Motourage

After waiting out a rain delay on Monday and losing most of Tuesday to damp conditions and early morning fog, the assembled AMA Pro Road Racing teams finally got onto the newly-paved Daytona International Speedway for the Dunlop Tire Test, the first official open test session in advance of the upcoming 2011 season.

Topping the timesheets in the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike class was the reigning champion, Yamaha’s  Josh Hayes, posting a time of 1:38.795/127.901 MPH.  Right behind Hayes was Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden with a time of 1:39.074/127.542 MPH.  Hayden’s teammate Blake Young was third, and debuting Kawasaki’s new liter-bike was Eric Bostrom, who finished fourth.  Another rider showing well on a new combination was Larry Pegram, who posted the fifth-fastest time with his new BMW.

Debuting entirely new team-and-machinery combinations were Ben Bostrom and Roger Hayden, both showing well for Jordan Motorsports’ 2011 effort.  2010 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Champion Martin Cardenas made his debut in the SuperBike class and ended up eighth, just ahead of his Team M4 Suzuki teammate Chris Ulrich.  Rounding out the top ten was the Buell-mounted Geoff May.

“The track is just so unbelievably smooth; when you compare some of the data from previous years, it is so much smoother,” Hayes commented on his day.  “It is different, but it doesn’t take long to get back into the groove.  I’m looking forward to the race.”

In preparation for the Daytona 200, the Daytona SportBike riders took to the track for one session, which was interrupted by a brief sprinkling of raindrops. Jason DiSalvo initially set the fastest time, returning to the series aboard the Team Latus Ducati, but ultimately settled for third. Jake Zemke, new to the Project 1 Atlanta team this year, finished second on his Yamaha with a time of 1:51.987/93.225 MPH. Last year’s Daytona 200 pole-position winner and 2009 Daytona SportBike Champion Danny Eslick also appeared at the top of the timesheets at numerous points during the disjointed session, but it was P. J. Jacobsen who topped the times after the short break with a best lap of 1:51.822/93.362 MPH on his new Ducati. Suzuki-mounted Cory West rounded out the top five, while Santiago Villa, who ran well early in the session, ended up sixth overall.
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Sunday’s AMA Pro Road Racing finals at the 2.25-mile Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Va. to close out the the Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro Nationals Presented by Foremost Insurance event weekend provided redemption for a couple of riders and also brought a divisional championship to another very deserving rider.

SuperBike points leader Josh Hayes reasserted himself at the top of the tables in every way. After what was for him a disappointing third-place result in Saturday’s race, where his main championship rival Tommy Hayden took a well-measured victory, Hayes came back to dominate the 23-lap Superbike race 2.

Josh Hayes celebrates after Sunday's Superbike race 2 win

“I just feel like I woke up, I didn’t like to get beat yesterday,” said Hayes.  “Somewhere along the way I feel like I kind of got lost a little bit, just in my riding.  I wasn’t riding my full potential and I was still capable of racing for the wins.  I think our motorcycle has a lot to do with that, we have a really good motorcycle.  I was just thinking about, what was my mindset last year?  I was racing myself a lot more last year.  These guys ride great, but I put an awful lot of pressure on myself to perform, so that’s what I tried to get back to this morning and today’s race was a race against myself.”

Hayes led every lap on his way to a series high fifth win in the SuperBike class.  Pole position winner Ben Bostrom duplicated his second place from yesterday to round out a solid weekend.

Tommy Hayden battled first with Hayes and then fought Bostrom for second before he finished third to stay close to Hayes in the points chase. Hayden is only 11 points adrift of Hayes with two double header race weekends to go.

“I felt pretty good about stepping up and going faster than I had all weekend there for the first five or six laps,” said Hayden.  “But in the end we didn’t have the pace to go that fast, or cooked the tire a little bit and couldn’t keep up.  That’s the biggest part of it really, we just weren’t fast enough.”

Riding to fourth place was Jordan Suzuki rookie Brett McCormick who easily had the best race of his season in relief of injured teammate Aaron Yates.  Yates did make an appearance at VIR this weekend and quickly showed his mettle with an excellent qualifying effort, but he decided not to race until he was fully confident that he was in race distance shape after his lengthy lay off.

Another rider having a good day was Taylor Knapp who rode to a fifth place-finish after dueling with Jake Zemke and Erik Buell Racing’s Geoff May. Chris Ulrich also ran well today and took seventh aboard his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki.  Zemke ran in fifth place in the early stages of the race but fell to eighth after battling hard to hold onto every position.

