TOOELE, UTAH, MAY 27 – Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes earned his fourth pole in a row in final qualifying for the Memorial Day Superbike race at Miller Motorsports Park.
Having crashed out of the lead early in the second race at Infineon Raceway, and losing the points that went with it, Hayes needed to get back to his practice of maximizing every points-paying opportunity. With today’s pole performance, held under cool, overcast skies, Hayes cut the lead to championship leader Blake Young to three points, 166-163, heading into Monday’s race.
Hayes laid down his marker of 1:49.729 n his eighth lap, with about 22 minutes remaining in the 40 minute session. At the time he was in front of Team Hero’s Danny Eslick (EBR). Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Young had been second before Eslick down him down to third, where he wouldn’t remain for long. Young jumped back up into second and held it to the end with his lap of 1:50.141.
Team Amsoil/Hero’s Geoff May took over third by dropping his teammate Eslick to fourth with his 10th lap.
The rider closest to Eslick was National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden. Hayden had a short session after crashing about 15 minutes in. The fall came when he cased his fairing on the exit of the “Attitudes,” a Corkscrew-like sequence three-quarters of the way through the lap. Hayden appeared unhurt, but he didn’t go back out and finished fifth, just in front of teammate Ben Bostrom.
AMA Superbike Qualifying:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:49.729
2. Blake Young (Suzuki) 1:50.141
3. Geoff May (EBR) 1:50.219
4. Danny Eslick (EBR) 1:50.355
5. Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki) 1:50.358
6. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki) 1:50.511
7. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:50.676
8. Chris Clark (Suzuki) 1:51.177
9. Larry Pegram (BMW) 1:51.547
10. Steve Rapp (Kawasaki) 1:51.796
