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N THEGRID!
ROGER HAYDEN
MOTUL SUPERBIKE
On the seventh lap, he was forced to concede first position to Beaubier and it was just one lap later
that Elias followed him through. Hayden was determined to fight back in the waning stages of the race as he made multiple attempts at the lead under heavy braking on the approach to turn five, backing his Suzuki in as if he were out for a cruise on the flat tracker at Sunset Downs. He found himself in third position as the leading trio crossed the finish line for the penultimate time, tucked sneakily in the draft of Beaubier, and he launched an attack up the inside of the two-time defending champion into turn one. The Yamaha rider snapped back immediately and took a tight line into turn three, demoting Hayden back to third position. He did his best to keep his Yoshimura Suzuki close to the leading pair as they exited the final corner, but a slight mistake cost him and he wasn’t able to take advantage of the slipstream on approach to the finish line, forcing him to settle for third position. In the second race, Hayden managed to grab the holeshot yet again although he wasn’t able to recreate the blistering start that he executed
in the opening race. The Kentuckian immediately found himself in a battle with his teammate as the pair of them swapped positions -- Elias briefly worked his way into the lead, but Hayden was determined
to control the pace of the race and he fought right back. He led until the fifth lap, but he wasn’t able to fend off a pass up the inside heading into the famous carousel corner, forcing him to settle into second position with only a couple of laps to go. Hayden looked as though he was ready to do battle down to the wire, but an unfortunate separate incident caused a red flag and brought the race to a halt, resulting in a second place finish for the Kentuckian.
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