Hayes Back on Top In Road America SBK
Henny Ray Abrams | June 5, 2011
ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 5 – Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes took back the AMA Superbike Championship points lead by thoroughly dominating Sunday’s second race of the Subway Superbike Doubleheader at Road America.Hayes came into the race tied with Blake Young, the Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider who’d won Saturday’s race, as well as the previous race at Miller Motorsports Park. Today, in the final race of a beautiful weekend at the scenic tree-lined circuit, Hayes was untouchable.From the pole position, he briefly fell in line behind the Suzuki teammates before picking them off one at a time. First to go was Hayden, who he passed up the inside in the downhill turn eight left-hander on the second lap. Then came a pass of Young into Canada Corner, the fast right, later on the same lap. Then he was gone.
The lead grew quickly, peaking at 3.377 seconds on the 10th lap before he slowed at the end to win his second race of the year by 2.270 seconds. Hayden was second and Young third, a tenth behind.Hayes now has a 10-point lead, 191-181, over Young, after seven of 15 rounds. Hayden is third at 168.M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas finished fourth for the second day in a row. He had a chance to make a run at the Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammates until he made a mistake entering turn five on the 10th of 13 laps. He finished 2.903 seconds behind Young.National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden was fifth. It was an improvement over the day before when a misfire kept him from challenging at all.San Jose BMW’s Steve Rapp also had a better day. A problem with his rear brake lever position caused him to pull off the grid in Saturday’s race. Today he was alone in sixth at the front of three BMW’s. Foremost Insurance’s Larry Pegram broke away from a four-rider pack to take seventh, with Team Iron Horse ESP-BMW’s Chris Peris making a late but unsuccessful run at him.Yamaha Extended Service/Pat Clark Motorsports’ Chris Clark held off his 2010 teammate, Ben Bostrom (Jordan Suzuki) for ninth.
Superbike Results:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
3. Blake Young (Suzuki)
4. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
5. Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki)
6. Steve Rapp (BMW)
7. Larry Pegram (BMW)
8. Chris Peris (BMW)
9. Chris Clark (Yamaha)
10. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki)
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.
