Jeudi

Josh Hayes is on a mission to end his epic AMA Pro Road Racing season with an exclamation point this weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park. The Gulfport, Miss., native is motivated to deliver for his large contingent of fans at the Triumph Big Kahuna New Orleans. Despite one crash on Friday, Hayes turned that energy into movement as he blazed around the new track during qualifying.

Hayes dominated the opening qualifying session, winning the pole by nearly a full second. His winning qualifying time was 1:39.943 around the brand-new 16-turn, 2.75-mile facility.

The Monster Energy Graves Yamaha rider has already assembled what may go down as the greatest season in series history. Another conquering weekend would only cement that bid. A tenth pole would tie him with Mat Mladin (2005) for the most ever in a single SuperBike season.

However, Friday was not without its challenges. The new track proved exceptionally hard on tires and the champ also suffered a crash during the day.

Hayes spent much of the day just riding around on worn, hard tires, preparing for the possibility of racing in those conditions.

"What's the most adjustable thing on the motorcycle? The wingnut behind the handlebars," Hayes explained. "Give me time to go out and ride the thing around the racetrack and see everything and wait until tomorrow when there's a little more rubber on the track before we even start worrying about if the softer tires are going to be able to do race distance. But right now I'm pretty fast on the hard stuff so I'm feeling pretty good about it."

If Hayes can put together one more double-win weekend, he'll up his career win total to 33, moving ahead of Miguel DuHamel for second place all time, not to mention increasing his single-season wins record to 16.

The biggest threat to Hayes this weekend is the same man who ended his pole and win streaks last time out: Roger Hayden.

The National Guard Jordan Suzuki ace scored his first-career AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike pole and race victory last time out at Homestead-Miami Speedway and will be eager to immediately add to that tally this weekend.

The Kentuckian was second best on Friday, lapping at 1:40.941 to narrowly displace Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Young (1:40.962) for the position late.

Young earned three early-season victories and will also be looking to end his season on a high note.

The final spot on the provisional front row went to Team Hero EBR's Danny Eslick, who claimed a stirring runner-up result at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The provisional second row is headed by Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom, with Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing's Larry Pegram (BMW), Team Venezuela's Robertino Pietri, and Team Amsoil/Hero EBR's Geoff May.

KTM/HMC Racing's Chris Fillmore, Riders Discount K&L Supply's Taylor Knapp, Kneedraggers.com/Motul/Fly Racing's David Anthony, and EvanSteelPerformance.com BMW's Aaron Yates round out a talented Row 3 heading into Saturday's final qualifying session.

The AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike class will be featured in a set of 18-lap sprint races on Saturday, October 6 at 3:15 p.m. and Sunday, October 6 at 3:30 p.m. local time. GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing’s National Guard SuperBike and GoPro Daytona SportBike divisions will be featured on SPEED in a set of back-to-back broadcasts, scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT on Sunday, October 7 and 12:00 midnight ET/9:00 p.m. PT late Sunday night.