VOL. 51 ISSUE 10 MARCH 11, 2014 P73
Polen, and Doug Chandler on
the all-time AMA Superbike wins
list. And out of work.
Young endured a difficult '13,
spent primarily on the couch. He
made a few wild card and substi-
tute MotoGP and World Super-
bike appearances, although the
impact of those was minimized by
both the state of the equipment
and accumulating rust.
The knife was further twisted
when he watched as his old rival,
supremely consistent three-time
champ Hayes, suffer through an
uncharacteristically uneven AMA
Superbike season. Hayes left his
title on the table to be taken - and
it was - only Young wasn't there
to snatch it.
Reflecting on a missed oppor-
tunity, Young laughed and admit-
ted, "I can't even think of that. Not
trying to take anything away from
[2013 champ] Josh Herrin - I think
he rose to the occasion - but it
just wasn't, for whatever reason,
that competitive of a year. In 2011
neither one of us fell off or made
a big mistake or whatnot. And if I
couldn't beat him in 2012, man, I
was the next guy in line. I just had
to wait for him to slip up once and
he didn't even do that. No me-
chanical, no nothing. And to see
him have two in the first week-
end I'm not there… Oh man. My
heart just dropped sitting on the
couch. What the hell? Why didn't
that happen when I was there? I
don't know…"
As damaging as one year of
semi-retirement may have been
to his psyche and skills, Young
realized that another season
spent on the sidelines could spell
the end of his career despite the
fact that he's nearly 15 years
