MotoAmerica.com

The size of the monkey on Roger Hayden’s back was more gorilla than chimpanzee, but he tossed that aside with a brilliant ride in the first of two MotoAmerica Superbike races on a steamy Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park to win his first race of the season and his first in three years. And then he followed it up with a close second-place finish to his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Toni Elias, losing out by just .126 of a second in race two for his fifth runner-up finish of the season.

Hayden’s victory in race one was impressive as he was hounded throughout by Elias, but withstood the pressure to beat the Spaniard to the line by .210 of a second.

“I’m just really happy to get this win, finally,” said Hayden, who last won at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2013. “It’s been a long time. I’m glad my family’s here. My dad and my mom and brothers and a bunch of people from home, so it makes it a little more special. My guys (his crew), they need this win too. We all want to win. We were all getting tired of getting second all the time, so it’s good for them.”

For Elias the win in race two was his fourth of the season and it ended a win-less drought that dated back to Road Atlanta in May. The Suzuki one-two finishes on Sunday in the Honda Superbike Showdown of Alabama were also the first since the Yoshimura pairing started the season with three of them in a row for the Suzuki team.

“We needed to improve the traction,” Elias said. “We did today in the last moment. I’m happy. We are doing a really great job. And finally a mistake in the first race and Roger (Hayden) did a great, great race. But I didn’t want a mistake for the second, and leading all the time, only two laps. And finally I tried to give my 100 percent the last two laps and win this race. It worked. I’m happy to have this feeling again. To win again is nice.”

Elias dedicated his victory to Luis Salom, the Spanish Moto2 racer who lost his life last weekend in the Catalunyan Grand Prix.

MotoAmerica Superbike Champion and points leader Cameron Beaubier ended the day with two third-place finishes on the Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha. In race one, Beaubier ran off in turn one and completed lap one buried in the pack, but he turned in an heroic ride to climb back to third, ending up almost nine seconds behind the Suzuki duo after closing to within four seconds at one point.

In race two, Beaubier matched the pace of the two Suzukis, but could never make a pass. He chased them across the line just .841 of a second behind for his second third-place finish of the day.

“Yeah, I was struggling pretty bad driving off the corners with them and that was making it to where I would just catch up on the brakes,” Beaubier said. “I wasn’t able to put a wheel in on those guys. But, honestly, normally I’d be pretty bummed with a third place, but I feel like they had a little bit of pace on me definitely today, so it is what it is. I’m looking forward to moving on to Miller (Utah Motorsports Campus). It’s a track I like and it’s closer to home.”

For the second straight race, Hayden posted the quickest lap - a 1:25.606, which was faster than the 1:26.639 from race one.