Photography by Larry Lawrence
ALTON, Va., May 15, 2015 — Josh Hayes sent a Yamaha to heaven this morning. Hayes said that’s what his crew asked him after he came back to the paddock after a massive crash in the first MotoAmerica Superbike session at Virginia International Raceway, in the first visit back to the track in five years.
Hayes lost it at the top of third gear in the turn three. He was able to walk away from the crash, but his factory Yamaha R1 was destroyed.
“I don’t have a good answer,” said Hayes, who was limping noticeably after the crash. “I tucked the front over there in a fast part of the racetrack. It was pretty early in the session. I was getting up to speed still. It was probably one of the faster times I’d gone through that section of track. It’s always a turn that’s a little scary anyway, so you kind of build into it. I attacked it pretty hard and was still on the gas – not full throttle, I rolled out some, but I hadn’t gone to the brakes yet. I tucked the front before I knew what was going on. I was in the dirt tumbling before I realized I was on the ground.”
Hayes said the bike totaled was freshly built, only three or four laps old.
When asked about his limp Hayes said, “I’m just banged up. When you take a tumble that fast you’re going to hurt.”
Hayes’s teammate Cameron Beaubier ended the first Superbike session leading the way with a 1:26.197, this in spite of the fact he’d never raced at VIR before. Hayes was second followed by the Yoshimura Suzukis of Roger Hayden and Jake Lewis.
Fifth fastest was Danny Eslick, racing for TTR Honda, in what so far is a one-off racing deal. It marked Eslick’s first ride on a Superbike since 2013, when he was part of the Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki squad.
Jake Gagne topped the Superstock 1000s, with a 1:27.526, which would have placed him fifth among the Superbikes.
Garrett Gerloff and Joe Roberts headed the Supersport and Superstock 600 practice sessions respectively. Josh Herrin crashed his Supersport machine, unhurt, in the same spot that caught out Hayes.
