The Boys In Blue Are Buckeye-Bound As Yamaha U.S. Road Racing Teams Travel East To Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Cypress, CA – July 8, 2013 – The rolling hills of central Ohio will soon be alive with the excitement of motorcycle road racing. The Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha SuperBike and Yamaha Extended Service/ Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha Daytona SportBike teams join the rest of the GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing competitors in Lexington, Ohio, for the Buckeye SuperBike Weekend, which gets under way this Friday. A classic venue on the AMA Pro Road Racing calendar, Mid-Ohio is the track where thousands of Midwestern, East Coast, and Canadian fans gather to watch America’s premier road racers perform on 2.4 miles and 15 turns filled with challenging features like the Keyhole, Madness, Thunder Valley, and the Carousel. MONSTER ENERGY/GRAVES/YAMAHA: HAYES & HERRIN Three-time defending AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Champion Josh Hayes has quickly fought his way back into contention for an unprecedented fourth SuperBike Championship in a row, and he is now just 10 points out of the lead. Mid-Ohio, a track where Josh has won five SuperBike races in his career–including double wins last year and also in 2009–could be a pivotal one in the Mississippi Madman’s 2013 campaign. If he records his third perfect-points weekend in a row–in which he earns the pole, wins both SuperBike races, and leads the most laps in both of those races–Josh will, once again, find himself in the Championship points lead, no matter what his competitors do. It’s been a remarkable climb to the top for Josh, yet his mission is the same on every race weekend, regardless of where he sits in the standings. “My plan is always the same,” commented Josh. “I want to be the fastest in qualifying, win every race I enter, and lead the most laps. It’s as simple as that. I’ve got the best team and the best bike in the paddock, so why would I expect anything less from my #1 Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha YZF-R1, my awesome crew, and myself?” Just 13 points off the Championship lead in his own right is Josh Herrin, who is Josh Hayes’ teammate, 2012 SuperBike Rookie of the Year, and rider of the #2 Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha R1. Herrin, who won the first SuperBike race of the season in Race 1 at Daytona in March, has been on the podium in four of the six SuperBike races so far this year. The Georgia rider has been training hard leading up to Mid-Ohio, and he’s hoping to put a stop to his teammate’s freight train of wins by notching a couple of SuperBike victories of his own this weekend. “I’ve been putting in lots of miles on my Specialized bicycle,” said Herrin. “And I’ve also been playing quite a bit of basketball, training in the gym, and riding on my supermoto track at home. I know, if I want to be beat my teammate, then I’ve got to train hard between races, and when we get to the track, go all out in every practice, every qualifying session, and every race lap.” YAMAHA EXTENDED SERVICE/MONSTER ENERGY/GRAVES/YAMAHA: BEAUBIER & GERLOFF Cameron Beaubier, winner of this year’s Daytona 200 and current points leader in the AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike Championship, is coming off his second-consecutive perfect-points weekend at Barber Motorsports Park aboard his #6 Y.E.S./Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha YZF-R6. He’ll be looking to carry the momentum from Birmingham, Alabama, into Lexington, Ohio, to earn the pole at Mid-Ohio, plus get the double win. Last year at Mid-Ohio, Cameron got on the podium with a 3rd-place finish in DSB Race 1, and then he came back even stronger to get the win and also lead the most laps in Race 2. “We had a perfect weekend last time out at Barber,” Cameron commented, “so I’ve got a lot of confidence going into Mid-Ohio. I’ve won there before, and I know my Y.E.S./Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha crew–including my crew chief Olly Hutchinson–always puts me on the best bike in the field. My aim is to keep this winning streak going.” Garrett Gerloff, the second member of the Y.E.S./Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha team and currently in 4th place in the Daytona SportBike Championship, counts Mid-Ohio among his favorite tracks on the AMA Pro Road Racing schedule. The Texan said, “I really like the layout at Mid-Ohio. It’s fast and flowing, and there are a lot of elevation changes. It’s a fun track to ride on, especially in the esses with the right-left-right transitions, and I also really like going through Thunder Valley.” FOLLOW THE YAMAHA U.S. ROAD RACING TEAMS CBS Sports Network will be broadcasting all weekend long from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, so check your local listings and be sure to tune in or set your DVR so you can re-live all the exciting action that you saw in person while you were at the track. For more news, results, and other team info, be sure to check out Yamaha’s Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @YamahaMotorUSA.