Suzuki's Tommy Hayden won the Road America AMA Superbike race on Sunday to take over the championship lead.

After losing by 0.001 of a second in Saturday’s first race of the Suzuki SuperBike Doubleheader Weekend at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin’s Road America race course, Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider Tommy Hayden went one better and posted his second career AMA Pro SuperBike victory on Sunday.

Under partly cloudy skies, Hayden beat yesterday’s winner, Josh Hayes (Team Graves Yamaha) by the close margin of 0.178 of a second. Hayden averaged 108.9 MPH over the course of the 13 lap race. Hayden now holds a one point margin over Hayes in the overall AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike points standings, 229-228.

Today’s race began to look like a repeat of yesterday’s event as Hayes took the lead but it was a fast starting Jake Zemke riding his National Guard Jordan Suzuki who initially took up station behind Hayes with a strong move into second at the downhill turn five corner. Hayden passed Zemke as they crested the hill into turn six and the battle at the front was set.

Behind Zemke, it was Hayden’s Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Blake Young, who put on a show in front of his home state fans. But after taking third from Zemke, Young ran wide at turn one and fell back into the clutches of a group of riders that included Ben Bostrom on his Pat Clark Motorsport Yamaha, 2009 Road America race winner Larry Pegram on his Foremost Insurance Ducati, Jake Holden on the M4 Monster Energy Suzuki and Canadian Brett McCormick on the second Jordan Motorsports Suzuki.

The front three pulled away and eventually just Hayes and Hayden were alone at the front.

Zemke ran by himself and was hoping for something to happen at the front but he enjoyed a strong race after damaging his primary Suzuki motorcycle on Friday. He credited his National Guard Jordan team for putting in the extra effort to not only rebuild the motorcycle but to deliver him a very competitive package which saw him regain some of his early season form.

The race really came down to Hayes and Hayden. After yesterday’s chess match where each rider had a slight advantage at certain parts of the track, today it came down to who could out-maneuver the other. On lap 11 of 13, Hayes ran wide coming out of the Carousal corner and Hayden was by like a shot. Hayes was able to re-pass Hayden in turn eight the next lap and it all came down to the last corner of the last lap where knowing he had to be perfect coming up the hill, Hayes just ran a little wide and Hayden was able to draft past Hayes up the hill to the finish line for a dramatic and satisfying second win of the season.

Officially Hayes led the first 10 laps and Hayden led the last three but as is the norm around the long 4.05-mile, 14-turn Road America track, riders pass and re-pass many times a lap, making this one of the most exciting races of the season.

Pegram took a quiet fourth place ahead of Holden and Bostrom took sixth. Young finished seventh ahead of McCormick. Chris Ulrich riding his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki had a race long battle with Geoff May who was riding the Erik Buell Racing Buell and Ulrich continued his run of top ten results with ninth place. May took tenth in an exciting day and weekend of racing in the famous Kettle Moraine country of Wisconsin.

M4 Monster Energy Suzuki rider Martin Cardenas took his fifth AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL victory today at the 4.05-mile natural road course.

Cardenas won with a 0.276 second victory over Josh Herrin on his Team Graves Yamaha with an average speed of 102.8 MPH over the 13-lap race.

Herrin was pleased with his weekend with first and second place finishes over the course of the double race weekend. Herrin extends his Daytona SportBike points lead to 18 over 2009 Daytona SportBike Champion Danny Eslick, who took seventh today on his GEICO Powersports Suzuki.

After yesterday’s wet and wild Daytona SportBike race where Herrin beat Steve Rapp by 0.008 of a second, today’s race was only somewhat calmer, as has been the case all season long in this AMA Pro Road Racing class.

Rapp, riding his Team Latus Motors Ducati, took the early lead and was quickly joined by a fast starting Bobby Fong on his DNA Energy Drink Ducati. These two Ducati riders looked to draft together to separate themselves from the 12 motorcycle lead pack.

Herrin, PJ Jacobson with his Celtic Racing Suzuki, Cory West on the Vesrah Suzuki, Clinton Seller on his Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha, Danny Eslick and Seller’s Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha teammate Dane Westby all battled as one big lead group in the early going. Also part of this mix was Cardenas, who in his stealthy style quietly began moving to the front.

Fong was sidelined by a stop-and-go penalty due to a pre-race procedural mishap and another front runner, Herrin’s Team Graves Yamaha teammate Tommy Aquino, suffered a late race mechanical problem which dropped him out of the lead group. Little by little, the lead group got smaller and smaller.

By lap four, Cardenas was in the lead and the die was cast as he and Herrin battled in an eight bike train, then six bikes and then, in a concerted effort on their part, it came down to just Herrin and Cardenas. Herrin commented after the race how he and Cardenas just put their heads down and worked to ride away form the rest. And it worked with the race coming down to the wire between the two of them.

Herrin would lead at the finish line but Cardenas would draft past into turn one. As they exited turn three and headed down the straight to turn five, Herrin would take the position back. Onto the back straight to Canada Corner, Herrin would get back by and then as the two would blast through the last turn and up the hill to the start finish line, the cycle would begin again.

On the last lap, the two came across the line side by side, setting up for another photo finish. Cardenas held the lead as they went through turn one, then turn five, through the Hurry Downs, out of turn eight out of the Carousal down to Canada Corner.

It was here the Cardenas had what looked like quite a moment as the back of his Suzuki slid out, but he gathered it all up and rode through turn 14 and up the hill to the finish line. Herrin rode as hard as he could but he just wasn’t close enough to draft by Cardenas and he took a solid second, extending his points lead.

After falling back due to the battling in the pack, Rapp fought back to get by West and completed another successful weekend for Team Latus Motors by taking third. Westby finished fifth with Jacobson in sixth, Eslick in seventh and Chris Fillmore had a good day to take ninth on his Vesrah Suzuki.

Fong fought back from his early stop with a strong tenth place finish at the completion of the 13 lap race. The weather wasn’t an issue today as the race took place under partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low seventies.

As Cardenas rode to his fifth win, only Herrin (3) and Eslick (1) have posted wins this season and Cardenas and his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki team are starting to get very used to making a post-race stop at victory lane.