Young edges Hayes for Superbike win

From AMA Pro Racing

TOOELE, UT - Monday's AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike race at Miller Motorsports Park's BigM Weekend didn't let the frontrunners on track or the fans in their seats relax for a second, as Josh Hayes (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) and Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammates Blake Young and Tommy Hayden tore through MMP's fifteen turns in a relentless display of determination and skill. In the end Young picked up his third win of the season.

Hayes launched smoothly into the lead off the start, Young attached to his rear wheel with Martin Cardenas (M4 Suzuki) and Tommy Hayden right behind. A few bike-lengths behind the lead trio, Roger Hayden (National Guard Jordan Suzuki) led a train of riders all looking for a way by, Iron Horse BMW's Chris Peris heading JD Beach (Cycle World/Attack Performance Kawasaki), Steve Rapp (San Jose BMW), Ben Bostrom (Jordan Suzuki), and Larry Pegram (Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing.)

Beach, the 19-year-old class rookie (MMP was his second career SuperBike race), notified the field of his intention by posting the quickest lap the race had seen yet, then making a move that carried him up into sixth position, just a bike-length behind Roger Hayden. Behind them, Calgary's Peris tucked the front, crashing out of eighth and allowing the second group of riders to shuffle forward in the standings.

Kawasaki's Beach, meanwhile, was taking his expected learning curve literally, trying a pass on Roger that saw him briefly rise to fifth, only to be sent back to start by the veteran rider. Not at all discouraged, Beach tried again less than a lap later and this time made it stick -- a feat that held the attention of race-watchers until Cardenas suddenly crashed out of third, relegated to MMP's muddy sidelines.

With 10 laps to go, Roger reclaimed fifth from Beach and shut the kid down, at least for the moment, and all eyes returned to the battle for first between Hayes and Young, which had meanwhile been joined by a head-down Tommy Hayden. As the top three tore down Miller's 3,500-foot straightaway, Young set up a pass and took over the lead seconds later, only to see Hayes immediately strike back. That kicked off a chain of lead-swaps that wouldn't abate in number or intensity throughout the rest of the race, as Hayes and Young ripped toward a last-lap showdown.

With just five left to go, Beach had retaken fourth from Roger and was looking solid, but just seconds after Pegram was left ride-less thanks to a mechanical, Beach lost the front and went down in Clubhouse Corner, his bike tumbling end-over-end along with his hopes for a top-five finish.

At the front, Young pushed Hayes back behind him, sandwiching the Yamaha between the pair of Suzukis as Young took a glance behind to be sure it was true. It wasn't, at least not for long, as Hayes punched his way to the front again and did everything he could to break away. Young and Hayden were far from about to let that happen, however, Young trading the lead with Hayes several more times as the trio headed for the last lap.

Though Hayes was first to take the white flag, Young was already setting him up as they approached Turn 1 for the last time, delivering the final blow seconds later when he swooped into the lead and managed to spin out a few bike lengths in his forward charge. Hayes rode the wheels off his Yamaha as they filtered through the last set of turns, running up on the curb and giving Hayden a momentary look at second, but Young had the lead in hand as the frontrunners poured out onto the front straight, taking the win by .757 seconds.

"For the beginning of the race I just tried to settle into a comfortable pace and just really try to hit my marks, and just for some reason I found myself not being able to do that," Young explained. "When I'd allow myself to get comfortable, Josh would get a gap that was a little bit more than that I was comfortable with him having, so I'd have to run it back down and settle back into my pace again, and it just didn't seem like that was the way to win the race. So I made the decision that I was just going to put my head down from there, and halfway through, I just tried as hard as I could to the checkers and left it all on the track.

"I'm pretty comfortable racing with either one of these guys handlebar-to-handlebar like that, because they know what they're doing there out there. And I'm glad I did that; I think it was great racing, I had a great time racing out there, and it was hopefully a good show for the fans."

Hayes said he felt most comfortable in front of the field.

"I felt that if we were all on the same boat and all had tires go off at the end, that it would be harder to pass than it would be to lead," he said. "If I could kind of dictate how the race was going ... I'm a little more comfortable at the front. At the same time, [I was thinking] if he is faster than me, I don't want to allow him that opportunity, so I have to attack right back.

"I didn't really know how it was going, but I know I had a plus-zero on my board the whole time, then he started coming up alongside and, you know, it was just good racing. We'd get alongside each other and neither wanted to give up. You try to be respectful and safe -- if he was inside of me, I tried to leave him at least a way out -- and he treated me a little bit the same, and hopefully the TV was on us for a lot of that, because I thought it was a pretty damned good race."

Hayden felt he had used up his tires by the end of the race.

"[The battle between Young and Hayes] looked like what you saw, except I was a little closer," he said. "I had a great view; those guys were really going at it. There were a couple times when I thought they were going to make it easy for me and give it to me -- they were a couple inches apart through some of those sections -- but they were both riding well and riding hard.

