The Triumph SuperBike Classic - Barber Motorsports Park

As Triumph Super Bike Classic weekend at Barber Motorsports Park 
approached, so too did the heat. With predications of temps to be in the mid to high 90s and clear sunny skies, teams were faced with running on 2.38 miles in 14 turns of a hot slick track surface. Needless to say, every practice session was extremely important and anything but routine as with every practice lap came valuable data. Crews could be seen up and down pit road, huddled with their rider, evaluating the numbers and comparing that to tire wear, pressures, suspension setup and the riders feedback on handling. 

Coming into the weekend, #1 Josh Hayes, defending National Guard SuperBike champion, leads the SuperBike class with six first and two-second place finishes,  and qualifying no less than first. It was apparent that team Monster Energy Graves Yamaha had their Yamaha R1 dialed in for Barber as Hayes won both races 1 & 2 from the pole. Teammate # 2 Josh Herrin placed second in the first race followed by # 79 Blake Young, while flipping positions with Young in the second race, finishing third.  

In the AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike class, # 36 Martin Cardenas was a hands down favorite to win with six first place finishes in the books on the season. Instead, it was # 6 Cameron Beaubier on a Yamaha YZF-R6 that pulled off two impressive hard fought wins over second place finisher in both races, the hard charging # 5 Dane Westby on a Suzuki GSX-R600.

It was East vs West in the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport class with East leader # 85 Jake Lewis and West leader # 1 James Rispoli at the top of a competitive field of forty riders. In race # 1 it was Lewis leading # 68 Dustin Dominquez across the stripe for top spot on the podium and Rispoli taking third. In race # 2 it was Rispoli fighting off Lewis for first place and # 12 Thomas Puerta closing out the top three.

In the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 class it looked like series leading # 1 Tyler Ohara would be the obvious overall winner, pulling the fastest laps in practice and the first qualifying race. But # 33 Kyle Wyman was fastest in the second qualifier and went on to win the race on Sunday followed by Ohara and coming in at third # 34 Michael Barnes.

With the 2012 Triumph SuperBike Classic weekend attendance of 37,419, up an estimated 3,000 persons over last year, coming out and enduring one of the hottest weekends thus far this summer, it is obvious that AMA Pro RoadRacing and Barber Motorsports Park are a perfect match. With the folks at Zoom Motorsports/Brunos Event Team coordinating it all, it’s an entertainment packed weekend for the entire family.  So if you missed this year’s race weekend, start making your reservation plans now for next year’s event. For details and event information go to http://www.barbermotorsports.com/park.

JoeRides