Hayes edges Rapp for FX victory at Road America

Hayes edges Rapp for FX Victory

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Erion Honda’s Josh Hayes won his fourth consecutive Lockhart Phillips USA Formula Xtreme contest from pole on Saturday at Road America, out-dueling title rival Steve Rapp to the checkered flag followed a spirited battle.

The defending class champion and the Daytona 200 winner saw their dogfight come down to the race’s final lap. Rapp drafted past Hayes’ CBR600RR aboard his Attack Kawasaki ZX-6R at the end of the front straight moments after taking the white flag. Hayes didn’t wait long to strike back, diving underneath his rival going into the hard-braking Turn 5.

Any plans Rapp may have entertained concerning a last-corner maneuver for the win were foiled when Hayes made a decisive move past a lapper in Turn 13. The Mississippian held on to take his first ever win at Road America.

“I’ve gotten second here so many times,” Hayes said. “This one’s always on my list of ones I want to win. That was probably one of the most fun races I’ve had in a long time. I enjoyed riding around with Steve. It was a great battle and it really kind of pepped me up because it made me be creative and look for new passing lines and try some new things.”

He continued, “I decided I wanted to lead through the infield on the last lap. And then also when I saw traffic up ahead of us when I came out of the chicane, I said, ‘okay, this is my chance. I really need to get by them on the brakes going into Canada Corner’. I think that probably sealed it up for me, just being able to put those pieces together and get a good run onto the front straightaway and I was able to make it. I was really happy about it.”

Commenting on the last lap, Rapp said, “Nothing really happened, the pace was just really fast. I didn’t make any mistakes and Josh wasn’t going to make too many mistakes either, so I think it just came down to bike set-up, tires, and things like that. My bike was pretty good the whole entire race.

“The team has been working hard from Daytona just to play catch-up since it’s the first year with everything. We’re making a lot of progress. The bike is a good bike and the tires are coming around too, so I think we’ve got a good package and maybe the rest of the year we can keep improving on it and try to get up front.”

Colombian Martin Cardenas was an extremely impressive third in his first FX outing substituting the injured Michael Barnes for Team M4 EMGO Suzuki. The former World 250GP rider closed the gap on the leaders and drafted past Hayes’ teammate, Aaron Gobert, in Turn 1 on the final lap to take control of the final podium position.

“My start wasn’t great so I had to come from the back,” he said. “When I got to fourth these three guys were like two seconds ahead of me. I kept pushing very hard the entire race to try to close the gap. Two laps to go and Aaron made a mistake in the chicane. I passed him the next lap and got third.”

Gobert held on for fourth with Leo Vince-backed Ducati rider Larry Pegram in fifth.

Boulder Motorsports Ducati’s Marty Craggill picked up sixth on the team’s 749R. Attack Kawasaki’s Ben Attard finished seventh with Rockwall Honda’s Ryan Andrews, Team Hunter’s Cory West, and Lucky 7 Racing’s Chad Herrmann rounding out the top ten.

Following 5 of 11 rounds, Hayes leads Rapp 177-152 in the championship hunt. Gobert is third at 123.