INTERVIEW
BLAKE YOUNG
P72
out at Yoshimura Su-
zuki and found no
place to break his fall.
Hayden has not since
returned to Superbike
racing and has effec-
tively been retired by
circumstance.
Of course, Hayden's
exit was hastened
by the ascent of his
up-and-coming Yosh
teammate Blake
Young, who took over
as the team's lead
rider. Young also won
races in '10 and then proved to be
the revelation of the '11 season.
That year, the Wisconsin native
earned as many victories as the
rest of the field combined - each
one of them coming in impossi-
bly dramatic, last-lap fashion. He
led the championship into the fi-
nale and was in position to steal
away the number-one plate as he
negotiated the final few corners
of the year. That is, right up un-
til Josh Hayes overtook Roger
Hayden and Ben Bostrom to fin-
ish second to Young in the race,
which was just enough to suc-
cessfully retain his title.
Hayes and Yamaha were bet-
ter prepared for the challenge of
Young and Yoshimura in 2012.
Both man and machine made se-
rious gains in the off-season and
Hayes enjoyed the greatest sta-
tistical season in AMA Superbike
history as a result.
While Young lost momentum
and confidence as he desper-
ately sought for a way to retaliate,
he far from embarrassed himself
with his effort. He added three
more wins to his career tally - in-
cluding an epic last-to-first win
at Road Atlanta - and was quite
obviously the second best rider
in the nation, some one hundred
points better than third place.
But then Young replaced
Hayden a second time - this
time, however, for the more dubi-
ous distinction as the poster boy
representation of the tenuous
existence of a modern-day AMA
Superbike rider. Following his '12
runner-up campaign, Young was
barely 25, in rarified territory,
sandwiched by the likes of Scott
Russell, Eddie Lawson, Doug
(Right) Young rode for
the Crescent Suzuki
team in the U.S. round
of the World Superbike
Championship at
Laguna Seca last year.
(Far right) Young's
outings on the Attack
Racing CRT bike in
the three U.S. rounds
of the MotoGP World
Championship proved
to be more frustrating
than fruitful.
