing.com/rr/.

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