Yamaha USA’s Jamie Hacking secured the second AMA Pro Honda Oils Supersport crown of his career on Sunday at Virginia International Raceway, locking up the ’06 championship with two races remaining thanks to his season-long virtuoso performance.

Hacking took the title in fine style, dogfighting with Team M4 EMGO Suzuki teammates Geoff May and Michael Barnes, who each took a turn in the lead, en route to his sixth consecutive victory aboard the works YZF R6.

As the contest neared mid-distance, a motivated Roger Hayden was rapidly tracking down the leading trio on his Team Kawasaki ZX-6RR. However, just as the Kentuckian was about to turn the race for the win into a four-way fight, he crashed out on lap 8 of 17.

Even after Hacking’s crew passed the word along through his pitboard and the reality of the situation set in, ‘the Bulldog’ continued to battle for the win, confident in the ability of May and Barnes to race hard yet safe. A successful run through traffic provided Hacking with the edge he needed to break free ever so slightly, and he claimed the checkered flag 1.752 seconds in front of May.

Hacking took an extended victory lap, which included a 40-yard dash along the fence line to exchange high fives with the spectators.

Afterwards, Hacking enthused, “This feels every bit it as good as the first one. It’s just been a really good class for me and my guys always prepare me an excellent motorcycle. To win this championship again has definitely been a goal set in my mind since we had it in ’03 and then lost it. It feels unbelievable to get it back and to get it back with two races left to go is just incredible.

“My guys said before the race that if I saw the ‘95’ on the board it meant that Rog was out. I saw it but didn’t want to believe it. I finally saw his bike out there and I still didn’t really believe it. On the last lap I saw that ‘2006’ on the board and it was unbelievable. It was an incredible weekend for us.”

Hacking appears likely to close out his historic season with a pair of titles, as he currently leads the Repsol Superstock championship by 32 points with two races remaining. “I’ve got a week to settle in this glory and we got one more title that we’re trying to battle for. We can focus on that thing now 110%. We’ve got a nice little gap and we’re going to play it smart and just keep doing what we’re doing right now.”

Barnes continued on to finish third, his fourth podium of the year in the class.

Topline Printing’s Chris Peris took a break from his World Supersport duties to finish in fourth some four seconds ahead of fifth-placed Ben Attard on the Attack Kawasaki.

MPT Performance’s Blake Young claimed sixth while Attard’s teammate Damon Buckmaster came home in seventh.

Young’s teammate, Danny Eslick, Arclight Suzuki’s Jeff Wood, and Safety First Suzuki’s Tony Meiring completed the top ten.