Mid-Ohio: Series race two report

Hayden Closes Championship Gap With Victory in National Guard SuperBike with Race Two Victory at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 18, 2010) -The tables were turned today as Tommy Hayden ended up two spots better than yesterday in taking his third career National Guard SuperBike victory ahead of main championship rival Josh Hayes during the last day of competition in the Honda Super Cycle Weekend Presented by Dunlop Tire at the 2.4-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Hayden, riding his Rockstar Makita Suzuki, bounced back from a third place finish in yesterday's SuperBike race and took a calculated victory in the second race of the weekend. Hayden paid tribute to his Yoshimura team, "I told them what I wanted the bike to do and they gave it to me."

Yesterday's winner, Josh Hayes paid tribute to Tommy, "My Team Graves Yamaha team gave me a winning bike, I just got beat." Hayes did hold onto the points lead that he gained yesterday but Hayden trimmed it down from ten points to just four, 285-281. Foremost Insurance Ducati rider Larry Pegram thrilled his local fans by taking the lead into the first corner and leading lap one. Tommy Hayden had other ideas though, and he passed Pegram on lap two and proceeded to lead the next six laps. By this time, Hayes had passed Pegram and was shadowing Hayden's every move and for a while it looked like Hayes was going to repeat his win from yesterday when Josh took the lead and led laps eight and nine. Hayden re-passed Hayes and controlled the race from lap ten on all the way to the flag. Hayes never let up though and the margin of victory was only 0.194 of a second at the end of the 21 lap race.

Pegram was able to take what he felt was a satisfying third place finish ahead of yesterday's second-place finisher Ben Bostrom on his Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha. As with the first two, Bostrom kept the pressure on Pegram all day but just couldn't find a way by the Columbus, Ohio rider.

After another strong start to the race, Jake Zemke with his National Guard Jordan Suzuki found himself battling with teammate Canadian Brett McCormick on the #23 Jordan Suzuki. These two ran nose-to-tail for the last part of the race and McCormick continued his nice progression in the sport by passing Zemke on the last lap.

Behind the Jordan riders were Taylor Knapp on his RidersDicount.com Suzuki and Chris Ulrich with his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki in eighth. Georgia rider Geoff May finished ninth on his Erik Buell Racing Buell and Kurtis Roberts made a nice return to the sport with a tenth place finish on his RidersDiscount.com Yamaha. Tommy Hayden and Josh Hayes each staked a claim for this year's National Guard SuperBike Championship this weekend and this fight looks like it is going right down to the wire. The teams will gather again in five short days as they will race next weekend at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix in California.

-source: ama