Josh Hayes sweeps MotoAmerica SBK at Miller
Hayes and his Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha R1 did on Sunday at Miller Motorsports Park what he’s done so many times over his career – he swept a doubleheader, recording the 54th and 55th Superbike wins of his career on a day that featured temperatures in the triple digits in Utah. The two wins, combined with his teammate Cameron Beaubier’s two runner-up finishes, translates to Hayes leaving Miller with the points lead in the 2015 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Superbike Championship – albeit by just four points with a three-week break before the series heads to the Monterey Peninsula for round seven of the nine-round series at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
With Beaubier second in both races, third in both fell to Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden, though he deserved better in race two. In the heat of a battle with Hayes for the win, Hayden’s Suzuki encountered a mechanical problem that forced him to go into survival mode. Beaubier was able to catch and pass the Kentuckian and it left Hayden with another third-place finish – his sixth of the season to go with his three runner-up finishes.
Hayden’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Jake Lewis carded a pair of fourths on the day to maintain his third in the championship, though Hayden is closing in and now trails the series rookie by just two points, 171-169.
In race one, Hayes and Beaubier battled for the entire 18 laps with the veteran besting his young teammate by just .280 of a second. Hayden struggled in race one and couldn’t keep pace with the two Yamahas, finishing 13.9 seconds behind and less than a second ahead of teammate Lewis.
Fifth overall went to Josh Day, the Westby Racing rider taking the Superstock 1000 win in the process. Sixth overall and fifth in Superbike was Chris Fillmore, the KTM factory rider turning in a good effort to hold off Turbo Turtle Racing’s Danny Eslick by less than half a second after their race-long battle. Then came TOBC Racing’s Taylor Knapp in eighth overall and second in the Superstock 1000 class, just a tick ahead of Aprilia HSBK’s Sheridan Morais, who was third in Superstock. Bernat Martinez rounded out the top 10 overall with his seventh-place finish in Superbike.
Hayden got his race-one woes fixed to run at the front of race two with Hayes, the Suzuki rider pestering Hayes for most of the race and even leading at one point. But then the Suzuki slowed and Hayden was forced to abandon the chase, watching Hayes disappear in the distance and then also getting passed by Beaubier. All that allowed Hayes to cruise to his seventh win of the season.
“It’s an incredible weekend,” Hayes said after his doubleheader sweep. “It’s tough sometimes when Cam (Beaubier) keeps beating me session after session and you just have to keep your wits about you and stay the course. The team’s always a huge help and a bit inspiration for me when it comes down to doing the work. We work well together and we stay steady and finally find ourselves in positions like this. I’m just excited I’m still in the show after falling down in Atlanta. We’ll keep plugging away and find ourselves in a good spot so big thanks to my team.”
The Superstock 1000 victory again went to Day, the R-1 mounted Floridian ending up fifth overall after barely holding off Fillmore, who was again a fighting sixth overall and fifth in Superbike. Then came Morais, who this time got the better of Knapp. Superstock 1000 Championship points leader Jake Gagne was credited with seventh in the Superstock class after crashing, remounting and riding the rest of the race without brakes. Gagne was a non-finisher in race one when his R1 suffered an electrical problem.
Gagne still leads the championship after a difficult day for the Roadrace Factory Rider, 209-192, over Knapp.
“Things went a lot better for us this weekend,” Day said. “I wish we could have found our problem with the front a lot sooner so we could have been up there at the other races, but it is what it is and that’s how racing goes sometimes. But now we have it all sorted pretty well and we should be good for us for the rest of the year.”
The norm in Supersport racing is a dog fight to the finish. Turns out that Yamalube/Y.E.S/Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s JD Beach wasn’t in the mood for the norm on Sunday at Miller Motorsports Park. Beach put his head down from the start and pulled away at a clip of a second a lap virtually at will, slowing to celebrate across the finish line with a margin of victory of 9.9 seconds over Latus Motors Racing Triumph’s Bobby Fong and Beach’s teammate Garrett Gerloff. It was a dominating performance and Beach’s fifth in a row and seventh of the season.
Fourth place went to South African Cameron Petersen, the Roadracing Factory rider having his best weekend thus far in what is his rookie season of racing in the U.S. Petersen was a spot better than he was on Saturday, reversing the finishing order with M4 Suzuki/SportbikeTrackGear.com’s David Anthony, who had bested him for fourth a day earlier.
