Henny Ray Abrams | June 4, 2011
ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 4 – Homeboy Blake Young moved into a tie with Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes for the Superbike points lead by holding off the defending national champion on a warm, breezy afternoon at Road America. Young’s Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate, Tommy Hayden, was a shadow third, denied second by .010 sec.The race was among the three championship leaders from the start, with Hayes and Young repeatedly passing each other in a number of spots. The passing zones were on the brakes into turns one and two, again into turn five, at the bottom of the hill in the left hand turn eight, and, bravely, into the near dead stop left hand kink.At the end of 12 of 13 laps, Young and Hayes had each led six laps; the winner of the race would also get a point for leading the most laps. Young began the final lap out front with Hayes making a move up the inside into turn eight. But Young instantly retaliated as they headed for the Carousel. Young, from nearby Madison, kept the pressure on and sped up the ramp to victory by .439 sec.
“I’m just happy, happy to be home, happy to be at Elkhart Lake,” Young said.Meanwhile, Hayden was briefly in front of Hayes on the run to turn 12, but Hayes struck back. On the run to the stripe it was anyone’s guess, with Hayes prevailing by .010 sec.It adds up to Hayes and Young being tied on points with 160, with Hayden 17 back in third after six of 16 races.M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas was 18.642 secs. behind the winner in fourth and alone; Foremost Insurance’s Larry Pegram was another 4.5 secs. back.National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden was sixth, losing ground to Pegram in the final laps and nearly being passed by his teammate. Instead, Ben Bostrom was seventh.Then another long interval to eighth, where Chris Clark would finish on the Yamaha Extended Service/Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha.
Superbike Results:
1. Blake Young (Suzuki)
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
3. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
5. Larry Pegram (BMW)
6. Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki)
7. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki)
8. Chris Clark (Yamaha)
9. Jason Farrell (Kawasaki)
10. Geoff May (Buell)
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.
