Round nine for AMA Pro Racing is the American Red Cross Devil's Showdown presented by Team Promotion. This is the Superbike race. Last year, the race at New Jersey Motorsports Park was very dramatic, leading up to the championship. The Superbikes are ready to race. The silly season is in full wing. Josh Hayes will likely come back for a fifth season with Monster Energy Yamaha. Danny Eslick says he wants to be around on the EBR next year. Larry Pegram will likely be back. But, it may be with a different brand than BMW. Ben Bostrom doesn't have any idea what his plans will be.
There will be three races to go after this weekend. Ben Bostrom and Roger Hayden could very well be back with Jordan Suzuki next year. Josh Herrin will also be bake with Monster Energy Yamaha. Blake Young needs to just ride his bike and race. Chris Fillmore is back in Superbike on his KTM after being injured. He's still recuperating, but, he's back on the bike. Taylor Knapp and Ben Bostrom might also be in contention in this race. Ditto for Roger Hayden. Also, Steve Rapp qualifies second. He led last year and set fast lap in this race last year. Rapp scored two points in MotoGP back in their race at Indianapolis of course.
Josh Hayes has pole for this race for Superbikes. Blake Young starts eleventh. Will he be able to run up front? We'll see. At the start, Roger Hayden got bogged down and Josh Hayes takes the lead along with Blake Young as Josh Herrin pulls off the road immediately. He continues, but must have some kind of problem. Steve Rapp runs behind Blake Young while Josh Hayes just pulls away from everyone else which is a typical performance for him. Steve Rapp is hounding Blake Young right now. Taylor Knapp passes Geoff May as Blake Young runs off the road and Steve Rapp passes. This race has two laps gone of 23 scheduled.
The order is Hayes, Rapp, Young, Knapp, and May. Danny Eslick is coming to grips with the EBR and the handling of the bike. Geoff May has that figured out. Eric Buell Racing is running well though as there's a battle between Larry Pegram, Chris Fllmore and others. Actually, Pegram is further down the order as Steve Rapp crashes out of second spot! Ugh! Rapp is a retirement. Ben Bostrom passes Chris Fillmore on the KTM. Chris Ullrich chases Larry Pegram. Larry Pegram will run in Superbike, but he needs to decide what bike he will use. Pegram is hounding bike #25 of David Anthony.
Geoff May tries passing Blake Young after passing Taylor Knapp successfully. Meanwhile, Josh Hayes is riding off into the sunset. Young and Taylor Knapp still scrap as Geoff May has fallen back. Hayes has run a 1:22 flat. Other riders are in the 1:23 bracket. Geoff May ran wide in turn one. Ben Bostrom holds sixth place right now. Actually, Chris Clark has just passed him for that spot and he's gone down a few, possibly as team mate Roger Hayden is seventh now followed by Larry Pegram, Chris Fillmore and others. Josh Herrin is followed by Danny Eslick, Chris Ullrich and David Anthony.
A lap or so to halfway in this race. Blake Young hangs onto second just barely as it's a four rider battle, thirteen and a half seconds behind Josh Hayes. Hayes' crew uses 320 millimeter brake rotors for more braking force by putting shims between the brake caliper and the forks. Chris Clark is in the pits. He's not feeling well, so, he's going to retire or something. Don't race if you're ill. Hayes leads by a country mile. He's got a seventeen and a half second lead. Blake Young holds second and Ben Bostrom is in a podium spot, but wants by Young for sure.
Young remains second. Josh Herrin holds off Larry Pegram and Roger Hayden. Can Bostrom pass Young? Hayes is riding very professionally and he'll stay with Yamaha next year. Ullrich and Eslick are scrapping. Chris Ullrich was testing a new motorcycle in Spain. He's a motorcycle test rider for a living in addition to racing. It's Young, Bostrom, and Knapp, battling as this race draws to a close. Five laps remaining. The three way battle continues. It's three Suzuki's battling for the final podium places. Bostrom takes second spot with three laps left. He goes to the inside under Blake Young in the braking zone. Roger Hayden ran wide in turn one and ran off the road while battling with Larry Pegram on his BMW.
Josh Herrin has worked his way up to sixth from last spot. It's the last lap now. Josh Hayes may stay in AMA Superbike, but he's good enough of a rider that he could go to World Superbike or MotoGP. He's going to be third on the all-time win list in AMA Superbike. He wins his twelfth race of the year, tying Mat Mladin's record for the most wins in a single season. There's a second race. Those results will come eventually.
