Cycle News

AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P107 thought of himself as a good rain rider, had to this point been scratching his head trying to figure out how to ride a powerful Superbike in those conditions. His anxiety level got so high that he admitted to crying in frustra- tion. Fortunately his family was able to reassure him that, yes he was in fact fast in the rain and that it would come to him. So he woke up on race day resolved to figure out how to ride a Super- bike in wet conditions. He finished third in the first race, 13.602 seconds back of Beaubier. Then in race two he actually led for a time before Beaubier got by him for the win. It was a big step up for the rookie Lewis. "I put myself in a bad position with really bad qualifying," Lewis said when talking about race two. "I was in third right there behind Roger [Hayden] and [Josh] Hayes and about high- sided myself on the first lap and then Josh crashed big on the second lap. Roger was going really good and stretched out a gap. I heard Cameron [Beaubier] there behind me and he wasn't making any moves. I was just rid- ing smart and then I saw Roger crash unfortunately and then Cameron passed me and I just thought to myself, 'bring home another podium.'" NO PRESSURE, JUST WIN Crashes by series contenders Roger Hayden and Josh Hayes makes the path clear for both to simply focus on winning races for the rest of the season. Ironi- cally with the new FIM scoring system, that gives a bigger points bonus for winning, there's a much better chance to make up the gap if you get on a major winning streak. Hayes ran a fairly uneventful race to second in race one, but in race two he made an unchar- Briefly... finishes in FIM Superstock 1000 last season and finished 11th in the final standings. Geoff May was at Road Atlanta. He spoke about his falling out at Westby Racing and plans for the future. "You know I was hoping to keep riding for those guys," May said. "I did my best at COTA and we were working to get the bike to work for me, but they told me they wanted to go in a different direction and maybe work with a young rider to give them a chance to have a good ride. I wish the best for the team and thank them for giving me the opportunity. I'm sorry it didn't work out. I don't know if I'm done racing or not. I've had a good run, supported my family and have come away healthy. I had a lot of people who helped me with the crowd-funding drive for the Daytona 200 say that they would like to see me keep going. The only thing I'm even looking at right now is seeing about maybe getting a wildcard ride at Indy. People ask me about crowd funding a team. I think at this point it's possible for one-off races, but it would be really tough to do it and have the kind of funding you need to do a team in a series the right way." MOVES track conditions were good." Veteran Josh Hayes, who's seen it all in his years of racing, was also generally pleased. "It was exciting that we got the full load of races in," Hayes said. "We were able to put on a show for the fans that wanted to stick it out here in the wet. Also they got us some live stream- ing so we could see it [the races] on the pit wall; and for the fans out there as well. Overall I think it was a pretty successful weekend."

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