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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Hayes Hangs Onto Pole
Still sore from yesterday's crashes, Josh Hayes wasn't able to improve his previous time but his QP1 effort was good enough to win him yet another title point.
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Brian J Nelson)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Pro Superbike and SportBike races from Road Atlanta will air Saturday, April 21 starting at 8:30pm ET and Sunday, April 22 starting at 11:00pm ET on SPEED. The SuperSport races will air LIVE on SPEED2 at 1:00pm ET on Saturday and 1:15pm ET on Sunday. The XR1200 race will air LIVE on SPEED2 at 12:30pm ET.
While the bulk of the top AMA Pro Superbike pilots managed to improve upon their Friday times today at Road Atlanta despite being faced with somewhat iffy conditions, two men who did not were the ones who still managed to grab the top two spots on the grid when all was said and done.
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes, who secured the top spot on Friday despite a pair of big crashes, retained the pole based on yesterday's effort. The Mississippian admitted to a more cautious approach today, judging it not worth risking another fall considering the conditions of both the track and his mending knees.
Meanwhile, rival Blake Young put his head down today in an attempt to take advantage of a seemingly vulnerable Hayes. He threw in a string of laps that were the fastest of the session, but still a tick slower than his time from yesterday, let alone Hayes'.
Pole winner Hayes said, "Conditions today were definitely not as good as yesterday. And we just kinda were going to see how it went. I wanted to go out and see how the knees were feeling and felt surprisingly not too bad. And we came up with a pretty ingenious way to bandage it up in there, so it’s not rubbing too bad on the suit or anything.
"With the conditions, it was hard to tell after a few laps you got so much moisture on the screen and I was breathing and I had built up moisture inside the shield, that it was hard to tell if conditions were getting worse, better, how much they were changing. And you’re trying to just kinda get your feeling with the tires, but you don’t want to overstep your bounds with that either.
"I did a couple of fast laps and then I kinda took a deep breath and backed everything off and said, 'Okay, what can I do without pushing?' You are making zero mistakes. And I was able to put together a couple of low '26s pretty handily. And I came in at that point to kinda see what was going on in the session. Blake was still was a pretty good ways away from the time from yesterday and with the conditions, I said, you know what? That’s going to be a hard bit with conditions and being a little bit further back. We won’t throw a tire at it. if he gets it, then good job on him."
Again the victim of a one-point swing in favor of Hayes, Young placed the blame squarely on himself, saying he had the bike and opportunity to win pole but instead let his Yoshimura Racing Suzuki team down by not coming through in the session. He vowed to make up for it in today's race.
"The guys are working hard for me," he said. I really feel like, you know, I’m not riding as great as I possibly could. I feel like the guys are working hard. The bike’s there. I’m just not connecting everything. I felt like that qualifying session I had a little bit more out there. the bike definitely was capable of doing it. I just struggled to put it together there -- a little bit disappointed in myself.
"I felt like today I let me team down. That was our pole to take today. I think he had a couple mistakes yesterday and we needed to capitalize on that, and I didn't do that. I need to redeem myself today in the race and bring home the win."
The front row will be rounded out by Hayes' teammate, Josh Herrin, who admitted that Road Atlanta is a bit of an eye-opener on a 200hp+ Superbike, and National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, who made a big improvement today despite not being entirely comfortable with the conditions.
Hayden's late flier bumped EBR-mounted Geoff May off the front row. The home track favorite will instead start from the inside of Row 2 and will be joined alongside by Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom, Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing BMW's Larry Pegram, and Young's Yosh teammate, Chris Clark.
SPEED.com Motorcycle Racing Editor Chris Martin saw Eddie Lawson win aboard a Kawasaki the first time he attended an AMA Superbike race and witnessed Ben Bostrom win a World Superbike race aboard a V&H Ducati the first time he worked one. He has written about AMA SBK, WSBK, and MotoGP for SPEED.com since 2003. Chris is now on Twitter.
While the bulk of the top AMA Pro Superbike pilots managed to improve upon their Friday times today at Road Atlanta despite being faced with somewhat iffy conditions, two men who did not were the ones who still managed to grab the top two spots on the grid when all was said and done.
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes, who secured the top spot on Friday despite a pair of big crashes, retained the pole based on yesterday's effort. The Mississippian admitted to a more cautious approach today, judging it not worth risking another fall considering the conditions of both the track and his mending knees.
Meanwhile, rival Blake Young put his head down today in an attempt to take advantage of a seemingly vulnerable Hayes. He threw in a string of laps that were the fastest of the session, but still a tick slower than his time from yesterday, let alone Hayes'.
Pole winner Hayes said, "Conditions today were definitely not as good as yesterday. And we just kinda were going to see how it went. I wanted to go out and see how the knees were feeling and felt surprisingly not too bad. And we came up with a pretty ingenious way to bandage it up in there, so it’s not rubbing too bad on the suit or anything.
"With the conditions, it was hard to tell after a few laps you got so much moisture on the screen and I was breathing and I had built up moisture inside the shield, that it was hard to tell if conditions were getting worse, better, how much they were changing. And you’re trying to just kinda get your feeling with the tires, but you don’t want to overstep your bounds with that either.
"I did a couple of fast laps and then I kinda took a deep breath and backed everything off and said, 'Okay, what can I do without pushing?' You are making zero mistakes. And I was able to put together a couple of low '26s pretty handily. And I came in at that point to kinda see what was going on in the session. Blake was still was a pretty good ways away from the time from yesterday and with the conditions, I said, you know what? That’s going to be a hard bit with conditions and being a little bit further back. We won’t throw a tire at it. if he gets it, then good job on him."
Again the victim of a one-point swing in favor of Hayes, Young placed the blame squarely on himself, saying he had the bike and opportunity to win pole but instead let his Yoshimura Racing Suzuki team down by not coming through in the session. He vowed to make up for it in today's race.
"The guys are working hard for me," he said. I really feel like, you know, I’m not riding as great as I possibly could. I feel like the guys are working hard. The bike’s there. I’m just not connecting everything. I felt like that qualifying session I had a little bit more out there. the bike definitely was capable of doing it. I just struggled to put it together there -- a little bit disappointed in myself.
"I felt like today I let me team down. That was our pole to take today. I think he had a couple mistakes yesterday and we needed to capitalize on that, and I didn't do that. I need to redeem myself today in the race and bring home the win."
The front row will be rounded out by Hayes' teammate, Josh Herrin, who admitted that Road Atlanta is a bit of an eye-opener on a 200hp+ Superbike, and National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, who made a big improvement today despite not being entirely comfortable with the conditions.
Hayden's late flier bumped EBR-mounted Geoff May off the front row. The home track favorite will instead start from the inside of Row 2 and will be joined alongside by Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom, Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing BMW's Larry Pegram, and Young's Yosh teammate, Chris Clark.
SPEED.com Motorcycle Racing Editor Chris Martin saw Eddie Lawson win aboard a Kawasaki the first time he attended an AMA Superbike race and witnessed Ben Bostrom win a World Superbike race aboard a V&H Ducati the first time he worked one. He has written about AMA SBK, WSBK, and MotoGP for SPEED.com since 2003. Chris is now on Twitter.
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