Cycle News

ROUND 10-11/AUGUST 3-4, 2013 MILLER MOTORSPORTS PARK/TOOELE, UTAH AMA SUPERBIKE P88 AMA NATIONAL GUARD SUPERBIKE SERIES Herrin leads Hayes and Hayden on Saturday. It was a high-water mark for Herrin in his continued efforts to shake the stigma of being a brave, but raw Superbike racer. His hard work at improving his fitness also showed under the hot summer sun. A RIFT AMONG TEAMMATES? Teammates Josh Hayes and Josh Herrin are rivals on the track. Hayes has historically owned the battle between the two factory Yamaha riders, so much so that he seemed to relish in openly encouraging his younger teammate in press conferences on ways he could improve his racing. For the past few years it seemed like Hayes longed for a battle and was even willing to give Herrin advice on how to get there. But now the dynamic between the two has experienced a not-sosubtle shift. Herrin won at MidOhio on a technicality when Hayes jumped the start and was assessed a five-second penalty. Still Herrin rode well enough to keep KTM's Chris Fillmore (11) leads the EBRs of Aaron Yates (20) and Geoff May (99) during race one. "It's up there," Herrin replied when asked if this was one of the biggest races of his career. "I've been putting in a lot of hard work and it's only been a month, month and a half and it's already paying off a bunch. Laguna and here are the first races in Superbike where I haven't gotten tired since I started. It feels awesome." Herrin was also proud of getting the lap-leader point. "I think that's the first time I've done that in three years, four Hayes from gapping him by more than five seconds. It was progress. Then this past Saturday Herrin beat his teammate straight up and Hayes may not be so generous with Herrin now with the championship on the line. In fact, he was a bit critical of his younger teammate's racing tactics against Roger Hayden on the final lap of Saturday's race at Miller. "Josh is kind of intimidating to race with sometimes because he's a bit of a bully on corner entry quite honestly," Hayes explained. "Even if you're in there, he'll just lean on you and let off anyway. It's a bit of a… I'm not trying to be critical… it's a bit of a desperate move. It feels a bit like, 'I want to win so bad I'll crash us both out before I let you beat me' kind of thing. But it's racing and he gets away with it and he seems to have a riding style like that." On describing one of the lastlap encounters Hayes witnessed between Herrin and Hayden he seemed to side with Hayden instead of his teammate. "Rog was in there pretty good," Hayes said of an inside-turn pass Hayden tried on Herrin. "He [Herrin] could have tried to square it back up, but he leaned on Rog until Rog almost tucked the front inside and he'd have took them both down. But that's racing." One thing is certain, Hayes now has the challenge he's longed for. Three races to go, 16 points down. It's doubtful he'll be offering Herrin any friendly advice from here on out.

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