At VIR Race 1 Josh Hayes Wins 50th AMA Superbike Race
Larry Lawrence | May 17, 2015
Photography by Brian J. Nelson
Alton, Va. (May 17, 2015) – Josh Hayes hit an historic landmark in Superbike race 1 at VIR. The Yamaha ace ran away to his 50th-career AMA Superbike victory. Hayes got away early and pulled out to an eventual 3.282-second margin of victory over his Monster Energy/Graves Motorsports Yamaha teammate Cameron Beaubier. Roger Hayden finished a distant third on the Yoshimura Suzuki, about 10 seconds back.
Hayes had worked his way up to an 8.5 second lead over Hayden when the red flag came out 11 laps into the 25-lap final. Jake Gagne and Josh Day crash in the same turn in separate incidents. The red flag was a major bonus for Beaubier, who’d run off the track and was out of the hunt for the win.
Gagne was able to make the restart, Day did not. Due to time constraints the race was shortened to 19 laps, which meant the restart was a nine-lap dash.
On the restart Lewis braked late into turn one and briefly held the lead, but he couldn’t hold it as Hayes, once again, zipped to the front. He was trailed by Hayden and Beaubier.
Hayes got away as Beaubier worked his way past Hayden for second. The battle for fourth was interesting with Danny Eslick holding off Gagne, Taylor Knapp and Jake Lewis.
Gagne had just broken into the lead of that fourth-place battle when he suddenly slowed with bike issues. That left Eslick ahead of Knapp and Lewis at the checkered flag.
MotoAmerica Superbike Race 1 Results from VIR – May 17, 2015
- Josh Hayes, Yam.
- Cameron Beaubier, Yam
- Roger Hayden, Suz
- Danny Eslick, Honda
- Taylor Knapp, Yam.
- Jake Lewis, Suz.
- Chris Ulrich, Suz.
- Mark Heckles, Yam.
- Dustin Dominguez, Aprilia
- Frankie Babuska, Suz.
Larry Lawrence | Archives Editor
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