Photography by Brian J. Nelson
BIRMINGHAM, AL (June 14, 2015) – It was setting up to be a great fight between Josh Hayes and Roger Hayden in the closing laps of Barber MotoAmerica Superbike race 1, but a red flag on lap 16 due to fluid on the track, put an early end and ruined a possible last-lap battle. The end result was that Yamaha’s Hayes scored his fifth victory of the season with a 0.397 margin over Hayden on the Yoshimura Suzuki. Superstock 1000 rider Jake Gagne finished third overall on the RoadRace Factory Yamaha.
Perhaps the biggest story of the day was that series leader Cameron Beaubier crashed out of the race on lap eight. That closed up the championship chase considerably. Hayes is now within one point of Beaubier in the standings. Riders have to complete at least 2-3rds of the race to score points under current rules, so that’s why Beaubier earned no points.
Hayden led the pack into turn one, but then the Yamaha’s of Beaubier and Hayes moved ahead. Almost immediately Hayes looked like he carried too much speed into the museum turn and ran way wide and dropped several positions. With that Beaubier opened up an early lead. By the second lap Hayes forced his way under Hayden out of the last turn to take back second place. At that point he was 1.7 second behind the leader.
By the fifth lap it was Beaubier leading by 1.1 seconds over Hayes. Hayden ran second, just ahead of teammate Jake Lewis and Jake Gagne hanging in there on his Superstock machine.
On lap six Gagne put his Superstock Yamaha ahead of the factory Suzuki of Lewis. It was Danny Eslick holding on to sixth over Morais and Knapp in a closely bunched group.
Beauber crashed out of the lead on lap eight in the curbing between turns eight and nine, his bike spinning on the ground with Hayes heavy on the binders to avoid the machine. That allowed Hayden to sneak underneath to move into the lead.
Breaking for turn one on lap 11 Hayes moved back into the lead. Hayden tried to get him back in turn five, but ran wide on the exit allowing Hayes to go back under him.
In the second half of the race Hayes held a small advantage on Hayden. Gagne hung surprisingly tight to the two leaders in third.
On lap 16 two riders crashed in separate incidents and there was fluid on the track bringing out the red flag. At that point officials decided to call the race complete.
Barber MotoAmerica Superbike Race 1 Superbike/Superstock Results – June 14, 2015
1. Josh Hayes, Yamaha.
2. Roger Hayden, Suzuki.
3. Jake Gagne, Yamaha.
4. Jake Lewis, Suzuki.
5. Danny Eslick, Honda.
6. Taylor Knapp, Yamaha.
7. Chris Fillmore, KTM.
8. Tyler O’Hara, Yamaha.
9. Mark Heckles, Yamaha.
10. Chris Ulrich, Suzuki.