“Going into the race I was feeling good,” Beach said. “We had a really good race yesterday and I was just hoping I could repeat it. I knew Garrett (Gerloff) and (Bobby) Fong and (Josh) Herrin were going to be going a lot faster today and the first few laps would be really important. My team just gave me an awesome bike today and this weekend and now it’s time to start doing our homework and getting ready for Laguna Seca.”
Beach now leads Gerloff and Herrin, who dropped out of Sunday’s race with a mechanical problem, by 44 points, 240-196, with Gerloff and Herrin tied for second.Â
Sunday’s Bazzaz Superstock 600 race was won by Wheels in Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Joe Roberts, the Californian earning his eighth win of the season. Unlike the day before, Roberts had his hands full with his series rival Richie Escalante, the Tizuyuca, Mexico, resident finishing just .225 of a second behind Roberts. Third place went to Tuned Racing’s Bryce Prince, the Californian riding mostly alone after ditching the pack he was racing with early on.
Roberts now leads Escalante by 237 points, 220-183. Travis Wyman, eighth today, is third with 151 points.
“I tried to be consistent in the low 29s,” Roberts said. “We were a bit off the qualifying pace, but it’s so hot out and the tires weren’t really hooking up as they were in the qualifying so low 29s I thought was a good pace. I just held out and brought it home for the victory.”
Braeden Ortt won his first KTM RC 390 Cup race of the season in Sunday’s race two, the 15-year-old Canadian coming out the best of a massive pack fighting for victory. At the flag, Ortt was just .346 of a second ahead of 14-year-old Brandon Paasch, the rider from New Jersey making his debut in the MotoAmerica KTM RC390 Cup a successful one. Paasch, who normally competes in the Moriwaki Cup in the British Superbike Series, was just a fraction of a second ahead of Anthony Mazziotto III. Hayden Schultz and series points leader Gage McAllister were also in the battle for victory with those two finishing fourth and fifth ,respectively.
McAllister now has 127 points to Ortt’s 80 points with Ortt moving past Hayden Schultz for second in the title Chase. Schultz, fourth today, is three points behind Ortt.
“I managed to line it up perfectly and try to break the draft and it worked out really well for me,” Ortt said.
SUPERBIKE RACE 1: Josh Hayes (Yamaha); 2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha); 3. Roger Hayden (Suzuki); 4. Jake Lewis (Suzuki); 5. Chris Fillmore (KTM); 6. Danny Eslick (Honda); 7. Bernat Martinez (Yamaha); 8. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki); 9. Elena Myers (Suzuki); 10. Sebastiao Ferreira (Kawasaki).
SUPERBIKE RACE 2: 1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha); 2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha); 3. Roger Hayden (Suzuki); 4. Jake Lewis (Suzuki); 5. Chris Fillmore (KTM); 6. Danny Eslick (Honda); 7. Bernat Martinez (Yamaha); 8. Sebastiao Ferreira (Kawasaki). 9. Matthew Orange (BMW).
SUPERSTOCK 1000 RACE 1: 1. Josh Day (Yamaha); 2. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha); 3. Sheridan Morais (Aprilia); 4. Mark Heckles (Yamaha); 5. Shane Narbonne (Yamaha); 6. Oleg Pianykh (Yamaha); 7. Mark Harper (Yamaha); 8. Chad Swain (Suzuki); 9. Devon McDonough (Aprilia).
SUPERSTOCK 1000 RACE 2: 1. Josh Day (Yamaha); 2. Sheridan Morais (Aprilia); 3. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha); 4. Mark Heckles (Yamaha); 5. Shane Narbonne (Yamaha); 6. Oleg Pianykh (Yamaha); 7. Mark Harper (Yamaha); 8. Marcel Irnie (BMW); 9. Devon McDonough (Aprilia).
SUPERSPORT RACE 2: 1. JD Beach (Yamaha); 2. Bobby Fong (Triumph); 3. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha); 4 Cameron Petersen (Yamaha); 5. David Anthony (Suzuki); 6. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha); 7. Kyle Wyman (Yamaha); 8. Corey Alexander (Yamaha); 9. Kaleb De Keyrel (Yamaha); 10. Benny Solis Jr. (Honda).
