Yoshimura Picks up Two Podiums In Fontana Fontana, Calif. It was a victorious weekend for Yoshimura and riders Tommy Hayden and Blake Young, who finished first and third on their Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000s on Sunday at the AMA Pro SuperBike doubleheader at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Hayden put together a spectacular race effort on Sunday, despite hot temperatures and a sixth-place finish on Saturday, to win the first SuperBike class race of his career. Hayden moved his way up to second place by the midway point of the race and then carefully selected the perfect time to make his move. Hayden took over first with three laps remaining in the 21-laps race, and stayed out front through the checkered flag. “It feels good to finally get that weight off my shoulders,” Tommy said of his first win in the SuperBike class. “Fortunately for me the race was really good. On Saturday, I was really disappointed the way the race went. I feel like I raced poorly and I was bummed out. I had a long talk with myself and I came back today and definitely redeemed myself.” With his 2-2 finishes in Daytona at Round 1, Hayden is in control of second-place overall in points for the season so far. Blake Young also had his season-best results on Sunday in Fontana with his third-place podium finish. Young also clocked the fastest lap time of the race with a 1:24.428. On Saturday, Young battled high winds and the competition for a fifth-place finish. With his GSX-R1000, Young is now poised in fifth-place overall in points for 2010 and is looking to improve upon that. “I would’ve liked to win,” Blake said after the race. “But it’s good to get on the podium. Especially here in California at the Auto Club Speedway, which is not what I would call one of my strongest tracks. I’ll get out of here with some points, and I have to thank the guys on my team for that. They work really hard for me, not only at the track but also in the shop.” The AMA Pro SuperBike series moves to Road Atlanta on April 16-18, and the Yoshimura expects Hayden and Young to carry their momentum to that track. About Yoshimura R&D of America: Yoshimura is “The Leader in Performance” and has been for more than 55 years. With unmatched skills, knowledge, and passion for racing, Yoshimura is on the forefront of the aftermarket exhaust industry. Yoshimura pipes are race bred and feature the same legendary performance, fit and quality that has been their trademark for more than five decades. To learn more about Yoshimura and view the wide variety of performance products, visit www.yoshimura-rd.com More, from a press release issued by Celtic Racing: NYACK, NY The Celtic Racing Orient Express team partnered with young Canadian star Brett McCormick over the March 26th weekend at Auto Club Speedway for Round 2 of the AMA Pro Racing American Superbike Championship. Though no stranger to Superbike competition or the indomitable 2009 GSX-R 1000 it was essential for McCormick to maximize all practice sessions on the unfamiliar track to ensure competitive pace come Saturday and Sunday’s 21-lap feature races. The New York-based team’s strategy would utilize Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions getting McCormick comfortable on the Celtic Racing LeoVince powered GSX-R and allowing McCormick to learn the 21-turn 2.36 mile track. McCormick put in 27 laps during Practice 1 posting a best time of 1:28.867, good for 17th place while testing a bevy of settings on the #7 Celtic machine. The team continued to test various setup configurations during Qualifying 1 late Friday afternoon seeing a good improvement with McCormick dropping 1.5 second (1:27.275) and posting the 14th fastest time during the 13-lap session. Confident in their ability to continue moving upwards the Celtic Racing team looked forward to Saturday morning’s Qualifying 2 to set the final grid positions and better their 4th row starting position. Unfortunately for the team however fierce Santa Ana winds pummeled the Speedway Saturday morning with gusts up to 60mph forcing AMA Pro Racing to suspend Qualifying 2 due to unsafe race conditions. Race 1 was pushed back further into the afternoon to give the blustering winds a chance to die down and the riders were given a short 10-minute warm-up session immediately prior to the race to familiarize themselves with track conditions. With only a few short laps to test new settings the team headed into Race 1 unsure of how the latest configuration of the GSX-R 1000 would play out over the course of the race. Grid positions were set based on Friday’s Qualifying times and McCormick would be starting both races from the 4th row, a daunting position for any rider. As the race progressed McCormick soon found the gamble in setup wasn’t paying off as the Canadian rider struggled with the 190hp Suzuki over the length of the race. Showing incredible