Yamaha’s Josh Hayes Wins Again At Barber Motorsports Park

Two-time defending AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike king Josh Hayes hit the quarter-century mark on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park, registering the 25th victory of his SuperBike career. The Mississippian’sAMA Pro Road Racing double win at the Triumph SuperBike Classic presented by America's First Federal Credit Union also marked his eighth triumph of the season and his fifth in succession.

While much was made of the learning opportunity Hayes' Monster Energy Graves Yamaha teammate, Josh Herrin, enjoyed on Saturday by racing on the SuperBike champ's rear wheel, Hayes was made all the wiser by that experience as well.

Unwilling to give Herrin a chance to cling on again, Hayes raced exceptionally hard early and quickly eliminated any hope Herrin or any other rival might have entertained about sticking with him today.

Hayes ultimately took the checkered flag with a 4.988-second margin of victory. "I got a decent start and slotted in right behind Josh," Hayes said. "I eased up inside of him in Turn 4 and got in there. At that point I just tried to get back into a rhythm. Things were going pretty good -- at one point I opened up a second on Josh and was kind of holding it there for a couple laps. When I saw that he took it back, I said, 'okay, don't deviate from your game plan,' because I was doing a good pace and not making mistakes. I wanted to keep up a good steady pace and see what happened and then I came around and saw a three-second gap. There you go. It's so hot and so slippery -- there was the mistake I was waiting to see if it would happen. I maintained my gap and stayed clear and had a good smooth race."

Despite Hayes' determination to shake free at the start and make an early escape, Herrin gave it his best effort to reel his teammate back in… and paid the price. Attempting to make up an early one-second deficit, the National Guard SuperBike freshman ran off track in Turn 4 on the race's fifth lap and was instantly dropped back to ninth.

That's the same position Yoshimura Racing Suzuki's Blake Young had held on the race's opening lap, suffering from a poor start and almost falling outside the top ten. The Wisconsin rider sliced his way up the field, however, and was in position to take control of second when Herrin made his error.

Herrin made a similar charge and by lap 11 was right on Young's rear wheel. The Suzuki and Yamaha men waged a closely-matched duel from there to the flag. Herrin reclaimed second on lap 19 but handed it back the next lap again after running wide in Turn 4. He mounted another charge and made a stab for second on the final lap, again in turn 4, but was unable to hold his line and Young dipped right back through and held on to ultimately claim the runner-up position.

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