Road America Superbike: Race 2 Results

2011 AMA Superbike

Spoiler Alert

This year’s AMA Superbike podium hasn’t changed much, except for the order. And Race 2 of Round 4 in the AMA SBK Championship in Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., was no different.

As in Race 1 at Road America, two Rockstar Makita Suzuki superbikes and a Monster Energy Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 were on the podium, but in a different order. This time around the reigning Superbike Champion got the best of Young, taking the Suzuki GSX-R1000 pilot by 2.270 seconds. Taking third was Young’s teammate, Tommy Hayden.

Hayden would get the holeshot in race 2, with Young and Hayes following. For the first few laps, it was a battle between the Suzuki boys, but Hayes soon passed both, and began opening a gap.

By the end, Hayes would take an easy win. But the battle was for second, and Young would beat his teammate Hayden by 0.101 of a second.

M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas would take fourth, followed by yet another Suzuki rider, National Guard/Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden.

Josh Hayes has now finished on podium at every race, including his wins in Road America and Infineon. He now has 191 points, holding a 10-point lead over Blake Young. Hayden’s in third with 168 points.

Next up on the AMA Superbike Championship is Barber Motorsports in Birmingham, Ala., for Round 5 of 9.

Road America AMA Superbike Podium Quotes:

Josh Hayes (Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike) says: "I had a different game plan today… Sometimes you make a plan and you’re lucky — you think it, you believe it and you make it happen. Today, I got the passes done in the right places, I gave myself the opportunity to make the split. I was confident that I had the tools in my package and the motorcycle to make it happen. I rode as hard as I could, I was trying super-hard and it just wasn’t there to go much faster today. I got to a point where I could relax a bit, make sure I didn’t make any mistakes and bring it home."

Tommy Hayden (Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike) says: "There were a couple of places on the track where I was better today, but my lap times were pretty similar to yesterday. And it was more of a two-rider battle today with Blake and me, versus a three-man battle like yesterday.

"I knew Josh was pretty fast through the middle splits, and that the potential was there that if we didn’t stay on our toes, he’d get a gap that would be too hard to close down. Josh put his head down, Blake made a few mistakes and kind of helped Josh open it up. We tried to chase Josh down, and at one point I thought we were making some progress but in the end it stayed the same. I’m happy to make a little improvement today, move up a spot, but I would rather have been the winner. Overall, the bike is running good, and I have everything I need to get the win."

Blake Young (Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike) says: "I just knew today’s pace would be a little bit quicker, but I thought I could run pretty good laps. Then all it took was one lap for me to get settled in and get going, and it took one lap for Josh to really nail it.

"I tried to do everything I could and put my head down and get back to him as much as possible, and I think I made a pretty good push for a few laps, then I realized I wasn’t doing anything. Then Tommy came drafting by me and I thought that maybe working with Tommy and working with the draft that we could get back to Josh…. But I made a few mistakes … and now I’m just happy bring home third place, even though it would have been better to get the win.

"Now we’ve got a few weeks off and I’m looking forward to that and getting back to my training, to being home, and I’m just glad I could bring home a win yesterday and third isn’t too bad today."

Photo credit: Geoffrey Siehr

2011 AMA Superbike: Road America Race 1 Results