Hayes Wins Supersport Final

Henny Ray Abrams | August 31, 2008

BRASELTON, GA, AUG 31: The 2008 AMA Pro Honda Oils Supersport Championship will go down to the wire. Erion Honda’s Josh Hayes and Jake Zemke made sure of that by finishing one-two in the Supersport final on a hot, muggy afternoon at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, while title leader Ben Bostrom finished third on the Graves Motorsports Yamaha. The title will be decided at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca where Bostrom will arrive with a decided edge. If Zemke collects every point available in Monterey, Bostrom only needs to score 14 points, a 17th place finish, to take the crown. Today’s first start was red-flagged halfway through the first lap when a chain reaction accident collected four riders exiting turn seven. It began with Bobby Fong sliding out and into the path of the Attack Kawasakis of Steve Rapp and Chaz Davies, both of whom went down. As did Tommy Aquino, in a separate incident seconds later in the same area. Davies and Aquino made the re-start, Fong and Davies didn’t. Rapp was treated and released from the infield medical center. Fong was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center for preliminary x-rays. When the second start was waved off the Hondas again went to the front, battling back and forth, swapping the lead on several occasions and mostly on either the back stretch or into the hard braking left hand turn 10A. Hayes took the lead for the final time on the ninth of 13 laps and, despite Zemke’s best efforts, was able to hold on to the finish. The margin of victory was 1.376 secs. Bostrom was .628 back in third. M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas was third, at 3.11 secs. Blake Young, his teammate, had been third until dropping out with what appeared to be machine problems on the ninth lap. That put Bostrom back into third. Supersport: 1. Josh Hayes (Honda) 2. Jake Zemke (Honda) 3. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha) 4. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 5. Cory West (Suzuki) 6. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 7. Michael Beck (Yamaha) 8. Joshua Day (Yamaha) 9. Anthony Gobert (Honda) 10. Dane Westby (Yamaha)