Josh Hayes’ weekend at the MotoAmerica AMA/FIMNA Mid-Atlantic Superbike Road Racing Championship at VIRginia International Raceway started off rough Friday but ended on a much smoother note.
Hayes’ day began with him crashing early in Free Practice One, and the crash destroyed his brand new Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike and a brand new set of his safety gear. But the four-time and defending Superbike Champion walked away from the crash with little more than bumps and bruises, continued in the session on his spare racebike and ended up second-fastest.
Then in Free Practice Two, Hayes and his crew made adjustments to his Yamaha’s set-up, which enabled him to improve his best lap time from 1:26.206 to 1:25.620 and lead the afternoon session.
“My day has been up and down,” Hayes told Roadracingworld.com, laughing. “It started off definitely a little rough getting through the first session. On top of crashing a motorcycle and feeling beat up, I kind of threw my hands up in the air. I was a little unhappy with how things were going with my motorcycle.
“The guys came up with a few chassis ideas and the bike immediately felt a lot more comfortable. So we rode a good solid session. I didn’t want to do too many laps, but I wanted to get in some good laps. We were able to get in more than race distance on a tire and be fast through the entire thing. Once we got the bike pretty good we didn’t want to do wholesale changes. We only wanted to change little things throughout the rest of the session, get some data and come up with some more ideas, just try to make the bike a little bit easier to get around the racetrack. Now I’m looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep and coming back tomorrow. We do have a few more things to evaluate, and then we’ll see how fast we can go.”
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden made significant progress Friday afternoon, chopping his lap time down from 1:27.178 in Free Practice One to 1:25.783 in Free Practice Two and finishing second-best on the day.
Jake Gagne also went much quicker Friday afternoon on his RoadRace Factory/Red Bull Yamaha YZF-R1, ending up third-quickest overall and fastest in the Superstock 1000cc class with a lap time of 1:26.175.
Hayes’ teammate Cameron Beaubier did not have a good time Friday afternoon. Beaubier, the Superbike Championship point leader coming into the event, was fastest in the morning practice even though he just had arm surgery less than three weeks ago and he had never ridden at VIR before. But in Free Practice Two Beaubier’s Yamahas would not cooperate with him. His first bike shut down, stranding the Californian out on track. Then his spare racebike refused to run properly in spite of his crew’s best efforts to rectify the situation. As a result, Beaubier only got six laps during the 60-minutes practice, and finished ninth overall in the lap time rankings with a 1:27.602, 1.8 seconds slower than he went in his first session.
Aprilia HSBK Racing’s Devon McDonough did not ride his Superstock-spec RSV4 Factory during Free Practice Two because he said MotoAmerica declared him medically unfit to ride due to problems with his right hand going numb after just a few laps. McDonough told Roadracingworld.com that FIM Chief Medical Officer Dr. Raymond Rossi has given him some medical advice to follow and permission to ride in Free Practice Three on Saturday morning before being re-evaluated.
MotoAmerica AMA/FIMNA Mid-Atlantic Superbike Road Racing Championship
VIRginia International Raceway
Alton, VA
May 15, 2015
Superbike/Superstock 1000cc Free Practice Two Overall Results (all using Dunlop tires):
1. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 1:25.620
2. Roger Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 1:25.783
3. Jake Gagne (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:26.175
4. Jake Lewis (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 1:26.758
5. Mark Heckles (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:27.069
6. Josh Day (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:27.106
7. Shane Narbonne (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:27.165
8. Taylor Knapp (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:27.267
9. Cameron Beaubier (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 1:27.602
10. Danny Eslick (Hon CBR1000RR), Superbike, 1:27.750
11. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 1:27.755
12. Huntley Nash (Duc 1199 Panigale S), Superbike, 1:27.970
13. Dustin Dominguez (Apr RSV4 Factory), Superstock, 1:28.204
14. Frankie Babuska (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock, 1:28.643
15. Barrett Long (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:29.568
16. Bernat Martinez (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 1:29.608
17. Stefano Mesa (Hon CBR1000RR), Superbike, 1:29.623
18. Elena Myers (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 1:29.765
19. Tony Leong (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:29.770
20. Tyler O’Hara (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:30.248
21. Jeremy Cook (BMW S1000RR), Superstock, 1:33.279
22. Mathew Orange (BMW S1000RR), Superbike, 1:33.622
23. Max Flinders (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:33.642
24. Lindsay McGregor (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock, 1:37.255
25. Devon McDonough (Apr RSV4 Factory), Superstock, no time recorded
More, from a press release issued by Geiger Media Global:
Chris Ulrich hopes for more speed out of GEICO Suzuki as Superbike series returns to VIR
ALTON, Va. (May 15) — Chris Ulrich and his GEICO Suzuki Superbike team return to Virginia International Raceway this weekend for the third round of the MotoAmerica Mid-Atlantic AMA/FIM Road Racing Championship.
