TOUGH DAY FOR POINTS LEADER CARDENAS AT LAGUNA SECA Team M4 Suzuki endured a rare day of double disappointment on Sunday at Laguna Seca. After continuing their dominant 2009 form through qualifying with Martin Cardenas scoring a fifth consecutive pole position for the team and opening his quest to score a seventh AMA Pro Daytona SportBike victory from the front of the pack, the former Spanish Supersport champ crashed out of the lead on lap six of Sunday’s final. A short while later, Jason DiSalvo joined his teammate on the tarmac, falling from ninth position in the Corkscrew while working lap ten. While frustrated by today’s surprising turn of events, the team’s hard work allowed them to absorb the misfortune without taking too much damage in the championship race. Colombian Cardenas still heads the point standings with 255 points and a still-imposing 39-point advantage over second place. Meanwhile, New Yorker DiSalvo remains ranked fourth with 179 points. “You have to take the good with the bad and we’ve had an awfully lot of good this year,” said Team Crew Chief Keith Perry. “It’s unfortunate but that’s the way it goes sometimes. We’ll lick our wounds and go at it again. “We’ve still got a pretty healthy points lead for Martin. I hated it for Jason because I know he had a chance to claw back up there a little bit, but we’ve got to dig our heels in and get ready for the next ones. “I have faith in all our guys and these riders and I know we’ll come back at Mid-Ohio strong and carry on. We’re ready for the rest of the season.” Team M4 Suzuki will get a chance to come back swinging in two week’s time at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 17-19. More, from a press release issued by American Suzuki: Rockstar Makita Suzuki & Jordan Suzuki Sweep AMA Superbike Podium at Laguna Seca Suzuki’s Mladin, Young and Yates celebrate 1st, 2nd & 3rd Round 7 AMA Superbike Series Monterey, California Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca June 3-5, 2009 Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin picked up his 82nd AMA Superbike victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, on Sunday afternoon. The six-time AMA Superbike Champion rode flawlessly and battled with his teammate Blake Young for much of the race, which was abbreviated due to earlier crashes that drew a red flag. Young followed Mladin home in a close second place after having led multiple laps of the race on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000. Joining Mladin and Young on the podium and creating a Suzuki Superbike podium sweep was Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates, who finished in third place. Unfortunately, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden suffered some bad luck at Laguna Seca. Prior to the red flag, Hayden jumped the initial start and received a stop-and-go penalty. As a result, once the race was underway, he had to pull into the pits while he was running in second place. He rejoined the fray in ninth place and finished up in eighth place. Mat Mladin: “It was a good race for us today. Most importantly, it’s good to have the three Suzukis up here on the podium. That’s what we’re here to do, to try and get Suzuki up on top of the box. Today it was good to fill the podium.” Blake Young: “I feel really good about the weekend. We got off to a really great start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 and got to lead some laps. I think that’s the most amount of laps I’ve led so far in a Superbike race, so I feel really good about that. The crew worked really hard for me this weekend. I really want to thank them, it’s been a little rough around the shop but some guys stepped in and stepped up and filled some shoes and took care of business and got us up on the podium today. So I really want to give this one to the guys back at the shop and thank them very much for everything. It was a good race for us”¦ we ended up second today and I’m really happy with it.” Aaron Yates: “We got a really good start in the first get-go. I was running along, hoping to see how things were going to pan out”¦ in the second start, I didn’t get off as good as I’d wanted, but I managed to get up to turn one and get past a couple guys. I just kind of fell in the pace, and couldn’t get going any better though I thought we could go faster”¦ then I kind of got stuck in a little group. The guys up front got going and they were going fast. I think I was matching their pace but I just couldn’t make any ground on Blake and Mat. I’m just happy to bring it home for the Jordan Suzuki team, they worked hard this weekend and made it on the podium.” Tommy Hayden: “Aside from the start which was a cluster, I thought I saw the lights flash and I took off way too early”¦ I’m not sure what happened, it all kind of happened fast aside from that, I’m pretty happy with how the race went. I had some good speed and the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 was working awesome today. I’m pretty disappointed to have let a good result slip away. But I guess I can take away the positive that we had a pretty good weekend and I was fast enough to run up front, it just didn’t work out.” Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing will race next at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, the weekend of July 17-19, 2009. AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers: 1. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 2. Blake Young, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 3. Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki 4. Josh Hayes, Yamaha 5. Ben Bostrom, Yamaha 6. Neil Hodgson, Honda 7. Jake Holden, Honda 8. Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 9. Geoff May, National Guard Jordan Suzuki 10. Larry Pegram, Ducati AMA Superbike Points Standings: 1. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 2. Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 3. Ben Bostrom, Yamaha 4. Larry Pegram, Ducati 5. Josh Hayes, Yamaha 6. Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki 7. Geoff May, National Guard Jordan Suzuki 8. Blake Young, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 9. David Anthony, Suzuki 10. Taylor Knapp, Suzuki More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Bostrom Wins AMA Pro Daytona SportBike at Laguna Seca In front of an international MotoGP audience, Daytona 200 winner Ben Bostrom put on a thrilling show to win the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike race at Laguna Seca on Sunday, July 5. Aboard his Graves Motorsports YZF-R6, Bostrom battled for the lead with rival Chaz Davies and then took over for good with just three laps remaining in the 21-lap race. Making things even better, teammate Josh Herrin finished on the podium in third, while fellow R6 pilots Tommy Aquino, Robertino Pietri and Steve Rapp finished fourth through sixth, respectively, to give Yamaha a near complete control of the field. After Ricky Parker’s runaway win in Saturday’s AMA Pro SuperSport race on another Graves Motorsports entry, Bostrom’s win further validated the Yamaha R6 as a powerful force in every class where it competes. After a crash by early leader Martin Cardenas, Bostrom and Herrin circulated together in first and second during in the SportBike race, but a three-rider mishap in the Corkscrew brought out the red flag for nearly a half hour. After the restart, Bostrom and Davies split from the rest of the field and circulated closely together, with the R6 of Bostrom and the much larger V-twin competitor of Davies trading advantages in different parts of the track. Davies passed Bostrom on the back straight with six laps remaining, but Bostrom reclaimed the lead under braking for Turn 11 and held off his rival for a thrilling 0.225 sec. margin of victory. “The rules are pretty wild and you have some big motors in the class now,” Bostrom explained afterwards. “Chaz had an advantage on the straights, but I made sure to put my R6 ahead of him and keep at least a small gap. I wanted to make sure we won the thing!” Yamaha road racing manager Tom Halverson added, “Laguna Seca is Ben’s favorite track and I was really glad to see the Graves Motorsports team back on top this weekend. This was also Tommy Aquino’s best race so far with the Graves team and it was really good to see him take another step up the learning curve.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Hacking Works Up To a Top-10 Finish Monterey, Calif. Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking greatly improved his starting position to finish inside the top-10 during the AMA Daytona SportBike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Hacking moved up six positions to finish ninth after qualifying results forced him to grid 15th. Teammate Roger Hayden was forced to end his day early with a bike issue. Movin’ On Up Hacking’s main goal on Sunday was to improve on his qualifying position and gain as many points as he could for the championship. He did the best he could with the race he was dealt, moving from 15th to ninth. “We came into the weekend with some new setting ideas to try and improve the bike,” said Hacking. “We were very limited on track time so we did what we could and made small improvements. We qualified pretty far back so it made it hard to come back up. I played it a little tentative at first while riding with the guys back there. I’m not used to riding with those guys and it took me a