The opening day of action for the 2013 GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing season brought renewed excitement in the form of fresh rider/team combinations, altered equipment and color schemes, and rejuvenated title hopes.
However, while much did change over the offseason, the end result at the completion of the season's first AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway proved very familiar.
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes delivered the field a sobering reminder of his unprecedented 2012 dominance with a similarly convincing Thursday performance. The reigning triple champion was immediately over a second quicker than the next faster rider and maintained that sort of advantage throughout the session.
Despite some determined late-session efforts from his key rivals, Hayes ended the session on provisional pole with 1.059 seconds in hand with a best time of 1:37.746.
"Everything went pretty smooth. It's a good first day for starting off a new season." Hayes said in his typically understated fashion, "I was feeling a bit of pressure about just getting things started.
"All the pressure and the hype of new people and new things coming in -- I've been kind of anxious to get on the racetrack and see how it all plays out. I think I left myself some pretty big shoes to fill last season.
"I didn't really focus too much on anybody else on the racetrack today; I just kind of did my own thing and then came in and saw how the leaderboard looked whenever I wasn't on the racetrack.
"Right now I just want to do my job. If I continue to do what I've been doing the last year or so, the pressure is on them to catch up to me. So far, so good. We'll see what happens from here," he concluded.
Significant shuffling took place in the order behind Hayes during the session's final two minutes. When the dust had cleared, National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Roger Hayden was second (1:38.805), just fractionally quicker than Hayes' teammate, Josh Herrin (1:38.960), and Yoshimura Suzuki's new hope, Martin Cardenas (1:39.001).
Jordan Suzuki's Danny Eslick was impressive in his debut with the Michael Jordan Motorsports team, clocking the second fastest time in the opening practice and holding down that same spot during QP1 for a time before dropping a few spots late.
He still walked away with fifth overall on Thursday, just three tenths off Hayden's runner-up mark at 1:39.121.
Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing Yamaha's Larry Pegram posted a similar pace in sixth (1:39.308), however his session ended with his new R1 tumbling over his head in a dramatic late-session crash.
No other rider was within two seconds of the provisional pole.
Yoshimura Suzuki's Chris Clark, Team Hero EBR's Geoff May, Motosport.com Motul Fly Racing's David Anthony, and May's Team AMSOIL/Hero-backed teammate, Aaron Yates, rounded out Thursday's top ten.
Should Hayes lock down the pole tomorrow morning, it will mark the 23rd of his SuperBike career, just one removed from three-time Ben Spies for second all-time.
AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike
Cameron Beaubier proved to be the quickest rider in AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike as the competitors prepare for tomorrow's chance at pole for the 72nd DAYTONA 200. The fastest qualifier tomorrow will win a Rolex Daytona Cosmograph as well as start on pole for Saturday's 57-lap race.
Beaubier had nearly a second in hand in the afternoon session, with his Yamaha Extended Services Graves Yamaha YZF-R6 machine leading Jake Gagne and J.D. Beach of RoadRace Factory Yamaha. Beaubier's time of 1:50.799 in the afternoon improved on his morning time, which was also the fast time in that session.
A spate of crashes in the chicane marked the end of the session as riders got to speed after the winter break. Beaubier's teammate Garrett Gerloff was one of the crashers, as was GEICO Honda's Dane Westby as the weather was cool but clear on Thursday, with higher temperatures expected for the rest of the weekend.
Beaubier won seven AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike races in 2012 and finished third in the championship despite missing time with injury and the opening day of the season seemed to show he continued his momentum for last year.
The RoadRace Factory pilots and Bobby Fong on the Triple Crown/RMR Yamaha all clocked times in the 1:51-second range.
Top Image: Josh Hayes and Yamaha Kick Off the Cobwebs at Daytona International Speedway
Credit: AMA Pro Racing/Brian J. Nelson
