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AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 25 JUNE 24, 2014 P47 he'd just as soon forget. First it was a mistake in Saturday's race while trying to keep in touch with Hayes. Running a close second, Hayden went a little too aggressive into a turn and lost the front end and crashed. You could see the anguish in his face as he looked at his badly damaged Yoshimura Suzuki and realized his race was over. On Sunday Hayden was hit with bad luck when the rear Dun- lop tire on his bike began to tear apart early in the race. He bravely rode on and managed fifth, but the damage to his share of the se- ries lead was done. The outcome meant that Hayden and Beaubier fell from first to to third and fourth in the series standings, respectively, with just three points separating them. The only problem is both of them are now over one full race worth of points behind new lead- er Hayes. Briefly... cuit. It also marked Hayes' fourth win this season. That pushes his all-time career AMA Superbike win record to 45 wins, also second to Mladin's re- cord of 82 wins. In spite of having a 35-point advan- tage on him, Josh Hayes still feels his teammate Cameron Beaubier will be a factor this season. "Cameron's outright speed is pretty mind bog- gling," Hayes said. "For me it's go- ing to rear its ugly head in different places. There are going to be days where I feel like there's a chance Cameron could be untouchable and then there could be days like today where maybe it swings in my favor a little bit. The same could happen with Martin [Cardenas]. He's a great motorcycle rider when he finds his day… or Rog [Hayden]. It's going to be really difficult, but fortunately I've been competitive every weekend and I'm confident that I can be. It's kind of woken me up. I felt I was kind of lethargic at the beginning of the season." David Anthony has clearly estab- lished himself as the best of the non- factory riders so far this season. The friendly Aussie is hoping that his per- formances might land him an oppor- tunity of a factory ride. "I definitely want to make it clear that I want a fac- tory ride," Anthony explained. "I run a team, but that's not what I want to do. I'd love to ride for someone else and doing what we're doing surely someone can see what I've got and will offer me something. That would be great." point. And then the same thing going into turn one. The front end did some- thing funny and I ran wide and went across the grass and came back on the track. And then from there I was just trying to put steady laps in and not riding over my head or nothing, just kind of trying to bring it home really. I slowly caught Rog [Hayden] and Martin [Cardenas]. I almost ran into the back of Martin, again because I've just been struggling super bad with that front end this weekend. "I'm going to go back and talk with my guys and see if we can fix some- thing for Laguna." Beaubier may still be America's great hope. MotoGP is running short on Americans and Dorna will be seri- ously seeking an American rider or riders to help keep fans happy at the two U.S. rounds, so he has that going for him. But Beaubier is facing the first big setback in his professional career. American road race fans will be watching, and probably rooting for the young Californian to get his groove back. Hayes leads Hayden, Martin Cardenas and Cameron Beaubier in one of the two Superbike races on a hot and steamy weekend in Alabama. continued on next page

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