With MotoAmerica set to bring AMA Superbike racing back to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, August 16-18, we’re taking a closer look at past Superbike races at the iconic racetrack in Lexington, Ohio.
It took Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha’s Josh Hayes virtually all of the 2013 AMA Superbike Championship to gain back the points lost in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. At Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Hayes finally took over the lead in the championship after the first of two races – by just a single point over Yoshimura Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas.
The win was Hayes’ fifth in a row, and it wasn’t easy – at least early on. Hayes had a fight on his hands in the early going with his teammate Josh Herrin with both Yamaha riders taking turns at the front while Cardenas chased the duo in third place. After getting past Herrin on the sixth of 21 laps, Hayes put his head down and left the other two to fight over second place.
The defending series champion would end up winning by 4.6 seconds with third eventually going to Herrin when Cardenas was badly baulked by a lap rider at the start of the final lap.
“Josh (Herrin) was aggressive on the start, which was good,” Hayes said, post-race. “His hard work and training is definitely paying off. As for me, it was a long race and I feel good that I got the win. I like close racing, and it was good to have my teammate up there to push me. I focused on being as consistent as possible, which helped me get the win.”
While things went swimmingly for Hayes in race one, Sunday’s race two was a different story.
Hayes’ troubles came straight away as he was deemed to have jumped the start, which earned him a five-second penalty. With Hayes bolting away out front and Herrin in second, it became a race against the clock. Herrin had to win by over five seconds to take the victory.
On the final lap, Hayes needed to gain .7 of a second to get the win, but he came up short, winning by almost five seconds and thus not winning at all. Herrin’s margin of victory was .122 of a second.
Herrin didn’t know he’d won until the post-race interviews.
“They were giving me the plus what I had, but I didn’t ever think to look to see what position I was in” said Herrin of his pit board. “They had P1 the whole time, but I never thought about looking. I knew what place I was in, so I never thought to look. I came across the line wheelying. If it would have been a bad wheelie, or would have been a little bit higher, I would have lost that one, so thank God it wasn’t.”
The win was Herrin’s second of the 2013 AMA Superbike season, but it was Hayes who left Ohio with a slender four-point lead over his second-year teammate with just the season finale at Laguna Seca left to run. Cardenas, who was third again in race two, was just another point behind in third.
