Motourage

Saturday saw three thrilling AMA Pro Road Racing races at the 2.25-mile Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Va., in the opening day of competition for the Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro Nationals presented by Foremost Insurance.  One was a runaway, one was a photo finish and the last was almost as close as the second one.

In the National Guard SuperBike race, it was Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider Tommy Hayden who took his fourth AMA Pro SuperBike win of the season by 0.005 of a second over pole position winner Ben Bostrom.  Bostrom led on his Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha coming down to the line but in a mighty move, Hayden pulled out and crossed the line inches ahead of Bostrom.  The fun wasn’t over for Hayden who, in his successful attempt to win the race, was out of position at that very high speed part of the track, and he used all of his considerable skills to wrestle his Suzuki under control after he found himself running wide off the track onto the grass.  He brought it back under control and took a critical victory in his pursuit of Josh Hayes and his Team Graves Yamaha team.

John Hopkins walks back to the paddock after crashing out of Superbike race 1 on Saturday

“We started coming to the finish and I had huge momentum when I pulled out,” Hayden commented on his pass for the win.  “The way I was pointing too, when I pulled out, I never even got pointed towards turn one I don’t think.  I started leaning a little and I just had the biggest front slide I think you can have without crashing.  I pretty much thought I was down and somehow I just stayed in the throttle and steered it back up and pointed out in the grass and hoped there was nothing out there I couldn’t see, any ditches or nothing coming up and just tried to ride it out.  It feels good, I really feel like I needed this one today.”

Hayes, by virtue of leading the most laps in today’s race, has a one point lead over Hayden in their close battle for the National Guard SuperBike Championship.  Hayes had led early in the race after taking the lead from a fast starting Hayden. Hayes took the lead on lap four and led until lap 10 when Ben Bostrom asserted himself into the mix by grabbing the lead from Hayes in turn one.  Hayes responded and took the lead right back the next lap and he led for the next nine laps until Bostrom moved ahead on lap 21 which enabled Hayden to get by Hayes as well. Bostrom led as the last lap began but Hayden made a big late braking move into turn one and took the lead but Bostrom was able to fight right back and retook the lead two corners later and looked a likely winner until Hayden made his great move heading down to the flag to take the win.

Behind the riveting battle for the win, Larry Pegram finished fourth after dueling with Jake Zemke, Zemke’s Jordan Suzuki teammate Brett McCormick, Taylor Knapp and a front-row starting Eric Bostrom.  Knapp eventually finished fifth ahead of McCormick, Bostrom and Zemke.

John Hopkins made his return to the series today, and he rode his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki extremely well, running in a solid fourth place for most of the race until he went down in turn four near the end of the race.  Another rider making a comeback this weekend was Jordan Suzuki rider Aaron Yates, and he qualified on the outside of the second row; however, Yates elected not to start the race. His recovery is going well, but he wasn’t absolutely sure he would bring his best to the race, which was run in very hot and humid conditions.  Overall, it was another exciting race in a season that has seen five different winners in SuperBike.

Daytona SportBike Photo Finish

The AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL race was even more exciting and came down to an even closer finish.  After seeing Danny Eslick take the pole position, Eslick was joined on the front row by his championship rival Josh Herrin along with six-time 2010 Daytona SportBike winner Martin Cardenas and Tommy Aquino.

At the start, a fast starting P.J. Jacobson shot into the lead ahead of Eslick, Aquino, Cardenas, Clinton Seller, Steve Rapp and Bobby Fong.  Josh Herrin was hit by another rider diving into turn one.  On lap 15 David White fell in turn four, and the race had to be red flagged to remove his motorcycle from the center of the track.

Danny Eslick, Martin Cardenas and Bobby Fong wait on the poduim for the official results of Saturday's Daytona Sportbike race

At the restart, Eslick had a great start and led into turn one.  Cory West made his move a few laps later and passed Cardenas for the lead, but it was short lived as he fell before the end of the same lap, letting Cardenas and the rest by.

Bobby Fong moved from tenth to the lead on a couple of occasions as he, Eslick and Cardenas continued to battle.  As the race wound down, Eslick was pushed back to third and watched as Bobby Fong and Cardenas went at it.  Cardenas had the advantage, but and coming out to the last corner, Fong moved to the outside as the two neared the flag and they went over the line virtually side by side.

It took a photo review by AMA Pro Road Racing Race Director David McGrath to determine that Fong had indeed won by the absolute slimmest of margins to take his very first AMA Pro Daytona SportBike victory.  Josh Herrin’s misfortune enabled Eslick to take the points lead and allowed Cardenas to move into second in points ahead of Herrin.

“It feels awesome,” said Fong.  “We’ve been working at it all year long to get to the top of the box.  With this class, you don’t know, a person in fifteenth place could win it’s so close and the guys are just so awesome out here.”

Tommy Aquino took fourth ahead of Steve Rapp, and sixth was Fong’s Ducati teammate, Michael Beck.

SuperSport Standout

In SuperSport, J.D. Beach took his Rockwall Engineering Yamaha to a dominant win over Joey Pascarella and Huntley Nash. Beach took his sixth win of the season by 13 seconds and extended his AMA SuperSport Young Gun East Division points lead over his sidelined teammate Cameron Beaubier and today’s fourth place finisher, Tomas Puerta, Huntley Nash’s LTD Racing Yamaha teammate. While Beach was able to again ride off into the distance, Pascarella had to battle his way through Puerta and then had a long battle with Nash to claim second place.

“My bike is my baby, I take good care of that thing,” said Beach.  “We got that thing set up real good, it’s a great bike, the team’s great. All I have to do is get on it, twist the throttle and go.”