#1 Josh Hayes Yamaha R1
Hayes could have a future in MotoGP more than likely. Yamaha does not have a team in World Superbike. Coming up, it's Daytona Sportbike race two. In race one, Cameron Beaubier was the winner. But, Martin Cardenas is also in contention. Beaubier got to the front and separated from the pack.; At the start of the race on Saturday, there were some issues as Corey West and Tommy Aquino had a big crash. Dane Westby moved in and for the lead it was Martin Cardenas vs. Cameron Beaubier.
Beaubier won by two hundredths of a second! Yikes!
#6 Cameron Beaubier Yamaha YZF R6
Aaron Gobert is in this race and also, Bobby Fong should be competitive. There was some rain the day before. Cameron Beaubier has had a cold and a sore throat. But, he feels better now. At the start, Martin Cardenas gets the lead with Jason DiSalvo second on the Triumph. J.D. Beach and another rider both go wide. Not sure who the second rider was. Tommy Hayden passes Cameron Beaubier into turn eight. There's a battle between Bobby Fong and Tommy Aquino. Hayden wants by DiSalvo and gets by the Triumph.
This race will be 23 laps. Bobby Fong is going after Cameron Beaubier as Huntley Nash is out of this race. Tommy Aquino might have found a good setup with his bike after running the first Daytona Sportbike race yesterday. Dane Westby is moving up, but Tommy Hayden has a massive high side and Cameron Beaubier runs, wham!, right into him! This race is red flagged. Ouch! Tommy Hayden could have been knocked out by that crash. He flew into the air! He runs wide and he absolutely flies into the air. They hit a patch of water. Beaubier had the bike come back up on him and knock his visor out of his helmet. What a savage crash!
Everyone should be OK. But, it looked really bad. The red flag has been lifted though, and the Daytona Sportbike race will get back to green. Both riders walked away from that wicked wreck. Tommy Hayden will be checked at the hospital. Beaubier is sore, but he might continue. Probably not. The race restarts as Martin Cardenas leads into turn one. Jason DiSalvo and Tommy Aquino follow. Bobby Fong passes Aquino. Dane Westby is also riding well. Jason DiSalvo has a mechanical problem with the Triumph Daytona 675. There's something wrong in the engine.
Bobby Fong closes up on Martin Cardenas. Cardenas wants a title but Fong is not running for points. Nineteen laps to go. Tommy Aquino on the Yamaha follows. Aquino got into an incident the day before with Cory West and West got the worst of it. Jake Gagne and Dane Westby are fourth and fifth. Jake Zemke is also coming up. He got off track at the initial start with J.D. Beach. Cardenas still leads over Bobby Fong and Tommy Aquino. Cardenas brakes late, collapsing the front forks, making the bike wiggle. He's got a softer preload on top of the spring. He has more feel with the motorcycle that way.
Cardenas has led every lap so far, but Tommy Aquino sets fast lap at 1:24.154. One lap to halfway. These bikes don't use traction control like the Superbikes do. Dane Westby sets a new fast lap at a 1:23.8, so, 3/10ths quicker than Tommy Aquino. Dane Westby continues to move in on Martin Cardenas and Bobby Fong as Cardenas runs a 1:24 flat. Westby is even faster, bringing the laps down each lap between a 1:23.9 and a 1:23.6 with ten laps left to run. Westby has passed Aquino. He passes Bobby Fong, and he'll now go after Martin Cardenas. Westby has moved all the way from 13th to second. Well, he made a mistake, letting Bobby Fong by.
Westby comes back by. Westby is now right on top of Martin Cardenas. Into turn one, Tommy Aquino stays right with the top three. Westby runs a 1:23.3. The Dunlop tires are working very well. Fong got right up on Westby almost locking the front end of the bike! Tommy Aquino is keeping pace very well and he ran in Europe for a while. But, he's back in the states and has improved as a rider. There are just six laps left in the Daytona Sportbike race. Dane Westby has taken the lead. He flew past Cardenas in a double apex corner. Fong went by Westby, and he goes three wide, past Fong and a backmarker! Three wide! Yikes! Four laps remaining.
