AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike Race Two Report West Coast Moto Jam – Infineon Raceway SONOMA, CA – Josh Hayes and his Team Graves Yamaha backed up his convincing Saturday win at Infineon Raceway with another display of superiority, as he took his second AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike win in as many days and led all but five laps of Superbike competition at the 2.32-mile natural road course. Hayes, who started on pole position, had to come from behind after some exceptional front-row starts from his competitors. Over the course of the first few laps, however, Hayes slowly picked off the riders in front and rode away to a 3.677-second victory over former teammate Ben Bostrom. Ben Bostrom on his Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha and an ever strong Larry Pegram on his Foremost Insurance Ducati both battled off Hayes to repeat their second and third place finishes from yesterday. Pegram led the first five laps of the race before being passed by a charging Hayes, who climbed back from fifth position to take the top spot on lap six, steadily maintaining his lead on the way to his ninth Superbike win. “I felt like I had an advantage this weekend,” Hayes said. “My bike worked really well and the boys did a fantastic job. I think we learned a few things and it will bode well for the rest of the season. If we keep our nose clean, we can compete for wins any given weekend.” All three riders commented that it was a different kind of race today, but at the end of the day, the top three matched the conditions perfectly and each rider was delighted with their results for different reasons. Hayes was relieved that he was able to back up his result from yesterday. He felt that he had such an advantage with Saturday’s clearly dominant performance of his Team Graves Yamaha that he was actually worried that he might not deliver on the advantage he felt that he had over the conditions and competition. Bostrom was also pleased with his weekend. His new team, Pat Clark Motorsports, has been getting better and better and this is an indication that the team and rider are back up front where they belong and now feel that they can be contenders for the rest of the 2010 AMA Pro Road Racing season. Pegram, who rides, manages and works on his family-owned Foremost Insurance Ducati team, felt that his performances at a track where he traditionally doesn’t do well was a bonus. He did have more difficulty with slower traffic today, but overall he is leaving Infineon Raceway with a pair of strong results as he heads into the scene of his popular victory last year at Road America. Behind the top three, Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammates Tommy Hayden and Blake Young enjoyed battling with each other and more as they also duplicated their fourth and fifth place finishes from yesterday. The duo had a close encounter in the turn nine complex on the final lap, which sent Hayden off course momentarily, but both riders retook their respective positions before crossing the stripe. Young ran as high as second position early in the race before beginning his seemingly race-long battle with points leader Jake Zemke on his National Guard Jordan Suzuki, who did all he could to take sixth, giving no quarter as he fought all the way to the flag. Jake Holden had another strong run on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki with a seventh place run, ahead of his teammate Chris Ulrich on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki. RidersDiscount.com Suzuki rider Taylor Knapp took another solid finish in ninth and Geoff May returned to fulltime National Guard SuperBike competition with a tenth place finish on his Erik Buell Racing Buell motorcycle. Next up for the series will be the classic four mile road course through the Kettle Moraine country of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin’s Road America, June 4-6. Visit www.amaproracing.com for all the latest information and results. More, from a press release issued by Rockstar Makita Suzuki: Rockstar Makita Suzuki 4 Points Out of Championship Lead in AMA SuperBike * Tommy Hayden is only four points out of the championship lead after finishing on the podium in Daytona, Fontana, and Atlanta aboard his GSX-R1000. * Blake Young qualified with the second-fastest lap time for the second spot on the starting grid at Infineon Raceway. * Young is in fourth place in the series, and the next round at Elkhart Lake, Wisc., is considered his hometown track. May 17, 2010 Rockstar Makita Suzuki and their two AMA Pro American SuperBike racers Tommy Hayden and Blake Young managed to find enough of a groove at the notoriously tough Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., this weekend to finish within the top 6. Hayden is only four points out of the championship lead, and Young is currently fourth in points overall. On Saturday, Young had the second-fastest qualifying time, which put him on the front row for the start of the race. Young led the race for a while before slipping back to second place, and then he finished in fifth place after battling with other racers. Tommy Hayden started fifth off the grid and after taking on the track and other racers ended his day in sixth place. Sunday’s race had the team hoping for better results. With the GSX-R1000s prepped and ready for battle, the two racers set out to test the limits. Young held onto second place at the start of the race, but ended up fifth after 22 laps of intense racing. Hayden improved on his Saturday finish by taking the fourth spot in the standings. Overall, Hayden is still second in series points after his strong showings in Daytona, Fontana, and Atlanta. Young is currently fourth in points, and next event, which takes place at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on June 4-6, is considered his hometown race. Look for the Suzuki GSX-R1000s to be at the front of the grid there! More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: Michael Jordan Motorsports maintains the points lead after the weekend’s seventh and eighth races of the 2010 AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike Championship at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Jake Zemke scored a fourth-placed finish on Saturday and finished sixth in Sunday’s race. Aaron Yates’ replacement