determination however McCormick dropped another .2 seconds off his previous best lap to set a time of 1:27.088 and moved up two positions during the race to finish just outside the top 10 in 12th place. Armed with valuable data accrued during Race 1 the Celtic Racing Orient Express team went to work Saturday night to improve the #7 Armour Bodies-clad Suzuki and make a push for the Top 10 in Race 2. With a short warmup Sunday morning to try out the latest changes McCormick entered Race 2 feeling much more comfortable on both the track and the Celtic bike and was eager to get Race 2 underway. With Saturday’s winds but a distant memory Race 2 took place beneath beautiful Californian skies and McCormick was immediately challenging inside the Top 10. Rocketing from his 14th place starting position McCormick soon found himself in a battle with AMA veterans Ben Bostrom and Chris Ulrich, a battle that would extend throughout the entire contest. At races end the Fontana rookie would find himself in 7th position, his best AMA Pro Racing American Superbike finish to date. Even more impressively McCormick’s best laptime during the race (1:25.427) would be less than a second off the best lap of either race (Blake Young 1:24.428) and McCormick’s closest finish to the front in his fledgling AMA career. Brett McCormick – #7 Celtic Racing “That was certainly a wild weekend.” said McCormick “We knew coming in that it would take a bit of time to get everything going since it was a new track and my first race with the Celtic team. We were bummed to lose out on Saturday’s practice but AMA made the right call since it was pretty bad out there with the wind. Anyhow we were off on setup during Race 1 and that made for a long race. I knew we could go faster in Race 2 and after some changes Sunday morning we did just that. It felt real good to finally get down to some laptimes I knew we were capable of. I had a good battle with Ben and Chris and to come out with my best AMA Superbike finish at the line is just icing on the cake. A big thanks to the Celtic Racing team for all the hard work and the opportunity to race hard this weekend. I can’t wait to get back on the racetrack.” Brett McCormick now sits in 10th place overall in the 2010 American Superbike standings with 37 points. Celtic Racing Orient Express next takes to the track April 16th for Round 3 of the AMA Pro Racing Championship at Road Atlanta in Braselton Georgia. For more information on Celtic Racing please visit http://www.celticracing.com. Celtic Racing is proud to partner with: Orient Express, K-Tech suspension, Precision Professional Detailing, Irish Bike, Rowley Racing, LeoVince, Galfer, Armour Bodies, Zero Gravity, Vortex, Alpinestars, Shoei, ESJ Graphics More, from a press release issued by Pilot: Murrieta, CA It was a great weekend for Pilot riders in the double header event at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. Current Daytona SportBike Champion Danny Eslick finished second on his Geico Powersports RMR Suzuki both Saturday and Sunday, while Project 1 Atlanta/Yamaha rider Dane Westby took third in Saturday’s race. Westby barely missed out on third on Sunday, and finished fourth. These impressive results come on the heels of Dane Westby’s second place finish in the Daytona 200 just a few weeks ago, where Eslick finished 4th. It has been a banner season so far for Pilot and its riders and it doesn’t look to slow down as we head into the third round at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA. Elena Myers also had a much improved weekend from Daytona where she finished 7th and now has a best place finish of 4th at Auto Club Speedway in Sunday’s SuperSport race. Look for Elena to continue building on her success as she learns new tracks on the AMA national circuit. All of the Pilot riders listed below are developing Pilot’s new Pro-Series suits that will be available later in the year to the general public. Danny Eslick, Geico Powersports RMR Suzuki Dane Westby, Project 1 Atlanta/Yamaha Clinton Seller, Project 1 Atlanta/Yamaha Jake Holden, DucShop Ducati Elena Myers, RoadracingWorld.com RMR Suzuki Peter Lenz, Peter Lenz Racing More, from a press release issued by Syndicate Motorsport Management: SOLID DEVELOPMENT OF IRON HORSE BMW/ ESP SUPERBIKE IN AMA COMPETITION AT FONTANA (Fontana, CA) “” The Iron Horse BMW/Evan Steel Performance Superbike made its AMA American Superbike debut at Fontana this past weekend. Rider Chris Peris and the ESP crew made some solid initial development steps of the highly sophisticated BMW S1000RR. The response from the fans at the introduction of the German made Superbike was overwhelming and the California fans couldn’t get enough of the new bike. With limited on track testing—about three days””and the recent delivery of performance parts, the team approached 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 Fontana. The first practice was promising with Peris finishing 2.8 seconds off the leader with a time of 1:27.2. 