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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: The Difficult Path To Domination
Josh Hayes makes the case that as close as things may look in the standings, he's the man raising the bar in AMA Superbike.
Monster Energy Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Brian J Nelson)
For the second straight AMA Superbike qualifying session, Josh Hayes pushed himself to the point of mistake, crashing his Monster Energy Graves Motorsports Yamaha but not before posting a lap that proved unassailable by his rivals.
The reigning champ regularly talks about his desire for absolute domination -- in every practice, every qualifying session, and every race. While his results haven't quite stacked up to his lofty goals -- registering just one win in four races thus season -- he's been on the cusp of that sort of one-sided series' ownership, ever present at the front.
According to the Mississippian, his recent uncharacteristic miscues are sourced in an inner desire to raise his level to even greater heights as opposed to feeling the pressure being applied by those nipping at his heels.
Hayes explained that his goal was to create a new era of Mat Mladin-like superiority and talked about the growing pains that come with clawing to get to that point: "I'm just trying to figure it out and test myself. That guy before me -- I'm trying to figure out how he did it. I'm pretty happy if I'm the guy they're always chasing. I'm just trying to go out there and do my work; my boys do a lot of hard work on those bikes back at the shop and they spend a lot of time away from their families. I'm trying to do right by them -- if I'm not giving 100% then I don't feel like I'm doing them justice."
Hayes leads in the standings by six points over Tommy Hayden, who has an identical record of a win, two seconds, and a third -- only lacking the bonus points to match his rival -- while double winner Blake Young is a further point adrift.
But as close as the championship chase may be, Hayes' doesn't feel that fully captures the form he's displayed in '11. "The results, to me, have looked different than how the season's felt. I think I've only been topped in a couple of sessions and never by very much. It's always those guys catching up to me. I feel like every session I go out and I do my work and get up to the top of the time sheets and then there at the end they throw in a lap and get me at the end by a tenth or two once in a while. I think Tommy topped me in one session at Infineon and he got me in one race where I really struggled. At Daytona I led all of them except the two races where they got me just at the finish line."
The reigning champ regularly talks about his desire for absolute domination -- in every practice, every qualifying session, and every race. While his results haven't quite stacked up to his lofty goals -- registering just one win in four races thus season -- he's been on the cusp of that sort of one-sided series' ownership, ever present at the front.
According to the Mississippian, his recent uncharacteristic miscues are sourced in an inner desire to raise his level to even greater heights as opposed to feeling the pressure being applied by those nipping at his heels.
Hayes explained that his goal was to create a new era of Mat Mladin-like superiority and talked about the growing pains that come with clawing to get to that point: "I'm just trying to figure it out and test myself. That guy before me -- I'm trying to figure out how he did it. I'm pretty happy if I'm the guy they're always chasing. I'm just trying to go out there and do my work; my boys do a lot of hard work on those bikes back at the shop and they spend a lot of time away from their families. I'm trying to do right by them -- if I'm not giving 100% then I don't feel like I'm doing them justice."
Hayes leads in the standings by six points over Tommy Hayden, who has an identical record of a win, two seconds, and a third -- only lacking the bonus points to match his rival -- while double winner Blake Young is a further point adrift.
But as close as the championship chase may be, Hayes' doesn't feel that fully captures the form he's displayed in '11. "The results, to me, have looked different than how the season's felt. I think I've only been topped in a couple of sessions and never by very much. It's always those guys catching up to me. I feel like every session I go out and I do my work and get up to the top of the time sheets and then there at the end they throw in a lap and get me at the end by a tenth or two once in a while. I think Tommy topped me in one session at Infineon and he got me in one race where I really struggled. At Daytona I led all of them except the two races where they got me just at the finish line."
AMA SBK Homestead-Miami
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