rider, Brett McCormick, was running seventh when he experienced a mechanical issue during Saturday’s race and finished 13th on Sunday after a minor get-off in turn 10 early in the race. On Saturday, Zemke maintained second place for a number of laps before slipping into fourth in the final stages of the race. On Sunday, Zemke, slightly off the pace, ran in fourth place throughout most of the race until the late stages when he was passed and ended up sixth. Zemke holds onto a four point lead in the Championship heading to the next event at Road America. “On Saturday, my bike was moving around quite a bit,” said Zemke. “It was pretty good early on and we were able to get up to second. I didn’t have a huge gap or anything, but I felt comfortable where I was. We definitely started losing grip from the rear tyre. I couldn’t really get off the corners. And knowing that, I was trying to push harder going into the corners to try and make up for it. That was causing the bike to move around quite a bit and it was kind of the end of our deal. We faded back from there and tried to minimise the damage and maximize what we could.” “Sunday was a long race,” Zemke continued. “The times were a lot quicker in the beginning of the race and we definitely had a better pace at the beginning of it. I just ended up glazing the brakes over and I couldn’t get into the corners the way I needed to. But we held on and we’re still in the Championship lead, so that’s an important thing. We’re constantly working and moving forward and pretty soon the 54 will be back up on top. Wisconsin is one of my favourite tracks and I’m definitely looking forward to that – getting to something a little bit faster and flowing. I think that’ll suit our bike real well.” During the weekend, Jake Zemke’s National Guard Suzuki GSX-R1000 was proudly sporting the state patch of the California National Guard’s largest combat brigade, the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The corresponding National Guard state patches will be placed on Zemke’s Suzuki for the remainder of the 2010 season. More, from a press release issued by Syndicate Motorsport Management: IRON HORSE BMW/ ESP SUPERBIKE BREAK INTO TOP TEN IN AMA COMPETITION AT SONOMA May 17, 2010 (Sonoma, CA) “” The Iron Horse BMW/Evan Steel Performance Superbike made its second AMA American Superbike appearance at Sonoma this past weekend. Rider Chris Peris and the ESP crew continued development of the highly sophisticated BMW S1000RR. The response from the fans at the introduction of the German made Superbike in Fontana was overwhelming and the California fans in Sonoma couldn’t get enough of the new bike. With limited on track testing—due to budget constraints””and the recent delivery of performance parts, the team continued to approach the race weekend as more of a public shakedown and evaluation versus focusing solely on results. The team had to use Friday’s first practice to try and get a baseline setting for the new bike since they had not done any testing at Infineon. The first practice revealed the lack of testing time as Peris finished 4.3 seconds adrift of leader Josh Hayes with a time of 1:40.7. With the single fifty minute practice session in the books, it was time for qualifying. The team made some adjustments to gearing and suspension and sent Chris out to qualify. With the adjustments, Chris was able to improve his time to a 1:38.6 good enough for twelfth position and now only 2.5 seconds behind provisional pole sitter Bostrom. Saturday morning greeted the Iron Horse BMW/ ESP team with cold temps and a damp track. AMA officials wisely delayed on track activities for one hour to let the conditions improve. Even with the cold temperatures, Peris and the IH/ ESP BMW crew were able to improve their qualifying time to a 1:38.1, which was good enough for tenth on the grid. When the lights went out, the BMW and Peris were not in sync and the S1000RR struggled to leave the grid. Once Peris had the clutch engaged and his thoughts collected, he made the break with the lead pack of 12 riders. After a race long battle with David Anthony, Peris just lost out at the line by .056 seconds to finish in tenth position, all the more impressive considering that the team achieved this in only their third AMA American Superbike start. On Sunday morning the team was greeted with more gray skies and cold temperatures. The crew made some adjustments to the suspension based on the knowledge from Saturday’s race. The biggest hindrance to a fast lap time on the S1000RR was a lack of rear grip. With new suspension settings aimed at increasing the rear grip, Peris was gridded once again in tenth position and ready for the lights to go out. His fourth ever start was much better than Saturday’s and he completed the first lap in tenth position. Although the rear grip was better, the lack of track time and previous setup notes kept the ESP crew from finding a more optimal setting. After running as high as ninth, Peris was caught out again by the lack of testing. Peris struggled with rear grip issues but soldiered on to a twelfth place finish ahead of fellow Canadian Brett McCormick on the Jordan Suzuki. The S1000RR is now back at the ESP shop in Tucson, AZ where the crew is working on refining the handling package and chassis setup to track conditions and rider preference. The next event on the Iron Horse BMW/ ESP Superbike schedule is the Larry H. Miller challenge race in two weeks time in Utah. Although the team would like to contest the remaining AMA Superbike rounds, the budget is not currently in place. Team Iron Horse BMW/ ESP is actively seeking sponsorship to campaign as many additional AMA rounds as possible in 2010. Evan Steel: “All in all, we had a good weekend and our first top ten finish. We are still behind the development curve of where we want to be but we keep chipping away at it and are making forward strides. Every time out on this bike we are getting better and Chris keeps demonstrating how strong a rider he is by where he is able to finish compared to the bigger teams with more developed machines.” Chris Peris: “I really like riding the BMW S1000RR. Even with the limited development, we were able to go two seconds faster than the last time I rode a 1000 around Infineon in 2008. With more time, development, and hopefully money, we can make this bike competitive.”