Josh Hayes has been looking on fire all weekend at Infineon Raceway.
Monster Energy / Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes continues to be the benchmark to beat at Infineon Raceway with the reigning champ taking the win in the Superbike class over Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden and M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas. His win today would be his fourth win on the Sonoma, California road course and the first this season.
It was Hayden who jumped into the lead at the start of the 22-lap race with Hayes, Blake Young, Ben Bostrom, Steve Rapp, Cardenas, Larry Pegram, Chris Peris, Roger Hayden and David Anthony all in tow. Hayden’s run at the front wouldn’t be for long after Hayes put a pass on him for the lead.
Tommy Hayden was getting everything he could out of his Suzuki GSX-R1000.
“I wasn’t terribly concerned,” said Hayes in reference to not leading initially. “I had Tommy in front of me and I felt confident that I could run the pace whatever it needed to be. I got a little ansty on the very first lap and Blake jumped on me. Then I tried to stay close to Tommy. I guess I’m a little impatient. I like leading. I’m just more comfortable and confident when I’m looking at a clean racetrack. Our bike was just like last year it is very strong bike and allows me to ride well and it doesn’t beat me up or wear me out during the course of the race.”
A few moments later Cardenas makes move past Rapp into fourth position. Rapp would continue to slide backwards in the field running as far back as eight place at one point. Meanwhile Cardenas continued to push forward passing Bostrom and settling on the back tire of Young. The two Suzuki riders would then battle fiercely at times for the remainder of the race.
“It was a tough race,” said Cardenas. “This track is very demanding. At the beginning of the race I didn’t have quite a good start so I had to work my way up. I made a few mistakes in some corners. He [Blake Young] kept the pressure on the entire way and I’m lucky that I could maintain the position.”
Ben keeping the front wheel light coming out of one of the more Challenging corners at Infineon Raceway.
On Lap 12, Bostrom’s Suzuki GSX-R1000 suffered a mechanical when the drive chain came off of the rear sprocket. Moments later more drama would unfold when Aussie Racing’s David Anthony ran into the back of Roger Hayden’s bike at the entry of Turn 11. Hayden’s bike was too damaged to continue forcing him to retire early. Meanwhile Anthony would rejoin the race only to have another crash shortly thereafter.
With four laps to go the running order was: Hayes, Hayden, Cardenas, Young, Pegram, Peris, Rapp, Erik Buell Racing’s Geoff May, M4 Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich and the Y.E.S Yamaha of Chris Clark. After playing cat and mouse for a while Hayes finally pulled the trigger and checked out on Hayden.
“Start was good,” Hayden said. “I was really concentrating on the start. It’s important because passing is not easy. The last thing I wanted to do was get a couple people between me and Josh. I was feeling pretty good this weekend. I felt pretty comfortable on the bike. I led a couple of laps then Josh came by and we kind of see-sawed here and there. I started fighting things on the entry it was getting a little bit harder for me to maintain the pace. Overall I’m thoroughly happy with today. This is my worst track by far but I’m fairly happy with how the weekend’s gone thus far.”
Hayden leading the AMA Superbike class until Hayes would emerge as the winner.
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
3. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
4. Blake Young (Suzuki)
5. Chris Peris (BMW)
6. Steve Rapp (BMW)
7. Larry Pegram (BMW)
8. Geoff May (Buell)
9. J.D. Beach (Kawasaki)
10. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki)
11. Chris Clark (Yamaha)
12. Chris Trounson (BMW)
13. Chris Siebenhaar (Suzuki)
14. Tony Kasper (BMW)
15. James Randolph (BMW)
