MILLVILLE, NJ, SEPT 3 – The question of who’s handling the championship pressure better was definitively answered in final qualifying for the AMA Pro Road Racing season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Monster Energy Yamaha’s Josh Hayes took his seventh pole position in eight races to close the championship gap to four, while Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young struggled to qualify seventh a second off Hayes’ pace.
The title contenders had arrived here five points apart-Young led 311 to 306-but Hayes took a point out of the difference with another pole position.
“It’s kept me in the championship,” Hayes said of his qualifying excellence. “I have two races wins to his six and I’m still here, four points down. I’d say it kinda speaks for itself, there.
Hayes was the only rider on the front row to improve his time and he did it comfortably. His lap of 1:20.711 mins. for the the 2.25-mile, 14-turn track came late in the session and increased his gap to second fastest Tommy Hayden, winner of the previous two races. The Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider didn’t improve on his Saturday time and never challenged Hayes. Neither did the third and fourth fastest riders, Roger Lee Hayden and Ben Bostrom, both of whom set their fast laps on Saturday. Roger Lee Hayden’s session ended early when he crashed his National Guard Jordan Suzuki trying to avoid the cruising Jeremy Toye (San Diego BMW).
Hayes had a problem-free session which he used to solidify his race setup ahead of this afternoon’s penultimate Superbike race.
“Everything’s good on my side,” he said. “It’s just a matter of going out there and having some fun and going through the motions.” Hayes pointed out that he’d “led almost every race this year, I think, at one point or another and been on pole position at all but one race this year. I’m proud of what me and the team have accomplished. And we’re still here fighting.
“So now my approach to this weekend is to just kinda go through and treat it like every other weekend I’ve done. Really, it’s kind of up to Blake (Young) if he wants to win it or not. He has to get out there and force the issue.”
Hayes cautioned not to read too much into Young’s not being on the front row.
“He’s been off the front row a time or two this year and he came back to win the races,” Hayes said. “He has a lot of pressure sitting on his shoulders right now. He hasn’t been in a championship situation before that I can remember, and now it’s the AMA Superbike championship, it’s the big dog. I’m sure that weight is pretty heavy. I remember it was for me last year and I came in with a pretty healthy lead. That was really tough for me.
“But this year I don’t feel the same weight. I feel pretty comfortable and confident and all I got to do is do the same thing I always do. I feel it’s kinda up to him. I’m going to ride the best race that I can, which I do every single weekend. Nothing changes and see what happens.”
AMA Pro Road Racing Superbike Qualifying:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:20.711
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 1:21.005
3. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki) 1:21.119
4. Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki) 1:21.160
5. Larry Pegram (BMW) 1:21.309
6. Steve Rapp (Kawasaki) 1:21.564
7. Blake Young (Suzuki) 1:21.753
8. Chris Fillmore (KTM) 1:21.865
9. Geoff May (EBR) 1:21.971
10. Chris Clark (Yamaha) 1:22.080