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 1:25.7 good enough for twelfth position. In post qualifying tech, the BMW’s fuel was found to be non compliant””-due to a contaminated container””-and the qualifying times were disallowed. Chris would have to re-qualify for the races on Saturday morning. Saturday morning greeted the Iron Horse BMW/ ESP team with howling winds that threatened to knock the riders off line had they been sent out on track. AMA officials wisely postponed on track activities until the wind subsided. As the officials were trying to figure out a revised racing schedule in the shortened time frame, they decided to cancel the second qualifying session and simply run a fifteen minute warm up session immediately before the race. Chris’s Friday practice- his first time on the bike at Fontana with no previous data””was used to determine his grid position. From his fifteenth position on the grid, Chris struggled with his start because he never had the opportunity to practice a start since the Saturday morning session had been canceled. 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 a move to the inside of the field on the apron. As the field pinched down going into the turn three area, Peris ran out of room and made contact with another rider which caused him to crash when he tucked the front tire. When Peris picked up the bike, he noticed the shifter was broken and needed to enter the pits to make repairs. Although his chances of a good result were ruined with that first lap incident, Peris re-joined the race to try and work on his Sunday race setup. On Sunday morning the sun was shining and the wind was calm. 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 the fifteenth position and ready for the lights to go out. His second ever start was much better than the first and he completed the first lap in twelfth 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. With the limited track time, the team never had a chance to do a race distance simulation where they could evaluate the grip levels of the tires that had gone the full distance. Peris was knocking on the door of a top ten finish when he crossed the stripe in eleventh place. It was a great result for the Iron Horse BMW/ESP Superbike when you consider that they arrived without any testing or prior data for the circuit and that a full fifty minute session was cut from the schedule due to high winds. 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. 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. The wind on Saturday prevented us from getting that extra fifty minutes of track time before the race but that is the way it goes sometimes in racing. We were a little behind the development curve of where we wanted to be with no testing at Fontana and building the bike last minute. The upside is we were able to make some progress and show the potential of the bike. We’ll take the information from this weekend and keep developing, pretty soon Chris and the BMW S1000RR will be a force to be reckoned with.” Chris Peris: “I really like riding the BMW S1000RR. The bike handles great and has a lot of untapped potential. With a little more ESP tuning magic, we’ll have a bike that is capable of running up front. Like everybody else we just need more time and more importantly, more budget.” Team Iron Horse BMW/ ESP Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Team Iron Horse BMW/ ESP was created to maximize the strengths of both organizations. Iron Horse BMW is focused on their customers’ ownership experience. ESP is an independent sport bike shop that focuses on the racer and track day rider. This is the reason Iron Horse BMW teamed up with ESP. ESP understands the sportbike market, and they have the skills and experience Iron Horse BMW needs to be able to sell the S1000RR to new customers with the knowledge only racing provides. Iron Horse BMW/ESP will use their racing experience to further develop the S1000RR. Team Iron Horse BMW/ ESP will use AMA Superbike competition to develop chassis, suspension and motor parts and accessories that will be made available to S1000RR owners, allowing them to enjoy the BMW S1000RR for years to come. Evan Steel Performance Evan Steel Performance is a small, personal, specialized shop located in Tucson, Arizona that deals with all aspects of motorcycle road racing. ESP bikes have had some of the highest trap speeds in their classes at AMA Nationals, as well as the highest top speed at start/finish at the 50th annual Macau Grand Prix. In 2009, ESP clinched the Supersport East title with numerous victories. In 2008, ESP scored a very rare privateer podium at the VIR AMA National in the Superstock class with Chris Peris. ESP is open to any level of racing, from basic race prep to planning a season at the Nationals.