2012 AMA SuperBike
Josh Hayes proved simply unstoppable for a second straight day at the Subway SuperBike Doubleheader at Road America, powering away from the field to claim the checkered flag in what can only be viewed as demoralizing fashion by his would-be challengers.
The Monster Energy Graves Yamaha superstar simply owned Road America over the weekend, rounding off his maximum points haul weekend with a conquering 13.906-second victory on Sunday afternoon.
Hayes had nearly a second advantage after just the opening lap and then really closed out the hopes of his opponents with a string of laps in the 2:11s, including a 2:11.216, which stood more than a tenth of a second inside the lap record he established on Saturday morning.
The flawless ride confirmed a turning of the season as the Mississippian has taken a big step forward in his search for a third consecutive AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike title.
Hayes’ Sunday win marked his sixth of the season, doubling his 2011 tally, and upping his career total to 23.
“I don’t really know too much of what to say except the same things you always hear: big thank you to an amazing crew. I have an amazing crew, I have a great motorcycle, and it allows me to just come here and focus on one thing and that’s riding my best.
“I’ve had a great race weekend; I’ve got good starts and my bike was just great from the beginning. We haven’t really changed anything chassis-wise since last weekend at Miller. Things are just clicking and rolling well.”
Meanwhile, Blake Young once again found himself dicing with Hayes’ rookie teammate, Josh Herrin, rather than his title rival. The #79 Yoshimura Suzuki hero and the up-and-coming Yamaha pilot engaged in a thrilling duel for the runner-up position, regularly trading positions and glances as they jockeyed for the spot late in the race.
Young ultimately won the last-lap battle, avenging his defeat for second at Herrin’s hands less than a week ago at Miller Motorsports Park.
Young blasted across the stripe ahead of Herrin by a meager 0.039 seconds.
“It was pretty much the same as yesterday,” Young said of another second-place result. “Riding with Josh Herrin was good. It’s good to see him get up there and dice it out with me. He’s coming around and riding fairly well. Obviously, I mentioned yesterday that we need to make some improvements, but they’re not the type of improvements we’re going to make overnight. Realistically, I was hoping for a better race today, but am I surprised? Not really.”
Herrin said, “I thought it went great. It was definitely more exciting than yesterday. Blake and I had a pretty good battle; we passed each other back and forth. I tried to get him but I didn’t have any real reason to try to stuff it in there in the last corner on the last lap and risk losing the front or something. It was a really good race — the R1 was going really good today. I don’t know how I didn’t get the drive on him to start/finish.”
Jordan Suzuki’s Ben Bostrom continued his recent rise in form with another strong ride. The former World Superbike hero tagged along to Young and Herrin in the race’s early stages before fading to a lonely fourth.
Team Hero’s Danny Eslick narrowly beat his Hero EBR teammate, Geoff May on the Team Amsoil/Hero EBR 1190RS, as the two broke away from a bigger pack that also included second Yoshimura runner Chris Clark, Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing’s Larry Pegram, and KTM/HMC Racing’s Chris Fillmore.
The two formation flew their red-and-white EBRs late in the race with reigning AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike king Eslick winning out for fifth ahead of May.
Clark held onto the fight for fifth deep into the race before running wide in Turn 5 on lap 8 of 13. He carried on to claim a respectable seventh.
Kneedraggers.com/Motul/Fly’s David Anthony took full advantage of a mistake on Pegram’s part (Pegram ran off course) and worked past Fillmore to claim eighth.
Fillmore and Pegram, meanwhile, rounded out the top ten.
National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden’s woes continued today, being hit by a 5-second penalty for jumping the start and then suffering from a problem that saw him finish well down the field in 13th.
Hayes’ monster performance in back-to-back weekends has tilted the title fight decidedly in his favor. The champ now leads Young by 20 points (257-237).
2012 Road America AMA Superbike: Race 2 Results:
Pos | No. | Rider(s) | Team | Bike | Interval | Gap | Best Lap | Points |
1. | 1 | Josh Hayes | Monster Energy Graves Yamaha | Yamaha R1 | 13 Laps | WINNER | 2:11.216 | 0 |
2. | 79 | Blake Young | Yoshimura Racing | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 13.906 | 13.906 | 2:12.763 | 0 |
3. | 2 | Josh Herrin | Monster Energy Graves Yamaha | Yamaha R1 | 13.945 | 0.039 | 2:12.871 | 0 |
4. | 23 | Ben Bostrom | Jordan Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 23.812 | 9.867 | 2:12.788 | 0 |
5. | 69 | Danny Eslick | Team Hero | EBR 1190RS | 38.255 | 14.442 | 2:14.633 | 0 |
6. | 99 | Geoff May | Team Amsoil/Hero | EBR 1190RS | 40.307 | 2.052 | 2:14.614 | 0 |
7. | 6 | Chris Clark | Yoshimura Racing | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 41.968 | 1.660 | 2:14.533 | 0 |
8. | 25 | David Anthony | Kneedraggers.com/ Motul/Fly Racing | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 47.443 | 5.474 | 2:15.350 | 0 |
9. | 11 | Chris Fillmore | KTM/HMC Racing | KTM RC8R | 47.658 | 0.215 | 2:14.762 | 0 |
10. | 72 | Larry Pegram | Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing | BMW S1000RR | 1:03.047 | 15.389 | 2:14.890 | 0 |
11. | 12 | Stefan Nebel | KTM/HMC Racing | KTM RC8R | 1:03.707 | 0.660 | 2:16.638 | 0 |
12. | 18 | Chris Ulrich | M4 Roadracingworld.com Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 1:03.958 | 0.250 | 2:16.091 | 0 |
13. | 54 | Roger Hayden | National Guard Jordan Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 1:20.644 | 16.685 | 2:14.556 | 0 |
14. | 33 | Jordan Burgess | Kneedraggers.com/ Motul/Fly Racing | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 1:30.826 | 10.182 | 2:18.012 | 0 |
15. | 17 | Trent Gibson | Seven Sports | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 1:32.339 | 1.513 | 2:17.973 | 0 |
16. | 78 | Reese Wacker | Wacker Racing LLC | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 1:33.533 | 1.194 | 2:18.552 | 0 |
17. | 86 | Jason Farrell | Farrell Performance/Southeast Sales Kawasaki | Kawasaki ZX-10 | 6 Laps | 7 Laps | 2:15.928 | 0 |
18. | 15 | Steve Rapp | Attack Performance | Kawasaki ZX-10 | 2 Laps | 4 Laps | 2:27.420 | 0 |
19. | 3 | Robertino Pietri | Team Venezuela | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | DNS | DNS | -no times- | 0 |