AMA Pro Road Racing Reviews Road America AMA Daytona SportBike Series Round

Subway SuperBike Doubleheader Recap: AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 7, 2012) - 2010 AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike champ Martin Cardenas did nothing at Road America but help his chances of winning another crown. Cardenas won both races at the 4.05-mile track and now has a commanding lead in the championship. The GEICO Suzuki pilot leads by 47 points over on-track rival Jason DiSalvo of Team Latus Motors Racing Triumph.  With the three-race stretch held in a little over a week, Cardenas has rallied nicely from his Sonoma crash by taking three wins and three bonus points to curtail any damage done by that mishap.  GoPro Daytona SportBike racing is always tight by nature, but Cardenas has found a way to get ahead on the last lap time and time again in his tenure in the class. Two wins by a little over a second each time out in Wisconsin ... the all-time class wins leader described it as a "perfect weekend," even though it was hard to shake his rivals. "I just tried to push, get in a good rhythm, and see if somebody comes with me or not," said Cardenas. "A lot of guys were really close behind me. I knew the last two laps were going to be really important. When the time came, I pushed very hard." Martin Cardenas #36 leads Jason DiSalvo #40 during one of the AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike Series races at Road America last weekend.  AMA Pro Road Racing photo by Brian J. Nelson. DiSalvo earned the podium twice and made a good charge through the field to get there on Sunday. Afterward, the New Yorker said it reminded him of his 2010 Moto2 race at Indy. "That last lap was really incredible. It was everything I had, that's for the whole race. The whole race I was hammer down trying to make up positions," DiSalvo said. "We just got a bad start and got buried back at the back of the lead group. It was a couple of laps before the field started to thin out. I noticed every time someone started to drop off the pack, it would be like they would lose a little bit of the draft that'd allow me to get around them and then close the gap back up to the lead group. As the lead group got smaller and smaller, I just worked my way up into it. At the end, we found ourselves sort of in contention until the end when stuff started going sideways with Cameron (Beaubier) and J.D. (Beach). We were all battling really hard. It let Martin get away a little bit, but no regrets. Second place feels like a win." Cameron Beaubier (Y.E.S./Graves/Yamaha) ran strong once again and took second on Saturday and looked to repeat on Sunday before a last lap crash put him out of the event.  That elevated J.D. Beach and RoadRace Factory/Red Bull to their first GoPro Daytona SportBike podium.  "We've just been working really hard and moving forward, improving race by race, not trying to do anything crazy and crash. It was good race, it was really good battle being up front. All of those four guys are really fast," Beach said. "It was cool to be racing with Martin (Cardenas), Jason (DiSalvo), Cameron (Beaubier) and Tommy Hayden and everybody, because when I was in SuperSport I was watching them and trying to learn from them. Now I'm racing against them." Dane Westby took fourth on Saturday riding the M4 Suzuki and garnered sixth the second day. Westby has shown great speed in the races this year, but once again didn't get the starts he wanted in Wisconsin. He left himself with too much work to contend for the win. "I need to go to a drag strip or something," said Westby. Tommy Hayden's weekend changed when the team switched motors in his Y.E.S./Graves/Yamaha YZF-R6. Hayden had a rough go at Miller and in Road America Race One, but an engine change saw him jump up on the speed chart and in the results table. He was in the lead pack Sunday and is optimistic for Barber Motorsports Park, although the team has not officially extended his deal yet as he replaces the injured Garret Gerloff. Upstart Bobby Fong took fifth on Saturday for Meen Motorsports and was in a similar position on Sunday when he came together with Jake Gagne in turn five mid-race. Fong still managed tenth.  Jake Zemke, riding the Ducshop Ducati, carved another solid weekend with sixth and fifth place results.  Cory West was the fastest of the Riders Discount Vesrah Suzuki competitors, earning seventh and eighth.   LTD Racing's Huntley Nash was a rider with a breakthrough weekend in Wisconsin. Nash ran as high as third in Saturday's race and ran extensively with the lead Daytona SportBike pack for the first time in both races. He took 10th and seventh. "I learned a lot," said the 20-year old.  Gagne had a disappointing weekend by his standards with eighth and ninth place finishes. The Californian brought home a wounded bike on Sunday, his RoadRace Factory/Red Bull Yamaha YZF-R6 receiving damage from a collision with Fong. "I didn't have much brake pressure," said Gagne.   Cardenas is the class of the field, but the GEICO Suzuki GSX-R600 pilot isn't leaps and bounds ahead. Will someone chasing him find a way to unseat the Colombian at Barber Motorsports Park?   Top 10 Finishers from Road America Race 1: Martin Cardenas (SUZ) Cameron Beaubier (YAM) Jason DiSalvo (TRI) Dane Westby (SUZ) Bobby Fong (YAM) Jake Zemke (DUC) Cory West (SUZ) Jake Gagne (YAM) JD Beach (YAM) Huntley Nash (YAM) Top 10 Finishers from Road America Race 2: Martin Cardenas (SUZ) Jason DiSalvo (TRI) JD Beach (YAM) Tommy Hayden (YAM) Jake Zemke (DUC) Dane Westby (SUZ) Huntley Nash (YAM) Cory West (SUZ) Jake Gagne (YAM) Bobby Fong (YAM) AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike Point Standings (After Round 5): Martin Cardenas - 206 Jason DiSalvo - 159 Dane Westby - 142 Tommy Hayden - 140 Jake Zemke - 124 JD Beach - 112 Joey Pascarella - 111 Bobby Fong - 109 Cory West - 97 Cameron Beaubier - 89 Year-End Award Updates   Jake Gagne has reclaimed the points lead for the $5,000 Saddlemen Rookie of the Year award program. Dane Westby has now logged 1488.68 miles in 485 laps and leads the chase for the $5,000 Sunoco "Go The Distance" Award. Current Sunoco "Go The Distance" Award Standings After Round 5: Dane Westby - 1488.68 JD Beach - 1466.74 Cory West - 1461.74 Next Event   AMA Pro Road Racing heads to Birmingham, Ala. for the Triumph Superbike Classic at the highly-acclaimed Barber Motorsports Park June 22-24. Tickets can be purchased at barbermotorsports.com.

