Blake Young carried his winning form from last year into Daytona by winning both SuperBike races.
The first race weekend of the 2011 American SuperBike season seemed to pick up right where it left off for
Rockstar Makita
Suzuki’s Blake Young, who claimed both races in Daytona. The season opener also saw Team Graves
Yamaha’s
Josh Hayes and Suzuki’s
Tommy Hayden in top form as both continued their rivalry by finishing next to each other in both contests. The only reminder it was the start of a new season seemed to be the updated paint schemes and team changes along with a few additional riders to the lineup like Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden and M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas.
From the start Hayes was consistently fast over the weekend and managed to secure pole, but the Yamaha seemed to lack an advantage in the draft.
“Yesterday [qualifying], I wasn’t able to push enough wind to get past them in the draft, so I didn’t think I could win from second or third,” said Hayes. “I thought the best chance that I had to win was to lead the race.”
In Race 1 that’s exactly what he did. Hayes led for most of the race, but in typical Daytona fashion the draft got in the way of the defending champion. Tommy Hayden was able to get by him and Young quickly followed suit by blowing past both Hayes and Hayden across the finish line. Hayden expressed his disappointment with the close loss, but acknowledged it’s the nature of Daytona.
Josh Hayes' strategy of getting out front early worked for most of Race 1 until Blake Young utuilized a draft to get by.
“I didn’t time the draft real well. Even if I had, I’m not sure that sitting second with Blake behind me on the same motorcycle…the draft it’s hard to beat. I did the best I could and second was what it was.”
Reflecting on his race strategy Hayes said: “I knew it was a bit of a gamble. After Nascar four I was kind of waiting, like I’m pretty sure there coming, but I don’t know when or how, or if it’s going to be close. And they came by with some pretty good steam. I actually pulled back up a little closer to them at the finish, but having to scoot up high on the banking you have to go the long way around and I couldn’t quite get back in there.”
As well as Hayes performed on Friday, he rode even better on Saturday. After making some changes to the bike and following his practice, he walked away confident.
“I did my game plan to a T. I told the guys at the truck I‘m going to go out and try to do 37’s and hopefully that’s enough to break away from these guys and hopefully they wont be able to catch me when it came to the race.”
They almost didn’t. But once again, all of Hayes’ hard work to maintain the lead fell apart in the final lap when Young drafted ahead for the win.
“You get beat, sometimes,” said Hayes. “That’s a hard pill to swallow. I did everything right for so long and to get pipped there at the line is pretty tough.”
Being the glass half-full guy that he is, Hayes said that he’d definitely trade this year’s results for last year’s 13th-place finish. He was also happy to be back racing and added: “I think we proved without a doubt we have a really strong bike. [Now] we get to go home and think about it for a little bit of time and show up back at Infineon and get back to business.”
Both Tommy Hayden and Young commented that Hayes was better in the infield.
Tommy Hayden (#22) was content with his podium finishes at Daytona but left wanting more.
“More than once in that race I thought to myself boy he’s gone,” said Young. “He was getting around the infield real well it seemed like it was everything I could do to just stay near him. I hate to kind of win like that but it just seems like it’s the characteristic of the track.”
Tommy Hayden said that, even though they were getting close at some points, Hayes was able to maintain the gap.
Following the first race Tommy Hayden also made changes to his bike, but in the end they didn’t help him win the race. While improving his corner entry the changes sacrificed a little on the exits and gave up some traction.
“We’ll take two podiums here,” said Hayden. “[It’s] something to start the season and something to build [from] and try and be a little stronger at the next one.”
Obviously Young was pretty happy with the outcome.
“I’m happy for my guys,” Young said. “I definitely want to be a contender this year for the championship, and get through all the rounds. It’s nice to get out of here with a couple of wins and get some points.”
Winning the first two races certainly helped that goal, but even Young acknowledged the difficulties ahead of him.
“Daytona’s Daytona and the seasons long, we’ve got seven weeks off and were going to a track Josh [Hayes] really likes and its going to be hard for us to stay there with him. But I’m ready for this year and ready to put up a fight for it.”
Blake Young (right) receives congratulations from Suzuki teammate, Tommy Hayden.
It definitely was a good way to start the season. However, last year’s double winner,
Jake Zemke, experienced the same strong results in the opening round before struggling the rest of 2010 and ending up without a job. Hayes teased Young about this on the podium after Race 1, causing the crowd around to groan. Young acknowledged the fact seriously. In fact, to get extra job security, Young asked the victory circle crowd to serve as witnesses while Don Sakakura made a deal that if Young won both races, he’d have some job next year, even if it was just sweeping the shop.
If Daytona indicates anything for the rest of the season I’d say, as expected, Hayes and Tommy Hayden look incredibly strong. But, following the opening weekend another name can be added to that list: Blake Young. Looking mature and with some sort of tamed wildness, it will be interesting to see what’s in store for Young at the next round.