little bit to get through. After the red flag I was moving up, but then we had the incident in the corkscrew with a rider going down and I had to go through the dirt. It really messed up my rhythm.” Salvage Day With the points leader going down early, Hacking did what he could to improve his position throughout the race. He remains second in the standings, only 39 points back. “We still have a lot of improvements to make with the handling, but we have made small advances and we just need to keep our heads up and continue to push forward. Although we were a little further back at the finish, we gained some points on the leader today.” Unfortunate Day Hayden got off to a great start, but only a few laps in, he had to pull off with a bike issue. “The best thing to do when you have days like this is to move on and look forward to the next race,” said Hayden. “Everyone has their bad weekends. We are going to move on and work towards a better time at Mid-Ohio in a few weeks.” Fans for Hayden Hayden was greeted by an assortment of fans, young and old, that came by the Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki rig to get a chance for an autograph or photo with the 26-year-old. Elena On Hand With her hometown not to far from the track, Kawasaki’s youngest road racer came out to watch the races at Laguna Seca. She spent part of the weekend signing autographs for her fans with other Kawasaki athletes. Leandro After winning the last round of the AMA SuperSport East, Mercado did not compete at Laguna Seca because of an immigration issue. Results AMA Pro Road Racing Series Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, Calif. July 5, 2009 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Results 1. Ben Bostrom, Malibu, Calif., Yamaha 2. Chaz Davies, Carlsbad, Calif., Aprilla 3. Josh Herrin, Clovis, Calif., Yamaha 4. Tommy Aquino, Saugus, Calif.,Yamaha 5. Robertino Pietri, Venezuela, Yamaha 6. Steve Rapp, Hawthorne, Calif., Yamaha 7. Chris Peris, Calgary, Canada, Honda 8. Daniel Eslick, Broken Arrow, Okla., Buell 9. JAMIE HACKING, DENVER, N.C., MONSTER ENERGY ATTACK KAWASAKI 10. Bobby Fong, Yamaha 38. ROGER HAYDEN, OWENSBORO, KY., MONSTER ENERGY ATTACK KAWASAKI AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Point Standings 1. Martin Cardenas, Miami, Fla., Suzuki, 255 2. JAMIE HACKING, DENVER, N.C., MONSTER ENERGY ATTACK KAWASAKI, 216 3. Daniel Eslick, Broken Arrow, Okla., Buell, 212 4. Jason DiSalvo, Las Vegas, Nev., Suzuki, 179 5. Josh Herrin, Clovis Calif., Yamaha, 173 6. Chris Peris, Calgary, Canada, Honda, 155 7. Chaz Davies, Carlsbad, Calif., Aprilla, 146 8. Jake Zemke, Paso Robles, Calif., Honda, 128 9. Steve Rapp, Hawthorne, Calif., Yamaha, 127 10. Tommy Aquino, Saugus, Calif., Yamaha, 122 13. ROGER HAYDEN, OWENSBORO, KY., MONSTER ENERGY ATTACK KAWASAKI, 79 22. LEANDRO MERCADO, LODI, CALIF., MONSTER ENERGY ATTACK KAWASAKI, 39 More, from a press release issued by Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki: SUCCESS AT LAGUNA SECA FOR TEAM ROADRACINGWORLD.COM SUZUKI Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki enjoyed an encouraging weekend of racing in front of over 105,000 fans at Laguna Seca, scoring yet another AMA Pro SuperSport podium finish while also making vital progress with their developing American Superbike program. New parts for Chris Ulrich’s #18 GSX-R1000 aided the Californian’s adaptation to his 2009-spec machine this weekend. He qualified on the inside of the fourth row, posting the 13th fastest time at 1:26.751 and then went one better in the race, coming home twelfth following a hectic affair that included a pair of opening-lap red flags and Safety Car and grid-related confusion. After suffering from some set-up woes at the most recent two rounds, Ulrich felt the weekend marked a turning point in the season even if the race didn’t go exactly to plan. “There are some things I don’t understand about that race that went on, mainly how some of those guys who crashed were able to restart in good grid positions, but I guess we’ll leave that up for others to figure out,” said Ulrich, who is ranked twelfth in the championship with 92 points. “We made a lot of progress over the weekend. We had some problems adapting to the K9 but we got some new parts and the bike was working good. We were a lot better off in practice. “It came down to a decision on Sunday morning because it wasn’t quite steering as well as we wanted and we thought about a ride height change. Instead, we decided to do it with some rebound to the front and it didn’t work. We took the rebound out and it was a little bit better but for the most part, we missed it today. There were a lot of encouraging things that came out of the weekend, especially in