Larry Pegram fell from sixth at the start down to 15th on lap two but made his way back to ninth at the flag. Canadian Superbike Champion Jordan Szoke made his second AMA Pro SuperBike appearance of the year after racing at Mid-Ohio and impressed once again with a tenth place finish after a battle with Shane Narbone.

Daytona SportBike

In the Daytona SportBike class, Josh Herrin was able to bounce back from the disappointment of Saturday’s race that ended for him almost as soon as it started.

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Aaron Yates, injured in March during a warm-up-lap crash at Auto Club Speedway, will make his return to the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Series at this weekend’s Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro Nationals Presented by Foremost Insurance at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Va.  Yates will practice his #23 Jordan Suzuki and make a further evaluation if he will race after that.  Brett McCormick, Aaron’s teammate who has been riding the second Jordan Suzuki in Yates’ absence will also compete along with National Guard Suzuki Jordan rider Jake Zemke.

“I’m excited about riding again,” said Yates. “And really looking forward to getting back out there.”

Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider Blake Young will not be riding this weekend at VIR. Young continues his recovery from injuries suffered in a testing accident at Barber Motorsports Park.  Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s team manager Peter Doyle is hopeful that Blake will be able to return to racing soon but isn’t putting a date on Young’s comeback.

“I think it’s one of those injuries that you just have to let heal in its own time,” Doyle said. “We want Blake back 100 percent healthy so we can go out there and try to win some races full force. We’ll just have to take it a day at a time.”

The AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series will also compete this weekend.  Danny Eslick and Jake Holden will again lead the field of Harley-Davidson XR1200s in the series’ third race of the season. Eslick, winner of the first two races, and his teammate Holden, will be back aboard their RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing XR1200s with support from GEICO Powersports and Lucas Oil.

Joining them on the grid will be the Wyman brothers, Travis and Kyle.  Kyle will be on another RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing XR1200 and Travis will be on the Harv’s Harley-Davidson Racing machine.  Eric Stump will be back on the AbsoluteCycle.com XR1200 and Paul James will be returning on the James Gang Hoban Brothers Racing XR1200 with support from Harley-Davidson of Appleton.  Matthew Heidel makes his series debut on the Shar-Tuff Uniforms Harley-Davidson and Mark Cernicky joins the series on the Hog Racing XR1200.  Practice and qualifying will be on Saturday, August 14th and the 18 lap race will be on Sunday, August 15th.

The close-fought AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Championship battle will be rejoined at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, VA this weekend, August 13-15, 2010.  The 2.25 mile, 18-turn road course will be the site of the Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro Nationals Presented by Foremost Insurance where championship contenders Josh Hayes, Tommy Hayden, Jake Zemke and Larry Pegram will take to the track for the doubleheader race weekend.

Leading the charge will be four-time 2010 race winner Josh Hayes on his Team Graves Yamaha.  Hayes won both ends of the doubleheader at VIR in 2009 and is coming off a close second-place finish at the recent Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca round.  Hayes has notched up wins at Infineon Raceway, Road America and Mid-Ohio, and he is excited about returning to the track where he ran so well last year.  “I like my chances at VIR, I won there last year and with the way my Yamaha is running this year, I feel pretty good about the upcoming weekend.”

Right on Hayes’ tail is Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider Tommy Hayden.  Hayden took his first-ever AMA Pro Superbike win earlier this year at Auto Club Speedway and he added two more wins to his growing career total, one at Road America and another at Mid-Ohio.  In the case of the last two wins, Hayden was able to match Hayes’ victories at Road America and Mid-Ohio, preventing Hayes from extending his slim points lead. Right now, the difference is only nine points, 311 for Hayes and 302 for Hayden.

After winning the first two races of the 2010 season, Jake Zemke has consistently added to his points total with a series of strong results.  Zemke took second place at Auto Club Speedway and added a pair of third-place finishes, three fourth-place finishes, a fifth and four sixth-place finishes to keep his National Guard Jordan Suzuki in the thick of the championship fight.  Zemke started on the front row and finished fourth at VIR last year when he ran in the Daytona Sportbike class.  Now he is a force to be reckoned with every time the Superbikes take to the track.

