Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom (Photo: Evan Williams)

The emphasis for Young thus far has been avoiding mistakes. He’s been successful. Blake hasn’t put the bike on the ground in more than a year in a race, practice, or qualifying. When a win hasn’t been possible, he’s gotten maximum points. Young has taken the teachings of ex-Mat Mladin crew chief Peter Doyle well.

When taken in the context of where Young was before Road Atlanta in 2010 and how he’s done since, it’s been a remarkable success. But there’s more out there for Blake. If he can get a few of these bonus points for qualifying and leading the most laps, he makes it much easier to win that championship. If it turns out to be a two-man fight, a few poles will go a long way.

That said, I’m not totally convinced the race will be a two-man battle the whole way. In testing the Michael Jordan Motorsports bikes have been very quick. Daytona was a bit of a let down for the team. Even though Roger Hayden earned two thirds, the team looked to be closer to the front.

MJM has never been more competitive than they are now. The riders say the bike is improved over last year and there were races where Hayden or Ben Bostrom proved very strong, like New Jersey and Mid-Ohio. Maybe Atlanta will be the place where they show it.

Josh Herrin is another rider who could pop up the charts at Road Atlanta, his home track of sorts. In his first Superbike races at Daytona, Herrin showed some pretty impressive lap times but wasn’t as consistent as he needed to be in the second race and the battle for third with Roger Hayden -- precisely what you might expect out of a rookie.

Herrin will do well on the long straight at Road Atlanta, for sure.

Hopefully there will be a big crowd with the return of Road Atlanta to the schedule. It’s one of M1’s races and they have given an all-out blitz on pre-race promotion.