News 29 Jun 2015

Hayes takes two in MotoAmerica at Miller

Australia's Anthony goes 4-5 in Supersport races.

Image: Brian J. Nelson (MotoAmerica).

Image: Brian J. Nelson (MotoAmerica).

Reigning champion Josh Hayes and his Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha R1 swept the doubleheader Miller Motorsports Park round of the 2015 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Superbike Championship.

The two wins, combined with his teammate Cameron Beaubier’s two runner-up finishes, translates to Hayes leaving Miller with the points lead, albeit by just four points.

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.

The Superstock 1000 victory again went to Day, the R1-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.

Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha rider JD Beach completely dominated the Supersport class on Saturday, besting his teammate Garrett Gerloff by 5.567 seconds after a start-to-finish romp to victory. Gerloff was chased home by Wheels in Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Motorsports’ Josh Herrin, the 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 chequered flag.

On Sunday in race two 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 Gerloff. It was a dominating performance and Beach’s fifth in a row and seventh of the season.

Fourth place went to Petersen, the Roadracing Factory rider having his best weekend thus far in what is his rookie season of racing in the US, reversing the finishing order with M4 Suzuki/SportbikeTrackGear.com’s Anthony, who had bested him for fourth a day earlier.

Beach now leads Gerloff and Herrin, who dropped out of Sunday’s race with a mechanical problem, by 44 points.

2015 MotoAmerica Championship
Round six – Miller Motorsports Park

Superbike race one results:
1. Josh Hayes
2. Cameron Beaubier
3. Roger Hayden
4. Jake Lewis
5. Chris Fillmore
6. Danny Eslick
7. Bernat Martinez
8. Chris Ulrich
9. Elena Myers
10. Sebastiao Ferreira

Superbike race two results:
1. Josh Hayes
2. Cameron Beaubier
3. Roger Hayden
4. Jake Lewis
5. Chris Fillmore
6. Danny Eslick
7. Bernat Martinez
8. Sebastiao Ferreira
9. Mathew Orange

Supersport race one results:
1. JD Beach
2. Garrett Gerloff
3. Josh Herrin
4. David Anthony (AUS)
5. Cameron Petersen
6. Tomas Puerta
7. Hayden Gillim
8. Benny Solis Jr
9. Kyle Wyman
10. Corey Alexander

Supersport race two results:
1. JD Beach
2. Bobby Fong
3. Garrett Gerloff
4. Cameron Petersen
5. David Anthony (AUS)
6. Tomas Puerta
7. Kyle Wyman
8. Corey Alexander
9. Kaleb De Keyrel
10. Benny Solis Jr

Click here for detailed results

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