Wednesday, October 5, 2011

AMA champion Josh Hayes to test Tech 3 Yamaha

Hayes's MotoGP test outing is a reward for winning the AMA Superbike Championship in 2011.

Recently-crowned AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes is set to get an outing on the Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP bike at Valencia next month as a reward for sealing the domestic Superbike crown.

The American beat Blake Young to win his second AMA Superbike title last month, winning three races aboard the Monster Graves Yamaha and finishing off the podium just twice all season.

As a prize for his efforts, Hayes's main sponsor Monster and Yamaha USA manager Keith McCarty have arranged for him to test Colin Edwards's YZF-M1 at the post MotoGP season Valencia test.

In an interview with Cycle News, Hayes says the deal came about as a replacement for a World Supersport outing he was forced to turn down earlier in the season.

"It's a nice opportunity,? he said. ?My understanding is Yamaha America wanted to do something nice for me; I've brought them two championships.

I had to turn away one opportunity to do a world championship race in World Supersport earlier in the season and I think [Keith] he felt bad turning me down because we had these championship aspirations going on and it was a business decision he had to make, but he understood my wanting to do that and he said, 'I'm going to try to work something out for you to say thank you and kind of do something nice for me, basically.'

"I believe he got together with Monster and Yamaha and Herve [Poncharal] and those guys and tried to put it together and it looks like it's going to work out. They called me a couple weeks ago to tell me about it. I'm excited about it and it'll be fun

"It's just an opportunity to go ride the machine, no pressure, have some fun. And see what it's all about, see what I can learn from it and I'm excited for that opportunity."

Tech 3 Yamaha is yet to announce who will partner Cal Crutchlow in the team next season, though Andrea Dovizioso, Alvaro Bautista and Eugene Laverty have been linked to Edwards's vacant seat.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/350/f/537799/s/190ce7c1/l/0L0Scrash0Bnet0Cmotogp0Cnews0C1736910C10Cama0Ichampion0Ijosh0Ihayes0Ito0Itest0Itech0I30Iyamaha0Bhtml0Dutm0Isource0Frss0Gutm0Imedium0Frss0Gutm0Icampaign0Frss/story01.htm

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