MILLVILLE, NJ, SEPT 4 – Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes was handed the American SuperBike win when a red flag was thrown on the final lap after he’d been passed by Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden. “I got a little bit of a gift today with the red flag,” Hayes said.
Hayes had controlled the race from the second lap, when he passed Hayden, and he appeared unassailable for the first half of the race. Then he had one moment with the front end that would be an omen for later in the race. Hayes had a front end slide halfway in when his lead was over two seconds. He saved it with his knee, but it ripped his leathers. More to the point, it caused a loss of confidence in the front end.
“I lost the front pretty big and rode on my knee for a while,” he said. “Kinda gathered that back together and I didn’t recover from it that well. So for the next couple laps I had some small ones here and there and I just started being careful and babying it and the problem was I was kinda trying to baby the front, but I was still able to go around low 22’s and my gap wasn’t really changing.
“I was OK with it, because my time gap was staying the same, I was still plus-2, plus-2, plus-2, and I thought, ‘OK I can do this, I’m home free.’ And then whenever it went plus-1 one, plus-0 like that, I went, ‘Shit. Now what do I do?’ It was like, reevaluate. Can the front take it if I push on it some more? Am I going to fall down?”
The lead began to drop dramatically in the final five laps. It went from 2.18 seconds on lap 18 to 1.537 seconds on lap 19 to under a second on lap 20 to .206 ending the 21st lap as Hayes struggled with front end grip. Dunlop had brought a new front tire which was halfway between the hard that Hayes preferred and the medium that Hayden favored.
“They say it’s the same rubber, stiffer tire, which is always kind of what I asked for,” Hayes said. “When I rode the hard tire a few times, I liked the feel of the tire, but it didn’t have the grip level. Today I just basically used it up. I don’t know why. I don’t know if durability’s not quite what the 6680 was, but we’ll go back and revisit it and see if it has something to do with our settings or something like that.”
Hayes wasn’t sure if the front tire could continue to take the abuse, “but I could tell in the last lap I was sure willing to take a few chances. I wanted to win the race and that’s what the championship’s about.” He added, “And so I was willing to stick my neck out there and go for it. I had a plan of some things I would try before the lap was over.”
It wouldn’t matter.
Jordan Suzuki’s Brett McCormick crashed in the esses leading to the final turn 11 ending his 22nd lap, his Suzuki careening off the inside wall and into the middle of the track. Corner workers quickly cleared the bike, but a red flag was thrown.
McCormick explained that he and teammate Jake Zemke had come together a turn earlier with the impact turning McCormick’s brake lever vertical. In the esses approaching the final fast final corner, the Canadian was was reaching with his left hand to push it into place when he accidentally locked the front tire and crashed, unhurt. Scoring reverted to the end of the 21st lap with Hayes getting the win, his sixth of the year.
The margin of victory, and the difference between a win and a second for Tommy Hayden, was 0.105 seconds. “Yeah, it’s definitely frustrating, but I mean, what am I going to do about that?” Hayden asked. “That’s the way it goes. I should’ve been up there quicker and not had myself in that position. That’s all you can do and it didn’t work out. I’m definitely frustrated, but just with the situation. Josh (Hayes) did what he’s supposed to do and he got out in the lead and the more laps you lead the less chance you have of something like that happening, so that’s the way it goes.”
The difference in points between Hayes getting first or second guarantees that he’ll strengthen his championship lead. By leading the most laps, and winning the race, Hayes racked up 31 points to run his total to 395 with three races remaining. Hayden is second with 379.
Third on the day went to Pat Clark Motorsports’ Ben Bostrom. Bostrom moved into second on the seventh lap and held it until the 15th when Hayden came past. “I was hoping for more of a dogfight, because I thought for sure there’d be a good fight at the front and that’s what I like to do,” Bostrom said. “And then Tom (Hayden) came by me and pulled me back up, so that was pretty cool. We gained a few rpm there. And man I go, ‘This thing is going to come down to it. This is going to be great.’ And one small glitch with some gentleman on the track,” a lapper in turn one starting the 22nd lap. “But it all still looked like it was going to come down to the wire. We put in a real good last effort there and the red flag came out, so end of story. But it was going to be a great showdown for you guys.
Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young finished an encouraging but distant fourth in his first race since breaking his back in a testing accident in early June. Young hasn’t been able to strengthen his core and has to ride with a special brace.
M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s John Hopkins equaled his season best finish of fifth. Hopkins finished fifth in both races at Road Atlanta before having surgery on his wrist. Jordan Suzuki’s Jake Zemke finished sixth, with a gap of ten seconds Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing’s Larry Pegram. McCormick was originally listed as seventh, but was moved down to 13th in the official results.
AMA Pro American SuperBike Saturday race results:
1.Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
3. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
4. Blake Young (Suzuki)
5. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
6. Jake Zemke (Suzuki)
7. Larry Pegram (Ducati)
8. Geoff May (Buell)
9. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
10. Chris Peris (BMW)