Josh Hayes to Race 24 Hours of Le Mans With Yamaha Austria
Josh Hayes is currently embroiled in a battle with teammate Josh Herrin for the 2013 AMA Superbike Championship but the three-time defending champion has a chance to help win another title. Hayes has signed on to race with the Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.
The Yamaha Austria team is second in the World Endurance Championship trailing the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team by just 13 points going into the final round of the series at Le Mans. Hayes and World Supersport rider Sheridan Morais will join team regulars Broc Parkers and Igor Jerman in sharing riding duties on the team’s YZF-R1.
“As the past has shown, the 24hr race is always a lottery. We won in 2009 so there is no reason why we can’t do it again this year,” says Mandy Kainz, YART manager. “With Monster Energy and Yamaha we have been able to present a very strong team of riders for the race. We will put pressure on the Suzuki Endurance team from the first practice session. we have to make them nervous and force them into a mistake, under pressure they are quite prone to error.”
The 24 Hours of Le Mans will begin Sept. 21 at 3 pm CET (9 am EST, 6 am PST) and finish at the same time on Sept. 22.
Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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