AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P105
Briefly...
in the first race. Martinez finished
seventh on the track, but was the
third of just six Superbikes across
the finish line. "The race was really
difficult," Martinez said through an
interpreter. "I try my best to finish in
the best position we could." On the
podium Martinez thanked Keith Mc-
Carty at Yamaha for the help they've
given him.
The combined Superbike/Super-
stock class is disguising the fact
that Superbike class rider numbers
are at all-time historic lows. At Road
Atlanta there were only nine Super-
bikes on the grid and only six riders
finished in each race.
Josh Day took over the seat of the
Yamalube Westby Racing Yamaha
R1 Superstock 1000 machine rid-
den by Geoff May at COTA. Day,
25, returns to America after racing
in the FIM Superstock 1000 class
last season. He was a former Euro-
pean Superstock 600 runner-up and
AMA Pro Supersport winner in 2009
and raced in Daytona SportBike in
2009 and 2010. "I was supposed
to be racing in Europe again, but
that fell through," Day said. "I went
to COTA to let everybody see my
face in person just to let them know
I was available. They [Westby Rac-
ing] talked to me a couple of times
during the weekend to let me know
there might be an option. And it was
pretty much settled Sunday." Day
wasn't sure what his long-term future
with the team is at this point. "We're
just going to ride this weekend and
see how it goes," he said. "There's
no pressure. We're just going to go
out and have fun and hopefully ev-
erybody enjoys it and we'll move on
from there." Day scored two top-five
"In the second race Jake
[Lewis] was in front of me riding
awesome and Roger [Hayden]
was up front pounding out laps
and I thought, 'Oh man, he's
gone!' I was struggling with grip
a little bit. I saw Rog crash and
saw Josh [Hayes] crash. That
was a bummer. I wanted to race
those guys to the finish. I got
by Jake. He was really good on
the brakes—it was tough to pass
him. It was kind of weird. In the
first race I had better grip than
the second race when it was
drying up. So I'm really happy to
get out of here with the double
and hopefully I can just keep
rolling."
RAINDROPS WILL HIDE
MY TEARDROPS
Road Atlanta was also a
confidence-booster for teen-
aged factory Superbike rookie
Jake Lewis. A rider who always
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