Yoshimura Suzukis podium at Barber Superbike

Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s Roger Hayden and Jake Lewis came away with another solid weekend of results in the MotoAmerica Superbike weekend at the picturesque Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Hayden nailed down two podium finishes, taking home a second and a third from Barber on his factory Suzuki GSX-R1000 as rookie sensation Lewis scored his third-straight podium in race one and finished the weekend with a fourth in race two.

Those results, combined with a race one crash by series leader Cameron Beaubier, tightened up the MotoAmerica AMA Superbike standings after 10 races. Lewis and Hayden are still third and fourth respectively in the series, but they each shaved away the points-gap to the series lead, in the amount of four points for Lewis and 11 for Hayden.

It was a quick start for Hayden, who qualified second in Superpole to start from the middle of the front row. He used the power and handling of his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to trip the scoring beam with a time of 1:26.054. Lewis qualified fifth in the combined Superbike/ Superstock 1000 session with a 1:26.469.

Hayden was very pleased with his qualifying run at Barber.

“That session was the best I’ve felt on the bike all year in qualifying,” Hayden explained. “There were a few things I was struggling with that seemed to be a lot better. I really focused on doing multiple fast laps in a row, not really chasing an outright lap time in order to help get a strong race set-up.”

Meanwhile Lewis conceded that he’s still figuring out qualifying the Superbike with this being just the fifth track visited so far in 2015.

“Every track we go to it’s a new learning experience for me since I’m on the Superbike,” Lewis said. “Barber is a pretty technical track and sometimes I’m still getting the speed and handling of the bike sorted out for qualifying.”

In Barber race one it was setting-up to be a great fight between Josh Hayes and Hayden in the closing laps, but a red flag on lap 16, due to fluid on the track, put an early end and ruined a possible last-lap battle. The end result was Hayden, who led portions of the race, lost by a mere 0.397-second margin to Hayes. It matched the best result of the season for Hayden and proved he has the speed to be a winner this season.

“I went into the chicane and lost the rear and then it hooked up and I almost high-sided and lost quite a bit of time to Josh there,” Hayden said. “It was pretty fun. I had a feeling when I heard him (Hayes) behind me that he was going to try to come by. When he did I tried not to make it easy on him. It was a pretty good race.”

In the second leg Hayden again was battling most of the race for the lead with Cameron Beaubier and Hayes, but in the last three laps lost touch when he made a mistake and ran wide in a couple of turns on the same lap. He talked about it.

“I was giving it all I had just to stay with those guys. With about three or four laps to go I got into turn five way too deep and ran wide. I tried to make it all up going into the museum corner and ran wide again and those guys got a big gap. I knew I wasn’t going to catch them and I didn’t see any point in trying to chuck it down the road trying to, so I just brought it home. I was pretty happy to run with those guys for the first 17 laps. The race pace was definitely a lot quicker than I thought it would be. We’re improving and I’m going to another track I like in Miller, so hopefully we can go at it again.”

Lewis ran strong at times in both races, actually leading early in race two. He ultimately finished third in Superbike in race one and fourth in race two.

“It was a good weekend overall,” Lewis commented. “I was pretty close to the front, just a few tenths here and there, so I’m getting closer. In race one I stayed close and was able to learn a little bit and in the second race I didn’t quite have the pace I needed and I couldn’t catch them, so I backed it down a bit to make sure I got good points. I’m looking forward to moving on to Miller. I’ve had some good luck there in the past and our Suzuki will go good there because it has a couple of fast straightaways.”

The Yoshimura Suzuki squad returns to action on June 26-28th at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

Barber Superbike Race 1 Results:

1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 2. Roger Hayden (Yoshimura Suzuki) 3. Jake Lewis (Yoshimura Suzuki) 4. Danny Eslick (Honda) 5. Chris Fillmore (KTM) 6. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki) 7. Elena Myers (Suzuki) 8. Bernat Martinez (Yamaha) 9. Mathew Orange (BMW)

Barber Superbike Race 2 Results:

1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 3. Roger Hayden (Yoshimura Suzuki) 4. Jake Lewis (Yoshimura Suzuki) 5. Danny Eslick (Honda) 6. Chris Fillmore (KTM) 7. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki) 8. Elena Myers (Suzuki) 9. Bernat Martinez (Yamaha) 10. Mathew Orange (BMW)

2015 Superbike Championship Points:

1. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha), 201 2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha), 195 3. Jake Lewis (Yoshimura Suzuki), 145 4. Roger Hayden (Yoshimura Suzuki), 137 5. Bernat Martinez (Yamaha), 99 6. Elena Myers (Suzuki), 87 7. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki), 73 8. Danny Eslick (Honda), 72 9. Chris Fillmore (KTM), 32 10. Stefano Mesa (Honda), 35


Related Motorsport Articles

84,907 articles