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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Can Anyone Step Up?
Josh Hayes is the undisputed king of AMA Pro Superbike. Is there anyone even capable of ending his reign in 2013?
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)
Everyone wants to do better than they did last year. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes, it’s near impossible. It’s the downside of having a good year.
If you’re Josh Hayes, you won 16 races and your third straight AMA Pro Superbike championship. That’s hard to top. No one needs to be told Josh Hayes had a great year, but the details are still shocking.
No one has ever won 16 AMA Pro Superbike races in one year before. Or as many consecutive races. Or more poles in one season.
Hayes leapt to second place on most of the all-time AMA Pro lists for Superbike riders behind longtime ace Mat Mladin. With his next pole, he’ll be second on that list, too.
16 wins is a great career, much less a season. The 16-win year alone would have put him in a tie for seventh on the all-time win list with Wayne Rainey.
It needs to be mentioned that the Superbike doubleheader hasn’t been the norm through the entire history of the class. The doubleheader became en vogue with the 1998 Road Atlanta race and the format quickly spread. Some of the greats didn’t have the same opportunity to pile up wins, but some of the greats also raced Superbike when it was a support class, too.
But it is all in the past now. Hayes is about to kick off his title defense in Daytona next month. Can he do it again?
In a way, 2012 wasn’t about the numbers or piling up crazy win and pole totals. It was about pace. Hayes and Yamaha upped theirs and Josh’s main rival, Blake Young, who won seven 2011 races compared to three for Hayes, lost his mojo in the process. Well, Young didn't lose it so much as Hayes stole it.
No one else was in a position to step up and challenge.
If you’re Josh Hayes, you won 16 races and your third straight AMA Pro Superbike championship. That’s hard to top. No one needs to be told Josh Hayes had a great year, but the details are still shocking.
No one has ever won 16 AMA Pro Superbike races in one year before. Or as many consecutive races. Or more poles in one season.
Hayes leapt to second place on most of the all-time AMA Pro lists for Superbike riders behind longtime ace Mat Mladin. With his next pole, he’ll be second on that list, too.
16 wins is a great career, much less a season. The 16-win year alone would have put him in a tie for seventh on the all-time win list with Wayne Rainey.
It needs to be mentioned that the Superbike doubleheader hasn’t been the norm through the entire history of the class. The doubleheader became en vogue with the 1998 Road Atlanta race and the format quickly spread. Some of the greats didn’t have the same opportunity to pile up wins, but some of the greats also raced Superbike when it was a support class, too.
But it is all in the past now. Hayes is about to kick off his title defense in Daytona next month. Can he do it again?
In a way, 2012 wasn’t about the numbers or piling up crazy win and pole totals. It was about pace. Hayes and Yamaha upped theirs and Josh’s main rival, Blake Young, who won seven 2011 races compared to three for Hayes, lost his mojo in the process. Well, Young didn't lose it so much as Hayes stole it.
No one else was in a position to step up and challenge.
AMA SBK Miller Motorsports Park
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