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AMA Pro Superbike
AMA SBK: Young - ‘Winning Is The Only Thing’
Blake Young talks about coming up short despite an epic '11 season, 'extra credit' bonus points, and his mindset preparing for another shot at the title in 2012.
Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Young (Photo: Brian J Nelson)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Pro Road Racing season opener will air back-to-back-to-back in a three-race block (Superbike Race 1, Daytona 200, Superbike Race 2) on Saturday, March 17 starting at 1:30pm ET on SPEED.
Blake Young recorded up one of the more impressive AMA Pro Superbike seasons in memory in '12, garnering a full half of the available race wins (and almost always in heart-stopping fashion), finishing on the podium in all but two races, and finishing no lower than fifth all season long.
Equally noteworthy was the fact that the aggressive and (formerly) oft-injured Young managed to avoid crashing all year long, be it in practice, qualifying, or the races.
Somewhat remarkably, that effort didn't result in a championship victory, as the Yoshimura Suzuki ace came up just short in his showdown with reigning double Superbike champ Josh Hayes, who was even more consistent, and more importantly, completely thrashed Young in the somewhat odd-ball but vital game of scooping up the single points awarded for pole positions and most laps led.
Now the unquestioned #1 under the Yosh tent with Tommy Hayden no longer with the team (and still actively looking for an opportunity) Young took a few minutes to talk with SPEED.com following the opening AMA Pro Superbike practice of the season.
SPEED.com: In case you didn't notice it this morning, I picked you to win the title this year and Evan (Williams) picked you to again finish second. I suppose you're mad at him for not picking you and mad at me for putting the pressure on, huh?
Blake Young: Yeah! Man, I can't believe Evan didn't pick me. It must have been because I blew him off yesterday (laughs).
Despite everything you accomplished last year, you still didn't win the title. How do you do better in '12?
BY: Ummm… I'm not too disappointed about last year to be honest. It's kind of funny -- at first I was a little bit upset. 'How did this happen?' Why did this happen?' I felt like I was the one with the better season, why wasn't I rewarded for it? Did I fall off? No. Did I have any really bad finishes? Not too bad. Compared to Josh -- his two worst finishes were two fourths, mine were a fourth and a fifth. Other than that we were both on the podium. It was pretty close.
But today I was sitting in the rider's meeting going through the media guide just looking through Superbike history. Ben Bostrom won a championship and didn't even win a race that year. How would you like to be the guy who finished second that year?
Just looking at all the previous years, it seems like there's a lot of guys who did a lot of the winning who didn't end up getting the championship.
I'm going to change it up a little bit this year, obviously. The AMA Superbike Championship rewards you for consistency. Last year all I wanted to do was win races and I didn't care about anything else. I think this year we need to apply that but also step back after every round and evaluate where we stand.
Blake Young recorded up one of the more impressive AMA Pro Superbike seasons in memory in '12, garnering a full half of the available race wins (and almost always in heart-stopping fashion), finishing on the podium in all but two races, and finishing no lower than fifth all season long.
Equally noteworthy was the fact that the aggressive and (formerly) oft-injured Young managed to avoid crashing all year long, be it in practice, qualifying, or the races.
Somewhat remarkably, that effort didn't result in a championship victory, as the Yoshimura Suzuki ace came up just short in his showdown with reigning double Superbike champ Josh Hayes, who was even more consistent, and more importantly, completely thrashed Young in the somewhat odd-ball but vital game of scooping up the single points awarded for pole positions and most laps led.
Now the unquestioned #1 under the Yosh tent with Tommy Hayden no longer with the team (and still actively looking for an opportunity) Young took a few minutes to talk with SPEED.com following the opening AMA Pro Superbike practice of the season.
SPEED.com: In case you didn't notice it this morning, I picked you to win the title this year and Evan (Williams) picked you to again finish second. I suppose you're mad at him for not picking you and mad at me for putting the pressure on, huh?
Blake Young: Yeah! Man, I can't believe Evan didn't pick me. It must have been because I blew him off yesterday (laughs).
Despite everything you accomplished last year, you still didn't win the title. How do you do better in '12?
BY: Ummm… I'm not too disappointed about last year to be honest. It's kind of funny -- at first I was a little bit upset. 'How did this happen?' Why did this happen?' I felt like I was the one with the better season, why wasn't I rewarded for it? Did I fall off? No. Did I have any really bad finishes? Not too bad. Compared to Josh -- his two worst finishes were two fourths, mine were a fourth and a fifth. Other than that we were both on the podium. It was pretty close.
But today I was sitting in the rider's meeting going through the media guide just looking through Superbike history. Ben Bostrom won a championship and didn't even win a race that year. How would you like to be the guy who finished second that year?
Just looking at all the previous years, it seems like there's a lot of guys who did a lot of the winning who didn't end up getting the championship.
I'm going to change it up a little bit this year, obviously. The AMA Superbike Championship rewards you for consistency. Last year all I wanted to do was win races and I didn't care about anything else. I think this year we need to apply that but also step back after every round and evaluate where we stand.
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