"I was able to close the gap, but when I had that gap and I did those kind of quick laps, I was on the limit and didn't save anything and maybe burned my tires up a little bit, because once I got on the back of them I was struggling to get off the corners and get a good drive to make any passes. But like I said, those guys were just a little bit better than me today. I rode good enough to win today, I think, I just didn't race well enough to win today. We'll take third today, it's another podium, but I'm glad we get to race next week."

Young, Hayes, and Tommy Hayden were followed across the line by Roger Hayden, Rapp, Clark, Geoff May (EBR Racing), Bostrom, David Anthony (ADR Fly Racing) and Jeremy Toye (San Diego BMW).

As the series heads for next weekend's Round 4 at Elkhart Lake's Road America, Hayes leads the overall AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Championship by five points over Young, 134 to 129. Tommy Hayden sits third with 122.

Steve Rapp (Parts Unlimited) won Monday's AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 event at Miller Motorsports Park's BigM Weekend.

Rapp took over the lead with just four laps to go, followed within a second by Chris Fillmore (Bruce Rossmeyer's Daytona Racing), Michael Barnes (Drag Specialties), and the reigning class champion, RMR Bruce Rossmeyer's Daytona Racing's Danny Eslick.

With three laps left to go, the dicing between Fillmore and Eslick had allowed Rapp to put a half-second between himself and the other podium contenders -- a comfortable difference if the two Bruce Rossmeyer teammates stayed focused on each other. As Rapp kept his head down and continued to drag footpegs through MMP's flowing turns, he posted the quickest lap the race had seen yet.

Elbows out, Eslick and Fillmore took the white flag almost side-by-side, having left Barnes several seconds behind but simultaneously lost touch with Rapp, the latter rider now unstoppable more than a second ahead. The pair swapped position heading for the back section of the Utah track, Fillmore making a final bid for the second step but ultimately unable to fend off Eslick, who blasted by and made it stick as the pair tore onto the front straight for the final time.

Superbike Race Results
1. Blake Young (Rockstar ·Makita ·Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 16 Laps
2. Josh Hayes (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) Yamaha YZF-R1 +0.756
3. Tommy Hayden (Rockstar ·Makita ·Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +0.815
4. Roger Hayden (National Guard Jordan Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +21.871
5. Steve Rapp (San Diego BMW/Locust Powered by Lee`s Cycle) BMW S1000RR +31.598
6. Chris Clark (Yamaha Extended Service, Pat Clark Sports, Graves, Yamaha) Yamaha YZF-R1 +32.877
7. Geoff May (Amsoil EBR Racing) Buell 1125R +36.784
8. Ben Bostrom (Jordan Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +42.088
9. David Anthony (ADR Fly Racing) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +48.817
10. Jeremy Toye (San Diego BMW/Locust Powered by Lee`s Cycle) BMW S1000RR +58.803
11. Tony Kasper (Team Iron Horse BMW ·ESP) BMW S1000RR +1:19.952
12. Chris Siebenhaar (Rockwell Time/BCS Racing) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +1:34.738
13. Trent Gibson (Seven Sports) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +1:48.147
14. Wesley Kane (M Racing) Suzuki GSX-R1000 15 Laps
15. JD Beach (Cycle World Attack Performance) Kawasaki ZX-10 12 Laps
16. Larry Pegram (Pegram Racing) BMW S1000RR +25.578
17. Martin Cardenas (M4 Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 5 Laps
18. Chris Trounson (San Diego BMW/Locust Powered by Lee`s Cycle) BMW S1000RR 4 Laps
19. Chris Peris (Team Iron Horse BMW ·ESP) BMW S1000RR 2 Laps
20. Jordan Burgess (ADR Fly Racing) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +8.427
Race Time: 29:43.929
Margin of Victory: 0.756
Best Race Lap: Tommy Hayden (1:50.405)

Superbike Point Standings
1. Josh Hayes 134
2. Blake Young 129
3. Tommy Hayden 122
4. Martin Cardenas 67
5. Ben Bostrom 64
6. Larry Pegram 64
7. Chris Clark 60
8. Roger Hayden 57
9. Steve Rapp 49
10. Jeremy Toye 47
11. Geoff May 45
12. Chris Peris 39
13. David Anthony 39
14. Chris Ulrich 33
15. Chris Siebenhaar 23
16. JD Beach 18
17. Tony Kasper 17
18. Chris Trounson 16
19. Shane Narbonne 16
20. Trent Gibson 15
21. James B. Randolph 14
22. Eric Bostrom 13
23. Eric Haugo 13
24. Jordan Burgess 9
25. Wesley Kane 7
26. Jeffrey Lampe 7
27. Eric Pinson 6
28. Bostjan Skubic 5
29. Johnny Rock Page 1