No celebrations followed Sunday’s Pro Superbike Race Two at Road America. Instead, the podium finishers used the unconventional indoor trophy presentation and press conference to express their disapproval of the AMA’s decision to keep bikes racing during a downpour.
The press room, crowded with race teams, journalists and some apparently apprehensive AMA officials, also served as the substitute winner’s circle. Unlike the usual outdoor celebratory vibe, the room held a silent tension that wasn’t broken until race winner Josh Hayes opened his mouth to criticize the race officials’ disregard for rider safety.
“When I came up the front straightaway and saw the white flag, it kind of set on me,” Hayes said. “‘My god, they’re really going to make me ride this thing around another lap. Are they not watching this? Are they not seeing what’s happening right now?’”
“It was pretty sketchy,” third place Yoshimura Suzuki rider Roger Hayden said. “I don’t know who was making the calls there at the end, but they definitely didn’t have rider safety first.”
“They want to fly us all over the country and look at tracks for track safety,” Hayden continued, “but they want to make us run in a downpour on slicks.”
Hayden also questioned why AMA declared a wet race but did not allow the mandatory practice laps to riders. He received no answer.
Hayes won the race by a considerable margin, but that didn’t make the final laps any easier for him. In first gear, he navigated the wet uphills, downhills and corners while frequently looking back to check that his gap to second place was still safe. While Hayes successfully steered around the course, several other riders didn’t fare so well, losing their bikes in the wet patches.
Hayes commented that at one point as he approached his lapped teammate Cameron Beaubier, he watched the rookie hit a wet patch and crash. Had Beaubier not been there, Hayes said, it would have been himself hitting that same patch and going down.
SIC/Motul/Fly Racing’s owner/rider and second place finisher David Anthony spoke less on the subject than Hayes and Hayden, but his opinion was clear. “Bad decision by AMA,” Anthony said. “They really need to step up their game.”
When trophies were presented to the top finishers, they each briefly smiled for mandatory photos, and then retook their seats in a matter of seconds.
Despite the onslaught of questions and comments, the riders received few clear answers to their questions regarding the rulebook.
The controversial call came in the same weekend that two riders, Bob Price and Karl Harris, died in crashes in normal racing conditions in the 2014 TT Isle of Man races.
