Hayes Four for Four

Larry Lawrence | July 13, 2013

Photography by Andrea Wilson

AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes continued his domination of qualifying by winning the pole for this weekend’s Buckeye Superbike Weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Hayes clocked a 1:25.267 on his Monster Energy Yamaha R1 to win the pole for the fourth time in four rounds this season.

It will be two Yamahas and two Suzukis on the front row this weekend. Joining Hayes are National Guard Suzuki’s Roger Hayden (1:25.826), Monster energy Yamaha’s Josh Herrin (1:25.939) and Danny Eslick (1:25.985) on the Jordan Suzuki. It marked the first front-row start for Eslick this year.

For Hayes it was a simply a case of finding a comfortable setup on a new bike for the race. He’s got enough of a gap on the rest of the field now, that running for the ultimate fastest lap isn’t even necessary. He did his time today on his B-bike.

“Everything is going well,” Hayes said. “The bike is performing well. We changed bikes today so qualifying started off a little slower. New clutch, new brakes, new bike so we had to run everything in to make sure everything was good to go on a tire from yesterday. We tried a little suspension change at some point in the middle of the session. I didn’t think it suited me very well. We came back in and kind of went back to our base setting and was able to put together a few good laps. We did quite a few laps in the 25s there at the end, maybe four or five of them.”

Hayden always seems to do well at Mid-Ohio and qualifying today showed he was again ready to race on the technical circuit even though he’s been trying to overcome some handling issues.

“This weekend hasn’t been great, but not too bad” Hayden admitted. “We struggled with some chatter and toward the end of qualifying we got rid of it. I came in for a new tire at the end, but there were just a lot of guys out there. I feel a lot more comfortable with the front end so I’m really looking forward to the race now.”

Cameron Beaubier also stayed perfect in Daytona SportBike qualifying, scoring yet another pole on his Yamaha Extended Service R6 with a lap of 1:28.028.

“This morning I struggled to get down to the pace that I set yesterday,” Beaubier said. “I don’t know if it was the track, the track was a little green this morning. I finally got down to a really good time there at the end and I’m looking forward to the race.”

In Supersport it was Miles Thornton coming through to earn his first pole since Daytona in 2011.

Superbike qualifying from Mid-Ohio – July 13, 2013
1 1 Josh Hayes Yamaha R1 1:25.267
2 54 Roger Hayden Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:25.826
3 2 Josh Herrin Yamaha R1 1:25.939 1:26.218
4 23 Danny Eslick Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:25.985
5 36 Martin Cardenas Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:26.061
6 20 Aaron Yates EBR 1190RS 1:26.532
7 11 Chris Fillmore KTM RC8R 1:26.616
8 99 Geoff May EBR 1190RS 1:27.178
9 72 Larry Pegram Yamaha R1 1:27.416
10 25 David Anthony Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:27.485

Daytona SportBike qualifying from Mid-Ohio – July 13, 2013
1 6 Cameron Beaubier Yamaha YZF-R6 1:28.028
2 32 Jake Gagne Yamaha YZF-R6 1:28.848
3 8 Garrett Gerloff Yamaha YZF-R6 1:29.489
4 40 Jason DiSalvo Triumph Daytona 675 1:29.656
5 43 James Rispoli Suzuki GSX-R600 1:29.681
6 85 Jake Lewis Yamaha YZF-R6 1:29.743
7 95 JD Beach Yamaha YZF-R6 1:29.789
8 5 Dane Westby Honda CBR600RR 1:29.820
9 50 Bobby Fong Triumph Daytona 675 1:30.522
10 52 Joey Pascarella Triumph Daytona 675 1:31.121

SuperSport qualifying from Mid-Ohio – July 13, 2013
1 72 Miles Thornton Yamaha YZF-R6 1:30.955
2 12 Tomas Puerta Yamaha YZF-R6 1:31.217
3 69 Hayden Gillim Yamaha YZF-R6 1:31.342
4 24 Travis Wyman Suzuki GSX-R600 1:31.516
5 37 Stefano Mesa Yamaha YZF-R6 1:31.713
6 5 Corey Alexander Suzuki GSX-R600 1:31.726
7 118 Nick McFadden Suzuki GSX-R600 1:31.961
8 33 Conner Blevins Kawasaki ZX-6R 1:32.392
9 9 Wyatt Farris Yamaha YZF-R6 1:32.887 1:32.887
10 51 Kaleb De Keyrel Yamaha YZF-R6 1:33.117

Larry Lawrence | Archives Editor

In addition to writing our Archives section on a weekly basis, Lawrence is another who is capable of covering any event we throw his way.