Young Re-Takes Points Lead With Mid-Ohio Win
Henny Ray Abrams | July 9, 2011
LEXINGTON, OHIO, JULY 9 – Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young took back the Superbike points lead by beating Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes in the red flag-interrupted Superbike race on a hot day at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.The win was the sixth of the season for Young, who began the year with a double at Daytona International Speedway. But in the next race at Infineon Raceway he fell behind Hayes, who won from the pole position and led the most laps. From that day back in May until this afternoon, the Yamaha rider had been in charge. No more. Young now has 264 points to 261 for Hayes with six races remaining.
The original start was stopped on the eighth of 21 laps when Canadian Chris Peris crashed the Team Iron Horse BMW-ESP S 1000 RR.Hayes got the jump on the 15-lap re-start, taking National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden, Young and his teammate Tommy Hayden with him.By the end of the tenth lap it was Hayes from Young and Tommy, with Roger Lee at the back of the quartet. Roger Lee would stay with the lead trio for the entire race, though he slowed considerably on the final lap while finishing fourth.Up front Hayes controlled the pace until being passed by Young on the 16th lap. Hayes came back at him more than once, but had his hands full holding off the persistent Tommy Hayden.Hayes took a few looks on the 20th lap, but on the final lap there was no drama and Young sped to his sixth win of the season, and ninth overall. That puts him a tie with Kevin Schwantz and Aaron Yates.M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas overcame a slow start to win the battle for fifth over Larry Pegram, who’d gotten his Foremost Insurance BMW sorted out for the weekend.Chris Fillmore finished an admirable seventh in his Superbike debut and the debut of the KTM/HMC Racing KTM RC8R. Fillmore had one proper test and one track day on the KTM before making his Superbike debut.
Superbike Results:
1. Blake Young (Suzuki)
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
3. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Roger Lee Hayden (Suzuki)
5. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
6. Larry Pegram (BMW)
7. Chris Fillmore (KTM)
8. Steve Rapp (BMW)
9. David Anthony (Suzuki)
10. JD Beach (Kawasaki)
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.
