Triumph Big Kahuna New Orleans/GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike NOLA Motorsports Park Avondale, Louisiana October 7, 2012 Provisional Race Two Results (all on Dunlop tires): 1. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), 18 laps 2. Ben Bostrom (Suz GSX-R1000), -9.195 seconds, ran off track 3. Danny Eslick (EBR 1190RS), -13.466, ran off track* 4. Aaron Yates (BMW S1000RR), -25.979 5. Chris Fillmore (KTM RC8R), -30.158 6. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), -36.276 7. Robertino Pietri (Suz GSX-R1000), -40.537, ran off track 8. David Anthony (Suz GSX-R1000), -40.546 9. Steve Rapp (Kaw ZX-10R), -47.243, ran off track 10. Jordan Burgess (Suz GSX-R1000), -76.406 11. Brandt Dillon (BMW S1000RR), -1 lap 12. Taylor Knapp (Suz GSX-R1000), -4 laps, DNF, crash 13. Geoff May (EBR 1190RS), -5 laps, DNF, mechanical 14. Larry Pegram (BMW S1000RR), -6 laps, DNF, retired 15. Blake Young (Suz GSX-R1000), -9 laps, DNF, crash 16. Roger Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), -9 laps, DNF, crash 17. Chris Clark (Suz GSX-R1000), DNS * includes five-second penalty for crossing track boundary line exiting Turn 16 Championship Point Standings (after 20 of 20 races): 1. Hayes, 580 points 2. Young, 426 3. Roger Hayden, 314 4. Josh Herrin, 307 5. May, 277 6. Bostrom, 271 7. Pegram, 260 8. Eslick, 242 9. Rapp, 216 10. Ulrich, 186 11. Fillmore, 176 12. Clark, 167 13. Anthony, 161 14. Knapp, 148 15. Pietri, 126 16. Burgess, 111 17. Stefan Nebel, 71 18. Trent Gibson, 47 19. Yates, 40 20. Jake Holden, 38 More, from a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing: Josh Hayes Completes AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Sweep with Solid Charge at New Orleans’ NOLA Motorsports Park NEW ORLEANS, La. (October 7, 2012) – Three-time AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike king Josh Hayes closed out his epic 2012 campaign in fitting style. The Monster Energy Graves Yamaha superstar notched up one last blowout victory to put the finishing touches on the season in front of his home crowd. Hayes tore off from pole and blitzed to his 16th win of the season, far and away the most attained in a single-season in the 30-plus year history of the championship. The Mississippian worked his advantage into double digits before easing to the last checkered flag of 2012 with a 9.194-second margin of victory. Along with posting the record for most wins in a season, Hayes also established the new mark for most consecutive wins (ten), tied the record for most consecutive poles (eleven) and most poles in a season (ten). He also moved into a tie for second with most SuperBike titles (three), and surpassed Miguel DuHamel to grab sole possession of second-place on the all-time SuperBike wins list (33). Hayes said of his historic season, “It was the perfect way to end an incredible year. A lot of fans and friends came out and I’m glad I was able to do a good job in front of them. I think we are showoffs and we tend to do some of our best work when people are around. It was just an awesome weekend — I had a lot of fun.” Underlining his absolute mastery of the sport, while Hayes seemed to leave the field in his wake with relative ease, the premier class finale was otherwise a rather ragged affair, fraught with crashes, mechanical issues, and penalties among top-ten contenders. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Young and National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden were embroiled in a struggle for the runner-up position some six seconds behind the leader on lap 9 of 18. However, as the two dove into Turn 1 to open lap 10, Hayden’s front wheel contacted Young’s rear wheel as they both attempted to corral their machines under braking. The two crashed at speed together but quickly popped up to their feet, disappointed but seemingly unharmed. That double disaster elevated the fight for fourth between Team Hero EBR’s Danny Eslick and Jordan Suzuki’s Ben Bostrom into one for the runner-up position. However, while they remained glued together on track throughout, they were separated by nearly five seconds on the scoring monitors when Eslick was hit by a penalty for crossing the white line coming onto the start/finish straight; a boundary line put into place prior to the event to modify the radius of the turn with rider safety in mind. “I had a good fight there with Danny,” Bostrom said. “Josh just left us in the dust. I was behind Danny and I saw him cross the white line. I came by the pitboard and they