| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 17, 2013) - Despite the fact that the 2013 GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing season is entering the stretch run with just six races remaining to determine this season's AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike champion, there are more races left (six) than points separating the top three title contenders (five). This past weekend at the Buckeye SuperBike Weekend presented by Dunlop Tire weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes finally reclaimed his position atop the '13 points order -- a spot he held for only a few hours in March when he led the field 1-0 by winning pole for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. The defending triple champion's quest to become the first man in AMA Pro Road Racing history to win four consecutive SuperBike titles was put in serious jeopardy from the start. Hayes' double retirement at Daytona left him will a massive challenge to conquer as an encore to the most dominant title campaign the class had ever seen. Hayes made up the deficit in big chunks -- even with his chief rivals encountering no major problems and performing at a consistently high level -- and moved into first place following his Saturday triumph on the strength of five perfect races (taking every available point, including the bonus markers awarded for laps led and pole positions). However, the legend-in-the-making saw his streak of perfection snapped the following day at the conclusion of an intense, albeit unconventional, nail-biter. For the second time in as many race weekends, Hayes was penalized for jumping the start. This time he couldn't race his way out of his five-second punishment, as his Monster Energy Graves Yamaha teammate, Josh Herrin, hung tough and finished 4.878 seconds behind Hayes -- good enough to claim his second-career AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike victory by a scant 0.122 seconds at the checkered flag. After routinely demonstrating outstanding pace when following in Hayes' wheel tracks but struggling to match that sort of speed while circulating on his own, the developing SuperBike pilot has made it his mission in recent weeks to put in the hard work required to become a more consistent, all-around threat. The steady improvements he's shown in that short time have already paid off in the form of a win as he continued to post solid lap times even after a charging Hayes shook him off his shadow. Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing's Martin Cardenas salvaged a pair of third-place results from a somewhat frustrating weekend at a circuit he's never quite mastered. Despite losing two spots in the championship order, falling to third after entering Mid-Ohio with the lead, the stage is now set for an epic conclusion to the championship. Hayes currently leads with 191 points but Herrin and Cardenas are both close enough to make that up that gap with a single convincing outing, as they currently reside just four and five points back, respectively. Even though Hayes saw his win streak come to an even despite taking the checkered flag first, he didn't seem overly disappointed. He explained, "At the end of the day, I'm proud of the way I rode. I feel good about my race. The result is the result -- that's what goes in the books...I tried really hard. All the way to the last corner on the last lap, I rode the best race I possible could and I'm happy with that... I felt like it was (Josh Herrin's) race to lose. I don't think I can be upset with myself because he did a good job today. All I do is offer him a big congrats today, I'm proud of the way he did it, and I'm glad it was my teammate and another Monster Energy Yamaha up front. "And it should have tightened up the points and made things really interesting and a lot of fun. We've got what? Six races left. It should be a barnburner -- let's go get 'em." Herrin later admitted that his strong push to the checkered flag came as a result of an effort to fend off third rather than hold onto first. He was unaware that Hayes had been penalized, but his recent efforts to up his game paid off all the same (even more handsomely in fact). Herrin said, "I guess that was kind of a crazy race. I had no idea that I won the race until I was interviewed for television and I was kind of shocked for a second. I couldn't even say anything... Josh really rode a great race as he does every time he gets on the bike. He's proven over the past three years that he's a GP quality rider... I just have to thank him for all the help that he's given me. I really lucked out today. We'll take it -- a wins a win -- and we'll move onto Laguna with a lot of confidence, just in the way that we rode. I think we rode pretty well today even though Josh beat me by so much. I was proud of the way I was able to keep a consistent pace by myself and hopefully Laguna goes just as well." Cardenas' double-third marked his fifth and sixth podium finishes in the seven races he's contested as a works Suzuki SuperBike pilot (his solitary result off the podium was a fourth). "We'll have to wait for next weekend and see what we can do," Cardenas said about his