Blake Young (#79) and Josh Hayes (#1) traded the lead multiple times with Young ultimately claiming victory.
Rockstar Makita
Suzuki’s Blake Young and Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s
Josh Hayes faced off in a two-part affair at Mid Ohio. The result of the first American SuperBike race was a dominant victory for Young as he claimed his sixth win of the season while overtaking Hayes in the championship. After finishing runner-up in Race 1, Hayes is now three points behind Young in the series. Young’s Suzuki teammate,
Tommy Hayden, posted third, putting two Rockstar Makita machines on the podium to kick off the Honda Supercycle Weekend at Mid Ohio.
National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden pulled a great start to lead the American SuperBike field in the opening lap. Young also secured an excellent start, and shadowed Young in the beginning to take the lead from him on Lap 2. Chris Trunson was an early casualty of the race after crashing out on the opening lap. Hayes, Jordan Suzuki’s
Ben Bostrom,
BMW’s Larry Pegram and Tommy Hayden ran third through sixth, respectively, but it wasn’t long before Hayes put the moves on Roger Hayden to move up to second. Shortly after, Hayes assumed the lead and on Lap 3 Young tried unsuccessfully to take the position back. With just a half-second lead ahead of Young, Hayes posted the fastest lap of the day as the top-two began breaking away from the rest of the field.
Meanwhile, Ben Bostrom made his way around Roger Hayden for third, but soon after Roger Hayden got back around with Pegram, Tommy Hayden, Team Iron Horse BMW’s Chris Peris, M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas, San Diego BMW’s Steve Rapp and
KTM/HMC Racing’s Chris Fillmore all following. Up front Hayes and Young were more than 1.5
Blake Young: “Today is the fifth anniversary of my dad’s passing, and that put a little bit extra on me today."
seconds ahead and still fighting as third through seventh place were covered by less than a second. With 14 laps to go, a red flag was issued after Peris hit the deck hard.
The restart wasn’t kind to Young, who dropped down to third as Hayes returned to the front. The running order was Hayes, Roger Hayden, Young, Tommy Hayden, Rapp, Pegram and Cardenas.
"The restart was probably the best start I’ve gotten all year," Hayes said. "But … I don’t know if I’ve ever had a front end move around that much in a race."
Ben Bostrom appeared to suffer the most from the restart after having his podium hopes crushed after falling down to 14th. Young continued to push his way toward the front, passing Roger Hayden for second with 12 laps left. Young then darted into the lead ahead of Hayes, but it wasn’t going to be that easy as Hayes answered quickly back to retake the lead. The two went back and forth up front while Tommy Hayden and Roger Hayden entered the mix. The top-four became separated by half a second as less than seven laps remained in the race. At the same time Pegram and Rapp were enthralled in a tight battle for fifth while Cardenas and Fillmore went at each other for seventh.
With two laps to go and with Hayes right on Young’s rear wheel, Tommy Hayden moved ahead of Hayes for second. In the next turn Hayes grabbed the lead back as the fight was coming down to the finish. With the white flag out Young continued to hold off the field in the final lap, taking the checkers 0.176 seconds ahead of Hayes. Tommy Hayden rounded out the podium more than three seconds ahead of his brother, Roger Hayden.
"When I was back in fourth place, I thought, ‘Is this one of those days when we ride aggressive to the front, or do we let him go?'," said Young. "But I came into this race just really wanting to win it for my dad’s fifth anniversary, and that’s what we did.”
American SuperBike Mid Ohio Race 1 Results:
1. Blake Young (Suzuki)
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
3. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Roger Hayden (Suzuki)
5. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
Ben Bostrom was originally battling for the podium, but a restart pushed him down in the order.
6. Larry Pegram (BMW)
7. Chris Fillmore (KTM)
8. Steve Rapp (BMW)
9. David Anthony (Suzuki)
10. JD Beach (Kawasaki)
11. Geoff May (Buell)
12. Jeremy Toye (BMW)
13. Chris Clark (Yamaha)
14. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki)
15. Jordan Burgess (Suzuki)
2011 American SuperBike Championship Points:
1. Blake Young, 264
2. Josh Hayes, 261
3. Tommy Hayden, 203
4. Martin Cardenas, 171
5. Larry Pegram, 140
6. Ben Bostrom, 137
7. Roger Hayden, 124
8. Chris Clark, 111
9. Steve Rapp, 108
10. Geoff May, 92
