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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: ‘Rough Day’ Or Not, Hayes Fastest At Road Atlanta
Josh Hayes suffered a pair of crashes and ended Friday at Road Atlanta with no bikes to ride but still managed to lead the way in both sessions.
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)
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.
The first sentence out of Josh Hayes' mouth in reference to Friday's provisional AMA Pro Superbike qualifying session was, "It's been a rough day."
And that was probably a pretty accurate summation even if it seems to ignore the fact that Hayes was fastest in both the day's free practice and provisional qualifying session.
The reigning champ ended qualifying watching from pitlane, sidelined for the final ten minutes or so as rival Blake Young whittled away at his advantage, closing to within 0.127s on his final lap.
The reason the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha ace was left helpless to defend his mark was the fact that he tore up both of his Yamaha YZF-R1s on the day, crashing one #1 machine in the free session and then crashing his second #1 bike while working a fast lap immediately following his session best 1:25.380.
"I had another good one going before I made my second big mistake of the day," the reigning champ said. "It's been a while since we've seen the place, but I have a lot of laps around Road Atlanta. This is, I think, the 18th year that I've raced here. Every year I seem to get some laps in here except for last year. Still feels like home and I still remember my way around pretty well.
All in all, things have gone pretty well except for a couple of miscues. The bike is quite a bit different than the last time we were here two years ago. It's been developed a long way since then. Not a lot of our data applied from before; we just started with the bike as it was."
Hayes explained both of his crashes and put the blame squarely on his shoulders. "Both of my mistakes and falls, I can't point at anything on the bike and say it's that things fault. It was more mine. Just maybe being off the bike for a little while and I was trying hard.
"I felt like I was riding pretty smooth and things were clicking off like normal. I just had two miscues get away from me. We had the one this morning that was a false neutral going down into Turn 10. Me, trying to rectify the situation, I blipped the throttle trying to get it into a gear and as I blipped the throttle I grabbed the brake a little extra and I was a little off line trying to give myself some extra space. Fell down and tore that bike up pretty good.
"In this session everything was going pretty smooth I got up on the front wheel going down into the last turn and it started snaking around like it always does, but I got a little close to the white line and rear wheel went in the grass, and it stepped out and I had a big decelerating highside. Unfortunately, I tore up my second bike so I ran out of motorcycles."
Hayes' mixed day shouldn't be viewed as too much of a warning signal. The champ crashed a handful of times in practice and qualifying last season but always stayed upright in the races.
And with rival Young boasting a year-plus streak of zero crashes in practice, qualifying, or the races, he'll need to continue along that path.
Other than a pretty ugly knee, Hayes claims he'll be ready to go come Saturday. "I'm a little beat up but overall everything works. I'm running out of suits and helmets. Other than that, I have a few abrasions on my knee but nothing that will keep me from performing well."
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.
The first sentence out of Josh Hayes' mouth in reference to Friday's provisional AMA Pro Superbike qualifying session was, "It's been a rough day."
And that was probably a pretty accurate summation even if it seems to ignore the fact that Hayes was fastest in both the day's free practice and provisional qualifying session.
The reigning champ ended qualifying watching from pitlane, sidelined for the final ten minutes or so as rival Blake Young whittled away at his advantage, closing to within 0.127s on his final lap.
The reason the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha ace was left helpless to defend his mark was the fact that he tore up both of his Yamaha YZF-R1s on the day, crashing one #1 machine in the free session and then crashing his second #1 bike while working a fast lap immediately following his session best 1:25.380.
"I had another good one going before I made my second big mistake of the day," the reigning champ said. "It's been a while since we've seen the place, but I have a lot of laps around Road Atlanta. This is, I think, the 18th year that I've raced here. Every year I seem to get some laps in here except for last year. Still feels like home and I still remember my way around pretty well.
All in all, things have gone pretty well except for a couple of miscues. The bike is quite a bit different than the last time we were here two years ago. It's been developed a long way since then. Not a lot of our data applied from before; we just started with the bike as it was."
Hayes explained both of his crashes and put the blame squarely on his shoulders. "Both of my mistakes and falls, I can't point at anything on the bike and say it's that things fault. It was more mine. Just maybe being off the bike for a little while and I was trying hard.
"I felt like I was riding pretty smooth and things were clicking off like normal. I just had two miscues get away from me. We had the one this morning that was a false neutral going down into Turn 10. Me, trying to rectify the situation, I blipped the throttle trying to get it into a gear and as I blipped the throttle I grabbed the brake a little extra and I was a little off line trying to give myself some extra space. Fell down and tore that bike up pretty good.
"In this session everything was going pretty smooth I got up on the front wheel going down into the last turn and it started snaking around like it always does, but I got a little close to the white line and rear wheel went in the grass, and it stepped out and I had a big decelerating highside. Unfortunately, I tore up my second bike so I ran out of motorcycles."
Hayes' mixed day shouldn't be viewed as too much of a warning signal. The champ crashed a handful of times in practice and qualifying last season but always stayed upright in the races.
And with rival Young boasting a year-plus streak of zero crashes in practice, qualifying, or the races, he'll need to continue along that path.
Other than a pretty ugly knee, Hayes claims he'll be ready to go come Saturday. "I'm a little beat up but overall everything works. I'm running out of suits and helmets. Other than that, I have a few abrasions on my knee but nothing that will keep me from performing well."
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.
AMA SBK Homestead-Miami
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