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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Daytona Review
A look at where the AMA Pro Superbike contenders stand following the 2012 season opener at Daytona International Speedway…
Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Young leads Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Brian J Nelson)
AMA Pro National Guard Superbike title favorites Josh Hayes and Blake Young opened the 2012 season in precisely the manner in which they concluded their epic showdown of 2011. The two men left Daytona International Speedway having taken a well-deserved win apiece, with double-defending champ Hayes boasting a slight edge in the points.
Despite successfully retaining his crown a year ago, the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha ace had little problem finding motivation to drive his offseason program. Still smarting from being more than doubled in the wins column by his Yoshimura Racing Suzuki rival Young during the '11 campaign, Hayes substantially upped his training regimen and arrived at the opener fit, motivated, and hungry.
Aiding his cause was the superb development winter work of his crew, who somehow extracted even more horsepower from his YZF-R1, a fact made evident by routine trap speed readings in excess of 200mph -- and more than a few comments of acknowledgement by his peers.
Hayes put that combination to good use on the racetrack, storming to pole by nearly a half-second with a best time of 1:37.463. Even more telling, however, was the fact that he had the oomph to break free of the draft in Friday's season-opening race, which enabled him to walk away with a lopsided win. The result was a promising sign for Hayes, who often dominated qualifying in 2011 only to be harassed and -- more often than not -- defeated by the Yoshimura Suzukis come the race.
For his part Young, despite suffering an 8.332-second beating while finishing as the race's runner-up on Friday, once again showed the resiliency that made him such a revelation in '11.
Undeterred by Hayes' runaway success, the Wisconsin native made the necessary adjustments for Saturday's contest and clung onto Hayes' draft through the 15-lap rematch. While appearing very much the underdog throughout the race, Young somehow summoned up his last-lap magic once again to fend off Hayes by a scant 0.002 seconds at the checkered flag.
Dramatic last-lap victories are Young's specialty. Of his 11 career AMA Pro National Guard Superbike wins, just one has been taken by a margin of over a second (1.306 seconds over John Hopkins in the '10 finale at Barber Motorsports Park). However, none had been quite as close his latest triumph.
Hayes, who holds a three-point advantage (58-55) over Young following the Daytona opener, said, "It's a tough field. Blake rode really well last year. Tommy (Hayden) was all over me. Rog was taking all the necessary steps to be a big pain at the end of the year and (Josh) Herrin has been fast in testing. So I just went home and worked really, really hard to try to take another step in my game and the team has been working really hard on the machine. This is the payoff. Daytona is one of the tracks last year where we were fast but couldn't get it done. This year we were able to take it another step and I hope we'll be able to do that at every racetrack this year."
Saturday winner Young said, "(Saturday's) race was a lot better than (Friday's) race, for sure. I knew Josh was going to be good on the banking and out of the chicane -- I just didn't know how good. I knew I had to make it happen on the first five laps and be right on him to see what he was doing exactly out of the chicane that made me him so good onto the banking. I definitely learned and adapted pretty quickly before he could get away.
"He's got more power this year than last year for sure, but my guys worked hard for me. We sat back and looked at the data, but I knew it was nothing we were going to see on the data -- it was me (on Friday). I just didn't have a very good race and wanted to work hard to show my crew they shouldn't give up on me yet."
Despite successfully retaining his crown a year ago, the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha ace had little problem finding motivation to drive his offseason program. Still smarting from being more than doubled in the wins column by his Yoshimura Racing Suzuki rival Young during the '11 campaign, Hayes substantially upped his training regimen and arrived at the opener fit, motivated, and hungry.
Aiding his cause was the superb development winter work of his crew, who somehow extracted even more horsepower from his YZF-R1, a fact made evident by routine trap speed readings in excess of 200mph -- and more than a few comments of acknowledgement by his peers.
Hayes put that combination to good use on the racetrack, storming to pole by nearly a half-second with a best time of 1:37.463. Even more telling, however, was the fact that he had the oomph to break free of the draft in Friday's season-opening race, which enabled him to walk away with a lopsided win. The result was a promising sign for Hayes, who often dominated qualifying in 2011 only to be harassed and -- more often than not -- defeated by the Yoshimura Suzukis come the race.
For his part Young, despite suffering an 8.332-second beating while finishing as the race's runner-up on Friday, once again showed the resiliency that made him such a revelation in '11.
Undeterred by Hayes' runaway success, the Wisconsin native made the necessary adjustments for Saturday's contest and clung onto Hayes' draft through the 15-lap rematch. While appearing very much the underdog throughout the race, Young somehow summoned up his last-lap magic once again to fend off Hayes by a scant 0.002 seconds at the checkered flag.
Dramatic last-lap victories are Young's specialty. Of his 11 career AMA Pro National Guard Superbike wins, just one has been taken by a margin of over a second (1.306 seconds over John Hopkins in the '10 finale at Barber Motorsports Park). However, none had been quite as close his latest triumph.
Hayes, who holds a three-point advantage (58-55) over Young following the Daytona opener, said, "It's a tough field. Blake rode really well last year. Tommy (Hayden) was all over me. Rog was taking all the necessary steps to be a big pain at the end of the year and (Josh) Herrin has been fast in testing. So I just went home and worked really, really hard to try to take another step in my game and the team has been working really hard on the machine. This is the payoff. Daytona is one of the tracks last year where we were fast but couldn't get it done. This year we were able to take it another step and I hope we'll be able to do that at every racetrack this year."
Saturday winner Young said, "(Saturday's) race was a lot better than (Friday's) race, for sure. I knew Josh was going to be good on the banking and out of the chicane -- I just didn't know how good. I knew I had to make it happen on the first five laps and be right on him to see what he was doing exactly out of the chicane that made me him so good onto the banking. I definitely learned and adapted pretty quickly before he could get away.
"He's got more power this year than last year for sure, but my guys worked hard for me. We sat back and looked at the data, but I knew it was nothing we were going to see on the data -- it was me (on Friday). I just didn't have a very good race and wanted to work hard to show my crew they shouldn't give up on me yet."
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