Roger Hayden talks about his first career AMA Pro Superbike win (Photo: Evan Williams)

Hayes has the upper hand now. The hardest work has been done. Remember, it wasn’t long ago that it looked like Young could beat Hayes on the last lap every time. Now Young is out of the class, having been replaced by Martin Cardenas at Yoshimura Suzuki and Hayes is the undisputed king.

The question for everyone else isn’t about how they are gonna win the championship from Hayes. It’s how can they beat Hayes once, or for a limited number of riders, again. Since he joined the class on a factory bike in 2009, only Hayes, Mladin, Young, Tommy Hayden, Larry Pegram, Ben Bostrom, Roger Hayden and Martin Cardenas have won a race. Mladin, Young, and Tommy Hayden aren’t racing AMA Pro Superbike this year. Sounds like Bostrom isn’t, either.

Pegram is riding a Yamaha this year. Roger Lee got his first Superbike win last year. We’ll see if he can string some momentum together. Cardenas returns to the class with Yoshimura. We’ll see how he comes to terms with the brutal power delivery of the Superbike.

A couple of riders who haven’t won yet might emerge in the fight to be number two in the series. Josh Herrin will once again return as Hayes’ teammate. He had a good rookie year last season. Danny Eslick has joined Michael Jordan Motorsports for 2013 and he has a ton of talent.

If these guys are two steps behind Hayes, the EBR and KTM teams might be another step or so back. But EBR had some good runs in ’12 and now Aaron Yates will join Geoff May on a bike that earned the box a few times last year. And KTM has made a big power leap in the offseason for their young riders.

Hayes has proven he can win the championship by winning three races or by winning 16. He liked winning 16 a lot better. He also waited a long time to get his shot. He’s not about to back down now -- or cruise around for points, either. He’s from the Mladin School … break your rivals early and run away all weekend.

The question is can anyone else step up?