AMA Road Racing May 15-17, 2009 | Sonoma, CA Results

Josh Hayes earned his first AMA Superbike victory at Infineon Raceway in the blistering Sonoma, CA. heat on Saturday, May 16. In doing so he gave Yamaha its first AMA Superbike win since 2002 and the new crossplane crankshaft YZF-R1 its first-ever American Superbike win. The victory also vaulted the popular Yamaha racer from sixth to third in the standings with five out of 12 events completed in this year’s championship. Meanwhile teammate Ben Bostrom fared nearly as well, leading the first of the weekend’s two Superbike races before crashing and recovering to finish ninth, then coming back on Sunday to finish second in the next Superbike race, with Hayes solidly in fourth.

Superbike... On Friday, Hayes and Bostrom earned second and fourth grid positions in Superpole qualifying. Then on Saturday Mladin took the early lead in the first Superbike race, with Yamaha’s Bostrom swooping past him on lap two, only to low-side in hairpin Turn 11 soon afterwards. The miscue put Mladin back into the lead – but only briefly, for Hayes was next to attack, taking the lead on lap three and holding it all the way to the checkered flag. “It felt like the longest race of my life,” Hayes admitted afterwards. “The pace wasn’t that fast but it was miserably hot, and I’m happy to get the new R1 a win in the United States.” Yamaha Road Racing team manager Tom Halverson added, “This is a super-big win for us because we have expected a lot from the new R1 model. Once we figured it all out we were able to give both riders something truly competitive to use.”

Thwarted in race one, Bostrom had unfinished business to address in Sunday’s second Superbike race – like claiming a win of his own. But Mladin again jumped to the early lead and despite pressure from Bostrom and fellow pursuers Tommy Hayden and Hayes, the running order of the top four stayed constant throughout the 22-lap event. Mladin put in some fast early laps to build up a useful advantage over Bostrom, but the Yamaha rider closed the advantage to under a second at one point, and ultimately finished only 1.8 seconds in arrears at the flag. “It’s a tough track, one of the toughest we go to,” Bostrom admitted afterwards. “I love it so much and I’ve always wanted to win a Superbike race here.” Bostrom now lies fourth in Superbike points, just behind teammate Hayes.

Superbike Results - Race 2  1 Mat Mladin     2 Ben Bostrom - YAM     3 Tommy Hayden     4 Josh Hayes - YAM     5 Larry Pegram     6 Geoff May     7 Taylor Knapp     8 David Anthony     9 Neil Hodgson     10 Ryan Elleby

Standings After Round 5 of 11  1  Mat Mladin 268   2  Tommy Hayden 189   3  Josh Hayes - YAM 160   4  Ben Bostrom - YAM 150   5  Geoff May 143   6  Larry Pegram 131   7  Aaron Yates 116   8  Taylor Knapp 97   9  David Anthony 96   10  Blake Young 8

Superbike Results - Race 1  1 Josh Hayes - YAM     2 Tommy Hayden     3 Larry Pegram     4 Aaron Yates     5 Mat Mladin     6 Taylor Knapp     7 David Anthony     8 Chris Ulrich     9 Ben Bostrom - YAM     10 Cory Call

Daytona Sportbike Results - Race 2  1 Martin Cardenas     2 Jason DiSalvo     3 Josh Herrin - YAM     4 Tommy Aquino - YAM     5 Jake Zemke     6 Steve Rapp - YAM     7 Chris Peris     8 Bobby Fong - YAM     9 Taylor Knapp     10 Damian Cudlin

1  Martin Cardenas 203   2  Jamie Hacking 179   3  Danny Eslick 168   4  Jason DiSalvo 148   5  Josh Herrin - YAM 136   6  Chaz Davies 108   7  Steve Rapp - YAM 103   8  Jake Zemke 103   9  Tommy Aquino - YAM 94   10  Chris Peris 92

Daytona Sportbike Results - Race 1  1 Martin Cardenas     2 Jamie Hacking     3 Steve Rapp - YAM     4 Chaz Davies     5 Danny Eslick     6 Tommy Aquino - YAM     7 Chris Peris     8 Jake Zemke     9 Roger Lee Hayden     10 Christopher Fillmore - YAM

Supersport Results  1 Ricky Parker - YAM     2 Leandro Mercado     3 Russ Wikle     4 Bryce Prince     5 Garrett Wllis - YAM     6 Ezequiel Iturrioz     7 Christopher Clark - YAM     8 Robert Tinagero     9 Tyler Odom     10 Brian Pinkstaff