It's a Yamaha weekend and Suzuki year at VIR AMA

It was a Yamaha (and Josh) type of day at Virginia International Raceway for the AMA Pro Racing Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals this weekend, with Yamaha riders Josh Hayes and Josh Herrin both doing the double with wins on both Saturday and Sunday—Hayes in the American Superbike class, and Herrin in the hotly contested Daytona Sportbike class. But it was definitely another Yoshimura Suzuki type of year, with Mat Mladin clinching his seventh AMA Superbike championship today as well. With one event (and two races) still to be run, Mladin has an unassailable lead in the championship, with Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden the only rider with a mathematical chance at stopping Mladin from tying everything up today. In order to keep the six-time AMA champion from adding another title to his tally, Hayden had to win the race—a tall order considering the current momentum of the Hayes/Yamaha steamroller.

Hayes completely dominated the American Superbike events, garnering pole position by a good margin over Mladin, and then speeding off to easy victories in both races. It certainly seems that Hayes has found his groove with the new Yamaha R1 superbike, as he was pretty much untouchable—even by Mladin—the whole weekend. Hayes’ double at VIR was the second AMA doubleheader sweep for the Yamaha rider, his first coming in his previous double win two race weekends ago at Mid-Ohio.

By contrast, Herrin had to fight tooth and nail for both his victories, with a thrilling six-rider battle on Saturday whittled down to just Herrin and M4 Emgo Suzuki’s Jason DiSalvo in the final laps, which was settled with a daring last lap pass securing the victory. It was a little easier on Sunday with a 1.8-second margin over Rossmeyer Buell’s Danny Eslick after the Graves Yamaha rider fended off Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke and Attack Kawasaki’s Roger Lee Hayden and Jamie Hacking. Herrin sits third in the championship standings, with Eslick now leading the Daytona Sportbike title chase by 17 points after entering this event tied with M4 Emgo Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas. Cardenas was hampered by a broken bone in his hand (actually a compound fracture that he put back in place) from a crash on the second lap of practice, and could “only” finish ninth and 11th for the weekend against Eslick’s seventh and second place finishes for weekend. You think Cardenas knows the meaning of the phrase “man up”?