Race 2 of the AMA Pro Road Racing American Superbike Race
The start was an interesting battle into turn one that pushed the pole sitter Aaron Yates on his Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 into third with Tommy Haden of Rockstar Makita Suzuki taking the lead .
By lap 4 Tommy Hayden had started to create a gap between second place Jake Zemke on the National Guard Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 and third place Aaron Yates on the Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000. In fourth was Larry Pegram on the Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing Ducati 1098R. With Michael Jordan looking down on his two teams from his executive box, a double win would be really quite an achievement.
Hayden tried to do a Matt Mladin and run away with the win, but Zemke wasn’t going to let him, Hayden did manage to pull an eight hundredth of a second lead, and kept expanding it through to lap 5. With five bikes behind him all jostling for position, he couldn’t drop his guard. Zemke said in the press conference afterwards that “I thought I wouldn’t catch him at first, I knew I couldn’t let him go”
On lap 5 Zemke also starts to pull away behind Hayden closing the gap on lap 6, by two hundredths of a second. Aaron Yates was all over Larry Pegram on lap 6, with Bostrom leading the back of the front group in 6th place and John Hopkins on the Monster Energy/M4 Suzuki following up the rear in 7th.
Lap 6 and Zemke drafts Hayden on the home straight and takes the lead with Pegram in 3rd and Yates in 4th. Yates tried to get around Pegram in turn 1 but just missed out as Pegram held his line into the entry of the over 200 mile-an-hour corner. Taylor Knapp on his Ridersdiscount.com GSX-R1000 is 9th on lap 9.
2 bikes still up front with 5 other riders following. Blake Young on the 79 plate of the other Suzuki GSX-R1000 Rockstar Makita runs wide in turn 1 and falls back into 7th place. With Pegram catching Hayden the front running “six-pack” are together going into turn 10.
10th lap and Hayden drafts Zemke again and brakes later into turn 1 keeping the draft for 1st place. Aaron Yates stuffs Pegram up the inside to take 3rd place. There is a sold fight for the first few positions with Yates really moving on the Jordan Suzuki, on the 11th lap splitting the two front riders with Zemke in 1st and Hayden in 3rd.
Lap 12 and the lead top three have changed again with Zemke holding, but Hayden taking Yates for second, Pegram in 4th, with Bostrom 5th having the “perfect spot to view the front runners, “ he said waiting to make his move. Yates is used the entire race track but it did look like his tires went off earlier than he would like.
With 2 laps to go there was some serious drafting taking place and positions changing regularly. On the last lap Bostrom on his Yamaha R1 pushed Yates out of his position and moved into 3rd behind Zemke and Hayden. It appeared that Hayden was pulling away slightly. With half a lap to go you could see Bostrom moving into place to prepare for a drafting maneuver, but he wasn't close enough to make the move and settled for 3rd overall. The same couldn't be said for Zemke. He pinned his GSX-R1000 National Guard Suzuki to the extent that he drafted past Hayden at one-one hundredth of a second across the finish line to take the win. Two wins in two days for Zemke and the National Guard Jordan team. Michael Jordan’s reaction was ecstatic when Zemke took the win.
In the after race press conference Zemke said, “as I came off the bank I went sideways because of my tire being so shot, and when I passed Tommy and crossed the finish line I had to run wide in turn 1 because of the tires having no grip, I thought I might not make the corner after the race had finished”.
Tommy Hayden stated,“I did have a little plan for this race, basically I had to take the lead, which I had when I was running in the 1.38’s, but then I made a couple of mistakes Jake caught me”
Ben Bostrom commented at the press conference, “after the first race issues we had yesterday, we managed to get rid of the tire chatter, I decided that today was the day to play with the big boys, yesterday I was tooling around!”
All in all it was a great few days of racing. With Matt Mladin no longer dominating the AMA Pro Road Racing scene, and Michael Jordan Motorsports utilizing their resources and talent to make an impact, it is going to be a great season, for the spectator and the fans of American Motorcycle racing.
Julian V Taylor
Editor-in-Chief
AllAboutBikes
