Hayden Holds Off Hayes

Henny Ray Abrams | July 18, 2010

LEXINGTON, OHIO, JULY 18 – Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden clawed back some valuable championship points by holding off Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes for most of the 21 laps of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.Hayden, who’d lost the championship lead to Hayes on Saturday, led all but three of the 21 laps, and from lap 10 to the end, to notch his third win of the season.He had Hayes for company for the duration, and the Yamaha rider took the lead briefly, but Hayden struck back within three laps.Once he took control on the tenth lap, Hayden never had a margin of comfort, but he also never put a wheel wrong en route to winning by .194 secs.Hayes continues to lead the American SuperBike championship with 285 points to 281 for Hayden.Native son Larry Pegram (Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing Ducati) withstood racelong pressure from Pat Clark Motorsports’ Ben Bostrom (Yam) to finish third. Pegram and Bostrom stuck with the leaders until the final five laps when the leaders were able to edge away. The difference between Ohioan Pegram and Bostrom at the stripe was .188 secs.Canadian Brett McCormick scored his best finish on the Jordan Suzuki by passing teammate Jake Zemke (National Guard Suzuki) to finish fifth. McCormick, riding in place of the injured Aaron Yates, ran down Zemke at the end and passed him on the final lap.RidersDiscount.com’s Taylor Knapp (Suz) held off M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich to take eighth.Geoff May rode the Buell 1125RR to ninth, well in front of Kurtis Roberts on the RidersDiscount.com Yamaha.There were 12 finishers, the smallest field anyone could remember. The final two were Greg Fryer (FJ Racing Yamaha) and Johnny Rock Page (Aussie Dave Racing Suzuki).Among the non-finishers were Eric Bostrom (Cycle World Attack Performance Yoshimura Suzuki), Ulrich’s teammate Jake Holden, Canadian Superbike Champion Jordan Szoke (Waznie Racing Ciclo Werks BMC Dewildt Honda), and Chris Clark, Ben Bostrom’s teammate. Bostrom had an engine problem and Holden said he had trouble with the front brakes.

Results:

1 Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)

2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)

3. Larry Pegram (Ducati)

4. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)

5. Brett McCormick (Suzuki)

6. Jake Zemke (Suzuki)

7. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)

8. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki)

9. Geoff May (Buell)

10. Kurtis Roberts (Yamaha)

 

Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor

Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.