Photography by Larry Lawrence
On the verge of winning back the AMA Pro Superbike Championship this weekend, Josh Hayes got his weekend off to a good start by winning the pole aboard his factory Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha R1. Hayes outran the Yoshimura Suzuki’s of Roger Hayden and Martin Cardenas to score the pole. It marked his third pole of the season.
On and off misty rain hit the track during the Superbike Q2 session, so officials decided to base the grid on the combined times, nixing the final qualifying session that features the top-12 riders from Q2.
Rain is expected for this afternoon’s races.
With a 40-point lead over Beaubier in the standings with just this weekend’s doubleheader remaining, Hayes is clearly the odds-on favorite to clinch his fourth AMA Pro Superbike crown in the past five years, which will be the fifth consecutive Superbike title for the Yamaha team.
Hayes claims he’ll be going all out to notch his seventh and eighth Superbike wins this season, as well as the 48th and 49th Superbike victories of his stellar career.
Hayes said he’s been focusing on getting back up to speed after the long break, not so much on preserving his championship lead.
“I’ve got a little bit of room (in the points) to play with,” Hayes explained. “I just want to have a good race. (The championship) hasn’t been on my mind. I’ve just been trying figure out the track conditions, have a little bit of fun and get up to speed after not seeing this track for a long time. We’ve had a big break since the last race, so I’m just trying to get as many laps in as I can. I just hope the weather goes one way or the other, not this in between thing.”
Dane Westby put his Yamalube/Westby Racing entry on the pole in Daytona SportBike with a 1:23.097. It marked the first ever pole for the rider from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jake Gagne (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull Yamaha) and Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha) qualified second and third and will start alongside Westby on the front row.
Westby said he managed the pole by drafting on Gerloff and did it in spite of a lack of sleep last night.
“Last night I didn’t sleep at all,” Westby said. “I rolled up out of the hotel at 5:30 and came to sleep back in the RV. I rolled a pop-up out, with a terrible mattress and fell right to sleep. Maybe I need to do that more often.”
Dustin Dominguez and Hayden Gillim are locked in a great battle for the AMA Pro SuperSport Championship and it carried over into qualifying. Dominguez earned the pole with Gillim coming in with the second best time. Mark Miller, Jr. rounds out the front-row starters in the class. Dominguez clocked a 1:24.457 (just off the 2010 class record of 1:24.358 set by Joey Pascarella in 2010). Dominguez’ time was remarkable considering Gillim’s best lap was over a second slower.
AMA Pro Superbike Qaulifying
1 4 Josh Hayes Yamaha R1 1:21.937
2 95 Roger Hayden Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:22.315
3 36 Martin Cardenas Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:22.562
4 2 Cameron Beaubier Yamaha R1 1:22.571
5 76 Bernat Martinez Yamaha R1 1:22.701
Daytona SportBike Qualifying
1 00 Dane Westby Yamaha YZF-R6 1:23.097
2 32 Jake Gagne Yamaha YZF-R6 1:23.267
3 8 Garrett Gerloff Yamaha YZF-R6 1:23.292 1:24.449
4 85 Jake Lewis Yamaha YZF-R6 1:23.365 1:24.680
5 40 Jason DiSalvo Triumph Daytona 675 1:23.550
AMA Pro SuperSport Qualifying
1 68 Dustin Dominguez Yamaha YZF-R6 1:24.457
2 69 Hayden Gillim Suzuki GSX-R600 1:25.555
3 777 Mark Miller Jr. Yamaha YZF-R6 1:25.774
4 54 Richie Escalante Yamaha YZF-R6 1:25.845
5 19 Wyatt Farris Suzuki GSX-R600 1:26.165
