Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128331
- - - Round 7 ---~--- Jun e 27, 2004 AMA SUPERBIKE ~ Pro Honda Oils S upersport Series The brothers go at it again in Supersport By HENNY RAy ABRAMS PHOTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON Tommy Hoyden (22) holds off Joson DiSalvo (40), Roger Lee Hoyden (95), Ben Spies (11) and Aaron Gobert (96) in the hectic Supersport final, a race that eventually went to Tommy Hayden. in interrupted the Pro Honda Oils Supers port race , and tha t was a good thing for Tommy Hayden . While wait ing ou t the rief drizzle, his team made changes, and he fitted a soft rear tire for the final seven -lap sprint. Others did the same, but his made the most difference. Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo led the first of the final seven laps, then it was Tommy Hayden out front with brother Roger Lee joining him four laps from the end. The Haydens were nominally at the front of the pack, six riders nearly nose to tail, but none able to penetrate the green curtain at the front. Roger Lee took the lead in turn three on the final lap w hen Tommy made a mistake . But Tommy was patient. And in the final corner he went to the outside, then the inside, and he beat Roger Lee to the line by .09S of a second. DiSalvo was a close third in front of Jam ie Hacking, the to p fo ur cove re d by R 28 JULY 7, 200 4 • CYCLE NEWS 0.822 of a second. Then came Yamaha's Aaron Gobert and Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies. "Coming into the last turn , I figured that I was going to go past ; at least I was going by," Tommy Hayde n said. "Whether he passed back, that wasn't for sure, but I was brak ing after he did, for sure. So luckily I was able to get it stopped and squirt ed up the re just ahead of him." The win, Tommy Hayden's fourth of the year, extended his points lead over Roger Lee to 29 points , 237-208, with four rounds remaining. Hacking, the defending class champion, is third at 20 I. The race, up to the red flag, had been a good one to watch but not race. The riders felt the AMA should have stopped the race a few laps earl ier. The rain was on the back of the track, and the corner workers didn't re lay the conditions to the AMA. It was the riders who made the decisio n to stop the race . "I think it was getting a little dod gy the last two, three laps," Roger Lee Hayde n said. "We basically stopped the race. They didn't have a choice but to throw the red flag. We all pulled in." Tommy Hayde n said he didn't wan t to "lose touch in case they didn't red flag, but I wasn't in a big hurry at that point . So I was just kind of waiting the weather out more than anyth ing. Then I thought they we re going to red-flag it a co uple of laps earlier." At the time of the red flag, DiSalvo had taken the lead from Roger Lee going into turn one . But scoring reverted to the previous lap, and it was Roge r Lee on the pole with DiSalvo , Hacking and Gobert next to him. DiSalvo led the first lap of the restart, then it was Tommy Hayden up to second in turn o ne and under DiSalvo for the lead in turn three. Roge r Le e got DiSalvo in the final corne r, and the Haydens were out front. Tommy wanted to lead in the infield, 40th Anniversary fro m turn three on, but Roger Lee tho ught ot herwise. "I knew I could get close eno ugh going into three , and that's where I wanted to make the pass because I'm real good on this last split, and I thought ifI block we ll enough, maybe I could hold him off," he said. Roger Lee didn't get a good drive out of the bus stop turn nine and went into the last turn a little deeper than usual, and he explained , "Tom [Hayden] just went a little bit deeper, and it was a goo d pass." DiSalvo changed spots a few times on the final lap. Hacking went under him in turn nine, but DiSalvo got him back and also made his way past Aaron Gobert. "He we nt down to block the inside, and I was on the outside of him," DiSalvo said. 'I\nd it was kind of the same thing Tommy was saying. I said, 'We ll , I'm just going to brake later than he did.' And then once I did that, I knew he was on my inside but back a ways beca use I outbroke him pretty goo d." Hacking was a close fou rt h wit h Aaron Gobert going from th ird to fifth on the final lap . The n a gap to Ben Spies, who didn't have the acce leration to stick with the leade rs, and Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Steve Rapp. eN