INTERVIEW
AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPION JOSH HAYES
P138
Choice TV until we got to the event in Daytona.
"That was really difficult, because it definitely
makes all the hard work and everything you worked
for, for 20 years. And for it to feel so small pota-
toes when you don't have answers of why doesn't
pro racing look like pro racing? So all those things
were definitely laying on me, and I couldn't help
it on top of how the championship [in 2013] had
ended. It felt like it was out of my hands, Cameron
[Beaubier] being as fast as he was, there were a
lot of things I felt."
Two mechanicals at Daytona the previous year
got Hayes' 2013 season off to a rough start. In
2014 it was better, he won the first race, but suf-
fered another mechanical in the second race. Déjà
vu all over again?
"I was bummed about it, but when it broke, the
first thing I didn't think of was the 2013 breaking
twice," Hayes said. "I was gutted for my crew. I
knew how much it meant to them and I know how
bad it hurts whenever that happens. I feel bad
when I throw the bike down the road; they feel bad
when there's a mechanical failure. It was heart-
breaking and a hard pill to swallow for all of us."
But for Hayes what still ate away at him about
2013 wasn't Daytona, it was at the penultimate
round in New Jersey when a controversial jumped-
start penalty created a points situation that pretty
much ended his championship hopes. And with
three of the series' competitive riders moving over
to World Superbike at the final round, Hayes had no
shot and his teammate Josh Herrin was crowned.
"Quite honestly the big kicker was just New Jer-
sey," Hayes said. "Where in my eyes there were
Josh Hayes
rebounded
from a tough
2013 to take
back the AMA
Pro Superbike
number one
plate in 2014.
