Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden celebrated an impressive second-placed finish in Sunday’s AMA Superbike race at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kansas.
After finishing fourth in Saturday’s race, Hayden was particularly pleased with Sunday’s results: The Kentucky rider got a good start on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 and was moving into position to battle for second place with his team mate Blake Young. Young, however, went into a turn a little too fast at this point and ran off the track. The result was that Hayden moved into the second-place position that his team\mate had vacated. Hayden then followed the race leader closely and hoped to make a pass for the win but was unable to do so. In the end, he came away with second place; his eighth Superbike podium finish this year.
Meanwhile, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Young re-entered the field in 10th place after going off-track and worked his way into eighth place before the 20-lap race’s end.
Finally, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin - who opted to sit out the Kansas race - still leads the overall championship points standings in the premier class.
Tommy Hayden:
“This was a good race but at the same time, it’s kind of frustrating to keep getting this close and not get a win. But I feel like I’m learning a lot in the races and so if I just keep on doing what I’m doing, it can’t be that far away… I feel like I’m trying hard and I’m putting all I can into it, and I am learning a lot. Today though, I knew that some guys were beginning to catch me in the points over the last few races. So I wasn’t quite as unafraid as I would’ve been if I hadn’t had that to worry about also.”
Blake Young:
“I have to admit this wasn’t one of my better races. At first, I got a great start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 but then I misjudged a turn and went in a little hot and I ran off the track. When I came back out, I was too far back to catch anybody and I just rode around by myself. I’m pretty disappointed because I felt like we got the set-up pretty good for today and I think we could have run a good pace. Now, I’m just going to focus on doing my best at the next race at Virginia.”
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