2011 AMA Superbike

Spoiler Alert: AMA Superbike Race 2 results below

On Saturday it was rain that plagued the AMA Superbike race at Barber Motorsports Park. And on Sunday, it was Alabama-summer hot, temps in the 90s.

These steamy conditions Sunday physically exhausted the AMA Superbike grid, but one rider battled the temps better than the others - Blake Young.

The Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider was joined on the podium by the reigning AMA SBK champion, Monster Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes, and race-1 winner Martin Cardenas on the M4 Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Grabbing the holeshot was Young's Superbike teammate, Tommy Hayden, who lead for the first third of the race. But Hayden's race would end early, his GSX-R1000 have mechanical issues, causing a DNF. His brother Roger Lee Hayden also had some issues; while running sixth, he crashed the Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 with 7 of 21 laps remaining.

Up front, Hayes and Young swapped the lead a few times, but with six to go Young had a bit of an edge on Hayes, and kept it to the checkered flag. Meanwhile, Cardenas rode consistently, finishing over three seconds behind in third.

After taking the win, Young responded to the heat: "I just kept thinking to myself, 'If I'm hurting this bad and this tired, he's gotta be hurting too, so just keep after it.'"

Josh Hayes (Monster Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike) says: "I knew he'd be there, he always is. Blake knew the areas where I was fast, and I really thought maybe the end would come my way a little bit because it seemed like he was having to use his bike more defensively than me.

"But at the end, I think we were both in hot water: pretty hot, pretty tired, and the bikes were getting extremely hot. I made the best run I could at him, but he rode a smart race, and he beat me."

Martin Cardenas (M4 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike) says: "Today conditions were very extreme, very hot, and I think today's race was even tougher than yesterday's because we were sliding even a bit more than yesterday, so it was very difficult to maintain the pace. Roger and Tommy and Josh and Blake were running very fast and gaining some time over me in Turn 2 every lap, so I had to push very hard each lap to close the gap.

"But at the end I was just exhausted, and the last eight laps were very difficult for me to move on the bike because I was very tired and dehydrated. But third is a very good result, and we were closer than ever to the frontrunners, so I am very happy."

Rounding out the top ten were Steve Rapp (San Diego BMW), Ben Bostrom (Jordan Suzuki), Larry Pegram (Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing), Geoff May (Amsoil EBR Racing), Chris Clark (Y.E.S./Pat Clark/Graves Yamaha), Chris Peris (Iron Horse BMW), and JD Beach (Cycle World Attack Kawasaki) rounded out the top ten.

With his win, Young has tightened the championship point gap; Hayes now has 235, with Young only two points behind. In third is Hayden with 182. The next round of the 2011 AMA Superbike Championship is in Mid-Ohio July 8-10.

2011 AMA Superbike: Barber Race 2 Results