The motorcycle road-racing series hasn’t made a stop at VIR for five years, but the pristine facility has welcomed back the sport’s stars.
“We haven’t been here since 2010, so it’s nice to come back here,” Ulrich said. “VIR has done a great job in welcoming us with open arms. They’ve improved the track for us and have done some great promotions ahead of the event.”
Ulrich has been a big part of the pre-race hype, bringing his two-seat GEICO Suzuki Superbike to the 2.25-mile track for rides with several members of the regional media, and on Thursday Ulrich was the lead racer on a media tour in the Richmond, Va., area.
“That’s a metropolitan area and it’s the capital of the state,” Ulrich said. “It’s a great audience, and hopefully we can draw some fans from up there to VIR.”
Ulrich is also hopeful of drawing some more speed out of his Suzuki, which has struggled with electronics gremlins in the first two races of 2015, at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and at Road Atlanta.
“I’m looking forward to the weekend,” Ulrich said. “We kinda licked our wounds after COTA and Road Atlanta with all the difficulties we had with some of the electronics. We’ve improved that situation and we’re working on improving the bike again for this round and moving up to where I feel I belong.”
Ulrich has spent a lot of time on his bike, running 12 laps in the opening practice Friday.
“This morning’s warm-up session, that was probably the most laps I’ve done on the bike in a 60-minute session all season,” Ulrich said. “I’m really happy about that. Now we’ve got to improve a few things and get me a little more comfortable so we can start moving up.”
The Superbike class has one more practice Friday with another Saturday morning before qualifying Saturday afternoon. Two 25-lap races are scheduled for Sunday.
More, from a press release issued by LTD Racing:
EARLY PROMISE FOR NASH IN VIRGINIA
Danville, VA (May 15, 2015) — LTD Racing’s Huntley Nash showed strong form with more potential in reserve in the first day of MotoAmerica practice at Virginia International Raceway. Nash was seventh in Superbike but feels confident he can charge up the standings after clocking his fastest time yet at the circuit with a lap of 1:27.970.
“There were some positives and overall I like the way things are going,” said Nash. “I thought it went okay. I was 12th overall, which doesn’t sound so great but I was a couple seconds behind first and less than a second behind 5th. Everyone is in a pretty tight group so if we can make some gains, we will move up a few spots. We concentrated on making the bike better rather than cutting a fast lap because I think the Saturday morning session is the best time for that. There’s more in the bike and we used the same front tire the whole session. I’m not in Superpole yet but I think I can do something about it tomorrow morning.”
Still in the development stage of LTD Racing’s Superbike program, Nash and the team used Friday to adapt their Ducati to the challenges of the 2.25-mile North Course at VIR.
“The team changed the geometry and it helped. It really improved the feeling,” said Nash. “The bike feels good and it is the fastest I have ever been around here.”
Nash hasn’t raced at VIR since 2010 but did test a Kawasaki Superbike at the circuit in recent years. “I really like the track and I missed racing here,” said the Georgian “It’s a fun track but it’s also challenging because you can get arm pump. I think it is a good track for the Ducati. The sweeping turns seem to suit the bike well.”
Nash will qualify on Saturday and race twice on Sunday.