qualifying. We are a lot closer. This should be the turnaround for the rest of the season.” Russell Wikle put in another terrific effort in SuperSport action in what was a non-points paying West Division race weekend for him. The Alabaman qualified second on the grid at 1:30.745 and backed that up with a runner-up result in the race, his fifth podium ride of the ’09 season. “You can’t be disappointed with a podium finish but I’d like to be on top,” Russ said. “I got a mediocre start, second into Turn 2 and I really wanted to put my head down and fight for the win but I made a couple mistakes early on. After that I concentrated on bringing it home in second place.” Wikle was joined on the team by the up-and-coming James Rispoli for the weekend. Rispoli, 17 years old and from Attica, New York, finished a terrific fourth in the one-off ride, crossing the stripe less than a second away from giving the squad another podium result. “It was a great weekend, overall. It was awesome. I had never ridden this bike before or raced here at Laguna Seca, so we knew we had some work in front of us. We got faster with every lap the entire weekend. It was phenomenal and I had a lot of fun and learned a lot,” said James. Ulrich said, “We had two kids that did great for us this weekend. First off, Russell was solid as usual and did a fantastic job once again. We’re going to kick up the support for him for the remainder of the season and hopefully he can get some wins. “James did a great job riding for us this weekend as well. He was a bit of an unknown but he ended up fighting for the podium and we see a lot of talent in James. We’ll be keeping an eye on him.” Santiago Villa put in yet another gritty AMA Pro Daytona SportBike performance riding at less than 100%. The Colombian put in his third top-20 result in his last four attempts, finishing 18th position, right behind Wikle who took 17th. Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will next head to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 17-19. Mid-Ohio. The circuit has traditionally been a strong venue for Ulrich, who claimed a victory at the track in 2002. “I love Mid-Ohio,” Chris said. “We’ve been getting some fantastic support out of Öhlins and we’re making great progress and everyone is behind us, so we excited for the remainder of the season.” More, from a press release issued by Buell: Eslick Rides Hard and Gains on Daytona Sportbike Points Lead Top 10 Finish at Laguna Tightens Championship Gap East Troy, Wis. (July 6, 2009) Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing/RMR/GEICO rider Danny Eslick edged closer to the championship points lead in the AMA Pro Racing Daytona Sportbike class with an eighth place finish aboard his Buell 1125R at the Red Bull US Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca July 5. Starting from eighth on the grid, Eslick charged toward the front of the field early in the race, challenging for the lead and battling for a spot in the top three for much of the 21-lap race, which was interrupted on Lap 10 by a red flag for a three-bike incident in the Corkscrew turn. Eslick again jumped into the fray following the restart, challenging for the lead and running as high as second with several aggressive flat-track-style passes into the tight Turn 2, before eventually falling back to an eight place finish ahead of championship rival Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking, who finished ninth. Eslick gained a single point advantage on Hacking, but both riders closed the gap to points leader Martin Cardenas, who crashed his Team M4 Suzuki out of the lead in the early going. The race was won by Graves Yamaha factory rider Ben Bostrom. “It just got a little too crazy up there, everyone was bouncing off of everyone else,” said Eslick who was nearly caught out when Bostrom’s teammate Josh Hayes crashed in the Corkscrew. “I knew Cardenas was out of the race and decided it would be smart to bring it home in the points.” Eslick’s GEICO Powersports/RMR teammate Michael Barnes finished 11th, followed by Bartels’ H-D/Buell rider Shawn Higbee in 13th. Latus Motor’s Taylor Knapp dropped out of the race early with a mechanical problem. With 12 rounds of the Daytona Sportbike championship completed, Cardenas remains in the lead with 255 points, followed by Hacking with 216 and Eslick with 212. Eight races remain in the season, with next round in the championship set for July 17-19 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH. Founded by visionary motorcycle designer and former privateer racer Erik Buell in 1983, Buell Motorcycle Company, a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc., produces sport motorcycles, motorcycle parts, accessories and apparel, including