Alton, Vir. – August 15, 2010 – Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden put together an extremely exciting victory on Saturday at VIR in Alton, Virginia, making it the fourth win of his 2010 season. Hayden came into round 8 of the AMA Pro SuperBike series knowing that he needed to secure a win to chop down the nine-point gap between him and the series leader. After today’s win, Hayden is only one point shy of the leading the class in the race to the championship.

“This feels good, and I really feel like we needed this one,” Hayden said after the race. “I wanted to be in there and give it a good shot, and my team has been working really hard.”

Hayden qualified third and started on the front row of the grid. After some slight changes to the bike setup after practice, Hayden set out to put himself on the podium. Right off the start, Tommy took the lead and set the pace for the race. He found himself in second and third a few times during the course of the race, but he never was far from the front of the pack.

On the last lap, he was in second and only a fraction of a second behind the leader. As the finish line and the checkered flag came into view, Tommy rolled on the power of the Suzuki GSX-R1000 and crossed the finish line first. Tommy was so focused on fighting to the finish that he missed the turn after the finish line and ended up rolling through the grass of VIR’s infield during the cool down lap. Hayden kept the bike upright, and rolled into the winner’s circle unsure of where he placed. As official word came down from the AMA, he and his Rockstar Makita Suzuki team celebrated at the podium.

“I honestly didn’t think I won because I quit looking at the finish line when I realized I was going too fast and wasn’t pointed the right way to make the turn at the end, so I wasn’t so happy at the end there,” Hayden said. “I was just concerned with keeping the bike upright in the grass. But now it feels good to be on the winning end of a close one. I feel like I had myself in the right position today.”

The second race of the VIR AMA Pro SuperBike doubleheader kicks off tomorrow at 2:45 pm EST. Look for Tommy Hayden and his GSX-R1000 to be gunning for the win.