Blake Young was a 2009 newcomer to both the AMA Pro American Superbike class and the Rockstar/Makita factory Suzuki team, but that didn’t prevent him from making the podium four times, placing top-ten at all but three races, and finishing sixth overall in class points. His superbike foray impressed many in the paddock and gave Young a chance to learn from riders like Mat Mladin and Kevin Schwantz. We asked the Wisconsin native for his thoughts on his rookie season.
Brian J. Nelson photo
The season went really good for us, I think. As far as if it was as hard as I thought it was going to be, I think working with a new team, a new crew chief, and being back on Dunlop tires…. It was a lot, and I think it was a pretty good season having had all that stuff thrown at us.
It was your first year on a factory team; how would you describe that experience?
You know, there’s obviously a really high level of expectations to do well over there. The Yoshimura team has been winning numerous championships and it was a relief to get over there and see how it works, and to start working with some of the guys. It was one of my goals last year to ride for a factory team and now that I’m here, one of my goals is to hopefully win a championship for them. Now that Mat is gone, the expectation will be even higher for me to do well.
How was working with Mat, and do you wish he’d stuck around for another year?
Yeah, absolutely, it was great and it’s kind of a bummer to see him go. I think that only being able to ride with him and be his teammate for a year, there was only so much I could learn, but I definitely still learned a lot. I wish that I had been able to learn a lot more, and I would have liked him to stick around another year, for sure. Racing against him was good, and having him there was really speeding up the process of learning as quickly as possible how to win the superbike championship.
What did you learn this year?
It’s hard to place a finger on one thing, but one thing that I learned from Mat is how to be a champion off the racetrack. I think that if you look at Mat, there’s really nobody else better out there in our paddock that has won seven championships. He’s probably one of the best teachers to have riding on the same truck, so to speak. It’s a big honor.
Brian J. Nelson photo
It’s great. We got a new bike that came out this year, but we didn’t get on it right away. We had to go three races on the 2008s, but once we did [switch to ‘09s], it was great. Suzuki always puts out a bike that keep getting better and better. We had kind of an up-and-down season working with it, but I think that things will only get better for me. There were a lot of firsts this past year, things that I won’t have to go through next year. So, I’m looking forward to testing on the bike this November.
What kind of goals do you have for the 2010 season?
For next year, it would be to win a superbike race, and then to win a whole lot of them, and then a championship will come with those wins. I’d like to definitely pick up the ball that Mat has left behind and run with it, and hopefully keep that championship streak going for Suzuki.
