ALTON, Va. – – After Saturday’s amazing display of action and close finishes, Sunday’s AMA Pro Road Racing finals at the 2.25-mile Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Va. to close out the the Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro Nationals Presented by Foremost Insurance event weekend provided redemption for a couple of riders and also brought a divisional championship to another very deserving rider. Team Graves Yamaha AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike points leader Josh Hayes had a day where he totally reasserted himself at the top of the tables in every way. After what was for him a disappointing third place result in Saturday’s race, where his main championship rival Tommy Hayden took a well measured victory with his Rockstar Makita Suzuki, Hayes came back today to utterly dominate the 23 lap race here at Virginia International Raceway. “I just feel like I woke up, I didn’t like to get beat yesterday,” said Hayes. “Somewhere along the way I feel like I kind of got lost a little bit, just in my riding. I wasn’t riding my full potential and I was still capable of racing for the wins. I think our motorcycle has a lot to do with that, we have a really good motorcycle. I was just thinking about, what was my mindset last year? I was racing myself a lot more last year. These guys ride great, but I put an awful lot of pressure on myself to perform, so that’s what I tried to get back to this morning and today’s race was a race against myself.” Hayes led every lap on his way to a series high fifth win in the powerful SuperBike class. Pole position winner and Ben Bostrom and his Pat Clark Motorsports Palms Casino Yamaha duplicated his second place from yesterday to round out a solid weekend for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway supported team. Bostrom had surgery on his thumb after the last race and he was feeling the effects but didn’t let it dampen his spirit or resolve. Tommy Hayden, as he has all season long, took what might have been a tough day and in his usual determined way, battled first with Hayes and then fought Bostrom for second before he finished third to stay close to Hayes in the points chase. Hayden is only 11 points adrift of Hayes with two double header race weekends to go. “I felt pretty good about stepping up and going faster than I had all weekend there for the first five or six laps,” said Hayden. “But in the end we didn’t have the pace to go that fast, or cooked the tire a little bit and couldn’t keep up. That’s the biggest part of it really, we just weren’t fast enough.” Riding to fourth place was Jordan Suzuki rookie Brett McCormick who easily had the best race of his season in relief of injured teammate Aaron Yates. Yates did make an appearance at VIR this weekend and quickly showed his mettle with an excellent qualifying effort but he decided not to race until he was fully confident that he was in race distance shape after his lengthy lay off. Another rider having a good day was Taylor Knapp who rode his RidersDiscount.com Suzuki to a nice fifth place finish after dueling with first Jake Zemke and then Geoff May on his Buell. Chris Ulrich also ran well today and took seventh aboard his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki. Zemke fell to eighth on his National Guard Jordan Suzuki after battling hard to hold onto every position. Zemke ran in fifth place in the early stages of the race. Larry Pegram fell from sixth at the start down to 15th on lap two but as usual, Pegram put on a great show for the fans and took his Foremost Insurance Ducati all the way back up to ninth at the flag. Canadian Superbike Champion Jordan Szoke made his second AMA Pro SuperBike appearance of the year after racing at Mid-Ohio and impressed once again with a nice tenth place finish after a spirited battle with Shane Narbone on his DASPerformance.com Suzuki. Unbelievable Daytona SportBike Action In AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL, Josh Herrin was able to bounce back from the disappointment of Saturday’s race that ended for him almost as soon as it started. Once again, this race was action all the way with the usual players and more taking the fight to the front for the entire 23 lap race. After winning yesterday’s dramatic photo finish race, Bobby Fong had a short day on Sunday when he went down in turn one moments after the start, his DNA Energy Drink Ducati too damaged to continue and as quickly as that he was out. Meanwhile, GEICO Powersports Suzuki rider Danny Eslick was again battling with Team Graves Yamaha rider Josh Herrin, Cory West on his Vesrah Suzuki, Steve Rapp with his rapid Team Latus Motors Ducati and Herrin’s Team Graves Yamaha teammate, Tommy Aquino. As quickly as things started to happen, Herrin came by the