Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 29 JULY 22, 2014 P77 SportBike champ to see what he could learn. And he learned he was in trouble. While Beaubier suffered through a midseason crashing spell that robbed him of his con- fidence and damaged his hopes for a rookie championship, the Californian was once again rid- ing like the phenom that regularly bewildered the three-time champ during the opening races (includ- ing the three-round Superbike Shootout) of 2014. On the final lap, Hayes was - as expected – unable to set Beau- bier up in the preferred passing zone. Instead he tried a more creative assault in the Turn 10- 11 double right-handers on the back half of the track. The Mis- sissippian stuck his R1's nose through, but was unable to hold the line tight enough to prevent Beaubier from slicing right back underneath in the second half of the double-apex section. From there, Hayes could only sit and hound Beaubier, who ultimately held him off by .293 of a second at the checkered flag. Hayes said he might have pressed the issue and made a slightly more aggressive attempt had he not been protecting a mammoth title advantage and Beaubier wasn't his teammate. "I wanted to win it if the op- portunity presented itself, but I can't be silly either," Hayes said. "I don't like thinking about cham- pionships, but you know… I was trying to be careful, but if he gave me a chance, take it. I did on the last lap - took one shot at him on the last lap and I think if it had been anybody else, it would have been a little bit closer of a pass. I wanted to make sure I got all the way through to make sure we got through the corner clean. And I overshot it enough that he could zip past through." After securing his third AMA Pro Superbike race win, Beaubi- er said, "It feels great to be able to beat Josh after a really good battle. I know he has the cham- pionship probably in the back of his head, but I was pushing hard. I was honestly a little ner- Briefly... tle faster," said O'Hara, a former Su- permoto racer, who started his road racing career in SuperSport, but has raced the Harley XR1200s for four seasons now. Michael Barnes was at Mid-Ohio, but decided to sit out as a precaution after getting his head banged pretty hard in his DSB crash at Laguna Seca. "Physically I'm a little banged up, but I could race," Barnes said. "I'm just taking extra care since I hit my head. I just want to make sure I'm completely clear before getting back on the bike." Dustin Dominguez now has nine- career SuperSport wins. That moves him into second on the all-time Su- perSport wins list behind James Rispoli who has 11. M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Rac- ing's Joe Roberts finished 16th and 14th in the two Daytona SportBike races. It marked the first time for Roberts at Mid-Ohio. At the end of an intense day, Team Hammer Crew Chief Keith Perry said, "Joe came in here never being here before and this place is known to be a pretty tough place to get accustomed to the first time. I thought he had really good progress throughout the week- end and he definitely looked the best in the last race. Everything was crammed into one day; that makes it really tough on somebody to be able to do a whole lot their first time here with all that going on. But I thought he did a great job and he looked better and better. His last race was for sure his best. It's just too bad he couldn't get another day or two and see what he could do, but it is what it is. We'll learn from today and keep continued on page 81

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