held up ‘3’ and I held up ‘2’. They might have thought I was showing them the peace sign. I realized I could just follow him to the finish line. What else is there to do? So I just followed him around.” Eslick took the checkered flag in second but the position officially went to veteran Bostrom. The duo’s lead on fourth was sufficient for Eslick to claim the final spot on the podium despite his penalty. The Oklahoman was uncertain that he had been penalized while still on track and thought he had finished second, but wasn’t overly surprised to learn the truth. “I knew I ran off,” he explained. “The thing wheelied coming off the corner and I chopped the throttle, but it ran out onto (the line). It is what it is. I’m still up here with two of the best guys out there. I can’t complain.” Team Amsoil/Hero EBR’s Geoff May suffered a mechanical issue with his machine while running fourth, quickly following the plight of Foremost Insurance Pegram BMW’s Larry Pegram. A lap later Riders Discount K&L Supply’s Taylor Knapp crashed from fifth in a race marred by heavy attrition. The mistakes and mishaps opened the door for a tremendous result from multi-time AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike race winner Aaron Yates, who took home fourth on the EvanSteelPerformance.com BMW S1000RR in his second event back to the Series. Fifth went to KTM/HMC Racing’s Chris Fillmore to complete what has to be regarded as the fledgling SuperBike squad’s most successful weekend yet. M4 Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich equaled his best SuperBike result yet with a sixth-place result, followed by Team Venezuela’s Robertino Pietri. Kneedraggers.com/Motul/Fly Racing’s David Anthony, Attack Performance Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp, and Anthony’s teammate Jordan Burgess rounded out the top ten. AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike Martin Cardenas of the GEICO Suzuki squad got a measure of revenge on Cameron Beaubier (Y.E.S./Graves/Yamaha) in Sunday’s AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike race at NOLA Motorsports Park as the two class titans put on a memorable show during the final race of the 2012 season. Cardenas crashed out of Saturday’s race won by Beaubier and the Yamaha pilot tied the series champion for victories this year with seven heading into today’s race. Cardenas won Sunday’s nail-biter after a thrilling ending, one that saw both riders giving it all they had on the final lap. The Colombian was able to answer each of Beaubier’s tries at a pass and held off his younger rival for a 0.208 second win. For Cardenas, it was his eighth victory in his championship season. Cardenas pulled away from the field early and Beaubier managed to catch up to make it a two-man fight. Both riders had slight bobbles that set up the last-lap showdown. “For sure I wanted to beat Cameron,” said Cardenas. “Lately, he was winning a lot. I was prepared to give everything. If it worked out? Fine. If not? The ground was also okay. I gave everything I had.” “Going into the last lap, I was pushing as hard as I could,” said Beaubier. Tommy Aquino (Kneedragers.com Yamaha) beat Dane Westby (M4 Suzuki) to the line after that duo traded paint on the final lap. J.D. Beach (RoadRace Factory/Red Bull) finished fifth after a podium on Saturday. He topped Jason DiSalvo (Latus Motors Racing Triumph) by less than half a second. Tommy Hayden, still recovering from an injury sustained at New Jersey in the fall, was next. Michael Beck of Team Beck Racing recovered from a crash on Saturday to finish eighth. AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport Y.E.S./Graves/Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff won the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport race at NOLA Motorsports Park on Sunday, topping Saturday’s winner Hayden Gillim of the RoadRace Factory/Red Bull team and overall championship winner James Rispoli of Celtic Racing/ Orient Express Racing. Gerloff took the lead early and was never challenged, winning by 11.725 seconds. The young standout, who began the year in GoPro Daytona SportBike before being injured, ran away from the field in a dominating performance in the 15-lap race. It was reminiscent of Gerloff’s first Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport win in New Jersey last year. “Everything went really well and I got a good start for once,” said Gerloff. “I was just trying to get into my rhythm and pull a gap.” Tomas Puerta finished fourth for RoadRace Factory/Red