line on lap five indicating that he was feeling some rain. Moments later, after taking the lead, Eslick also put up his arm to let the field behind him know that moisture was making conditions potentially too dangerous to continue without a potential change to rain tires. The race was red flagged and after a short break, the brief shower passed and the field reformed for the restart. Again, Herrin and Eslick had strong starts and headed the field. Martin Cardenas in particular had a tough start and dropped back to ninth on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki. But as usual, Cardenas began one of his patented charges to the front which took him right back to the middle of the action by lap 15 and he was up to third with one lap to go but went off the track on the last lap to finish fifth. The battle up front was reminiscent of yesterday as there would be two and three lead changes per lap. Herrin was strong out of the last corner and he would lead and the line but then Eslick would out-brake everyone to regain the lead. Steve Rapp was back up in his usual position up front and he would grab the lead only to have Eslick or Herrin re-pass him again and again. Cory West was right in the middle of the action too and if not for him running wide in turn one on the last lap, he was one of at least five riders that could have won this race. Going into the last lap, the first four were separated by under a tenth of a second at the line and Herrin, West, Eslick, Cardenas and Rapp all hurtled into turn one for the last time. Cardenas and West went wide and had run off course, leaving Herrin, Eslick and Rapp to battle it out. Eslick was leading, but Herrin got back by and as they came to the line, Steve Rapp grabbed second from Eslick. Herrin’s margin of victory was 0.174 over Rapp and only 0.241 over his championship points rival Eslick. Herrin reflected on a day where he was able to bounce back from the disappointment of Saturday’s race, “The race was really good, every time somebody passed me it seemed like it was somebody different. Danny rode an awesome race, my bike was a little faster today so it was a little bit easier to get those extra points.” Herrin was able to lead the most laps and with the win, he made up some valuable ground on points leader Eslick. Eslick talked about his day, “I figured it’d be pretty close to the same deal as yesterday and then Josh was up in there. I knew Cory would be strong again today so there was quite a few of us up there. That little bit of drizzle was kind of sketchy. It was hard to tell if it’s coming down harder that it was. We were just trying to be a little bit cautious there. I think it was a good call, to figure out what was going on. It turned out pretty good, it presented a good race after the restart. It was a lot of fun, there at the end, it got pretty wild.” Steve Rapp was happy to be back on the podium again, his seventh appearance this year. “When I was out front, I gave it my best shot, and then when they started coming back by again and it’s like, ‘Well there’s no point, obviously I can’t get away so I’m going to ride with them for a little bit, see if they make a mistake.’ It worked out pretty good.” P.J Jacobson ran well today on his Celtic Racing Suzuki and he took a solid fourth ahead of Cardenas. Michael Beck had another good day on his DNA Energy Drink Ducati and took sixth. West recovered to finish seventh ahead of Paul Allison on the Chronic Motorsports Yamaha. Tommy Aquino had an off-track excursion and finished a disappointed ninth ahead of Fernando Amantini on his Team Amantini Kawasaki. All in all, it was more of the same in Daytona SportBike Presented by AMSOIL, two more absolute barn burners with the championship fight going right down to the last race. Beach Wraps up SuperSport East In the first race of the day, Rockwall Engineering Yamaha rider J.D. Beach took his seventh win in the competitive AMA Pro SuperSport class. With Huntley Nash finishing second on his LTD Racing Yamaha, it enabled Beach to capture his AMA Pro SuperSport Young Gun East Division championship. “I didn’t think I was going to win the championship when the season started,” said Beach. “I was riding good at the end of the season last year but I knew Huntley was going to be stepping it up this year. I wasn’t sure what division Joey was riding in. I knew Cameron, I was excited because I kind of got him the ride for Rockwall. After I got him the ride I realized that he was probably going to be kind of fast, so I kind of made a mistake there but I did what I knew how to do and rode consistent and rode to the best that I could. Not too crazy, but crazy enough to win, and it just ended up this way. If the team does go to New Jersey we’re going to be running SportBike.” After falling back at the