Josh Hayes Runs Away With Race 2 at AMA Superbike VIR and Extends Points Lead

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On a drying track at Road America in June of 2008, Josh Hayes drives the #1 Erion Racing Honda/Pro Honda Oils/Parts Unlimited CBR600RR out of turn 11 during practice for the AMA Formula Xtreme Series. Hayes finished second to team mate Jake Zemke in '08 while winning three races and garnering seven podiums. On the way to winning the '06-'07 AMA Formula Xtreme Championships, Josh won nine races over two seasons while riding for the Erion Racing squad.
This was pretty much the view Josh gave his competitors today during the second race running of the AMA Superbike Series Suzuki White Lightning Nationals at VIR. He beat former team mate Ben Bostrom by over 7 seconds, and title rival and third-on-the-day Tommy Hayden by over 15 seconds. Hayes also added to his lead in the championship over Tommy Gun and now leads by 11 points, 364-353, going into the penultimate round at New Jersey Motorsports Park over Labor Day Weekend.
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Graves Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R1-mounted Josh Hayes romped to victory today in the second of two races at Virginia International Raceway in the AMA Superbike Series and in doing so also added to his points lead in the championship. In route to beating former team mate Ben Bostrom on a Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha R-1 by over 7 seconds, Hayes added ten points to the single-point lead he held in the championship after yesterday's race one action. Yesterday's winner and series points runner-up Tommy Hayden brought the Yoshimura Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 home in the third spot, over 15 seconds back from winner Hayes. It was Hayes' fifth win in the premier class this year, and he now takes a 364-353 lead in the AMA Superbike Championship with him to the next round at New Jersey Motorsports Park over the Labor Day Weekend.

Also of note for today, Aaron Yates sat out the race on his Jordan Suzuki again to alleviate any concerns of tweaking his leg injury on the tight and twisty VIR track. Meanwhile, Canadian sensation Brett McCormick, who was drafted by the Jordan team to help fill-in during Aaron's absence, brought it home in fourth today for his best finish of yet in the premier North American AMA Superbike Series.
Eric Bostrom, on the Cycle World/Attack Performance/Yoshimura Suzuki crashed out early, apparently uninjured. And John Hopkins, who yesterday put up one heck of a fight with the top trip until crashing out on the 19th lap on his M4/RoadRacingWorld/Monster Energy Suzuki,
also sat out today due to minor injuries suffered to his still-healing right wrist that he had surgery on some three months ago. Bravo to John for a great showing yesterday, in spite of the late race crash. Looking like the Hopper of old for sure!

You can check out race notes and results below to see and read more on today's action at VIR.
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From the bible of motorcycle racing, CycleNews.com has this race report on today's VIR AMA Superbike race two:

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2010/08/15/hayes-turns-the-tables
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Chris Martin has a great report on the race from SpeedTV.com's Moto Racing news section:

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/spoiler-warning-ama-sbk-results-race-2-vir/
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And Laurel Allen was on the scene at VIR and put in this race report over at RoadRacerX.com that also has some great quotes from today's-and yesterday's top three:

http://www.roadracerx.com/breaking-news/rrx-race-report-ama-pro-vir-american-superbike-race-2-spoiler-alert/
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AMA Pro Road Racing results of race two from Virginia International Raceway:

http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/results.cfm?year=2010&eid=2010011040&discipline=RR&class=SB&type=F&rnum=2&class_sort=all -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Josh Hayes Fires Opening Salvo to Win Provisional Pole For AMA Superbike VIR Suzuki White Lightning Nationals

