Champions honoured at AMA banquet

From AMA Pro Racing

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Following a season of spectacular road racing at some of America's finest circuits, the AMA Pro Road Racing community gathered on Monday evening for the season-ending awards banquet at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum to honour the 2010 AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike, Daytona SportBike, SuperSport and Vance & Hines XR1200 Series champions.

In National Guard SuperBike, Team Graves Yamaha rider Josh Hayes claimed three poles (Infineon Raceway, Road America and Mid-Ohio), seven victories (Infineon Raceway Races One and Two, Road America Race One, Mid-Ohio Race One, VIR Race Two and New Jersey Races One and Two) and led 222 laps to top Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Tommy Hayden for the rider championship, 466-452, and give Yamaha its first AMA Pro SuperBike championship in over a decade.

The additional strength of Blake Young over the course of the season boosted Rockstar Makita Suzuki's total team points over the Graves Yamaha team, giving them and Suzuki the team and manufacturer championships, respectively.

M4 Monster Energy Suzuki's Martin Cardenas led the Daytona SportBike field, finishing with 405 points, eight more than GEICO Powersports RMR Suzuki rider Danny Eslick's 397 tallies. Cardenas accumulated an impressive nine wins (Auto Club Race One, Road Atlanta Races One and Two, Infineon Race One, Road America Race Two, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, New Jersey Race One and Barber Races One and Two) and led 95 laps in his march to the top.

Graves Yamaha's formidable combination of Josh Herrin and Tommy Aquino awarded them the team championship, with Suzuki taking the manufacturer's championship on the strength of Cardenas' and Eslick's finishes.

The SuperSport West Division championship was claimed by Joey Pascarella, who claimed two poles (Daytona, Auto Club) and three wins (Daytona Race Two, Auto Club Races One and Two) and finished the season with 197 points over second place Elena Myers. In SuperSport East, JD Beach exerted dominance over the field, earning two poles (Mid-Ohio, VIR) and seven victories (Road Atlanta Races One and Two, Road America Race One, Mid-Ohio Races One and Two and VIR Races One and Two) to give him 265 points over second place Huntley Nash's 223 points. The Young Gun and Top Gun National Championships were determined at Barber Motorsports Park using moto-style scoring and went to Austin DeHaven and Tyler O'Hara, respectively.

The inaugural Vance & Hines XR1200 Series crown was claimed by Eslick, who earned three poles, three victories and led 40 laps in only three starts to finish the season with 96 points, eight points over second place Tyler Wyman.