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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Preseason Notebook
The AMA Pro Road Racing scene is starting to heat up with Daytona just around the corner…
Two-time AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)
The recently announced Roadrace Factory Red Bull Team is testing at Chuckwalla on Tuesday and Wednesday. This team, run by former racer and current instructor Danny Walker, will run four young riders in 2012 -- J.D. Beach, Jake Gagne, Tomas Puerta, and Hayden Gillim. There’s a lot of young talent on the team and Walker has put together an impressive program, including ex-Martin Cardenas mechanic Robin Hawley.
Beach had an up-and-down season last year as he was thrown in the deep end on the Cycle World Attack Kawasaki Superbike but remains one of the brightest young American talents.
Gagne hasn’t raced in the US full-time since the Red Bull Rookies Cup days of ’08 but he’s compiled some impressive exploits in Europe. It will be interesting to see how he rates against American riders of similar age and experience.
The list of three-time AMA Pro Superbike champs is a pretty thin one. Only Ben Spies, Mat Mladin, Doug Chandler, Fred Mekel, and Reg Pridmore have won three titles in the big class. After winning the last two, Josh Hayes is positioned to add his name to that exclusive list this year.
History might be on Hayes’ side. All the men, except for Chandler, won three championships in a row. (Mladin did it twice, separated by Nick Haden’s '02 title, then won a seventh in 2009.) There’s a precedent for the hot hand staying hot.
Hayes, who wasn’t entirely pleased with how the 2011 season went with Blake Young winning more than twice as many races, said at New Jersey that he was going back to the drawing board for his 2012 strategy. Don’t expect Hayes to turn into a wheels-in-line robot out there -- the full-bore, going-for-it style is his personality. Maybe a slight tweak that allows the Mississippi-born rider to save some tire for the last lap will be on order, though.
AMA Pro Daytona SportBike champ Danny Eslick has signed with Erik Buell Racing to run alongside Geoff May for 2012. Eslick won his (and Buell’s) first big-time championship in 2009, so a return to the brand will be a well-received one for the fans of the American-made Superbike.
The combo of Eslick, the Buell, and the spec tires proved to be a powerful one that year. Despite the displacement advantage, Eslick was the only man who could make the combo work on an even remotely consistent basis and he was at times unstoppable.
Beach had an up-and-down season last year as he was thrown in the deep end on the Cycle World Attack Kawasaki Superbike but remains one of the brightest young American talents.
Gagne hasn’t raced in the US full-time since the Red Bull Rookies Cup days of ’08 but he’s compiled some impressive exploits in Europe. It will be interesting to see how he rates against American riders of similar age and experience.
The list of three-time AMA Pro Superbike champs is a pretty thin one. Only Ben Spies, Mat Mladin, Doug Chandler, Fred Mekel, and Reg Pridmore have won three titles in the big class. After winning the last two, Josh Hayes is positioned to add his name to that exclusive list this year.
History might be on Hayes’ side. All the men, except for Chandler, won three championships in a row. (Mladin did it twice, separated by Nick Haden’s '02 title, then won a seventh in 2009.) There’s a precedent for the hot hand staying hot.
Hayes, who wasn’t entirely pleased with how the 2011 season went with Blake Young winning more than twice as many races, said at New Jersey that he was going back to the drawing board for his 2012 strategy. Don’t expect Hayes to turn into a wheels-in-line robot out there -- the full-bore, going-for-it style is his personality. Maybe a slight tweak that allows the Mississippi-born rider to save some tire for the last lap will be on order, though.
AMA Pro Daytona SportBike champ Danny Eslick has signed with Erik Buell Racing to run alongside Geoff May for 2012. Eslick won his (and Buell’s) first big-time championship in 2009, so a return to the brand will be a well-received one for the fans of the American-made Superbike.
The combo of Eslick, the Buell, and the spec tires proved to be a powerful one that year. Despite the displacement advantage, Eslick was the only man who could make the combo work on an even remotely consistent basis and he was at times unstoppable.
AMA SBK Homestead-Miami
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