Now, it's a three way battle between Westby, Fong, and Cardenas. Two laps remain. It's a three way fight to the finish for the win. Three wide! Martin Cardenas sweeps around both Westby and Fong! Westby challenges. Cardenas takes the defensive line. Cardenas runs wide and reels the bike back in. Who gets the run? Martin Cardenas wins it by five hundredths of a second! Cory West beats Jake Zemke and J.D. Beach for sixth, seventh and eighth! What a race!
#36 Martin Cardenas Suzuki GSXR 600
Up next, it's the second race for the Superbikes.
Josh Hayes is really getting his name put into the record books with his dominance this season. Can anyone challenge him? Chris Clark is feeling better than he was during the first race. At the start, Ben Bostrom gets a good start as Josh Herrin gets third. Josh Hayes shoots into the lead. Now, can Hayes open it up. Herrin goes to second. Bostrom is off course. He loses spots. He's dropped like a stone. Herrin is tryin to keep up with Hayes. The EBR's are third and fourth. Blake Young, Roger Hayden, and Steve Rapp all battle. Taylor Knapp is also in this pack.
Rapp passes Hayden. Who's got the legs on the straight? Kawasaki vs. Suzuki. Larry Pegram is running better on the #72 BMW. Geoff May is now third on the first EBR as Danny Eslick on the sister bike is down the order a bit. Geoff May is closing on Josh Herrin. Pegram leads. Hayden and Eslick are fighting hammer and tongs. Four of 23 laps completed. Geoff May is battling Josh Herrin. Blake Young fends off Steve Rapp. Taylor Knapp, Larry Pegram, Danny Eslick, Chris Fillmore, and Chris Clark all are in the bottom half of the top ten to twelve bikes.
Geoff May steals second from Herrin, but no. Herrin charges right back by. Herrin carried one wheel off the ground. There used to be a 750cc class for bikes, but now, there's just two (600cc and 1000cc bikes). Roger Hayden and Steve Rapp tussle for fifth, continuing their battle. Hayes continues to lead this race. He's not using traction control for these races. Dunlop's tires are made in both the U.S. and England, and there's a new tire being created, a soft compound tire. Ben Bostrom has passed Larry Pegram for ninth place.
This race is approaching the halfway mark. Bostrom tries passing Eslick and put's the Jordan Racing Suzuki up another spot. Yes, the owner of that bike is basketball legend, Michael Jordan. Chris Fillmore is running well on his KTM. They might be back next year. One has to wonder if makes like BMW or KTM will have a presence in AMA Superbike in 2013. Hayes has a seven and a half second lead. Only 18% of the distance on this track at NJMP is at full throttle. Ten laps remaining. Taylor Knapp and Steve Rapp battle for sixth. Ben Bostrom flies by Taylor Knapp.
Steve Rapp will be the next bike on Bostrom's list. Chris Clark has made his way to thirteenth spot in his first season with Suzuki after riding Yamaha's in the past. Geoff May takes a tumble and is out of the race, putting his hands up to express frustration at Blake Young who was pressuring him. May throws his hands up as if to say, "what the heck did you do to me?" This race is under yellow as bike #78 of Reese Wacker slams into another bike, the #511 bike of Tim Bemisderfer. No yellow flag. Bostrom tries passing Blake Young.
Bostrom passes Young and there's another pass on Steve Rapp by Taylor Knapp. Bostrom pulls away from Blake Young with just four laps left. Josh Hayes still maintains a huge lead. Blake Young is riding in essence, an evolved, three year old bike that champion rider Mat Mladin rode. Danny Eslick, Larry Pegram, and Chris Fillmore battle for eighth through tenth. It's EBR vs. BMW vs. KTM. It would be great to have Honda and Kawasaki back on a factory basis. The white flag is out for Josh Hayes.
Winning this race will be Josh Hayes, easily. Monster Graves Yamaha has separated themselves from the pack. He'll get another victory!
#1 Josh Hayes Yamaha R1
So, Hayes wins his thirteenth race of the year!
James Rispoli on his Suzuki GSX-R 600 won the first Supersport race and the win in the second event for that class went to Triumph rider, Dustin Dominguez. In the XR1200 class (highlighted of course earlier in the season for their support races to MotoGP at Indianapolis), Shane Narbonne on bike #46 was the winner.
The penultimate race of the AMA season will be the Triumph Big Kahuna Miami at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, taking place in less than two weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment