[American Motorcyclist Association] - SuperBike photo finish highlights seven-races-i

[Ninjette Newsbot]

The following is an industry press release...






LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 20,2014) - The Buckeye SuperBike weekend doubled up the action on Sundayafter inclement weather spoiled the fun at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course the daybefore. All seven AMA Pro Road Racing contests were successfully run on aSunday that saw Monster Energy Graves Yamaha teammates Cameron Beaubier andJosh Hayes share top honors in the premier AMA Pro SuperBike class.



AMA Pro SuperBike Race 1



Hayes took the holeshot from pole(the grid was based on points) but Beaubier drove past his teammate on the backstraight on lap 6 of 16. Once in control, Beaubier withstood the intensepressure and last-lap assault the three-time champion subjected him to in aconcerted attempt to steal away the victory.



The Mississippian blanketed his21-year-old rival throughout the second half of their intra-team duel, yet theresurgent Beaubier proved unflappable. Hayes made a bid on the final lap,striking momentarily only to have the rookie immediately snatch back theposition and ultimately hold on for a thrilling 0.293-second victory at thecheckered flag.



"It feels great to be ableto beat Josh after a really good battle," said Beaubier. "I know heprobably has the championship in the back of his head, but I was pushing hard.... I had the intention to push the last three laps but I made a few mistakesand ran wide here and there. I knew I wasn't going to break him, obviously, soI was just trying to ride protectively. I was braking a little harder goinginto the corners, (trying to) not use the whole track, and go up the inside ofa lot of corners. He did sneak up on me and caught me by surprise. I saw himrun a little wide so I stayed out a little wide and cut pretty hard on theinside. It was a good clean race and it was hard."



Hayes was happy with his safesecond-place finish.



"It was a good race. Iwanted to win it if the opportunity presented itself but I can't be sillyeither," said Hayes. "I don't like thinking about championships, butyou know ... I was trying to be careful, but if he gave me a chance, take it. Itook 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 gotall the way through to make sure we got through the corner clean and I overshotit enough that he was able to zip past through."



Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racingteammates Roger Hayden and Martin Cardenas were interested spectators early inthe contest, clinging on to the battle for the lead in the race's openingstages before gradually losing touch. Colombian Cardenas was the first to losethe chase, fading back around lap 8, while Kentuckian Hayden dropped out ofcontention a couple laps later.



"I hung on for a while but Istarted to make some mistakes," Hayden admitted. "I was havingtrouble getting my bike into the corner and was missing my apex in a couplespots. A little over half way they started pulling away and I didn't want tocrash and lose my data for the next race so I kind of put it on cruise controlso we could make the bike a little better for the second race. That race wasreally our first real practice being here on the new bike."



The two held their positions,however, with Hayden rounding out the podium in third.



KTM/HMC Racing's Chris Fillmoretook a lonely fifth, while third Yoshimura pilot Chris Clark chased down ADRMotorsports/Sic/Motul Fly Racing's David Anthony for sixth, with ForemostInsurance Pegram Racing's Larry Pegram just behind in eight.



GEICO Motorcycle Honda's ChrisUlrich and Babuska Racing's Frankie Babuska completed the opening race's topten.



AMA Pro SuperBike Race 2



After being edged by his youngteammate earlier in the day, Hayes got his revenge in what proved to be an evertighter rematch.



Again starting from pole (thistime due to posting the fastest lap in Race 1), Hayes ran in front withBeaubier close in formation as they quickly broke free from the pack. Thelighter Beaubier finally made his move on lap 13 of 16, again powering past atthe end of the back straight, in an attempt to duplicate his earlier victory.



However, this time around Hayesmade that aggressive last-lap pass that he overshot in the first race stick.Seemingly in strong shape to maintain first from there to the flag, Hayes gotoff line through the Carousel. That miscue allowed Beaubier to get the driveand rip up alongside him as they sprinted to the stripe.



Too close to call without areview, the photo finish ultimately showed that Hayes held on by mere inches toclaim the win.



The narrow triumph was Hayes'eleventh AMA Pro Road Racing victory at Mid-Ohio, making him the winningestrider in the event's long history, one up on the legendary Mat Mladin.



"I was thinking aboutpassing him earlier in the race and just kind of mix up my rhythm instead ofwaiting for some kind of desperate move on the last lap," said Hayes afterRace 2. "While I was thinking about these things, we came up and I saw thewhite flag. I was completely taken by surprise with the white flag. I hadn'tbeen watching the lap board and had no idea it was last lap of the race. Wewere going through Turn 1 and I got a good run and I thought, 'What am I goingto do?' I knew what he was expecting. I still felt very confident in there sowhen I was close enough to have a go, I did and got it stopped. From that pointforward, it was probably the ugliest half lap of riding I've ever done in mylife.



"I was pretty sloppy in theCarousel but I thought I had it because there are really no passingopportunities. I was just trying to get back to the inside and I ended uplosing the front and really botching the last two corners. I never upshifted, Ijust held second and hit the rev limiter at the line. When I glanced over to myleft I actually thought Cameron had got me, but it was so hard to tell right atthe line. I was pretty relieved to get to the podium and find out I had won therace. I wanted to win it really bad and I had a lot of fun racing withCam."



Beaubier said he enjoyed the raceas well.



"Josh made a hard, cleanpass on me," said Beaubier. "After that I was just looking for anyway I could to get around him. He was braking pretty deep trying to not give itaway. I tried to set him up coming off the last corner and I didn't know whowon.



"Regardless who won today,it was a great race. It's kind of crazy not knowing who won until we came intopit lane."



Hayden finished third for asecond time on the day. He actually made inroads on the leaders for a couplelaps after losing touch early, but a compound mistake dropped him well andtruly out of contention on lap 7. The Kentuckian carried on to claim a lonelythird, further enabled by Cardenas' early-race crash in the braking zone at theend of the back straight.



"It was a decentweekend," Hayden said. "Third place is not bad when you're battlingfor the win but when you're however many seconds back it's not very satisfying.I don't know... I'm having trouble keeping up off the corners and on thestraights. I'm just riding so far above what I can do every lap and I juststart making mistakes. We have some tests lined up and we need to make things alittle better and hopefully at New Jersey make a race out of it."



Fillmore took advantage of theColombian's mistake as well, coming home in fourth while Clark edged TOBC'sRacing Suzuki's Taylor Knapp for fifth.



Anthony got off to a poor startand slashed his way up to seventh, while Ulrich and Team AMSOIL Hero EBR's CoryWest took eighth and ninth, respectively. Babuska again rounded out the topten.



AMA Pro GoPro DaytonaSportBike Race 1



Motosport.com/Meen Yamaha's JakeLewis won the first AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike contest of the day, makinga last-lap pass of Jake Gagne to win his second race in a row. Lewis shadowedRoadRace Factory/Red Bull's Gagne until the white flag then made his move atthe end of Mid-Ohio's long straight. Gagne fought back, but Lewis was able tohold his line and held the lead until the flag.



"It's huge to get two winsin a row," said Lewis. "I was planning my strategy for the end of therace. I made a pretty good pass on the brakes and blocked from there. There areonly a couple of other spots to pass from there."



After the race, the two Jakeswere tied for the series points lead.



Riders Discount Racing Triumph'sDanny Eslick won the battle for third. The Oklahoman had a good battle withYamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha's Garrett Gerloff and DaneWestby. Westby rose up from seventh to take third on the Yamalube/Westby Racingmachine by the middle stages of the race, but Eslick rallied to take theposition back.



Garrett Gerloff also passedWestby to earn fourth.



Gerloff's teammate JD Beach wassixth, having led the first lap before dropping down the order.



AMA Pro GoPro DaytonaSportBike Race 2



Jason DiSalvo won the second AMAPro GoPro Daytona SportBike race at Mid-Ohio. DiSalvo topped Jake Gagne for theprize in the red-flagged race, showing great form as he earned the win by beingthe strongest at the end of the race.



"The team has their heartand soul in this," said New York-born DiSalvo. "They are trying tomake the best bike they can. It was great to see all the Northeasterners uphere cheering me on."



Gagne now leads the points,earning two second place results on the day. The Californian is seven pointsahead of Jake Lewis, who took fourth in race two after winning the opener.



Gerloff was third after trying tohang with the leaders and aggressively moving by Lewis in a bid to hang ontothe lead duo. Ultimately, he took the checkered flag almost four and a halfseconds back.



Bobby Fong earned an excellentfifth place on his Latus Motors/Castrol/Triumph Racing entry, holding offanother former class race winner Blake Young on the GN Gonzalez machine.



AMA Pro SuperSport Race 1



Houston Superbikes' DustinDominguez won the first AMA Pro SuperSport race at Mid-Ohio. Dominguez ran awayfrom early leader Hayden Gillim of TOBC Racing to take a 3.260-second victory.



"We're not really worriedabout points. We're here to win races and if we do, we'll win thechampionship," said Dominguez, who took second place in the points afterthe win. "That's our plan. The race went pretty perfect for me."



Gillim wasn't able to win, butassumed the points lead with his strong second place.



Corey Alexander crashed out ofthird place midway through the 11-lapper on his HVMC Celtic Racing entry.Alexander, who went down in the Keyhole turn, was tied for the lead in thepoints before the race.



The battle for third sawAlexander's teammate Wyatt Farris return to the podium. The Californian edgedExcel Racing's Connor Blevins by less than a tenth of a second. Texan J.C.Camacho (House of Paint Designs) took a fine fifth.



AMA Pro SuperSport Race 2



Dominguez won the second AMA ProSuperSport race at Mid-Ohio, too. The Oklahoman topped Gillim again, this timeby 3.510 seconds after 11 laps. With the win, Dominguez closed to within twopoints of championship leader Gillim.



"I give Hayden highmarks," said Dominguez. "He pushed me really hard. I'd give him an'A' for effort. ... I liked doing the two races in one day. It's a lot ofriding and I love it."



Gillim took the lead for goodwith Alexander's issues in race one. Alexander's bike was pushed off the gridjust before the start of race two as well.



"It's the first time I havebeen in the lead in the championship," Gillim said. "This time I amgoing to New Jersey with the lead."



Blevins earned his first AMA ProSuperSport podium on Sunday. The 19-year old beat top series pilots Kaleb DeKeyrel, Wyatt Farris and Jason Aguilar of Tuned Industries for the final spoton the podium.



Vance & HinesHarley-Davidson Series



Josh Chisum Racing/BartelsHarley-Davidson's Tyler O'Hara snapped his midseason dry spell and returned tothe top of the podium following a hard-fought AMA Pro Vance & HinesHarley-Davidson Series contest.



"It feels really good,"O'Hara said. "We've been off the box the last three races in a row. Thisweekend was a turning point for me. Every weekend from here on out we'rebattling for every point. We have three races left and I expect nothing lessthan to just battle every weekend."



Five riders were in contentionthroughout in the seesawing contest that saw Ruthless Racing's Danny Eslick gofrom first to fifth and back to second, and Suburban Motors Harley-Davidson'sSteve Rapp work from fifth to first, only to end up fifth again in the end.



Rapp's teammate, Ben Carlson,finished behind O'Hara and Eslick in third after leading on the final lap insearch of his first-ever AMA Pro Road Racing win.



KWR/Millennium Technologies' KyleWyman was in the mix as well, ultimately taking the flag in fourth position.



O'Hara's win tightens up thepoints with the AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series next headed toIndianapolis Motor Speedway for a doubleheader alongside the MotoGP WorldChampionship on August 8-10. Eslick still leads with 120 points, but O'Hara hasdrawn closer in second at 114.



Next Race



Following the AMA Pro Vance &Hines Harley-Davidson Series' Indy doubleheader, the AMA Pro Road Racing seasonwill come to its conclusion and the 2014 champions will be decided at theKawasaki Devil's Showdown at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J.,Sept. 13-14.






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