the 1125R superbike, 1125CR café racer and air-cooled XB-series Ulysses, Firebolt, and Lightning. To learn more about Buell motorcycles, or to locate the dealer nearest you, log onto www.buell.com. More, from a press release issued by Honda: Corona Extra Honda’s Neil Hodgson had an eventful day with a sixth place finish in the AMA Pro Road Racing Superbike race that supported the U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Two turns into the race, held as the last event on grand prix Sunday, Hodgson was knocked down in the second turn, though lucky to be unhurt. The race was almost immediately stopped and he was able to re-start. When the race began for the second time, now shortened to 18 laps, Hodgson was away seventh on the first lap, but made his way up to sixth by lap five. First he targeted Josh Hayes (Yamaha), before Hayes passed teammate Ben Bostrom, who became Hodgson’s rabbit. Bostrom was within Hodgson’s sights when the checkered flag fell. The gap between them was .257s. “Really happy,” Hodgson said. “You can’t believe how I feel. I’m just like, I am over the moon.” Part of his joy came from his physical condition. Hodgson has been rehabilitating a severely separated shoulder and punctured lung that he suffered in a motocross back in March. The injury is the type that can take up to a year to heal. And with a four week break since the last AMA race at Road America, Hodgson was able to get the shoulder to the point where it doesn’t bother him on the Corona Extra Honda CBR1000RR. “My shoulder didn’t hold me back one bit,” he said. Now the season dives into the second half with races at almost regular two week intervals. The team has one weekend off before going to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the 13th of 20 rounds. The race was won by Mat Mladin (Suzuki) from teammate Blake Young and Aaron Yates (Suzuki). Neil Hodgson 6th That was pretty scary, because I saw a crash happen before it happened, because, out of the corner of my eye I saw, I’m sure it was (Ben) Bostrom, go up the inside, obviously way too fast. Obviously you know the door’s already closed because people had turned. So I’d sat up before the crash had happened. Because I knew the position I was on the track I was going to get collected. So I sat up thinking I’d just missed it all. And then the next thing, you never know, it happened so fast I was on the ground. And it just instantly knocked the wind out of myself, which it just always seems to happen to me, which is horrible. I’ve got a big rib cage, so I think I’m prone to getting winded. So I laid there for a bit until I could breathe and then got up and thankfully they stopped the race. I’d already got my bike anyway. The marshals had put it to the side and like leaned it on the floor. It was just like lying down. I picked it up and said, I’m not done yet. And then the re-start, I got an average start, which I’ve been getting every year. and I literally rode as hard as I could. That was pretty much the limit for me. Just a few areas of the bike that we need to improve that we’re going to improve for the next race. Hopefully that’ll give us two or three-tenths a lap which is probably all we need really to be getting on the podium and hopefully winning some races. Team principal Tim Saunders Considering how the race started, we have to be very pleased. It was an unfortunate case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Neil didn’t do himself any further damage to his shoulder or ribs and was able to re-start the race. Considering he hadn’t ridden for a month, and after the trauma of the accident, he came through the day with flying colors. There are a few areas of the bike we need to work on, but with his physical health rounding into shape it puts us in good stead for the second half of the season. American Superbike: 1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 2. Blake Young (Suzuki) 3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 4. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 5. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha) 6. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 7. Jake Holden (Honda) 8. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 9. Geoff May (Suzuki) 10. Larry Pegram (Ducati) Championship Standings: 1. Mat Mladin (Honda) 355 2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 228 3. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha) 203 4. Larry Pegram (Ducati) 191 5. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 182 6. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 173 7. Geoff May (Suzuki) 173 8. Blake Young (Suzuki) 169 9. David Anthony (Suzuki) 120 10. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki) 101