Irvine, CA (April 11, 2016) – The Latus Motors Racing Kawasaki team pulled into Austin, Texas for Round 1 of the MotoAmerica series ready to do battle in the Superstock class at Circuit of the Americas. Bobby Fong, a veteran to the sport but rookie on a litre bike, started off the weekend by coming to terms with his new Kawasaki Ninja® ZX™-10R and his new competition. When it came time to qualify he silenced the critics by putting the No. 50 Latus Kawasaki on pole position, with a lead of nearly three tenths of a second. Fong proved that both he and the all new Ninja ZX-10R were serious championship contenders by battling his way to a Race 1 win and dominating Race 2, taking the checkers with an over 15 second gap, over his Superstock competitors. Teammate David Anthony leaves Texas with an 8th and 6th in Race 1 and 2 respectively.
“I had a great first weekend on the Kawasaki ZX-10R,” said Fong. “The bike performed really well all weekend and my team worked hard to make it the best handling motorcycle possible for both races. I started off a little slow during the first race, but as the race went on became more and more comfortable. I made a last lap, last corner pass for the lead and took the win! After a few small adjustments we headed into the second race with confidence. For the opening laps I was tracking with the Superbikes as closely as I could and maintaining consistently fast lap times. I’m excited to have put the Kawasaki on the podium twice this weekend but now it’s time to focus and stay humble as we head to Atlanta for Round 2.”
More, from a press release issued by Team Hammer:
DEBISE ON THE PODIUM IN TEXAS
Team Hammer enjoyed a spectacular opening to the 2016 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship season at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, securing the 139th podium of its storied history.
Adding to that excitement was the fact that it was taken by series newcomer, Valentin Debise on the M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki GSX-R600. Frenchman Debise instantly signaled his intent to be a serious player in this year’s Supersport title fight by kicking off his MotoAmerica career with an impressive third-place result.
The former Moto2, World Endurance and World Supersport competitor clung onto the battle for the lead just long enough to stretch out a sizable gap over the fight for fourth. That early padding ultimately proved invaluable as Debise narrowly fought off a competitor’s late attempt to steal away the spot.
“My race went well,” 23-year-old Debise said. “I knew the front two guys were really fast and I tried to push hard and stay with them in the beginning. After they got away, I just focused on myself and my bike. I tried to manage the gap behind me and just post steady lap times. The last three laps were quite difficult as the rear tire went away, but I managed it the best I could and finished the job on the final lap.”
M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki teammate Cameron Petersen also opened his ’16 campaign in solid fashion, picking up a sixth-place finish. After qualifying one spot behind Debise in fourth, the South African was embroiled in a spirited battle for that same position for much of the contest. In the end, he missed out on a top-five finish by less than two tenths of a second, despite clocking an even faster lap time in the race than his qualifying time.
The team’s 17-year-old rookie Xavier Zayat was a wild card entry in the weekend’s Supersport race with the Superstock 600 championship not slated to start until next weekend at Road Atlanta. The rising star picked up some valuable seat time on his M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki GSX-R600 in Texas. He qualified eighth on the grid — second among STK600 regulars — but did not finish the race, pulling in and telling his crew that he did not feel comfortable on the cold-tearing rear tire.
Meanwhile, M4 MedAge Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich registered a pair of points-paying finishes in this year’s deep and talented combined Superstock/Superstock 1000 field.
Ulrich put his Superbike spec GSX-R1000 on the outside of Row 5, qualifying 15th overall. He backed that up with a 13th-place ride on Saturday and a 15th-place finish on Sunday.
Those performances have the Californian fifth when compared against his fellow Superbike class competitors after the season-opening races.
There will be no time to rest and reflect for Team Hammer. Round 2 of the 2016 MotoAmerica season takes place next weekend, April 15-17, at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia.
This year will mark Team Hammer’s 36th consecutive season of operating as a professional road racing team. During that time, racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 59 AMA Pro National races, have finished on AMA Pro National podiums 139 times and have won five AMA Pro National Championships, (the most recent in 2012), as well as two FIM South American championships. The team has also won 133 endurance races overall (including seven 24-hour races) and won 13 Overall WERA National Endurance Championships with Suzuki motorcycles, and holds the U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24-hour race. The team also competed in the televised 1990s Formula USA National Championship, famously running “Methanol Monster” GSX-R1100 Superbikes fueled by methanol, and won the F-USA Championship four times.