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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Status Quo
Can anyone beat Josh Hayes this season? The early results are negative...
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Pro Superbike season opener will air on SPEED on Friday, March 15 at 6:00pm ET with Race 2 airing Sunday evening at 9:00pm. The Daytona 200 will air on SPEED at 1:30pm ET on Sunday, March 17. The Vance & Hines HD race and the twin SuperSport races will air LIVE on SPEED2.
Hope springs eternal… or at least until the arrival of first day of a new season. Title prospects up and down the paddock -- prospects rejuvenated over a long offseason -- received a first reality check of '13 in the form of reigning triple champ Josh Hayes' early speed at Daytona International Speedway.
Hayes boasted an advantage of over one second from the session's very first lap and never did any of his rivals manage to cut beneath the margin during the season's very first qualifying session.
The Monster Energy Graves Yamaha ace ultimately lowered his mark to a 1:37.746 -- about three tenths off last year's pole mark -- to secure the season's first provisional pole.
"Everything went pretty smooth," Hayes said. "It's a good first day for starting off a new season. I was feeling a bit of pressure about just getting things started. All the pressure and the hype of new people and new things coming in -- I've been kind of anxious to get on the racetrack and see how it all plays out... Right now I just want to do my job. If I continue to do what I've been doing the last year or so, the pressure is on them to catch up to me. So far, so good."
National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, Hayes' teammate, Josh Herrin, and new Yosh pilot Martin Cardenas all threw down their fastest laps within the final two minutes of the session in a late bid to improve their position. And they all dropped their deficit by a few tenths, but could only transform Hayes' 1.5s advantage into one of just over a second.
Hayden ultimately proved second best at 1:38.805, 1.059 removed from the Mississippian's mark. He was followed by Herrin, 0.155 seconds back, with Cardenas fourth, another 0.041 seconds adrift.
New Jordan Suzuki man Danny Eslick and Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing Yamaha's Larry Pegram were on that same pace, with Eslick fifth, 0.120 removed from the Colombian, and Pegram sixth at 1:39.121 despite a late crash that saw his tumbling R1 narrow miss landing on the sliding Ohioan.
While far from answered, the season's pressing question ("can anyone run with Hayes") received a tentative, yet convincing 'no' on the first day of the season.
Now the question shift to whether or not anyone can find something over night that they were unable to find over the offseason in time for tomorrow's season-opening green light.
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.
Hope springs eternal… or at least until the arrival of first day of a new season. Title prospects up and down the paddock -- prospects rejuvenated over a long offseason -- received a first reality check of '13 in the form of reigning triple champ Josh Hayes' early speed at Daytona International Speedway.
Hayes boasted an advantage of over one second from the session's very first lap and never did any of his rivals manage to cut beneath the margin during the season's very first qualifying session.
The Monster Energy Graves Yamaha ace ultimately lowered his mark to a 1:37.746 -- about three tenths off last year's pole mark -- to secure the season's first provisional pole.
"Everything went pretty smooth," Hayes said. "It's a good first day for starting off a new season. I was feeling a bit of pressure about just getting things started. All the pressure and the hype of new people and new things coming in -- I've been kind of anxious to get on the racetrack and see how it all plays out... Right now I just want to do my job. If I continue to do what I've been doing the last year or so, the pressure is on them to catch up to me. So far, so good."
National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, Hayes' teammate, Josh Herrin, and new Yosh pilot Martin Cardenas all threw down their fastest laps within the final two minutes of the session in a late bid to improve their position. And they all dropped their deficit by a few tenths, but could only transform Hayes' 1.5s advantage into one of just over a second.
Hayden ultimately proved second best at 1:38.805, 1.059 removed from the Mississippian's mark. He was followed by Herrin, 0.155 seconds back, with Cardenas fourth, another 0.041 seconds adrift.
New Jordan Suzuki man Danny Eslick and Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing Yamaha's Larry Pegram were on that same pace, with Eslick fifth, 0.120 removed from the Colombian, and Pegram sixth at 1:39.121 despite a late crash that saw his tumbling R1 narrow miss landing on the sliding Ohioan.
While far from answered, the season's pressing question ("can anyone run with Hayes") received a tentative, yet convincing 'no' on the first day of the season.
Now the question shift to whether or not anyone can find something over night that they were unable to find over the offseason in time for tomorrow's season-opening green light.
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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