BAZZAZ SUPERSTOCK 600 RACE 2: 1. Joe Roberts (Yamaha); 2. Richie Escalante (Yamaha); 3. Bryce Prince (Yamaha); 4. Wyatt Farris (Yamaha); 5. Michael Gilbert (Yamaha); 6. Conner Blevins (Kawasaki); 7. JC Camacho (Yamaha); 8. Travis Wyman (Yamaha); 9. Andy DiBrino (Yamaha); 10. Gage McAllister (Yamaha).
KTM RC CUP RACE 2: 1. Brandon Ortt; 2. Brandon Paasch; 3. Anthony Mazziotto III; 4. Hayden Schultz; 5. Gage McAllister; 6. Justin McWilliams; 7. Brandon Altmeyer; 8. Josh Serne; 9. Alejandro Gutierrez Mejia; 10. Gabe Miller.
Saturday
There’s hot and then there’s hot. And the three hottest riders of the season continued their hot streaks on what was the hottest day of racing thus far in the 2015 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship with temperatures reaching 100 degrees at Miller Motorsports Park on Saturday.
It was also a day of fours in Utah with JD Beach winning his fourth straight (and sixth overall) Supersport final; Joe Roberts matching that with his fourth straight (and sixth overall) win of the season in the Bazzaz Superstock 600 class; Gage McAllister taking his fourth win in five starts in the KTM RC 390 Cup; and Josh Hayes coming away with his fourth Superbike pole position of the season and the 36th of his illustrious career during Superpole.
Let’s start with Beach. The Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha rider completely dominated the Supersport class on Saturday, the Washingtonian who now calls Kentucky home besting his teammate Garrett Gerloff by 5.567 seconds after a start-to-finish romp to victory on the 3.048-mile outer course. Gerloff was chased home by Wheels in Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin, tthe Georgian closing the gap to a tick under a second after 16 laps .
M4 Suzuki/SportbikeTrackGear.com’s David Anthony finished fourth with Roadrace Factory’s Cameron Petersen taking fifth, the South African hot on the Australian’s heels at the checkered flag.
With 10 races under his belt, Beach now leads Herrin by 19 points in the title chase. Gerloff remains in third, but is 45 points behind his teammate Beach.
“I was able to do some good laps,” Beach said after his fourth win a row. “I just have to thank [fellow racer and friend] Hayden Gillim. Since Road America, he actually quit his job so we could train together. We’ve been training really hard and have been pushing each other. He keeps getting faster and faster each weekend and he keeps pushing me on the bicycle and the dirt track bike. It’s just been a bit help. The bike was working really good today and I felt really good in the heat and really in front of myself. Garrett (Gerloff) and Josh (Herrin) were going really fast and I know they will be faster tomorrow. We’ll have to make some changes and see if we can go a little bit quicker.”
Wheels in Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Joe Roberts won his seventh race of the season in the red-flag interrupted Bazzaz Superstock 600 class, the Californian ending up just half a second ahead of HB Racing’s Michael Gilbert. The runner-up finish was not only the first podium of the season for Gilbert, but the first of his AMA pro racing career and it came in a five-lap sprint after the red flag. Bryce Prince finished third on the Tuned Racing Yamaha R6 for his second podium finish in a row and his second of the season.
Roberts now leads Richie Escalante, fourth today, by 32 points in the Bazzaz Superstock 600 Championship point standings. Travis Wyman, sixth in today’s final, is still third in the title chase – 20 points behind Escalante.
“Getting those wins down and keeping the streak going is really cool,” Roberts said. “It was interesting having a new rider up there battling with me and that’s cool. I really love this track and it’s one of my favorites that we come to. It’s really a rider’s track and you have to be super fast and flowing through the corners. You can’t really treat it like Barber (Motorsports Park) where you’re charging the corners all the time. You very much have to keep the flow and keep a cool head when you run here. I love coming here.”
NCR Road Race Team’s Gage McAllister won his fourth KTM RC 390 Cup race in five starts, the 20-year-old Californian coming out on top of a war for the victory with a lead pack that at times featured 10 riders. McAllister won the sprint to the finish line to beat Justin McWilliams to the line by .048 of a second. The 22-year-old McWilliams, who is in his second year of road racing, was just another .027 of a second ahead of Hayden Schultz on the Hayden Schultz Racing KTM RC 390.
