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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Hayes Takes His Revenge
After being narrowly beaten twice at Daytona in '11, Josh Hayes scored a dominating victory in the 2012 AMA Pro Superbike season opener.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Pro Road Racing season opener will air back-to-back-to-back in a three-race block (Superbike Race 1, Daytona 200, Superbike Race 2) on Saturday, March 17 starting at 1:30pm ET on SPEED.
Reigning AMA Pro National Guard Superbike Champion Josh Hayes accomplished what he could not one year ago in Friday's season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Hayes once again led from the green flag, but unlike last year the veteran was able to hold off rival Blake Young in National Guard Superbike Race 1 to take his first Superbike win at the historic venue.
Making his way into the lead just as the pack hit the line to complete the first lap, Hayes put his head down, took full advantage of his No. 1 Monster Energy Graves Yamaha YZF-R1's newfound legs, and clicked off a series of blazing laps to break the pursuit of his challengers.
Meanwhile, last season's double Daytona winner, Blake Young, found himself in a brawl for second with Hayes' first-year National Guard Superbike teammate, Josh Herrin, and National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, and was helpless to do anything about Hayes' rapid escape during the race's early stages.
The contest became further stretched out when Herrin lost the front and crashed from third place on lap 6 of 15. The 21-year old, who led all but the final meters of the opening lap of his Superbike debut before being double drafted by Hayes and Young, remounted and briefly re-entered the fray before eventually retiring.
Hayden lost ground as well, running wide in Turn 1 and losing touch with Yoshimura Racing Suzuki ace Young in the race for the runner-up position.
Hayes continued on in flawless fashion at the front to score his 18th career AMA Pro National Guard Superbike victory, boasting an 8.332-second margin of victory over Young.
Prior to the contest, Hayes claimed that he and his team had put forth a great deal of effort in the offseason to ensure they came out stronger this season than in 2011. The 36-year-old Mississippian's performance backed up those statements while serving notice to the rest of the field.
"It was a pretty good day, I'd say," Hayes said. "It's a tough field. Blake rode really well last year. Tommy (Hayden) was all over me. Rog was taking all the necessary steps to be a big pain at the end of the year and Herrin has been fast in testing. So I just went home and worked really, really hard to try to take another step in my game and the team has been working really hard on the machine. This is the payoff. Daytona is one of the tracks last year where we were fast but couldn't get it done. This year we were able to take it another step and I hope we'll be able to do that at every racetrack this year."
"I'm pretty disappointed with my performance today," Young said. "I feel like my team worked really, really hard. I feel like all weekend long I've been just a little bit behind on the curve. I haven't really got out and run faster than Josh all weekend and that obviously makes for a difficult weekend. Like I said, I'm not happy with today's race. Whether I have to get out of bed on the other side tomorrow or put my left sock on before my right like I did today... Whatever I need to do, I need to not let this happen again."
Hayden completed his lonely ride to the final podium position, taking the checkered flag some 16 seconds behind the race winner.
"It's a good way to start the season, finishing on the podium," Hayden said. "But at the same time, it's not very satisfying with the gap to Blake and the gap to Josh being a little bigger than we wanted. But we'll regroup tonight and try to change the bike and try to put a better show on tomorrow."
Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom was another high-profile crasher, falling from fourth moments after taking the position away from Motorcycle-Superstore.com/Big Kahuna/LeoVince Attack Kawasaki's Steve Rapp near half-distance.
However, despite Bostrom's mistake, Rapp was ultimately unable to lock down the position, losing out at the stripe to Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing BMW's Larry Pegram by a scant 0.001 seconds -- a dramatic moment in an otherwise largely processional race.
Team Amsoil/Hero EBR's Geoff May earned sixth, with Evan Steel Performance BMW's Jake Holden, Team Venezuela's Robertino Pietri, Yoshimura Racing Suzuki's Chris Clark, and Kneedraggers.com/Motul/Fly Racing's David Anthony rounding out the top ten.
Reigning AMA Pro National Guard Superbike Champion Josh Hayes accomplished what he could not one year ago in Friday's season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Hayes once again led from the green flag, but unlike last year the veteran was able to hold off rival Blake Young in National Guard Superbike Race 1 to take his first Superbike win at the historic venue.
Making his way into the lead just as the pack hit the line to complete the first lap, Hayes put his head down, took full advantage of his No. 1 Monster Energy Graves Yamaha YZF-R1's newfound legs, and clicked off a series of blazing laps to break the pursuit of his challengers.
Meanwhile, last season's double Daytona winner, Blake Young, found himself in a brawl for second with Hayes' first-year National Guard Superbike teammate, Josh Herrin, and National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden, and was helpless to do anything about Hayes' rapid escape during the race's early stages.
The contest became further stretched out when Herrin lost the front and crashed from third place on lap 6 of 15. The 21-year old, who led all but the final meters of the opening lap of his Superbike debut before being double drafted by Hayes and Young, remounted and briefly re-entered the fray before eventually retiring.
Hayden lost ground as well, running wide in Turn 1 and losing touch with Yoshimura Racing Suzuki ace Young in the race for the runner-up position.
Hayes continued on in flawless fashion at the front to score his 18th career AMA Pro National Guard Superbike victory, boasting an 8.332-second margin of victory over Young.
Prior to the contest, Hayes claimed that he and his team had put forth a great deal of effort in the offseason to ensure they came out stronger this season than in 2011. The 36-year-old Mississippian's performance backed up those statements while serving notice to the rest of the field.
"It was a pretty good day, I'd say," Hayes said. "It's a tough field. Blake rode really well last year. Tommy (Hayden) was all over me. Rog was taking all the necessary steps to be a big pain at the end of the year and Herrin has been fast in testing. So I just went home and worked really, really hard to try to take another step in my game and the team has been working really hard on the machine. This is the payoff. Daytona is one of the tracks last year where we were fast but couldn't get it done. This year we were able to take it another step and I hope we'll be able to do that at every racetrack this year."
"I'm pretty disappointed with my performance today," Young said. "I feel like my team worked really, really hard. I feel like all weekend long I've been just a little bit behind on the curve. I haven't really got out and run faster than Josh all weekend and that obviously makes for a difficult weekend. Like I said, I'm not happy with today's race. Whether I have to get out of bed on the other side tomorrow or put my left sock on before my right like I did today... Whatever I need to do, I need to not let this happen again."
Hayden completed his lonely ride to the final podium position, taking the checkered flag some 16 seconds behind the race winner.
"It's a good way to start the season, finishing on the podium," Hayden said. "But at the same time, it's not very satisfying with the gap to Blake and the gap to Josh being a little bigger than we wanted. But we'll regroup tonight and try to change the bike and try to put a better show on tomorrow."
Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom was another high-profile crasher, falling from fourth moments after taking the position away from Motorcycle-Superstore.com/Big Kahuna/LeoVince Attack Kawasaki's Steve Rapp near half-distance.
However, despite Bostrom's mistake, Rapp was ultimately unable to lock down the position, losing out at the stripe to Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing BMW's Larry Pegram by a scant 0.001 seconds -- a dramatic moment in an otherwise largely processional race.
Team Amsoil/Hero EBR's Geoff May earned sixth, with Evan Steel Performance BMW's Jake Holden, Team Venezuela's Robertino Pietri, Yoshimura Racing Suzuki's Chris Clark, and Kneedraggers.com/Motul/Fly Racing's David Anthony rounding out the top ten.
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