Cycle News

AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 52 ISSUE 20 MAY 19, 2015 P111 good race and I'm happy to be up here." Gagne thinks the problem with his machine in the first race might have been a slipping clutch from the extra start. Ryders Alley Racing's Mark Heckles completed his suc- cessful day with another podium finish in Race 2, taking a 2-3 Superstock combo. Gagne leads the title chase by six points over Knapp, 100- 94. Tyler O'Hara, who went 5-4 Briefly... to finish strong and bring it home for the guys." Huntley Nash and LTD Racing saw their fortunes dashed at Virginia In- ternational Raceway on Sunday as mechanical issues ended the hard charger's race in each leg of the doubleheader. In race one, Nash had settled in during the early laps and looked to make a charge when his shifter broke. In race two, Nash had a great start and was in prime position for his best-yet Superbike finish before an engine issue caused him to pull to the side of the 2.25- mile track. Despite showing promise during the weekend, the Georgian was denied a points-paying result for his efforts. "In the first race, I was getting into the groove when the shifter broke," Nash said. "In the second one, I got a good start and jumped up to fifth. I was happy with that and looking forward to some bat- tles. I was feeling ready to go when we had a problem with the engine. It's frustrating not to finish, but I felt good about how I was riding. It's just our second race with the Ducati, and we're working hard to be competi- tive. We'll learn something from the weekend and look forward to putting it all together for the next time." Superbike rookie Jake Lewis also felt more positive after a better run in race two on his Yoshimura Su- zuki. "In the second race we made a few changes to the front end and had really good grip," Lewis said of his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. "It felt good and I was able to get up there with the front guys and see what I need to work on for the future. There's definitely some work to do, but I'm happy with the way the day HAYES REACHES MILESTONE Fifty wins. It's a milestone in MotoAmerica AMA Superbike rac- ing that only one other rider has reached in the 39-year history of the championship. That of course was Mat Mladin. Hayes reached that amazing mark in Superbike race one at Virginia International Race- way (VIR) on Sunday aboard his Monster Energy Graves Yamaha R1. It took 10 years of Superbike racing for both riders to reach that mark. Mladin was on factory bikes the entire 10 seasons en route to his 50th in 2006. By comparison Hayes raced his first season in Su- perbike on a supersport machine, more or less for practice and set-up time and then he spent a couple of years on a Kawasaki-support squad before spending the last seven sea- sons aboard a factory Yamaha. All 50 of Hayes's wins have been on Yamahas and in the last seven seasons. Hayes didn't linger long on the magic number 50, instead he went out a few hours later in VIR Super- bike leg two and scored his 51st- career Superbike victory. "It's always really cool," Hayes said about reaching major mile- stones in racing. "It will be awe- some to look back at. This is one of my favorite racetracks and to get my 50th win here is awesome. I have a lot of fun getting around this racetrack, I have a lot of good success here." On reaching the magic 50 mark Hayes said, "It feels like not all that long ago I was just praying for one. So to get 50 of them—all of them on Yamaha, is pretty special. I feel lucky to part of the [Yamaha] family and part of the team." continued on next page Josh Hayes surpassed the 50-win mark at VIR.

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