Josh Hayes grabs championship point for pole position, Blake Young second, with both EBRs (Geoff May and Danny Eslick) completing front row
TOOELE, UTAH, MAY 27 – Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes cut into the AMA championship lead of Blake Young (Yoshimura Suzuki) by a single point with his fourth pole position in a row.
Today’s pole came late on a windy, overcast morning at Miller Motorsports Park, on a track that was finally dry after rain affected the AMA Superbikes during practice and qualifying on Saturday.
Hayes was the only rider to get below the 1:50 mark, with a best of 1:49.729 about midway into the 40-minute final qualifying session.“Everything went pretty smoothly,†Hayes said after cutting Young’s lead to three points, 166 to 163, at Miller on Sunday. “It was definitely a bit of a relief after the morning to have some dry race track to ride on. The track was pretty good and clean all the way around and without the wind we were able to get back to business as usual.
“Yeah, I’m happy. The R1’s running really well. Everything seems to be clicking pretty good. I think tire life is probably a little bit of an issue for everybody right. I started the session on one of yesterday’s tires. It was tough to get up to speed. I was watching Roger (Hayden) kinda ride away from me for a while and I was going, ‘Man, I hope it’s not like this when I get a new tire.’ When we put on a fresh it was definitely worth quite a bit to us. All in all things went pretty smooth and it was fun riding around.â€
Hayes’ time would have put him 12th on the World Superbike grid, which was an accomplishment given the discrepancy in machine spec, which was reflected in top speed.
“I wanted to do 49s last year and I thought I had the bike to do it and I didn’t quite get there,†Hayes said. “And I still don’t think that this is ideal conditions. I think we can go faster.
“But it’s a pretty straight comparison I guess right now, considering when I looked at the speeds yesterday in the wind we were down, what? 12-13 mph on those guys, and the gap’s not too bad. I guess we’re doing a pretty good job. I guess we can ride pretty decently here.â€
At the previous Superbike round at Infineon Raceway Young admitted he needed to get going faster sooner in the weekend. When Hayes rolls onto the track he quickly gets up to speed. Young takes longer, and having both sessions compromised at Miller on Saturday hurt his aim to be at the top from the outset.
Young said, “I definitely think it wasn’t ideal for me. Just a little bit upset, but that’s out of my control. I would’ve liked obviously for it to be either all wet or all dry session. But with the wind and everything, yes, it definitely go according to plan for sure.â€
For the first time ever in AMA superbike, a pair of EBRs landed on the front row, Team Amsoil/Hero’s Geoff May in front of teammate Danny Eslick. The EBRs have no aftermarket electronic aids, which makes riding the twisty 3.06-mile Miller Motorsports Park a challenge.
“It’s definitely a handful,†Eslick said. “Just give credit to the crew. Geoff’s (May) side of the team and mine as well, everybody’s working really hard together to get this EBR Team Hero/Amsoil 1190RS working good. and to go from Infineon, where we both came off of podium finishes, to be on the front row here it speaks volumes to what the team’s doing and how far along the bike’s came already.â€
Photo Gallery: AMA Pro Superbike Miller Motorsports Park final qualifying—Hayes on pole - Sport Rider Magazine
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