Road America: Series SuperBike race two report

Hayden Leads the National Guard American SuperBike Championship Following Victory in Race Two at Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (June 6, 2010) - After losing by 0.001 of a second in yesterday's first race of the Suzuki SuperBike Doubleheader Weekend at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin's Road America race course, Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider Tommy Hayden went one better and posted his second career AMA Pro SuperBike victory. Under partly cloudy skies, Hayden beat yesterday's winner, Josh Hayes (Team Graves Yamaha) by the close margin of 0.178 of a second. Hayden averaged 108.9 MPH over the course of the 13 lap race. Hayes holds a one point margin over Hayden in the overall AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike points standings, 229-228.

Today's race began to look like a repeat of yesterday's event as Hayes took the lead but it was a fast starting Jake Zemke riding his National Guard Jordan Suzuki who initially took up station behind Hayes with a strong move into second at the downhill turn five corner. Hayden passed Zemke as they crested the hill into turn six and the battle at the front was set. Behind Zemke, it was Hayden's Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Blake Young, who put on a show in front of his home state fans. But after taking third from Zemke, Young ran wide at turn one and fell back into the clutches of a group of riders that included Ben Bostrom on his Pat Clark Motorsport Yamaha, 2009 Road America race winner Larry Pegram on his Foremost Insurance Ducati, Jake Holden on the M4 Monster Energy Suzuki and Canadian Brett McCormick on the second Jordan Motorsports Suzuki. The front three pulled away and eventually just Hayes and Hayden were alone at the front.

Zemke ran by himself and was hoping for something to happen at the front but he enjoyed a strong race after damaging his primary Suzuki motorcycle on Friday. He credited his National Guard Jordan team for putting in the extra effort to not only rebuild the motorcycle but to deliver him a very competitive package which saw him regain some of his early season form.

The race really came down to Hayes and Hayden. After yesterday's chess match where each rider had a slight advantage at certain parts of the track, today it came down to who could out-maneuver the other. On lap 11 of 13, Hayes ran wide coming out of the Carousal corner and Hayden was by like a shot. Hayes was able to re-pass Hayden in turn eight the next lap and it all came down to the last corner of the last lap where knowing he had to be perfect coming up the hill, Hayes just ran a little wide and Hayden was able to draft past Hayes up the hill to the finish line for a dramatic and satisfying second win of the season.

Officially Hayes led the first 10 laps and Hayden led the last three but as is the norm around the long 4.05-mile, 14-turn Road America track, riders pass and re-pass many times a lap, making this one of the most exciting races of the season. Pegram took a quiet fourth place ahead of Holden and Bostrom took sixth. Young finished seventh ahead of McCormick. Chris Ulrich riding his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki had a race long battle with Geoff May who was riding the Erik Buell Racing Buell and Ulrich continued his run of top ten results with ninth place. May took tenth in an exciting day and weekend of racing in the famous Kettle Moraine country of Wisconsin.

SPEED will be broadcasting same-weekend coverage of every American SuperBike race in the 2010 season, with today's race airing late tonight/early tomorrow morning at 12 a.m. midnight ET (9 p.m. PT).

As the AMA Pro Road Racing series reaches the halfway point, the next race will be July 16-18 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Mansfield, Ohio.

-source: ama pro racing