By Tony Solorzano
(Fontana) – Joey Pascarella swept the AMA Pro Supersport series, while long time rider Tommy Hayden finally earned his first career win in the American Superbike Series as the Suzuki Superbike Challenge concluded Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.
Hayden, a 13-year veteran and two-time Supersport champion, took the lead on his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 when Saturday’s race winner, Larry Pegram, lost control of his Ducati 1098R as he was coming out onto the front straightaway during lap Eight. In taking the checkered flag, Hayden put to rest a constant barrage of questions of when he would finally prevail in the top level series. In fact, he made a point of it in the post-race press conference.
“So many people have been asking me if this was going to be the weekend I finally won a race,” he said to the assembled media. “I have been asked this so many times it was starting to really get to me.”
Pegram had been trading the lead with Josh Hayes of Team Graves Yahama through the first eight laps until Pegram’s accident. Until that point, Hayden had been battling with Hayes for second place when Pegram’s Ducati lost the grip on the road course coming into turn 21, which sends the riders out onto the front straightaway of the two-mile oval. His bike slid up the embankment and stopped close to the outer wall. Pegram managed to get the bike back to the pits and was able to get back out for the final three laps, finishing 18th. Hayes finished second and Hayden’s teammate Blake Young finished third.
The race was missing pole sitter Aaron Yates of Michael Jordan Auzuki racing. Yates, who finished third in Saturday’s race, was injured during the morning practice session when he broke his leg during Sunday morning’s warm-up practice. While navigating the course, Yates lost control of his Jordan Suzuki GSZ-R1000 and was then run over by M4 Monster Energy Suzuki rider Chris Ulrich, who was following close behind and was unable to avoid hitting Yates. He was taken to a local hospital but team officials later reported that he had suffered a broken leg and was ruled out of the race.
In the Daytona Sportbike race, Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin spent the entire race trading the lead with GEICO Powersports Richie Morris Racing Suzuki’s Danny Eslick, but Herrin, using a pass on the final turn of the 2.36-mile course, prevailed over Eslick by 0.028 seconds for the victory. Team Latus Motors Racing rider Steve Rapp was third, holding of Saturday’s third place finisher, Dane Westby. Saturday’s winner, M4 Moster Energy Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas, fell coming onto the front straightaway during lap 10, but managed to recover and finished 10th.
Although he finished second, Eslick had nothing but praise for Herrin’s riding talent. “Every lap out there was like a qualifying lap,” Eslick said after the race. “I was riding as hard as I could. It was great racing with Josh.”
In the Supersport feature race, the scheduled 17 laps had to be shortened due to an accident on Lap 14. On that lap, Top Gun Lucas Oil Suzuki rider Chris Sromalla, lost control of his Suzuki GSX-R1000 going into the turn one Chicane. Although he managed to slide clear of the race line, his bike ended up in the middle of the course and race officials decided to call the race with three laps left to go. However, despite the shortened race length, Pascarella swept the entire weekend’s points. He not only won both races, he earned both poles and led the most laps.
As was the case the day before, Huntley Nash and Scott Gilbert battled for second and third, however this time, it was Nash who earned second place while Scott took third. Elena Myers, who had missed Saturday’s race when she crashed at the start of that event, returned to finish fourth, holding off Tyler O’Hara.
The Series now moves to Road Atlanta for the next round, running the weekend of April 18th.
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