Graves Motorsports Yamaha's...
Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Josh Hayes is now in control of the AMA Pro American SuperBike championship with his victory on Sunday at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
MILLVILLE, NJ, SEPT 5 – Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes took a big step toward his first American SuperBike championship by beating title rival Tommy Hayden (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) for the second day in a row at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Unlike yesterday’s race, which ended under a red flag, today’s race ran to term from a sixth lap red flag interruption, with the fireworks coming at the end. Hayes was in the lead when Hayden made his move on the brakes into turn one on the 18th lap, the pair well clear of the final podium spot. Hayden held off Hayes for two laps, but on the 21st Hayes went back to the lead with an inside pass in the same turn one braking area.
The final lap started with Hayes in the lead, but Hayden had a good run and got him on the brakes, but he ran wide and Hayes came back through on the inside.
Hayden made one more move, taking Hayes into a left, but again running wide. This time when Hayes got back in front he stretched the gap. The Yamaha was stronger onto the front straight and when Hayes led out of the final corner, the outcome was decided.
Though the red flag didn’t change the winner, it had an impact on third place. M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s John Hopkins secured his first ever Superbike podium with a draft pass of Blake Young (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) at the flag. Hopkins had run wide on the fourth lap, dropping from fourth to 13th, just prior to the red flag. The re-start erased much of the deficit. Young was fourth in front of the Jordan Suzukis of Brett McCormick and Jake Zemke.
The red flag was caused by Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom crashing on the exit of turn one. The bike cartwheeled down the track, shedding parts, and lubing up the track. Bostrom wouldn’t make the re-start.
“It was a really good race,” said Hopkins, “but I mean first and foremost it’s just good to be back on a motorcycle. Three and a half months ago I had three doctors and one that’s done most of all my surgeries tell me I was done and had to retire and find another job. [Now] here I am racing a motorcycle and it feels great. I made a stupid mistake before the red flag, so I got really lucky. I’m hoping this is the start of good times to come. It’s been a long road, it’s been a long last couple of years, and I just want to get back out. I sure as hell had fun today, so hopefully we can continue that.”
Hayden was satisfied with his race effort, just not with the race result. “For the most part the race kinda went the way I expected,” said the elder Hayden sibling. “I just didn’t want to take any chances early in the race like yesterday and get someone between us and let him get a gap. And you could pretty much tell it was going to come down to the last lap, and I expected that and that’s what happened. But in the end, just didn’t get it done, basically. It’s pretty simple. It’s a little bit frustrating but also I rode as hard as I could. I don’t know what I could’ve done different and what else can you do? It was good hard fun racing and I enjoyed it.”
There’s no mistaking Hayes’ race strategy. “I’m greedy,” admitted the Gulfport, Mississippi native. “I want to lead all the laps if I can. I’m just more comfortable up front where I can see the track and, you know, I practice by myself a lot and I like being able to see my marks and see the race track. You look at yesterday and yesterday’s a good reason why it’s nice to be out front. You never know when something’s not going to go your way or the race is going to get stopped, whatever it may be.” Hayes knew that if he was able to hold off Hayden to turn seven, the win was his. “I thought, ‘if I can get through (turn) six and brake into seven, I think I’m going to be OK.’ Once I got to that point, I just held some tight lines from there. I knew I could get onto the front straight really well and that’s what I focused on, and fortunately I was able to make it to the line first. It was a fantastic race, it was a lot of fun. Like racing like that. It kind of reminded me of when Tommy was racing Nicky on the 600 stuff at Ohio a long time ago so it was just fun.”
It was Hayes’ third win in a row and seventh of the year. The margin of victory was 0.324 seconds.
In three weeks’ time, the series finale will be staged at Barber Motorsports Park with Hayes well in control. He leads Hayden by 22 points, 426 to 404.
American SuperBike Sunday race results:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
3. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
4. Blake Young (Suzuki)
5. Brett McCormick (Suzuki)
6. Jake Zemke (Suzuki)
7. Geoff May( Buell)
8. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
9. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki)
10. Shane Narbonne (Suzuki)