Hayes claims FX pole at Road Atlanta

Hayes claims FX pole

(AMA Pro Racing Release) After multiple near misses in Lockhart Phillips USA Formula Xtreme qualifying, Erion Honda’s Josh Hayes finally picked up his first pole position of the season, making the ultra-tight class title race that much closer at the top.

Snapping Jason DiSalvo’s pole streak at eight with his blistering 1:24.430 lap around Road Atlanta, Hayes is now tied with the New Yorker for second in the championship, just two points shy of leader Eric Bostrom.

Afterwards an enthused Hayes remarked, “I think you could count about three of them that I missed by inside of a tenth of a second, so to finally get one this year at the most crucial point in the season is special. It’s really important.”

Continuing to comment on the importance of every last point in this hard-fought title race, Hayes said, “It’s crucial here. Now all the sudden it’s no longer a three-point championship -- it’s now a two-point championship and I’m tied with Jason. Every one of these things counts.

“And if tomorrow I can get the laps led point, that puts me that much closer. And if I can win the race and get one or two more extra points in Ohio, that would give me a cushion where if something happens I can finish second and still win the championship. Every single point counts and we’re out for maximum points.”

After finally halting DiSalvo’s qualifying dominance, the next task is to stop title leader Bostrom’s raceday momentum as the California has won six of the last seven FX races.

Hayes is confident he can do just that. “We’ve got a good bike, the crew is working great, and we’re getting so much help from the Rockwall crew and the Honda factory crew. Everybody is behind us to try and win this.

“The race going to be crazy I think. Right now it’s like it’s been the last couple of weekends: we’re showing good speed early but come Saturday Eric always seems to catch back up a little bit.

“We keep just trying to do our part of the job which is make those guys keep trying to catch us. We’re kind of setting the bar out there as much as we can. Last weekend even in the race we showed good strength. We need to get 1% more this weekend. 0.12 seconds (note: the margin of Hayes’ loss to Bostrom at VIR). 1% will put us back in the front. That’s what we’re after -- to just do the job we’ve been doing plus 1% and we’ll take home the championship.”

Back to Page Top