Another rider with a victory this year is Foremost Insurance Ducati rider Larry Pegram who took a popular win at Auto Club Speedway earlier this year.  And Pegram was leading in the second race when he suffered an unfortunate fall while headed for what could have been a weekend sweep of the Auto Club Speedway races.  After a couple of results that didn’t meet his expectations, Pegram got back on track when he returned to California with two strong third-place finishes at Infineon Raceway and then he took a couple of fourth place finishes at Road America followed by a fourth and a third place finish at his home track in Ohio. At the most recent race, Pegram rode another typically solid race to fourth place at Laguna Seca.  Pegram’s longtime sponsor Foremost Insurance is the Presenting Sponsor at this weekend’s VIR event and you can count on Pegram racing in his usual determined manner with his unique and popular Foremost Insurance Ducati.

Due to his steadily improving form, which culminated with a win at the most recent race at Laguna Seca, Ben Bostrom and the new Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha team have put themselves into the championship frame.  Bostrom, the 2009 Daytona 200 race winner and the brother of Eric Bostrom, will be ready to resume his steady march to the front after strong showings at Infineon (two seconds), a second and a fourth at Mid-Ohio and his win at Laguna.  Bostrom had surgery on his left thumb after Laguna, but he doesn’t anticipate any problems this weekend.

Two riders making welcome returns to the AMA Pro National Guard Superbike series this weekend at VIR are M4 Monster Energy Suzuki rider John Hopkins and Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider Blake Young.  Hopkins underwent surgery earlier this year and is back for his first race since Road Atlanta in April.  Hopkins has been ably represented by Jake Holden who posted a number of good results while substituting on the GSX-R1000.  Young took his first two Superbike wins this year at Road Atlanta.  That was a special weekend for Young as he took pole position and won both races on the demanding Georgia track.  Young was at the recent race at Laguna and was raring to get back on his lightning fast Suzuki.

Seventh and eighth in the AMA Pro SuperBike points this year are two riders that are having nice solid years and are both quietly riding well and showing excellent form.  M4 Monster Energy Suzuki rider Chris Ulrich has put together a very solid year.  Ulrich has shown excellent consistency and has posted a solid run of results with only one finish outside the top ten until the last race at Laguna Seca where he uncharacteristically went out after two laps.  Ulrich is seventh in points with 150.  Right behind Ulrich in the points with 141 is Taylor Knapp on his RidersDiscount.com Suzuki.  Knapp and his close knit team have done a nice, steady job and Knapp has responded by taking seven finishes of tenth or better.

The action at the Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro Nationals Presented by Foremost Insurance begins on Friday, August 13th with practice and first round qualifying. Round one of the doubleheader race weekend will be on Saturday, August 14th and more races including the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 race will be on Sunday, August 15th. Check all the weekend activities at the beautiful Virginia International Raceway including the popular Pit Lane Fan Walk and AMA Pro Autograph sessions as well as the Second Annual MRO VIR Food Drive to Benefit God’s Storehouse in Danville, VA.  For more info contact gracingfuelministry@yahoo.com. God’s Storehouse can be contacted via their website godsstorehouse.org or by calling 434-793-3663. Motor Racing Outreach’s website is go2mro.com.  Please visit www.virclub.com for ticket and event information and www.amaproracing.com for series information.

After winning earlier in the day on Sunday in AMA Pro Road Racing’s Daytona SportBike class, Danny Eslick repeated his wining form with his second consecutive AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Eslick took his RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing Harley-Davidson XR1200 to another well-deserved victory, this time ahead of Shawn Higbee, riding another XR1200 supported by HOG Racing.  Third was Danny’s RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing teammate, Jake Holden.   Holden and Eslick resumed their battle from the inaugural race at Road America but Holden fell back in the late stages today and finished third.

Kyle Wyman, one of three Wyman brothers racing at the Honda Super Cycle Weekend Presented by Dunlop Tire, took fourth on another RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing Harley-Davidson.  His brother Travis ended up eighth riding the Harv’s Harley-Davidson sponsored XR1200. Eric Stump was another rider taking part in multiple events this weekend and he took fifth ahead of John Ashmead.

Ashmead, a former Daytona 200 and SuperBike winner, was again riding his Brady Schwemmer Racing XR1200.  Ashmead and the team had raced at Road America and in fact, had suffered a mishap due to another rider’s oil leak, not their own as was reported in the last AMA Pro Racing report.  Paul James finished behind Ashmead on the James Gang Hoban Brother’s Racing XR1200 ahead of the aforementioned Eric Stump.

Eslick commented on how much he loves riding in the Vance & Hines XR1200 Series, “This class is a lot of fun, I just like riding the XR1200, and winning is going to make my drive to California that much more fun, looking at my two trophies all the way.”