Four-time AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes has won 11 races at New Jersey Motorsports Park. During the two practice sessions on Friday at NJMP, Hayes showed that he has the pace to fight for more Motul Superbike wins in the Garden State tomorrow and Sunday at the Championship of New Jersey.
Hayes turned the quickest lap of the day in the afternoon’s second session, the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory rider clicking off a 1:21.130 to lead Yoshimura Suzuki’s championship leader Toni Elias by .099 of a second. Third place went to YCRS/Cambr/KWR/Yamaha's Kyle Wyman, the leader of the first session. Wyman was just .261 of a second behind Hayes.
Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was fourth fastest, and the fastest of the Bazzaz Superstock 1000 men. Scholtz lapped at 1:21.648 to best Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden and Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda’s Jake Gagne, the last rider to lap in the 1:21s. The top six riders were separated by just .773 of a second.
The two Supersport practice sessions were again led by championship points leader Garrett Gerloff on his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha R6, the Texan beat his teammate JD Beach by 1.123 seconds. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise was third fastest, just .013 of a second slower than Beach.
The KTM RC Cup, meanwhile, held the first of its two qualifying sessions on Friday with Sean Ungvarsky having his best day in the class to lead the time sheets. Alex Dumas and Jackson Blackmon were second and third, respectively, with championship leader Benjamin Smith ending Day 1 in third.