Warning! Warning! Dead thread revival in progress. Warning! Warning!
Sorry about reviving a dead thread but I just had to talk about the end of the AMA Roadracing Season. The only class I really pay attention to is the 1000cc American SuperBike (which is really misnamed since only one bike in the class, the new EBR 1190RS, is built in the US). Daytona SportBike (600cc) and SuperSport (less motified 600cc) are just less interesting (and you can forget about the XR1200 series). Anyway the American SuperBike season was one of the best ever. It basically came down to reigning champion Josh Hayes (Graves Monster Energy Yamaha) against Blake Young (Yoshimura Rockstar Makita Suzuki). Hayes is a veteran rider who spent over a decade in the 600cc classes riding for Honda where he won several championships. However Honda would never move him up to the top 1000cc class so he left for Yamaha in 2009. Last year he won the American SuperBike championship. Blake Young is a young rider on the most dominant team in AMA roadracing history, Yoshimura Suzuki. Yoshimura riders won the top AMA class for over a decade before Hayes won last year (9 with Mat Mladin and 3 with Ben Spies who is now in MotoGP). This season saw Young win more races but Hayes be more consistent. It all came down to the last two races at New Jersey Raceway (AMA, like World Superbike has two races per weekend but now splits them between Saturday and Sunday). Young was leading the points race coming into the weeked but Hayes took the lead when he won race 1 and Young finished back in the pack. So it all came down to the last race. If Young won Hayes had to finish no worse then 3rd to win the championship. In most American SuperBike races a couple of the fastest bikes quickly jump out front in the first lap or two and then leave the rest of the field to duke it out. This race was different because the lead pack for most of the race consisted of 7 or 8 bikes all passing a repassing eachother at every opportunity. Eventually Young made it to the front with his teammate Tommy Hayden (older brother of MotoGP rider and former champion Nicky Hayden), Jordan (as in NBA legend Michael Jordan) Suzuki riders Ben Bostrom and Roger Lee Hayden (Tommy and Nicky's younger brother), Formost Insurance Pegram Racing BMW rider Larry Pegram, and Hayes in tow. Hayes lead a few laps but kept getting shuffled back. At one point he was in 4th late in the race until Tommy Hayden threw it away in a corner and he moved back up to 3rd. Then on the last lap Hayes found himself in 4th again until Bostrom ran off track putting him in 3rd again. Not satisfied with that Hayes passed Roger Lee Hayden to take 2nd and then almost got passed Young at the finishline. So Young won the race but Hayes won the championship by 5 points. This was even better then last year's final race at Baber Motorsports Park outside of Birmingham when Hayes had to finish 6th or better. In that race he was in 6th with a huge cushion back to 7th when the rider in 5th crashed right in front of him and almost took him out.
