Henny Ray Abrams | June 17, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, ALA, JUNE 17 – Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes set an unassailable lap time with nearly 12 minutes to go in the 45-minute session to take the provisional pole on an overcast afternoon at Barber Motorsports Park.Hayes was fastest when Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden closed the gap to just over half a second with about 13 minutes to go. Hayes immediately answered with a lap of 1:25.980 mins, the fastest of the 45-minute session. The time held up for the remainder of the session, with Hayden closing the gap to .177 secs. at the end.Blake Young, Hayden’s teammate, moved to third with just over nine minutes to run, only to get bumped to the second row by the Jordan Suzuki team.
First came National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden with a lap of 1:26.850 mins. that put him in third in the final two minutes. In the final minute Roger Lee was moved over a spot on the provisional front row when Ben Bostrom put his Jordan Suzuki into third with a lap of 1:26.848 mins., just .002 faster than his teammate.Young ended up on the provisional second row pole in front of a pair of BMW’s, Larry Pegram (Foremost Insurance) and Steve Rapp (San Jose BMW). M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas ended the day eighth fastest.The rest of the top ten was Georgian Geoff May on the Buell, and Canadian Chris Peris on the Team Iron Horse ESP-BMW.
Superbike Qualifying:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:25.980
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 1:26.157
3. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki) 1:26.848
4. Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki) 1:26.850
5. Blake Young (Suzuki) 1:26.884
6. Larry Pegram (BMW) 1:27.053
7. Steve Rapp (BMW) 2:27.280
8. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 1:27.300
9. Geoff May (Buell) 1:27.559
10. Chris Peris (BMW) 1:27.950
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.