start, Beach had to fight his way past a number of riders but once clear, he again sailed off into the distance, winning by five seconds over Nash who fought gamely all day himself to a worthy second place. Finishing third after running second in the early stages of the race was Dustin Dominguez on his family run Kawasaki. This was Dominguez’s second race weekend with AMA Pro racing in 2010 and he again showed his speed by running right with the series regulars. The Young Gun West Division championship winner, Joey Pascarella led early on his DNA Energy Drink Yamaha but he was sidelined after leading the first three laps. Nash took over the point but there was no denying Beach again this weekend, this is his third double win weekend this year and he certainly is one to watch for the future. Travis Wyman completed a nice weekend with a fourth place finish on his Harv’s Harley-Davidson AB-1 Motorsports Yamaha. Wyman took sixth on Saturday and also rode to second in the Vance & Hines XR1200 series race on Sunday. Eslick Continues XR1200 March For the last race of the weekend, Danny Eslick took the win in the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 series ahead of Travis Wyman and teammate Jake Holden. Eslick, riding his RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing Harley-Davidson XR1200 led the way to his third out of three XR1200 series victories. Today, after battling with his GEICO Powersports Lucas Oil teammate Jake Holden in the early stages of the race, it was Wyman on his Harv’s Harley-Davidson XR1200 who emerged as his biggest rival for the win as Wyman also concluded a successful weekend after taking sixth and fourth place finishes in this weekend’s SuperSport races. Holden had some issues and admitted to having a tough day, Eslick was delighted to win and as usual, he had a ball riding the mighty twins around the interesting VIR track. It was a great weekend of racing under at times high heat and humidity but nothing was hotter than the action on the track. Congratulations to J.D. Beach for a superb divisional championship and in Daytona SportBike and SuperBike, chase for the championships look to be going right down to the wire. Tune into SPEED TV for tonight’s coverage of the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike and Daytona SportBike races. Coverage starts at 12 midnight a.m. ET (9 p.m. PT) tonight for Daytona SportBike and SuperBike begins at 1:00 a.m. ET (10 p.m. PT). Please visit www.amaproracing.com for the complete results breakdown. The full SPEED schedule can be found at ~http://www.speedtv.com/schedule/filter/program/948061~. More, from a press release issued by LTD Racing: LTD RACING’S HUNTLEY NASH EARNS SECOND IN VIRGINIA Alton, VA Huntley Nash earned a solid second place on Sunday in Virginia, and in the process took over second place in the season’s points. Nash earned his tenth SuperSport podium placing of the season in a race he led before a red flag stopped the action. “I’ve been trying to be consistent the whole year and it’s working out pretty well,” said Nash. “I’ve been on the box almost every race. This race started out pretty well, too. I got the holeshot again. I think yesterday was probably a little harder because I was trying to make up time. First with JD, and then I was trying to hold off Joey and then I was trying to make up ground on Joey. That took a lot out of me. Today started out a big three-way battle for the lead, and it was actually a lot of fun. I was leading for a couple of laps before JD (Beach) got by. JD pulled a little gap and stayed there the whole race. I tried staying consistent in second place and I saw a good gap on third and didn’t want to throw it away. Then I saw that my gap kept growing and I cooled off a little bit and finished the race. “ Tomas Puerta showed improved speed in morning warm-up but a slight mistake led to a crash and damage to his machine. His bike had to be rebuilt in the short amount of time between the warm-up and the race. In Sunday’s event, a mechanical problem stopped Tomy’s string of top five finishes in every SuperSport East race this year. “Today I felt the bike was better than yesterday and I was hopeful I could run up front. I did my best times in the morning session and the race started out well, too. But the clutch was slipping on the front straight. It wasn’t my day again but there is plenty of reason to be encouraged for the next races.” Matias Cassano finished 14th and less than a minute behind the winner. Matias performed well at a difficult circuit in his first race for LTD Racing. “It was a solid weekend for us,” said LTD Racing’s Gary Medley. “The guys have all worked hard this weekend and Huntley was able to earn another second place. Tomas had some more tough luck but we’re looking forward to New Jersey. We’re