Hayes Takes Laguna Superbike Pole

Paul Carruthers | July 23, 2011

MONTEREY, CA, JULY 24 – Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes needs all the points he can get if he hopes to catch championship leader Blake Young in this suddenly abbreviated season – so he made sure he got the one point that was available today as he flew to pole position at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.Hayes lapped at a best of 1:24.480 to hold off Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden, the Kentuckian getting his best lap late in the session – a 1:24.824 – to put his GSX-R1000 on the front row.

Those two will be joined on the MotoGP-style, three-across grid by National Guard Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden with the youngest of the racing Hayden brothers just .028 of a second behind his older brother.Championship leader Young will head the second row on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki. Young failed in his attempt to crack into the 1:24s as his best was a 1:25.023. Still, he’s just a tick over half a second slower than Hayes.Young will be joined on row two by Team M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas and Michael Jordan Motorsports’ Ben Bostrom, the man who is pulling double duty this weekend as he earlier qualified the LCR Honda in MotoGP qualifying.Row three will featured Foremost Insurance BMW’s Larry Pegram, Holden Racing’s Jake Holden and BMR’s Geoff May. Steve Rapp rounded out the top 10 qualifiers on his San Diego BMW.With the Virginia International Raceway doubleheader cancelled just last week, only the single Superbike race here at Laguna tomorrow and the doubleheader at New Jersey Motorsports Park remain on the schedule. With his pole point today, Hayes has cut Young’s lead back to 10 points, 290-280.Superbike Qualifying

1.                  Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:24.480

2.                  Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 1:24.824

3.                  Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki) 1:24.852

4.                  Blake Young (Suzuki) 1:25.023

5.                  Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 1:25.462

6.                  Ben Bostrom (Suzuki) 1:25.632

7.                  Larry Pegram (BMW) 1:25.738

8.                  Jake Holden (Suzuki) 1:25.807

9.                  Geoff May (Buell) 1:25.954

10.                  Steve Rapp (BMW) 1:26.261

 

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.