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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Tug Of War
Try as they might to gain an advantage over one another, Josh Hayes and Blake Young seemed destined to lock horns all year long.
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)
You can always tell how close racers are to the limit when they start throwing it on the ground. Josh Hayes has hit the tarmac three times at the last two race events and Blake Young has done it twice. It’s safe to say the top two AMA Pro Superbike men are just about at their limits -- maybe beyond it sometimes.
Three events in, the script has been the same. Conventional wisdom has Young or Hayes with an advantage at the respective tracks, but they have split wins each time. Neither racer can get the upper hand. It’s like an even match of ‘tug of war.’ There’s a lot of effort expended but just as the rope looks like it is moving to one side or the other, it comes back.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Young tossed it on Saturday morning in Sonoma, trying to find some mojo in qualifying. Young was having a hard time getting rolling at his worst track on the tour. Hayes had already shown he was much quicker at Infineon Raceway. The Yamaha man goes great at the track and it suits the R1 as well.
Just after the crash, it looked like Young’s weekend was toast. Hayes had been nearly a second quicker on Friday and Young ended up more than a second back after the second qualifying session.
It wasn’t just Hayes he was worried about, either. Young ended up qualifying on the second row, so it wasn’t just a question of taking second and living to fight on at better tracks for Blake (like the upcoming rounds at Miller and Elkhart Lake). It looked like he’d have a dogfight on his hands to beat some of the others.
Hayes was feeling generous. He strategically tried to let some of the other pilots besides Young follow him around in practice and qualifying and maybe pick up some speed and hopefully get between himself and Young in the races. It didn’t really work out.
In the first race, Hayes checked out as planned. Young got away well but couldn’t hang. The Suzuki rider had a tough fight with Danny Eslick on the EBR. Young made a mistake and ran wide at the chicane, allowing Eslick second place for a time, but Blake was able to get past to take second nearly 11 seconds behind Hayes.
In racing time, eleven seconds is forever. And what was worse is Hayes wasn’t pushing as hard the last half.
Three events in, the script has been the same. Conventional wisdom has Young or Hayes with an advantage at the respective tracks, but they have split wins each time. Neither racer can get the upper hand. It’s like an even match of ‘tug of war.’ There’s a lot of effort expended but just as the rope looks like it is moving to one side or the other, it comes back.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Young tossed it on Saturday morning in Sonoma, trying to find some mojo in qualifying. Young was having a hard time getting rolling at his worst track on the tour. Hayes had already shown he was much quicker at Infineon Raceway. The Yamaha man goes great at the track and it suits the R1 as well.
Just after the crash, it looked like Young’s weekend was toast. Hayes had been nearly a second quicker on Friday and Young ended up more than a second back after the second qualifying session.
It wasn’t just Hayes he was worried about, either. Young ended up qualifying on the second row, so it wasn’t just a question of taking second and living to fight on at better tracks for Blake (like the upcoming rounds at Miller and Elkhart Lake). It looked like he’d have a dogfight on his hands to beat some of the others.
Hayes was feeling generous. He strategically tried to let some of the other pilots besides Young follow him around in practice and qualifying and maybe pick up some speed and hopefully get between himself and Young in the races. It didn’t really work out.
In the first race, Hayes checked out as planned. Young got away well but couldn’t hang. The Suzuki rider had a tough fight with Danny Eslick on the EBR. Young made a mistake and ran wide at the chicane, allowing Eslick second place for a time, but Blake was able to get past to take second nearly 11 seconds behind Hayes.
In racing time, eleven seconds is forever. And what was worse is Hayes wasn’t pushing as hard the last half.
AMA SBK Homestead-Miami
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