a young team and we learn more each time out.” More, from a press release issued by Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki: BEST AMA PRO WEEKEND YET FOR VILLA IN VIRGINIA Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki’s Santiago Villa enjoyed his finest AMA Pro Road Racing weekend yet, twice equaling his career-best finish at Virginia International Raceway. The Colombian entered the VIR weekend with high expectations and managed to live up to those hopes, racing with several established stars of the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class en route to a pair of 11th place finishes in the extremely competitive class. Santiago’s previous best result was a 11th place finish taken at Road America in 2009, but unlike his impressive ride in the rain in Wisconsin, this weekend’s tally was earned under normal conditions. Villa had to work his way up to his ultimate finishing position both times out on his GSX-R600, qualifying in 20th at 1:31.019. “I’m really happy — it’s my best weekend ever in AMA,” Santiago said. “I just matched my best result from ’09 twice and that was in the wet and these were both in the dry. Even better, I was not far away from the leading group on times. I was fighting with many of the top riders and I really learned a lot this weekend. Despite missing several rounds due to injury, he is ranked in the championship top 20, currently placed 19th with 42 points. “I’m ecstatic. This really helps my confidence, even looking ahead to 2011. This year I lost six races because of my injury but even with that I’m top 20 in the championship.” Meanwhile, Daniel Guevara continued to hold down a spot in the top 10 in the AMA Pro SuperSport East Region title fight. The Florida-based Venezuelan qualified 11th fastest at 1:31.693 and just missed out on a top-ten result in Saturday’s final, finishing a close 11th. Sunday’s contest didn’t go to plan, as he ran off track on the opening lap and continued on to finish in 18th. He is currently ranked ninth with 87 points. Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will next travel to New Jersey Motorsports Park for the penultimate round of the 2010 series on September 3-5. Villa remarked, “I don’t know the track, so we’ll see. I did one or two laps last year but my foot was broken and still hurt too much to allow me to compete. But the track looks amazing and I’m just looking forward to getting there.” More, from a press release issued by The Elena Project: MORE LEARNING FOR TEEN RACER ELENA MYERS AT VIR 2010 AMA Pro SuperSport West Region runner-up Elena Myers and the Lucas Oil Roadracingworld.com RMR Suzuki team challenged the best of East this weekend at Virginia International Raceway. Free of any championship concerns, Myers viewed the East Region VIR round as a chance to continue her growth as a racer and she showed steady progress, continually improving her pace over the course of the weekend. Having qualified on the outside of the third row at 1:31.834, Elena’s Saturday race plan came unhinged moments after the green light as two riders crashed directly in front of her. The Infineon Raceway winner came into contact with a fallen machine and was forced to take evasive action and run off the track, dropping her to the back of the field as she made her way back onto the tarmac. Myers showed her grit, weaving her way back up to 12th position at the checkered flag. On Sunday the 16-year-old prodigy broke into the top ten, guiding her GSX-R600 to a ninth-place result while logging her best lap times of the weekend. “It was a great learning weekend,” she said. “My times improved over the weekend and I kept the bike upright in both races even though I hit a bike in the Turn 1 incident on Saturday and ended up taking a little off-track excursion. I came back on the track in last but made by way up to 12th. Obviously, that’s not where I want to be but things happen out there. And today in the second race I went a lot faster than I have all weekend.” Myers will continue her East Region swing, taking part in the AMA Pro SuperSport contest at New Jersey Motorsports Park on September 3-5. “I’m looking forward to New Jersey. I’ve never been there, but I’m really looking forward to it. I think it will be my kind of track. So far it’s been a great learning year and we’ll come back strong for the rest of this year and into next season.” More, from a press release issued by Harley-Davidson: Eslick Wins AMA Vance & Hines XR1200 Series Race at VIR Travis Wyman Scores First AMA Pro Podium Finish Milwaukee (August 16, 2010) RMR/Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing rider Danny Eslick made it three wins in a row with a commanding victory in the AMA Pro Racing Vance & Hines XR1200 Series at VIRginia International Raceway August 15, capitalizing