Friday Saturday Sunday   AMA Pro GoPro Daytona Sportbike - Road America Race 2 Highlights AMA Pro GoPro Daytona Sportbike - Road America Race 1 Highlights Rider's Discount Vesrah Suzuki rider Cory West Huntley Nash from LTD Racing at Road America AMA Pro Road Racing Returns to Road America for the Subway SuperBike Doubleheader Barber Motorsports Park June 22-24 Event Info | Tickets

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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AMA Pro Road Racing Reviews Road America AMA Superbike Round

Subway SuperBike Doubleheader Recap: AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 6, 2012) - In the span of seven days and three AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike contests, double defending champion Josh Hayes significantly altered the shape of the developing 2012 title fight.  What was once an evenly matched showdown featuring the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha pilot and his Yoshimura Suzuki-mounted rival Blake Young has shifted decidedly in Hayes' favor. The warning signs were actually visible a round earlier in Sonoma, Calif. However, despite his vastly superior pace, Hayes opened the door for Young with a Sunday crash, and the Suzuki man rushed through it to complete the third straight Hayes/Young victory split to open the season. Sonoma was thought by some to be a special case -- a track where Hayes and his Yamaha YZF-R1 have repeatedly proven to hold an edge over the rest of the field. Young fully expected to be back on even ground, if not hold an advantage of his own, once the tour travelled to Miller Motorsports Park and Road America -- circuits on which he was victorious last season.  It didn't play out that way. Hayes further solidified the trend and came away with three unchallenged victories to complete back-to-back perfect points weekends.  Hayes registered two crushing double-digit margins of victories on Young's home track this past weekend in the Subway SuperBike Doubleheader and took control of the championship chase in the process, now boasting a relatively healthy 20-point lead (257-237). "I've had a great race weekend," Hayes remarked." I've got good starts and my bike was just great from the beginning. We haven't really changed anything chassis-wise since last weekend at Miller. Things are just clicking and rolling well."   While Hayes hopes to continue his recent run of form, he admits it won't be easy and expects Young to come back swinging: "Hopefully I can take this same thing to Barber when we go there next, and some of the other tighter, more twisty tracks, and continue to push my limits and figure out how far I can take the bike and keep this rolling. I don't necessarily think it's going to work out that way. It gets to be a little bit harder to put much time into it -- the splits are shorter and things happen faster and it's pretty easy to make mistakes.  But I'm definitely looking forward to it and I'm in a comfortable spot championship-wise. I can just focus on racing well and keep going and putting down the laps and making them work to catch up to me."   Josh Hayes #1 leads his team mate Josh Herrin #2 and Blake Young #79 during AMA Superbike action at Road America last weekend.  AMA Pro Road Racing photo by Brian J. Nelson. Hayes wasn't the only factory Yamaha pilot to take a big step forward in the past two weeks. His teammate, Josh Herrin, also stepped forward to harass Young while Hayes made his escape. He actually beat him for second at MMP, and then pushed him to the finish in Elkhart Lake on Sunday, to close out a double-third-place weekend. Home track hero Young was clearly frustrated by his inability to run with Hayes on the upgraded R1 and was openly hoping his hard-working crew might somehow find similar improvements with his GSX-R1000 in the near future.  After picking up a pair of runner-up results, Young said, "I admit I'm a little disappointed. I'd hoped to win at my home track. But this weekend was definitely a learning experience, and I know that we have some improvements to make. We have a few weeks before the next race, so we'll go back and figure out what we need to do to come out strong for Barber."  Young minimized the damage by edging out Herrin to the checkered flag but acknowledged Herrin's efforts. "Riding with Josh Herrin was good. It's good to see him get up there and dice it out with me. He's coming around and riding fairly well." Herrin said, "I thought it went great... Blake and I had a pretty good battle; we passed each other back and forth. I tried to get him but I didn't have any real reason to try to stuff it in there in the last corner on the last lap and risk losing the front or something. It was a really good race -- the R1 was going really good today. I don't know how I didn't get the drive on him to start/finish."   However, while thrilled to be taking the fight to 13-time race winner Young, Herrin quickly recognized that his teammate is still some distance out in front. He explained "Right now, Josh (Hayes) is riding in a class by himself, so I'm happy to be racing for second in my rookie SuperBike season. Not that I wouldn't like to win, of course!"   While Herrin has stepped forward to challenge for second on more than one occasion, his early-season sparring partner, National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, only saw his recent woes intensify.  