Fresh from his victory in the opening race, Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Tommy Hayden and his GSX-R1000 made it to the podium again at Sunday's second-leg AMA Superbike Championship race at Alton, Virginia with his third-place finish.

Hayden battled for traction throughout the race but held it together to the finish line. He remains in second place in the standings 11 points adrift of Yamaha's Josh Hayes, but with two more rounds of racing to go, he's well within striking distance of victory.

Hayden started on the front row of the grid and shot out to the early lead in Sunday's race. He then moved into second where he held steady until he noticed some chatter in his bike, which is thought to have been due to the grip of the rear tyre. With high humidity and thick cloud cover, the track wasn't as hot and sticky as everyone would've liked, but he made the most of the race by riding smart and finishing third.

"I feel good about riding fast in the first five laps, but in the end I didn't have the speed and the rear tyre couldn't keep up," Hayden said. "We'll go back to work before New Jersey and find more speed."

Round 9 of the AMA American Superbike series takes place on September 3-5 at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, New Jersey.