on errors from his main rivals and continuing his domination of the class. Eslick and RMR/Rossmeyer teammate Jake Holden challenged each other for the lead through the opening few laps of the race, with Holden making several trips off into the grass at the exit of turn one, some forced and some unforced. “I couldn’t really get on the brakes that well into one and just kept going off the track. I was getting pissed off with myself,” Holden said after the race. Quickly regrouping from his first trip into the grass to maintain pressure on Eslick, Holden later went off the track in nearly the same spot, this time ceding second place to Harv’s Harley-Davidson’s Travis Wyman, who held onto the spot to claim his first AMA Pro racing podium finish. It was a strong weekend for Wyman, who also finished fourth and sixth in the weekend’s Supersport class races. Eslick took the blame for at least one of Holden’s off track excursions. “The first time I missed a gear, ran wide, and pretty much ran Jake off the track, so I’ll take credit for that one, the second time he was on his own,” Eslick said. “Then Travis was up there and I got going and put my head back down and he hung in there. I was still riding hard to the end.” After third place starter RMR/Rossmeyer’s Kyle Wyman exited the race on the second lap with a crash between turns one and two, the battle for what was then third position waged between younger brother Travis and Doc’s Harley-Davidson’s Eric Stump, who swapped position back and forth as Stump worked the draft and made several late-braking moves on Wyman into turn one before suffering a dramatic crash in the downhill turn 7 on lap 11. “I thought Stump was going to be there for most of the race because he kept passing me going into one,” Wyman said. “At the end Danny was messing around backing it in left and right and spraying dirt in my face all through the esses. I think he was doing it on purpose because he kept looking back at me. Eighteen laps on these seems like a long time but it was a lot of fun.” Farther back, RMR/Rossmeyer’s Joseph Rozynski finished fourth followed by James Gang/Hoban Brothers/H-D of Appleton’s Paul James in fifth, and Matthew Heidel in sixth. Cycle World’s Mark Cernicky crashed out of fifth place on the HOG Racing entry to finish eighth. The Vance & Hines XR1200 series returns for the fourth of five rounds at New JerseyMotorsportsPark over Labor Day weekend, September 4-5. Company Background Harley-Davidson Motor Company produces heavyweight custom, cruiser and touring motorcycles and offers a complete line of Harley-Davidson motorcycle parts, accessories, riding gear and apparel, and general merchandise. For more information, visit harley-davidson.com. More, from a press release issued by Breeann Poland on behalf of DNA Energy Drinks/CnR Motorsports: DNA Energy Drink/CnR Motorsports rider #30 Bobby Fong had full intentions of backing up his amazing race win from Saturday again on Sunday. But, during the beginning of Sunday’s AMA Pro Daytona SportBike race Bobby crashed his bike and unfortunately was unable to finish. Teammate Michael Beck, who finished 6th on Saturday, followed up his great weekend with another 6th place finish on Sunday. Just like Saturday, the race was plagued with another red flag but this time due to some light rain. Bobby was already four laps down and there was no way his crew could get his bike repaired in time to restart the race. For Michael the situation was a bit different and he was able to restart the race in 6th position. “Both riders did excellent this weekend and although we would have loved to see them on the podium today, things happen and we will move forward from here,” said Team Manager Mark Crozier. “Bobby and Michael did better this weekend than they have all year and we anticipate them running up front at the last two rounds.” In Sunday’s AMA Pro SuperSport race Joey Pascrella took the early lead and was holding that position until lap 6 when the clutch went out on his bike. Joey was forced to retire from the race. “I really wish I could’ve finished the race and put my DNA Energy Drink/CnR Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R6 back on the podium again today.” said Joey. “These things happen sometimes.” The team is looking forward to heading to New Jersey Labor Day weekend, September 3-5, at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville. Both Michael Beck and Bobby Fong had good finishes there last year. Teammate Joey Pascarella has yet to ride at the track. CnR Motorsports woud like to Thank the following sponsors: DNA Energy Drink, Quality Brands, FMF, Melillimoto Ducati, Motul, Woodcraft, Arai, Shoei, EBC, Cortech, Held, GP Tech, EK Chains, Motion Pro, Puma, Hel, Thrust, RaceTech, Moto-Heaven.com, Ultra Graphix, Yoyodyne, Zero Gravity, GPR.