Four Poles In a Row for Josh Hayes
Henny Ray Abrams | June 4, 2011
ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 4 -Motivated by a posting on www.www.cyclenews.com, Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes added yet another point to his championship-leading total by keeping alive his perfect qualifying record with his fourth pole position, this one on a warm, breezy morning at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.Hayes was the only rider to dip down into the 2:11’s with his ninth lap of the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course. The best lap of 2:11.913 mins. gave him a comfortable cushion of .309 sec. heading into this afternoon’s sixth race of the championship.
Hayes goes into the race with a points lead of 135 to 129 over Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young, the second fastest rider.The lap came close to Mat Mladin’s qualifying record of 2:11.541 from 2007.The posting on the website, written by this author, said that “it’s unlikely anyone will set a new qualifying record,” given the tires and state of technology at the time, “and that was a little bit of motivation for me,” Hayes said. “That was a big part of setting a goal for me. OK, alright, I want to get into the 11’s. I think I can do it, I have all the pieces in place. It was just a matter of going out there.”Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden joined his teammate on the front row with the third fastest time, while Team Iron Horse ESP-BMW’s Chris Peris earned his first Superbike front row start in fourth.Peris was narrowly in front of fifth fastest qualifier Martin Cardenas (M4 Suzuki). Joining him on row two are Jordan Suzuki teammates Roger Lee Hayden and Ben Bostrom, along with Foremost Insurance BMW rider Larry Pegram.
Superbike Qualifying:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 2:11.913
2. Blake Young (Suzuki) 2:12.222
3. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 2:12.456
4. Chris Peris (BMW) 2:13.148
5. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 2:13.176
6. Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki) 2:13.928
7. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki) 2:14.373
8. Larry Pegram (BMW) 2:14.660
9. Steve Rapp (BMW) 2:14.744
10. Geoff May (Buell) 2:14.962
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