Following his three-crash weekend in Utah, Hayden struggled with electronics issues and jumped the start in Sunday's race. The end result was uncharacteristic 13th- and 17th-place finishes.  His teammate, Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom, ran well for the team, however. The former premier class champion posted a pair of fourth-place finishes, and pressured Young and Herrin during the opening stages of Sunday's race.  "I just can't thank the Michael Jordan Motorsports crew enough for helping me continue to chip away at the leaders," said Bostrom. "They made my job awesome at Road America. Racing the Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 this weekend was the most fun I've had on a bike in years." Geoff May and Danny Eslick performed above expectations at Road America. Despite its status as the home circuit for the Wisconsin-based Erik Buell Racing outfit, the multiple long straights were thought to put a damper on the EBR 1190RS twins that rail around the corners but are overmatched in terms of sheer horsepower compared with the big fours.  Team Amsoil/Hero EBR's May completed a relatively successful weekend despite the disadvantage with eighth and sixth place results, while Team Hero EBR's Eslick bounced back from a smoking machine-related black flag on Saturday to finish in the top five on Sunday.  The EBRs worked in conjunction during the race, drafting down the straights and leapfrogging one another into the corners.   Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing's Larry Pegram collected Saturday's fifth aboard the improving BMW S1000RR but was hindered by transmission issues on Sunday and could only manage a tenth.  Local hero Jason Farrell shocked with a sixth-place effort on his Farrell Performance/Southeast Sales Kawasaki ZX-10R in Saturday's contest, taking full advantage of his local track knowledge following afternoon showers left some in the field tentative.   Young's Yoshimura teammate, Chris Clark notched up a pair of sevenths.  "Right before the first race, we caught the tail end of a big storm," said Clark. "But by the time the race started, it was drying. Unfortunately, I got behind a rider whose bike was spitting oil. Once he was off the track, I put my head down on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and gained time. By the white flag, it was raining again and the race was red flagged, but I kept pushing and cut the gap even more. Sunday's race was a hard-fought battle for fifth. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and wound up seventh. But I'm happy with the bike and my lap times show that. Now, I'm looking forward to Barber and moving forward." As with the EBRs, the KTM RC8Rs shine in the corners but can't compete down the straights. That made life somewhat difficult for the Wisconsin-based KTM/HMC Racing squad at Road America.  However, they were back to full strength after Stefan Nebel missed the previous round due to visa-related issues. Nebel and teammate, Chris Fillmore, raced together around the 4.05-mile circuit with Fillmore twice finishing in the top ten (two ninths) and German ace Nebel collecting a tenth and an eleventh, despite both orange machines suffering from clutch issues on Sunday.  "It was fun to ride with my teammate (Saturday)," remarked Fillmore. "We were able to push each other to the finish and we were both happy we were able to put our KTM/HMC machines in the top ten." "I am bummed about falling outside of the top ten," remarked Nebel following Sunday's contest. "I am still happy that Chris (Fillmore) and I were able to finish inside the top ten on Saturday but it would have been nice to duplicate that today. I am very happy to see the progress our team is making in its first year and it is wonderful to hear all the positive feedback from the fans that attend each race. We feel that we have a lot of support from the AMA Pro SuperBike fans and it is greatly appreciated." Australian David Anthony claimed a top ten of his own, putting the Kneedraggers.com/Motul/Fly Suzuki GSX-R1000 eighth on Sunday. In addition to his growing points lead, Hayes now boasts six victories on the season -- twice as many as he scored in all of 2011 despite being less than halfway through the '12 campaign. One more and he will equal his best single-season campaign in terms of wins ('09 and '10). However, Barber Motorsports Park is next up, a track at which Hayes has never won a National Guard SuperBike race and the venue of one of his two non-podiums last season. Young, meanwhile, clawed back from a difficult lead up to the race to finish on the podium twice, including an improbable Sunday victory taken over Hayes.   Next Event   AMA Pro Road Racing heads to Birmingham, Ala. for the Triumph Superbike Classic at the highly-acclaimed Barber Motorsports Park June 22-24. Tickets can be purchased at barbermotorsports.com

Friday Saturday Sunday   Subway SuperBike Doubleheader - AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Race 2 Highlights Subway SuperBike Doubleheader - AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Race 1 Highlights Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom - Quest for the Podium AMA Pro Privateer Files - Lloyd Bayley AMA Pro Road Racing Returns to Road America for the Subway SuperBike Doubleheader Barber Motorsports Park June 22-24 Event Info | Tickets

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