Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542399
Miller Mororsporr3 Pork AMA FORMUTA XTREMC Round 6 tvno 17, 2006 AMA Lockhart-Phillips FoFmula Xtreme Series h'LcLjLrg Josh Hoyes. le one-two rn S L -Lc ) CS V( Lrlle l1re Sutr Slr[rres d on Form u I o on Hondo Xtreme Eri By PAUr CaRRUTH:ns Pxoro By NElsoN & Rlrrs ince this was dE llrst time art AMA National had been held at the brand-spankirg-new Miller IYotor- spors Park on the ouskirts of Sak Lake City, there were plenty of firsts. .losh Hayes was a part of that, the Erion Honda rider winning his very first For- mula Xtreme race on the immacLrlate cir- cuit on a llawless day of racing. lf it was an ideal day for those watchinS, it was truly a perfect day for the Kevin Erion-owned Honda team. Not only did Hayes take the win, but his teammate Aaron Goben awoke from his early-sea- son slumber to fight off determined Yamaha rider Eric Bostrom to flnish sec- ond. l'4ore importantly for the team than the one-two finish was the fact that Hayes' first win of the year puts him sqtrarely in the hunt for the championship, as he took full advantage of a lackluster performance by points leader Jason Disalvo, the Yamaha rider finishing a distant fourth. l'4atsushima Performance's Danny Eslick ended up fifth on the day, the Oklahoman some l0 seconds behind DiSalvo and three seconds clear of sixth- placed Ryan Andrews and his Rockwell Honda CBR500RR. Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Michael Barnes flnished seventh after barely best- ing MPT Performance Suzuki's Blake Young. Safety First's Tony MeirinS and Hotbodies Racing's Taylor Knapp round- ed out the tgp l0 finishers. ln addition to helping his own cause after a miserable start to his season, Gobert also helped his teammate by hold- ing off the advances of Bostrom in their battle for second place. After six of l0 rounds. Disalvo is now just wvo points ahead of Hayes, I 9 I - 189. Boslrom, who was ridang a wave of three race wins in a row coming into the Hiller round, is third in the series points stand- ings, with 175. Goben, meanwhile, is fourth overall wirh 159 points. "l4an, this is awesome for me,'' Hayes said.'Forthe team - it means alotto meto finally put out the performance that the team has been expecting from me, and that they've been working for. I realty felt like I could have done this at a couple of other races, but I jusr haven't been able to pur the pieces rogether. We had done some small changes to the bike, but for the most part thinSs are coming together I think I'm start- rng ro ride rhe rhing a httle bir better. This is iust a good weekend for me. The rrack's beautiful. lt's so much fun to ride, and riSht from the get-go we were pretty strong. ' This one was all Hayes' - start to finish. And after finishing second three times on the season, there was no one who was goinS to dehy him his first win here today. Hayes nailed the holeshot on his Honda, with his teammate Goben tucked in behind him. Then came the Yamaha pair of DiSalvo and Bostrom, though Bostrom would reverse that order on the third lap with a pass going into tum one. From that point on, DiSalvo would lose ground to the lead trio, eventually linish- ing a lonely founh after qualifying on pole position. With rhe rop rhree clear and running in formation, it looked as though they would baftle for the duration, but Hayes had other plans, add he was able to slowly ease away. By the sixth lap, he had almost a second in hand, and that would grow to I .4 seconds on lap eight, I.7 on lap nine, 2.5 on lap l0 - and he would ultimately win by 3.1 seconds after l3 laps. 'Actually, for me, the race was pretty smooth," Hayes said. "l really wasn't car- ing too much whar was going on behind me. I just had focus in front of me. I said, 'This is no diflerent from practice this morning,' and tried to put toSether clean laps the whole race. And it actually helped me a lrttle brt when the tire went off just a touch. Things got a liftle more pre- dictable for me - it actually got easier for me to ride it, I was able to just get a little stronger through the middle of the race, and tried not to charge the turns too hard. and make sure lgot off ofthem real- ly good. I just kept my momentum rolling, I can't say enough. The bike was good and the team worked so hard.'' That left the battle for second, and it was a wide-open affair to the bitter end. Gobert led Bosffom the entire race, until the final lap. And rhen the position changed hands twice. lnitially it was Bostrom taking the spot by running up the inside of Gobert. But Gobert wasn't finished. and he fought back, taking the spot back a few turns later. Try as he mighr, Bostrom couldn't beat the Australian, and they ended that way - iust . 134 of a second apart. "When Eric put the pass on me, I could hear him, and it was just like.Jake fZemke] in the Superbike race." Goben explained. "l knew I was leaving the door wide open because I was so hard on the front tires, and pushing in there in rhe last few laps. He just stuffed me here, and when he did it, I was like, Well, I m not golng to lead all these laps and have him do that to me.' And that's why, down there, I was a little bit desperate. lt was a really good race. Congratulations to all the boys." Bostrom knew that getting ahead of Gobert would help him in the points chase, but there was only so much he could do. He tried and failed. "We definitely needed to try to Bet that pass on Aaron on the last lap to nar- row that margin, but it didn't quite work out,'' Bostrom said. 'iAaron did a great job coming back. He got a great drive out of the corner. I'm pretry disappointed at myself still. I'm certainly looking forward to going to Laguna Seca. The racetrack here is amazing. We had a great race, and it shows what's coming in the future. So, really, hats off to rhe l'4iller organization and everythin8 coming together. lt's defi- nitely one of the stars on our schedule, and that's pretty cool. Also, Josh... he really set the pace all weekend." Cl{ FORi{U!A XTRETE F|NAL L l6h H.F (Hd); 2. Aa,or Gobeft (Hoi)r 3. Erjc Eostrom (t )r ,{. tsFi Dlsatvo (Yam)i 5. Danny Erli(l 6!z)1 6. $/.i Andrewi (Flo.)i 7. Mi.hasl E sarn€6 6@)i 8. Bla&s Yoon€ (Suz)r 9. Tonr l'.l.r.int 6{r)i 10. T.y'or K.aFp 6@)i I l. D.le K,€ffer (s@): 12. armando Feftr (Kaw): r 3. OpiE Cay'or {s@): Ia. 8..to w6End8. (sd); 15. Jeremlah rotn'on (s@)i 16. chnr shb.nher (s@); 17. Johnny Fo.k P.te C/am)r 18. T.mer Kli(hia (Yam)i I 9- Dand Ge.n (Soz)i 20. J6ri