FINAL ROUND/SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA/MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
AMA SUPERBIKES
It's something that's completely
beyond the 600 stuff. I know it
happened in my second year,
but I feel like I've matured as a
rider and it's come with that. To
get this is crazy. Even this year I
didn't think it was going to happen. Until the very end, I just
P78
AMA NATIONAL GUARD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
didn't think it was going to happen so to get it is a crazy feeling
and I'm real excited."
Herrin won four times on the
season and Hayes won eight
times. But when the points were
added up at the end of 14 races,
Herrin had 345 points to Hayes'
Chris Fillmore (11) looked to have a
podium finish for himself and KTM after
getting the better of Larry Pegram (72)…
… But Fillmore's KTM
ran of out gas in the
final corner and he
was forced to push
the bike across the
line in seventh place.
330. Yoshimura Suzuki's Martin
Cardenas ended up third with
297 points.
The race itself at Laguna Seca
was void of any drama. Scratch
that - it was a rather dull parade.
It was clear from the get go that
Hayes was going to win and we
also knew that Herrin was going
to cruise. Not much drama was
expected so it was difficult to be
disappointed.
Hayes got away at the start
and was challenged almost immediately by Cardenas, the Colombian, the other rider with a
mathematical chance of winning
the series. And he looked the
part, determined to end the season with a victory over the most
dominant rider in the series. But
that all went wrong on the second lap when Cardenas crashed
the GSX-R1000 in turn three,
losing the front mid-corner and
sliding into the gravel. That took
away any challenge Hayes would
face and he cruised to victory
over his careful teammate by 13.4
seconds.
"It was a race like any other
race we've ridden – I wanted to
win the race," Hayes said after
his eighth win of the year. "There
wasn't much else I could do. I
was pretty relaxed and the championship was definitely not on my
mind. Just go out and perform
like I have at every race this year
and ride the best that I can. Similar to when we were here in July
I was able to put together some
good laps and I had good pace
in the beginning. It sounds like
