Four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes tested his new Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha YZF-R1 MotoAmerica Superbike for the first time this week, January 14-15, at Thunderhill Raceway Park, in Willows, California, and Hayes came away from the test very pleased.

“Everything has been extremely positive, quite frankly,” Hayes told Roadracingworld.com at the end of the test. “The bike is fun to ride. It has really good speed. Considering how little time we’ve had with the bike I feel like we’re ahead of where I expected to be at this point.

“As much as I want to ride the bike again I’m looking forward to the guys having a little more time with it and showing up with a bike that’s closer to what we will race hopefully by the next time we test it.”

According to Crew Chief Jim Roach, the R1 (not R1M) that Hayes rode at Thunderhill was much closer to Superstock-spec than Superbike-spec, especially in terms of engine work.

Asked what his test agenda was like, Hayes said, “Mostly it was familiarization with the new machine and [testing] a couple of parts that just needed some time on them. There’s only a few basic parts we’ve been able to come up with. The bikes haven’t been out that long. Everything’s really new. The guys have a lot of work to do. We just wanted to get the motorcycles out and ride them around the racetrack a little bit.”

Hayes said he couldn’t talk about the lap times he did during the test, but he did confidently state, “We were a lot closer to the pace than I expected to be on the first days on the motorcycle.”

Hayes tested alongside his Superbike teammate Cameron Beaubier and the Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha (600cc) Supersport duo of Garrett Gerloff and J.D. Beach.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden and Jake Lewis also tested their GSX-R1000s at the shared test. When contacted via text message and asked about the test at Thunderhill and the upcoming season, Yoshimura Suzuki boss Don Sakakura replied that the team would be announcing its 2015 road racing plans soon.