response to being toppled from the prime spot the championship order. "I knew this weekend was going to be hard; not that I'm bad here, but it's not my best track. It turned out to be okay -- not what we were hoping for. We'll have to wait and see about next week and see where we're at." The results were remarkably consistent over the two days down the field at Mid-Ohio. If not for the penalty-related reversal of first and second on Sunday, the top eight finishers would have been exactly the same on both days. Jordan Suzuki's Danny Eslick ran 4-4 at Mid-O. The Oklahoman factored near the top of the charts in practice and qualifying, proving that he can run the lead pace on a SuperBike when given a tow. He's still looking to find that bit of race pace required to join the week-in, week-out podium contenders on a consistent basis, but he's well on his way to establishing himself as the next man up. "The weekend started pretty good," said Eslick. "The Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 was fast right out of the box and helped me get the weekend off on the right foot. Both my races were pretty much the same. I got good starts and was able to hang with the lead guys. It was tough to keep up with them but I was doing it, and then I made a few mistakes and lost some time. But this was the best weekend I've had as far as feeling comfortable with the bike and getting my confidence up. So now, we'll head for Laguna Seca and hopefully talk about winning next weekend." On both days, the series' leading twin-cylinder machines locked up for a pair of three-way scraps for fifth. And on both occasions, it was Team Hero EBR's Geoff May who secured the spot with some good defense, outlasting teammate Aaron Yates on the Team AMSOIL/Hero EBR 1190RS and KTM/HMC Racing's Chris Fillmore. May said, "With this long straightway here, leaving with two top fives makes me pretty happy. The next track favors our bike a lot more. This EBR loves it when it's cool and runs a lot faster. I'm excited about getting up there and racing with those front-runners and surprise them." "Aaron could run faster than me. He was running a better pace than me, but I was hitting all my marks and using the whole track. If anybody wanted to get by me, they really had to make a nasty pass. Fillmore got by me once or twice, then he'd screw up and I'd get around him. I used my experience and rode smart, which put me in fifth today even though some of the guys behind me were a little quicker." Yates confirmed May's assessment, explaining, "I just couldn't get by Geoff. I didn't want to put some kind of crazy move on him to make the pass. I was struggling to get stopped at the end of the straightaway after half way. I really couldn't make a move on the brakes anywhere." He added, "We've got the bike feeling really good to me. It's really getting through the corners well. I could make a mistake and lose some ground to Geoff but make it all back up in a couple of turns. It's fun to ride. If we get a little more power, we'll be in the show and in contention for a podium." Fillmore may have had to lap times in him to do even better than his 7-7 result shows, but tire issues slowed him on Saturday and he suffered a massive fall in Sunday's warm-up that left him feeling more than a little beat up in Race 2. However, Fillmore's weekend still went better than those of two other riders who entered Mid-Ohio with big expectations. Based on his performance at Barber Motorsports Park last time out, along with his glittering past record at Mid-Ohio, National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden was a popular pick to contend for race wins this past weekend. Unfortunately, tire issues also slowed him on Saturday and he ran off track while fighting for the lead a third of the way into Sunday's final. In the end, Hayden could only manage a pair of eighths. "It was a tough weekend," Hayden said. "We struggled a bit at first but the team worked hard and gave me a good bike with the Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000. I was able to run with the leaders in Saturday's race until we had some tire problems midway through. So we switched tires on Sunday and I was able to keep up with the frontrunners until I made a mistake with a false neutral. I feel bad for my guys because they worked hard and made my bike really good after we struggled on the first day. Now I'm glad we only have a few days off before we get another chance at it. Laguna Seca has always been a good track for me and I'm looking forward to that race." Things went even worse for Ohio native Larry Pegram on the Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing YZF-R1. Pegram also struggled with his rubber on Saturday en route to ninth and then crashed on the sighting lap ahead of Sunday's race. He hustled to get back to the grid but subsequently suffered another spill in the race before ultimately retiring. Motosport.com Motul Fly Racing's David Anthony (18-9), Fillmore's KTM/HMC Racing teammate, Taylor Knapp (12-10), and Motosport.com/EBR II's Cory West (10-11) walked away with the remaining results in the top ten over the Mid-Ohio weekend. | 
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