Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes completed the Triumph SuperBike Classic weekend sweep at Barber Motorsports Park.
The cagey three-time premier class champion exploited the Saturday misfortune endured by his three biggest threats for victory – teammate Cameron Beaubier and the Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing duo of Roger Hayden and Martin Cardenas – and cruised to an easy victory.
Armed with the knowledge that all three had crashed in the heat on Saturday and were likely still suffering both physically and psychologically as a result, Hayes dropped the hammer from the start. He didn’t allow his challengers a chance to find their footing or work up their confidence, dropping them right from the race’s opening corners.
The Mississippian assembled an advantage of over twelve seconds before calling off the dogs late. He backed down his pace with just a few laps remaining and ultimately eased his way to a near-eight second margin of victory at the checkered flag.
The win represented a triple-double of sorts, as Hayes equaled the Barber Motorsports Park feat of the legendary Mat Mladin (2007-2009) by claiming six straight victories over three years at the impressive facility.
“It was a lot different race than I expected and how I expected it to play out, being able to get a little gap early and being able to stretch it out pretty quickly,” Hayes said. “I was happy to be able to kind of cruise toward the end of the race and just be careful. I feel a little lucky all of these guys have a rough-and-tumble day yesterday and that kind of leaned in my favor.”
Rookie Beaubier’s confidence appeared to be the one to take the biggest hit following a string of front-end falls. The 21-year-old made a pair of early mistakes and dropped well off the fight for second, which turned into an all-Yoshimura affair with Cardenas running directly in front of Hayden for the race’s opening 14 laps.
However, Beaubier slowly rediscovered his mojo and ran the two down from over five seconds back, arriving in Hayden’s wheel tracks with eight laps remaining. Hayden then started a rapid descent in the opposite direction at that point, ultimately falling to fifth, one position behind the surging David Anthony of ADR Motorsports/Sic/Motul Fly Racing, who continued his run of all top fives in 2014.
It looked to be only a matter of time before Beaubier overtook Colombian Cardenas as well, but the rising star made yet another mistake on lap 19 of 21. He stayed upright but thought better of resuming the chase, accepting a podium finish in third.
“It feels very good,” Cardenas said. “I feel for sorry for my mechanics because I destroyed the bike yesterday. They did a great job building the bike back up and I just wanted to get a good result today. We ended up second and that’s pretty good. We’re looking forward to the next race. Hopefully we won’t make mistakes and improve a little bit.”
Beaubier also expressed his apologies to his mechanics, who he did repay with the podium finish.
“I felt really bad for my team yesterday, crashing two bikes within eight laps or so on track,” Beaubier said. “So I have to give it up to those guys for getting me back on track. To tell you the truth, I’m pretty happy with a third right now after the rough day I had yesterday. I made a lot of mistakes in that race – I’m going to go back and figure out what we need to do to move forward.”
Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s Chris Clark backed up the first podium of his AMA Pro Road Racing career by coming home in sixth a day later. He was followed to the stripe by GEICO Motorcycle Road Racing Honda’s Chris Ulrich.
Ulrich hounded Clark on track but was ten seconds adrift in the official results after getting hit with a ten-second penalty for anticipating the start. However, the finishing order was the same.
Team AMSOIL Hero EBR’s Cory West was awarded eighth, one position ahead of Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing’s Larry Pegram, who took his EBR 1190RS to ninth despite being assessed a ten-second start penalty of his own.
Vicious Cycle Racing’s Sean Dwyer picked up his second top-ten result of the weekend in tenth.
It was a weekend to forget for HMC/KTM Racing’s Chris Fillmore. After his bike overheated late in Saturday’s race while holding down a podium position, Fillmore encountered electrical problems with both his ‘A’ and ‘B’ bikes on Sunday and was forced to retire after running just a single lap.
Hayes now boasts an imposing 29-point lead with the season now just past its halfway point. Anthony continues to rank in second (145-116) while Hayden (113), Beaubier (110) and Clark (105) all remain well within in striking distance of the Australian.