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Josh Hayes brings it out of turn eight at Road America during the running of the AMA Repsol Superstock final in June of 2004. Hayes went on to finish second on the day to eventual winner Tommy Hayden, and finished out the season in the 8th spot on the Attack/Kawasaki Motors/Dunlop-sponsored ZX10R. He was the '03 AMA Superstock Champion and won two races in route to claiming the crown, and is also a former 2-Time AMA Formula Extreme Champion, winning the crowns for Erion's Honda Racing in '06-'07, topping the podium in 10 races along the way.
If he keeps up the fashion and form he has shown this year and last in the premier AMA Superbike Series, he could very well be adding that crown to his title mantle as well. With three rounds and six races left in the season including VIR this weekend, it's definitely show or go time.
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Josh Hayes, riding the #4 Graves Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R1, fired the opening shot this afternoon at Virginia International Raceway in taking the provisional pole for this weekend's doubleheader round of the AMA Superbike Suzuki White Lightning Nationals. Fending off attacks from Ben Bostrom on the Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha R-1 during qualifying, Josh put his head down to top the leaderboard for the afternoon by .492 seconds over BBoz#155. Tommy Hayden on the Yoshimura Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 rounded out the top three just .614 seconds adrift of provisional pole sitter Hayes.

Of interest to start off the weekend was Geoff May again riding the Erik Buell Racing 1125R for the team who qualified 5th on the provisional grid just 1.017 seconds arrears of Hayes. Quite an accomplishment for this young team considering the level of talent they placed ahead of going into tomorrow's second round qualifying at 9:30 EDT. And Aaron Yates put it in the 14th spot on the grid in the provisional round this afternoon in his return to the track after is late March crash at Fontana. Look for Aaron to up the pace as he gets re-introduced to the bike as well as once his leg gets stronger. The first of two races on the weekend in the AMA Superbike premier class rolls off tomorrow afternoon at 3:15 EDT.

You can check out the overall results right here thanks to AMA Pro Road Racing, and below that is the link for AMA Live Timing and Scoring to follow along for the rest of the weekend.
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AMA Pro Road Racing Suzuki White Lightning Nationals Superbike round one qualifying results from VIR:

http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/results.cfm?year=2010&eid=2010011040&discipline=RR&class=SB&type=Q&rnum=1&class_sort=all -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMA Live Timing and Scoring for VIR:

http://laptraxtg.racersites-cluster.com/LapTraxTG/AMA/livescoring.html?LAPTRAXID=2010011040
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AMA Superbike VIR round event info:

http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/event.cfm?eid=2010011040
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A Hush Just Fell Over The AMA Superbike Paddock....

....and a roar could probably be heard from the folks at DMG as news comes

to us that Josh Hayes, on the Graves Motorsports Team Yamaha R1 has beat

Mat Mladin in race 1 of the AMA American Superbike Series Final at Infineon Raceway

in Sonoma, CA.

Having not heard the details at the time of posting, I can only post the final results as

Mr. Hayes beat Tommy Hayden, Larry Pegram, Aaron Yates as well as Mat Mladin to

win his very first AMA American Superbike race under the existing, as well as former,

series rules and engine criteria. Not taking anything away from Smilin' Josh, as he has worked

extremely hard this year with a new team, a new motorcycle and virtually a new slate in

running the Superbike series for the first time in several years. Congrats to Mr. Hayes in

his very well deserved win and for getting the proverbial monkey off his back in the Superbike

series. Having been a multiple winner of races in the 'old' Supersport series, as well as a 2-Time

FX Series Champ and race winner under the 'old' series formulas, the guy is for sure no slouch,

and to be congratulated for his accomplishments today. Bravo to you sir!

The unofficial results as of this posting can be found here at http://www.superbikeplanet.com/:

http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/May/090516raceone.htm (thank you to Dean Adams & Co.!)

UPDATE--7:45 P.M. Sat. 5/16/09

Here is the story of the race from race 1 at Infineon thanks to the fine folks at www.SpeedTV.com. Apparently Mat was having some front end problems with his

Team Yoshimura Suzuki that kept him from mounting any type of charge to keep his, and

Suzuki's long-time win streak intact. Again, nothing against Mr. Hayes and his efforts today:

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ama-sbk-superbike-shocker-hayes-scores-first-win/

The shots accompanying the bombshell mentioned in this post are of one Mr. Joshua Hayes at

Road America in June of '06 on the Erion Racing CBR1000RR Super Stock bike. These shots

were taken of Smilin' Josh as he was in various modes of practice and qualifying for the weekend.

Again, congrats to Josh Hayes for a breakthrough win at Infineon. And they can call it whatever

they want it will always be Sears Point......guess you gotta pay the bills....