Braeden Ortt and Anthony Mazziotto III, the only rider other than McAllister to score a win this season, were also in the hunt for victory and Mazziotto was just a second behind in fifth place.
McAllister now has a healthy 52-point lead in the debut season of the RC 390 Cup over Schultz, 116-64. Mazziotto is third in the series point standings, eight points behind Schultz.
“I got a little lucky in that one,” McAllister said. “I was actually planning to be in second coming out of the last turn, but Justin snuck up on me in turn 14 and kinda made me second-guess my plan coming out of the last turn, but I was able to get a good drive and suck right up on his rear wheel and draft him as long as I could. It was just enough to get by him right at the line. I got a little lucky in this one, but this racing is a lot more mental than it is physical and you have to put yourself in the right position on the last lap.”
Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Josh Hayes earned his fourth Superbike pole position of the year and the 36th of his career during Superpole on a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon at Miller Motorsports Park.
Hayes lapped at a best of 1:50.494 in the 15-minute Superpole 1 session to best his teammate Cameron Beaubier by .144 of a second. Those two will be joined on the front row by Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden, the Kentuckian the last rider to lap in the 1:50s.
Row two will be headed by the first of the Superstock 1000 machines – the Aprilia RSV4 ridden by South African Sheridan Morais. Morais ended up with a best of 1:51.134 to narrowly beat out Superstock 1000 Championship leader Jake Gagne on the Roadrace Factory Yamaha R1. Hayden’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Jake Lewis will complete row two for Sunday’s two Superbike races.
Row three will consist of Westby Racing’s Josh Day, KTM’s Chris Fillmore and Turbo Turtle Racing’s Danny Eslick.
“I was a bit surprised to get pole because Cameron (Beaubier) has been able to have just a little bit of pace on me,” Hayes said. “It seems like he can put one (a lap) in at will, a few tenths faster than I can go. I was just chugging away. I had a couple of good laps going and this one kind of went fairly smooth so I was happy with that. Once I came by and saw that I was P2 and what the time was and I looked at my timer and it matched it. I thought I’d try it one more and see if I could do something better. I put one together and it actually was a little bit better and it was enough to get pole. I got to sit in the pits and watch Cam’s last lap to see what he was going to do. It feels good to be on pole and I’m looking forward to some fun racing tomorrow.”
SUPERSPORT RACE 1: 1. JD Beach (Yamaha); 2. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha); 3. Josh Herrin (Yamaha); 4. David Anthony (Suzuki); 5. Cameron Petersen (Yamaha); 6. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha); 7. Hayden Gillim (MV Agusta); 8. Benny Solis Jr. (Honda); 9. Kyle Wyman (Yamaha); 10. Corey Alexander (Yamaha).
SUPERSTOCK 600 RACE 1: 1. Joe Roberts (Yamaha); 2. Michael Gilbert (Yamaha); 3. Bryce Prince (Yamaha); 4. Richie Escalante (Yamaha); 5. Wyatt Farris (Yamaha); 6. Travis Wyman (Yamaha); 7. Conner Blevins (Kawasaki); 8. Nick McFadden (Suzuki); 9. Andy DiBrino (Yamaha); 10. JC Camacho (Yamaha).
KTM RC 390 CUP RACE 1: 1. Cage McAllister: 2. Justin McWilliams 3. Hayden Schultz; 4. Braeden Ortt; 5. Anthony Mazziotto III; 6. Josh Serne; 7. Alejandro Gutierrez; 8. Brandon Paasch; 9. Brandon Altmeyer; 10. Jody Barry.
SUPERBIKE/SUPERSTOCK 1000 QUALIFYING: 1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:50.494; 2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 1:50.638; 3. Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 1:50.968; 4. Sheridan Morais (Aprilia) 1:51.134; 5. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 1:51.223; 6. Jake Lewis (Suzuki) 1:51.232; 7. Josh Day (Yamaha) 1:51.715; 8. Chris Fillmore (KTM) 1:52.275; 9. Danny Eslick (Honda) 1:52.921; 10. Taylor Knapp (Yamaha) 1:52.996.
