Josh Hayes’ Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 factory Superbike developed a problem during his attempt at a fast lap in Friday’s AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike qualifying session at Road America, but the Mississippi rider came back to the pits, jumped on his spare Yamaha and was able to immediately claim the provisional pole position with a 2:14.002 on his one and only lap on the machine. “It’s confidence inspiring to know you have two good motorcycles,” Hayes told reporters. Hayes also had a strong pace last year at Road America, but he crashed out of the wet first race and was slowed significantly by a slipping clutch the result of a hard launch and tall gearing in Race Two. In fact, Hayes and the crossplane crankshaft-equipped YZF-R1 has proven to be somewhat hard on its clutch when doing race starts with tall final drive gearing, but Hayes said he has a plan this weekend. “It will just be get the clutch out and let’s get the race going kind of thing,” Hayes told Roadracingworld.com. “You won’t be seeing me trying to get some big, amazing launch because it’s cost us too much too many times. We’ll sort it out on the first lap or two. I think that’s a safer plan. If all the other guys are smart they’ll be doing it that way, too.” Tommy Hayden was best of the rest with a 2:14.337 on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000. Larry Pegram, who won one of the American Superbike races at Road America last year, was third-fastest on his Foremost Insurance Ducati 1098R with a 2:14.669. Hayden’s teammate Blake Young (who is from Madison, Wisconsin) qualified fourth with a 2:14.869. AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin June 4, 2010 Qualifying Session One Results (all on Dunlop tires): 1. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), 2:14.002 2. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:14.337 3. Larry Pegram (Duc 1098R), 2:14.669 4. Blake Young (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:14.869 5. Jake Zemke (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:15.207, crash 6. Jake Holden (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:15.428 7. Ben Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1), 2:15.798 8. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:16.060 9. Taylor Knapp (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:17.078 10. Brett McCormick (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:17.239 11. Geoff May (Buell 1125RR), 2:17.285 12. Shane Narbonne (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:18.124 13. Chris Clark (Yam YZF-R1), 2:20.931 14. Trent Gibson (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:21.094 15. Eric Pinson (BMW S1000RR), 2:21.094 16. Ron Hix (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:21.842 17. Tim Hunt (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:22.020 18. Eric Haugo (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:22.766 19. Adrian Schlegel (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:36.395 107% of Fast Time: 2:23.382 More, from a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing: Hayes Builds on American SuperBike Season Momentum with Provisional Pole at Road America ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (June 4, 2010) – Josh Hayes continued his positive trend in AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike competition Friday by topping the charts late in both afternoon sessions to get on the provisional pole for this weekend’s Suzuki SuperBike Doubleheader at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin’s Road America. Under overcast skies and drying track conditions following a morning rain, Hayes pushed his No. 4 Team Graves Yamaha YZR-R1 to a laptime of 2:14.168 (108.615 mph) in the second-to-last lap of practice and improved on that in qualifying, posting a time of 2:14.002 (108.751 mph) with a last-lap flyer on his backup bike. The Mississippian has shown steady improvement since his opening round finish of 13th at Daytona International Speedway in March, earning four podiums and one pole in the last five races. “I came in to get a tire to go out and see if I could get a good time while it was fresh to finish up the session,” Hayes commented on his qualifying run. “I immediately had an issue, I couldn’t quite put a finger on what the problem was so I just carefully rode the bike back in. We swapped the wheels from one bike to another and I went out cold on that bike and got one flying lap and it worked well. It’s actually confidence inspiring to know that I have two motorcycles. If I go out and press my luck and try to find some time in practice and tip over I know that I have another good motorcycle there ready to go. It takes some pressure off of me and allows me to see if I can up the ante on these guys without worrying about making mistakes.” Second in qualifying was Tommy Hayden on the No. 22 Rockstar/Makita/ Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, who continues to show consistency this season with a laptime of 2:14.337 (108.480 mph). Hayden earned his breakthrough SuperBike victory in race two at Auto Club Speedway in March and has amassed five podiums in the season’s eight races. Larry Pegram posted the third fastest time of the session with a laptime of 2:14.669 (108.212 mph). Pegram earned his first SuperBike wins in 10 years with back-to-back victories at last year’s Road America event. Final qualifying for American SuperBike begins at 10:00 a.m. local time, with an open grid fan walk kicking off at 12:30 p.m. and race one of the weekend’s doubleheader at Road America scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Sunday will see a rider autograph session at 10:50 a.m., a second fan grid walk at 11:30 a.m. and race two of American SuperBike competition at 2:30 p.m. SPEED will be broadcasting same-weekend coverage of both SuperBike races, with race one airing Saturday, June 5th at 10 p.m. ET and race two airing late Sunday night/Monday morning at 12 a.m. ET (midnight). A re-broadcast of Saturday’s race one final will also be broadcast on Sunday, June 6th at 2 p.m. ET. Please visit www.roadamerica.com for ticket and schedule information of the Suzuki SuperBike Doubleheader Weekend and visit www.amaproracing.com for additional series information. AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines. Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com.