Sunday was a very good day to be a Hayden at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, as Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy and National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger matched or scored their best finishes of the 2011 season in arguably the most exciting battle the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike class has seen yet.

Tommy earned his second victory of the year, while Roger bested Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes to take third.

Between them in the winner’s circle was a reasonably happy Blake Young, who – if he couldn’t himself earn the win – was at least glad the points had gone to his teammate instead of championship rival Hayes.

Hayes and Young swapped the lead furiously as the halfway mark came and went, while Roger maintained an almost defiant chokehold on third.

With big brother Tommy just off Roger’s rear wheel, the lead four tore through the second half of the race covered by six-tenths of a second, a changing of the guard coming as first Roger then Tommy slipped past Hayes, relegating the Yamaha rider to fourth.

Tommy was far from done advancing, however, sliding unstoppably past first Roger then Young, claiming the lead from his Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate.

Tommy and Young traded positions several times as the quartet blazed through the end laps, but it was Tommy whom the final corners forced to defend the position with every ounce of skill and courage in him.

“Once I settled in,” said Tommy post-race, “I could tell it was going to come down to the last lap, and Blake pushed me all the way to the end. There was a point there, coming on to the front straight for the last time, where I was totally committed – I couldn’t do anything else.

“And Rog, I followed him for 10 or 12 laps, and he was in that back straightaway deep. It was just tough – that big of a battle, and this place is tight, it’s hard to make passes.

“I’m just happy I was able to get through those guys and make it happen today, which I haven’t been able to do the last few races.”

M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas followed Hayes across the line in fifth, heading Jordan Suzuki’s Ben Bostrom, who came out on top of a race-long battle with Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing BMW rider Larry Pegram.

Cycle World/Attack Performance Kawasaki’s JD Beach was eighth, followed by Factory KTM/HMC Racing’s Chris Fillmore and EBR Racing’s Geoff May, the latter piloting the new 1190RS in its debut AMA Pro SuperBike weekend.

Young now leads the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike Championship chase by 11 points over Hayes, with Tommy Hayden, Cardenas, and Pegram rounding out the overall top five.

In the Daytona Sportbike category it was Danny Eslick who won for GEICO/RMR Suzuki ahead of Yamaha’s Tommy Aquino and former Red Bull KTM 125GP World Championship rider Cameron Beaubier.