Mid-Ohio AMA Superbike: Race 2

2011 AMA Superbike Results

In nine out of 11 races so far in the 2011 AMA Superbike Championship, victory went to either Blake Young or the reigning champion, Josh Hayes.

This includes Young’s race-two victory Saturday at Mid-Ohio, Round 6 of the 2011 Championship.

And from the looks of things at race two as the Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider blasted off from the pole position, it looked like he would double. But Mid-Ohio wouldn’t give Young the double; rather, his teammate Tommy Hayden took the win, his second this season (Infineon).

But Young would finish second after dueling with his teammate, with Tommy’s younger brother taking the final podium position, Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden. This race will always be remembered by the younger brother of Tommy and MotoGP rider Nicky Hayden; it was Roger Lee’s first-ever podium in the AMA Superbike class.

This is also the second time for a Suzuki Trifecta; the last one arrived at Barber Motorsports Park, when M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas won a rain-plagued Superbike race ahead of Jordan Suzuki’s Ben Bostrom and Young.

But it wasn’t an easy win for Tommy Hayden, who was also victorious at Mid-Ohio last season. Race two came down to a four-way battle right to the final turn.

When the race got underway, Hayes lead for a bit before getting passed by Young. Then Tommy strategically moved to the front, knocking off his brother before taking Hayes and then Young on lap 17 of 21. Meanwhile, Roger Lee Hayden also passed Hayes.

On Lap 18, Young would reclaim the lead, and he was able to hold off his teammate until the penultimate lap. Once Tommy was in front, he lead the four-way pack of Young, Roger Lee Hayden and Hayes to the checkered flag; Tommy would finish 0.119 of a second ahead of Young.

Tommy Hayden (Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike) says: "We kept at all weekend, working very hard, and ended up with something good. Yesterday we tried hard, but today I was really hungry. I wanted a win, and it’s been a while since I’ve been on the top. All these guys made it really tough for me though."

Arriving 14.947 seconds behind the four-way lead group was a lonely Cardenas. A further 2.6-seconds behind the freshman was Bostrom, who had an intense battle with the man who finished seventh, Larry Pegram on his self-funded Ducati 1198.

Two other riders that battled throughout Race 2 in Mid-Ohio were Cycle World Attack Performance Kawasaki’s JD Beach and Chris Filmore on the new-to-the-grid KTM RC8R; Beach would finish 0.389 seconds ahead of Filmore.

Rounding out the top 10 was yet another new machine on the grid, the Amsoil EBR Buell 1190RS.

With his race-1 win and podium finish, Young retains the AMA Superbike point lead with 290 points, 11 ahead of Hayes. Tommy gun sits in third with 233 points. The AMA Superbike series has a week break before heading to Laguna Seca for a double-header with MotoGP. 

2011 Mid-Ohio AMA Superbike: Race 2 Results