AMA Pro Superbike Points
- Josh Hayes 145
- David Anthony 116
- Roger Hayden 113
- Cameron Beaubier 110
- Chris Clark 105
- Martin Cardenas 90
- Chris Fillmore 69
- Cory West 65
- Trent Gibson 55
- Larry Pegram 50
AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike
Dane Westby made it a double victory at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday, capping off a charge through the field to repeat his Saturday performance. Westby won the race by 0.235 seconds over MotoSport.com/Meen Yamaha Jake Lewis and RoadRace Factory/Red Bull’s Jake Gagne.
“For a second there, it looked like I didn’t have much for ’em, but I was telling myself I was as fast as anybody out there and I proved it yesterday. And here we are today,” said Westby. “Just an amazing feeling – it’s my first double. Like I said yesterday, everybody out there watching, you can do it too. I came from clubs and here I am.”
Westby trailed early, running as deep as sixth well into the race, but systematically picked off rivals until he led. The Oklahoman was remarkably quick in the final section and overtook several competitors in the long right-hander, the track’s penultimate corner.
Lewis valiantly attempted to pick up his first class win. For many laps, he chased Gagne at the front as it looked like a showdown of the Jakes before Westby flew past them both.
Castrol/Triumph/Sportbike Track Time’s Jason DiSalvo was fourth, just missing out on a podium at his home track.
JD Beach had closed on the lead group but made a mistake on the last lap, going for a wild ride before gaining control of his Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha.
Latus Motors Racing’s Bobby Fong crashed out of a potential podium spot on the last lap.
AMA Pro SuperSportÂ
Houston Superbikes’ Dustin Dominguez won his first AMA Pro SuperSport race of the year on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park. The Oklahoman had a tough battle with yesterday’s winner, Hayden Gillim of TOBC Racing, and upstart Kaleb De Keyrel of De Keyrel Racing, but Dominguez earned his seventh career AMA Pro SuperSport victory and the first of 2014 with a solid run.
Dominguez took over from Gillim on lap four with a pass at the Museum Turn. When the trio made it back around to the stripe, just 0.019 seconds separated the three riders as lap five began.
From then on, Dominguez managed his gap to the flag. His final margin was 1.178 seconds.
Gillim managed to work into a tie in points with Corey Alexander as the series heads into the next round.
Alexander (CELTIC/HVMC Racing) was fourth but never really challenged on Sunday. He was over 15 seconds behind Dominguez.
Mexico’s Erick Sanchez (EYK Racing Team) was fifth as he barely held off a group fighting for the position. Sanchez was 0.001 seconds ahead of D&D Cycles pilot Miles Thornton.
Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series
Defending AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson champ Steve Rapp took out his early-season frustrations on the opposition today in Alabama. The Suburban Motors Harley-Davidson star registered a dominating ride in the 11-lap Harley-Davidson final today, ripping free from the pack early and extending his advantage by more than a second per lap en route to a lopsided 11.114-second margin of victory.
“That’s my favorite kind of race,” the triumphant Rapp said. “I like riding by myself out front – I ride like that in practice in lot so that when it happens in a race, I’m ready for it. The bike was awesome; the guys from Suburban build the best bike out here – the best bike in America probably – and I’m happy to ride it.”
While Rapp did his best to take away any suspense over the race’s winner from the opening lap, there was plenty of bar-banging excitement courtesy of a frantic scrap for second. Five riders contested the position with an unwavering sense of urgency until lap six, at which point KWR/Millennium Technologies’ Kyle Wyman tumbled out of third.
Wyman’s exit didn’t make things much easier for Ruthless Racing’s Danny Eslick, who still had to deal with three hungry riders seeking the runner-up position – Josh Chisum Racing/Bartels Harley-Davidson’s Tyler O’Hara, Rapp’s Suburban Motors teammate, Ben Carlson, and Six-Four Motorsports’ Shane Narbonne.
Eslick ultimately held strong, but for the second race in a row, title leader O’Hara was aced by Carlson on the last lap and pushed down to fourth. Narbonne took an impressive top five.
O’Hara still leads the title race but by one a single point over former class champ Eslick, 66-65.
Next Race –Â The stars of AMA Pro Road Racing will share the spotlight with world-class company as the GEICO Motorcycle U.S. Round of the FIM Superbike World Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is up next. The joint AMA Pro-FIM event will take place on July 11-13 in Monterey, California.
