Josh Hayes has the distinction of being the rider to win the very
first AMA professional race at Miller Motorsports Park when the
state-of-the-art track opened last June. This Saturday, June 23, Hayes
hopes to become the track’s first repeat winner as he rides his
Erion Honda CBR600RR in the Lockhart Phillips USA Formula Xtreme
Series presented by HMR.
Chances are good for Hayes, who is riding the crest of a four-race
Formula Xtreme winning streak coming into Tooele. He’s built a
25-point lead over Attack Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp. If Hayes wins this
weekend it would mark the longest Formula Xtreme winning streak in
seven years.
Hayes is coming off one of his hardest fought victories ever, edging
out rival Rapp at Road America. “I had to pull out every trick in
the book to get that win,” Hayes said.
Rapp, who won the series opener in Daytona, hopes he and his team can
finally figure out a way to stop the Hayes/Honda juggernaut at Miller.
“Since Daytona the team has been playing catch up all season since
this is our first year in the championship,” Rapp said. “We’re
making a lot of progress. I think we have a good package and hopefully
in the second half of the season we’ll continue to improve and be
able to put our bike up front.”
In the AMA Superstock Series presented by Dynojet Ben Spies has taken
firm control of the championship chase with an impressive four wins in
five races.
Spies, who rides for the factory Yoshimura Suzuki squad, is 33 points
ahead of M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Geoff May and Graves Yamaha’s Ben
Bostrom, who are tied for second in the standings with 144 points
each. Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates is just a whisper behind with 141
points. So while Spies has set himself apart from the rest of the
field, the battle for second right now in Superstock is as intense as
it gets.
Spies could be in rare territory at Miller. If he wins his fourth
straight Superstock race, it would mark only the second time that has
happened in the last eight years. Tom Kipp pulled off that feat back
in 1999 when the class was called 750 Supersport and Aaron Yates did
it again in 2005.
Scott Jensen earned his first podium result in the last round at
Road America, pushing his HALOF Racing Suzuki to third.
I don’t know if we can do this again, the competition in this class
is really tough” Jensen said. “Hopefully I can get up here again
and this can be the start of some good things.”
SPEED will provide broadcast coverage of each class on Tuesday, June
26 at 1:00 pm Eastern
AMA Formula Xtreme and AMA Superstock are part of the AMA Superbike
Championship presented by Parts Unlimited and Miller Motorsports
Park’s Honda Summit of Speed doubleheader round on June 22-24.
Tickets are available for the event via Ticketmaster. You can also
visit www.millermotorsportspark.com
for additional ticket and schedule information.