News 13 Mar 2011

Young sweeps AMA Superbike opener, Disalvo wins Daytona 200

Blake Young won two from two at Daytona over the weekend for Suzuki.

Blake Young won two from two at Daytona over the weekend for Suzuki.

Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young has made it two wins from two at Daytona to open his account for the 2011 American National Guard AMA SuperBike Championship.

Young won ahead of defending champion Josh Hayes (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) and teammate Tommy Hayden, those two reversing the order from a day prior.

“I got off to a little bit of a slow start there, saw Josh put his head down, and congrats to him—he rode a really tough and smart race More than once I thought, ‘boy, he’s gone’,” Young said.

“But I’m happy for my guys, I want to be a contender in the championship, and it’s nice to get out of here with some points.

“We’re going to a track that Josh really, really likes next and it’s going to be hard for us to stay with him there, but I’m ready for this year, and ready to put up a fight for it.”

Hayes led lap after lap in the contest while behind him five riders jostled for podium position, Hayden, Martin Cardenas and Young swapping spots several times.

Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden slid out of the infield on lap seven, leaving Ben Bostrom to rep for the squad.

With two to go Hayes’ lap-led record was still unblemished, but he was under increased pressure from Young and Hayden.

The trio stretched out as they readied for the final pass across the banking, but when Young drew close enough to Hayes to go fishing, he caught the draft he wanted and soared past the blue bike just before the line by a margin of 0.072.

Cardenas brought his M4 Suzuki home several seconds later, followed at a significant distance by Bostrom, Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing’s Larry Pegram, Y.E.S. Pat Clark’s Chris Clark, Cycle World/Attack Performance Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom, ADR Fly Racing’s David Anthony and Team Iron Horse BMW’s Chris Peris.

Australian Trent Gibson was 17th while Jordan Burgess finished 19th in his second AMA appearance.

The Daytona 200 race was won by Latus Racing Motors Jason Disalvo, marking Ducati’s first ever Daytona 200 victory.

Disalvo had pitted with an engine problem in the race, only to have the race stopped due to tyre life concerns – giving him the opportunity to restart aboard his 848 EVO.

“It’s really unbelievable after what the team went through today with everything with the engine,” Disalvo said. “Those guys worked so hard, it was probably the biggest thrash in all of motorcycling history to get that bike put back together and ready to rock in time for the start.

“It’s just amazing. I’m almost a little bit speechless. As to how I feel about winning this race, I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I have to thank a couple of people, one is the AMA Pro officials for letting us restart the race.

“I know there was some question about it, and then we were given the go-ahead, so I want to thank them for that, and then of course my crew. It’s just unbelievable – I watched that bike go back together in 20 minutes.”

Disalvo won ahead of Suzuki rider Corey West and last year’s Daytona Superbike winner Jake Zemke, who rode an R6 to third after experiencing overheating tyres during the race.

2011 AMA SuperBike Championship
Round One – Daytona, USA

Superbike Race Two Results:
daytona-sbk-r2-results

Daytona 200 Results:
daytona-200-results

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