Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013 P79 Briefly... and so did a slower rider, so it was across the spectrum," Buckley said. "So we pulled it." The strip-wound process of making the tire is "the highest level of technology that we have," Buckley said. The same process was used in making the U.S.-made tires that were featured at Daytona this year, Buckley said. The only challenge to Hayes was likely to have come from Martin Cardenas, but the Colombian crashed out in turn three on the second lap. Martin [Cardenas] fell down pretty close to me, which is unfortunate. We're missing some of our other fast guys [the Michael Jordan Motorsports team of Roger Hayden and Danny Eslick were doing World Superbike only at Laguna] so it got to be a pretty lonely race really fast. I think in five laps I had a five-second lead and at that point it was, 'Well, how's this going to go?' I slowed down and still opened a gap a little bit. At that point it starts getting difficult because it's easy to make mistakes. I just did my best to focus and worry about me and bringing the bike home safely. It was a good day." The race for the final podium spot of the season was fought out between Larry Pegram and Chris Fillmore, the KTM rider trying to put the orange bike in the top three of an AMA Superbike race for the first time. But in the end it was Pegram gifted third as Fillmore suffered a heart-breaking dilemma on the exit of the very final corner after he'd gotten the better of his race-long rival in a last-lap duel that featured three passes for the position. The KTM ran out of gas. A devastated Fillmore was forced to push the bike across the finish line in seventh place after deserving so much better. "It was a heart-breaker," Fillmore said. "It was a tough race for me too. The Dunlop tire that we had to use was horrible for me. I struggled the entire race. With Larry [Pegram] in front of me, I'm looking at it and I know it's a podium – probably my best chance for one and my only one for this year. It's right there and I'm struggling so bad that I'm like, 'I'm not going to be able to do this.' With a couple of laps to go, I dug deep and made a pretty good move on him going into Josh Hayes suffered less than the rest in adapting back to the older Dunlop tire. "The tires are honestly the same other than at very full lean, like around turn two is where I notice it the most," Hayes said. "It has a little bit more stability and grip at full lean than the other one. Otherwise it doesn't affect me much. Fortunately with my riding style, I try to get off the edge of the tire as quick as I can so it didn't have a huge affect on me as far as lap times go. Judging by what I had yesterday, it's probably a safety issue. They [Dunlop] are doing the best they can to provide us with safe tires and I think it's pretty important. Everybody is in this panic, but it's the exact same tire we raced on here in July. I don't think it's too big of a deal." Josh Hayes made it clear that he didn't want to talk about the jumpstart/non jump-start that cost him dearly at New Jersey Motorsports Park. But he knew he was going to be asked about it and knew he was going to have to answer. "There's nothing I can say that sounds good," Hayes said. "I disagree with the call that was made on Saturday. I did not jump the start; I was third off the line. Did I move while the light was on? Yes, I moved while the light continued on next page

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