Reigning champion Josh Hayes took one step closer to defending his AMA SBK title after winning over Ben Bostrom in race one at NJMP.

Reigning champion Josh Hayes (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) has won Saturday’s first leg of the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park’s Thunderbolt Raceway.

Though hounded by Jordan Suzuki’s Ben Bostrom throughout the race, the so-called ‘Mississippi Madman put together a highly methodical string of laps that delivered him to a comfortable victory and an 11-point overall lead.

“I’ve been a little inconsistent on starts this year,” said Hayes, who entered the round with a five-point deficit. “And today was definitely one of my better ones. I had a pretty good feel for how to approach Turn 1, so it worked out good for me.

“The whole time, I didn’t know if it was just Ben behind me or Ben and five more guys, so I wasn’t going to lose any time to anyone. I just tried to keep my nerve and ride smooth.”

Bostrom kept the pressure on Hayes so consistent that Hayes admitted to temporarily losing focus and beginning to make mistakes halfway through the contest.

“It wasn’t so much of a fight,” said Bostrom, who got the holeshot off the line. “Josh made a great pass on first lap and set an incredible pace, and he was fighting for points, so there was no need to fight with him. ”

Hayes’ championship rival, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young, was significantly less pleased with his Saturday after coming out on the downside of a three-way battle with teammate Tommy Hayden and National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden.

Anyone who suspected that Suzuki team orders might be in effect this weekend got a lesson in alternatives from Tommy Hayden, who showed zero inclination to give his teammate an inch.

“I felt like I had a pretty good jump [off the start],” said Hayden. “But these other two got an even better jump, so from there it was kind of a long race. By the time I got to third they already had about five seconds on me.

“Maybe I had the speed to run with ’em, but I for sure didn’t have the pace to track them down from there. [Roger and Blake] kept me honest the whole way … besides that, the race went fairly smooth. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get a better start and put up a better fight.”

Behind Young, Steve Rapp (Cycle World Attack Performance Kawasaki), Larry Pegram (Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing), Martin Cardenas (M4 Suzuki), Chris Clark (Y.E.S./Pat Clark/Graves Yamaha) and new Canadian Superbike champion Brett McCormick rounded out the top ten.

On debut in the AMA Pro Superbike Championship for 2011, Aaron Gobert scored 13th on the San Diego BMW S 1000 RR. Meanwhile, Jordan Burgess was 17th on the Aussie Dave Racing Suzuki.

GEICO Powersports RMR Suzuki’s Danny Eslick clinched the 2011 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Championship in a spectacular race on Saturday at New Jersey.

Eslick, who adds this year’s crown to the class title he earned in 2009, dedicated the championship to recently departed race legend Gary Nixon.

“It hasn’t set in yet,” said Eslick, grinning. “At first I didn’t think we were far enough up there to get the job done. When I came in I saw my team looking around, then we looked at an official and they gave me the checkered flag, and then it started kicking in a little bit.

“It was an awesome race, I don’t know how many lead changes, a bunch, probably more than any other race this year. There were seven or eight of us for a while going back and forth … it was pretty spectacular.

“It’s nice to get it done with a race to go, and we’ll go out and give it a heck of a shot tomorrow, too.”

Nearly as happy was Y.E.S./Pat Clark/Graves Yamaha rider Tommy Aquino, who earned his career first AMA Pro victory at New Jersey Motorsports’ Thunderbolt Raceway.