Bull. In the SuperSport East championship, Dustin Dominguez finished fourth but unfortunately his effort wasn’t enough to win the divisional title. Jake Lewis of the Riders Discount Vesrah Suzuki team finished 11th and managed to hold on to the title by a margin of 11 points, 256 to 245, respectively. “I knew where I had to finish,” said Lewis. “I kept an eye on Dustin, then I laid back a little bit and brought the championship home.” Travis Wyman (Harv’s H-D) was sixth, just ahead of Miles Thornton (Eyeball NYC) and Ryan Kerr (Best Book 1 Kawasaki) and Suzuki SportBike TrackGear.com’s Elena Myers. AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series A season’s worth of bar-to-bar AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series racing and dramatic race finishes in no way prepared the fans for the unbelievable conclusion to the XR Showdown that was to unfold at NOLA Motorsports Park. KLR Group/Spyke’s/Vesrah’s Michael Barnes and Bartel’s Harley-Davidson’s Tyler O’Hara entered the season finale separated by a meager two points, effectively making it a winner-take-all contest. The two quickly broke free of the pack and fought furiously for the position until the race was stopped at mid-distance due to a red flag. The field was re-gridded for a five-lap fight to decide the XR Showdown and the $25,000 prize awarded to the champion. Again, Barnes and O’Hara moved into the lead and tussled for first position as the laps wound down. O’Hara took the white flag with the advantage but Barnes overtook him entering Turn 1. O’Hara attempted a counterattack, but ran wide, allowing the veteran ace to immediately reclaim the position. To find a way through and with the championship on the line, O’Hara slotted up the inside as the two raced onto the start/finish straight for the final time this season, side-by-side with the checkered flag in sight. O’Hara shocked Barnes (and everybody else) by reaching over and tugging Barnes’ right arm, pulling himself ahead as they powered to the stripe. Barnes shook his head in vehement disagreement while O’Hara celebrated an apparent XR1200 Series championship victory. However, O’Hara’s maneuver was quickly deemed illegal and Barnes was credited with both the victory and his first-career individual AMA Pro national championship following more than two decades of trying. There was further drama in the pack as Teterboro Rams’ Shane Narbonne and Rossiter’s Harley-Davidson’s Michael Corbino clashed multiple times on the final lap. Corbino came out the worse, crashing and bringing out the red flag. The checkered red left Barnes the race winner and 2012 AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series champion, NJMP winner Narbonne second, and Suburban Harley-Davidson’s Benny Carlson third. O’Hara meanwhile, was dropped to 11th — the final man in his lap group — meaning Carlson’s podium was good enough to overtake O’Hara in the Showdown order and claim the $10,000 prize awarded the series’ runner-up. A reflective Barnes said, “There was a lot of pressure going into this last one, and I felt I had a little edge throughout all the sessions this weekend on Tyler. But you can never count that guy out, especially on the last lap, last turn. He made a little mistake and went into Turn 3 wide (on the last lap) and I had a good five or six bike-length gap that he slowly reeled in. He didn’t get me in 13 so I pretty much thought I had it right there. But I saw him come up the inside and I matched him coming off the last corner. He grabbed my arm and did the old dirt track pass maneuver on me. “I just started flipping out in my head because I knew it was wrong. I felt that with him coming on the inside, I had the drive on the outside with the higher line, carrying more speed. I’m sorry that he decided to do that because it affected him gravely in this race. “But aside from that, I’m just so stoked that I won this championship and this race. I can’t say enough for Kyle Wyman in giving me this opportunity and this bike — something equal to his… I’m proud to be on this team and I’m glad to have the support from everybody. I can’t say thanks enough to everybody that helped me get here. It’s been a long, long fight to get a singles championship. I’m pretty proud of it.” Television and Social Media Channels GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing’s National Guard SuperBike and GoPro Daytona SportBike divisions will be featured on SPEED in back-to-back broadcasts, scheduled to begin at midnight ET/9:00 p.m. PT late Sunday night. AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines. Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Like Red Beans And Rice, Winning And Josh Hayes Go Together Perfectly In Sunday SuperBike Race In New Orleans New Orleans, LA October 7, 2012 – Wrapping up his historic season, Gulfport, Mississippi’s Josh Hayes put the final touches on his third straight AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Championship by winning Sunday’s race at NOLA Motorsports Park. It was the 16th win of the season for Josh and the 33rd SuperBike of his career, which moves him into sole possession of second place on the all-time AMA Pro Road Racing SuperBike wins list. Like most of Josh’s wins this season, he got a great start, moved to the front, and clicked off fast lap after fast lap, which resulted in a gap of more than nine seconds over the rest of the field when he took the checkered flag. After celebrating on the top step of the podium at NOLA, Josh said, “It was the perfect way to end an incredible year. I think we’re all basically show-offs at heart, and to have a lot of my family and friends here made it all the more special for me. What a year it’s been for the Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha team. My guys are the best.” As part of the Vortex Racing PINK Campaign, in support of breast cancer research, Josh ran a special, pink-anodized Vortex sprocket on his Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha YZF-R1 throughout the weekend. “I was proud to have that sprocket on my R1,” Josh commented. “My manager Gina Nadeau has been battling breast cancer for a long time, and it felt good to do something to raise awareness of that terrible disease.” For more news, results, and other team info, be sure to check out Yamaha’s Facebook page. More, from a press release issued by KTM: Fillmore Earns Career Best Finish at AMA Pro SuperBike Finale New Orleans, LA KTM/HMC Factory rider Chris Fillmore earned his career best finish at the final round of the AMA Pro SuperBike Series held at NOLA Motorsports Park with a set of 4-5 results aboard his KTM RC8 R. The weekend started off well for Fillmore after he qualified inside the top ten to place 8th on the starting grid. During Saturday’s race he started from the second row and maintained his pace to remain in 8th for the first half of the race. With eight laps to go, Fillmore picked up the pace and went into attack mode as he began to close in on the front pack of riders. His first pass was on Larry Pegram for 7th position. Once past Pegram he quickly set to work on Steve Rapp. In a tremendous pass in the thirteenth corner he passed Rapp and took over 6th position. Fillmore continued to push forward and soon caught the 5th place rider Robertino Pietri. The next lap Ben Bostrom had a mechanical and fell out of the race and allowed Fillmore to move up to 5th. With three laps to go, Fillmore turned his fastest lap of the race and continued to gain on Pietri. On the final lap with three corners to go, Fillmore made the pass on Pietri for 4th and held on through the checkers to take his best finish of the season. “Everything clicked today,” commented Fillmore. “I felt really good on the bike the whole day and it carried over into my race. I am very proud of the progress our team has made this season.” Fillmore carried his momentum into Sunday’s main event where he again started 8th on the grid. On the first lap he moved up to 6th position but quickly fell back on the next few laps. “I struggled in the beginning half of the race and didn’t feel as comfortable as I had during Saturday’s race,” stated Fillmore. Fillmore fell as far back as 12th position before he began to turn things around. At the halfway point he moved up to 10th position and continued to ride a smart race to maintain his pace. “I let this race come to me,” stated Fillmore. “A lot of people were making mistakes and I was able to keep it on two wheels and capitalize on their errors.” While others made mistakes, Fillmore was able to move up in position and soon found himself in 5th place with a few laps remaining. He held on to 5th to conclude his career best weekend of racing. His 5th on Sunday’s race marked his third career top five finish to date. “It feels great to end the season on a high note,” remarked Fillmore. “We have all worked very hard and I am happy to finish the year with our best result. We are returning next year full-time and I couldn’t be happier with my bike and team. I am really looking forward to the 2013 AMA Pro SuperBike racing season.”