Yamaha’s Josh Hayes repeated history on Saturday with a dominant first 2010 AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike win at Infineon Raceway.

Last year, Hayes took his Team Graves Yamaha to his first career American SuperBike win and again today, after taking the pole position, backed up that achievement with a completely dominant victory in race one of two on this doubleheader weekend of AMA Pro Racing at the beautiful Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.

Hayes had to dispatch a fast-starting Blake Young (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) and once out front, Hayes basically kept his head down and ran off to a very convincing victory.

Giving credit to his Team Graves Yamaha in victory circle and also in the post race press conference, Hayes was full of praise for his motorcycle and team.

“My Yamaha was so easy to ride,” said Hayes, “I know the time gap doesn’t always tell the story of the whole race, but I feel pretty good about my machine.

“We did try some small things on the bike and I think we learned something from it and we’ll see if we can do something better with it tomorrow because we’re not going to rest on what we’ve done.”

Also enjoying a fast start to the race was Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing Ducati rider Larry Pegram who ran hard all day and as the race ran down fought back and fourth with firstly National Guard Jordan Suzuki rider Jake Zemke and then a fast Ben Bostron on his Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha.

As Zemke dropped back into the clutches of Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammates Blake Young and Tommy Hayden, Bostrom took the fight to Pegram and finally got by with three laps remaining.

Right about that point, Hayes had the slightest slip and got monetarily caught between gears which delayed him just enough to get his focus back in a big way. Bostrom tried all he could but there was no catching Hayes on this day.

Pegram took a well deserved third and continued his strong season in American SuperBike. Points leader Jake Zemke fought off Young and Hayden to slightly extend his points lead over Hayden and Young respectively in the season-long points chase.

Jake Holden, riding the M4 Monster Energy Suzuki in place of John Hopkins, continued his impressive weekend with a seventh place finish ahead of his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki teammate Chris Ulrich.

David Anthony took ninth on his Aussie Dave Suzuki ahead of the improving Team Iron Horse BMW ESP of Chris Peris.

Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki rider Martin Cardenas once again took a well-judged and hard-fought victory here today in the first of two AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL motorcycle races at Infineon Raceway.

Cardenas, a double winner here last year and also at the last race at Road Atlanta, continued his winning ways with a race-long battle with pole position winner Tommy Aquino (Team Graves Yamaha), reigning Daytona SportBike Champion Danny Eslick (Geico Powersports/RMR Suzuki) and 2010 Daytona SportBike points leader Josh Herrin.

Also in the mix was Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha rider Dane Westby and DNR Energy Drink/CNR Motorsports Ducati man Bobby Fong. Aquino led from pole, again in search of his first win, but the ever-present Eslick passed Aquino but couldn’t get away from the tightly bunched first four riders.

Herrin, Cardenas and Westby were right together and eventually Cardenas passed Herrin and then got by Aquino and thus began a stirring battle between the aggressive Eslick and the smooth yet fast Cardenas.

Westby and Fong were having their own private battle until Fong unfortunately suffered a fall in turn four, ending his day. As the leaders battled amongst themselves, the many other Daytona SportBike competitors began to become factors as the fast guys sliced and diced their way through the traffic.

More than once it seemed that disaster was imminent only to have the leaders pull through and continue their battles unabated. Cardenas pulled a superb passing maneuver by going around the outside of Eslick going into the turn nine right/left complex. But, Eslick is never beaten and he got back by Cardenas at the top of the circuit a couple of times with an inside move of his own.

Cardenas never lost his cool and he repassed Danny after the two ran side-by-side through what was thought to be a one line only series of turns.

The matter was finally and unfortunately settled coming out of the last turn on the penultimate lap when a back marker just bulked Danny enough coming out of the turn, allowing Cardenas to get the slightest gap he needed to hold off the ever-charging Eslick for the win in race one of two Daytona SportBike races this weekend.

Aquino and Westby also battled all the way to the flag, followed by a traffic-delayed Josh Herrin. Vesrah Suzuki rider Chris Fillmore was sixth and Westby’s Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha teammate, Clinton Seller in seventh.

Front-row starter Steve Rapp had a slight problem at the start on his Team Latus Motors Ducati but battled back from 24th to eighth place at the finish.

Race two of the doubleheader AMA Pro Road Racing weekend at Infineon Raceway will be tomorrow and it remains to be seen if Eslick can get his first win of the season, or if Aquino can take his first Daytona SportBike win.