VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013
P79
Briefly...
SLUMP
BUSTER
Josh Hayes won his sixth
AMA Superbike race of the season
at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
BY PAUL CARRUTHERS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
A
fter being in somewhat of
a slumber for most of the
weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Josh Hayes
came out of it on Sunday afternoon like he'd downed a double
shot of espresso, the threetime defending AMA Superbike
Champion charging to the lead in
turn two and never looking back.
On both Friday and Saturday,
Hayes had been his fast and
consistent self, though he was
beaten to the quickest lap time
on the opening day by Roger Lee
Hayden. When it counted most
on Saturday, Hayes was on top
again, storming to pole position
and keeping his unblemished
record of earning pole position
at every round still intact. But he
wasn't his normal cheery self. A
hectic schedule of late had worn
on him and he was in a word…
tired.
Hayes likes to calls it a midseason slump, but if it's a slump
he's in than his rivals would certainly like to be in one.
"I've had these mid-season
slumps where I just have a tough
time through the middle of the
season," Hayes said. "If I had it
last year, it was very, very minimal and this year I'm feeling it a
little more."
Hayes won his sixth AMA Superbike race of the season on
a bright and sunny day on the
Monterey Peninsula, the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha
rider dominating throughout. His
teammate Josh Herrin got the
jump off the start, but when he
Saturday morning's fog prevented
the AMA Supersport field from going any faster than they had on Friday afternoon, so RoadRace Factory's Tomas Puerta earned pole
position based on his Friday best.
"This kid…" veteran racer Jeffrey
Tigert said while shaking his head
and looking at 16-year-old Joe
Roberts after qualifying. "It's fun
to watch. I figured I'd come here
and have a home-track advantage,
but it didn't take him long to figure
it out. He's like [Marc] Marquez."
Tigert out-qualified Roberts on Friday, ending up second to Puerta
with Roberts third, but Roberts
won Saturday's race with Tigert
ending up fourth.
Josh Hayes kept his perfect
streak of earning pole in every race
thus far this season intact when he
ripped off a 1:24.507 – just off his
mark of 1:24.446 set in qualifying
on pole last year – on Saturday.
Roger Lee Hayden, who led Hayes
on Friday, ended up second - .290
of a second behind Hayes.
Roger Lee Hayden was hell-bent
on getting a quick start to his weekend at Laguna and he did that by
setting the fastest time on Friday.
"Consistently quick out of the gate,
lead a session and I think that's
important for me to help my confidence," Hayden said. "That's what
Josh [Hayes] does. He comes
out and leads every session and I
want to start leading some myself.
Try to push him a little harder than
he's been pushed. It was definitely
good. I did a 25.2 and a 25.1 so
things are looking good so far. It's
only one session, but definitely a
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