MICHAEL JORDAN MOTOR SPORTS SUZUKI EARNS PODIUM AT ROAD AMERICA Yates Finishes Second; May Earns First AMA Superstock Pole Position Elkhart Lake, WI – Michael Jordan Motor Sports Suzuki rider Aaron Yates finished second in today’s rainy AMA Superstock race at Road America. Yates, currently in first place in the Superstock Championship, earned his sixth consecutive podium finish of the new season. Starting from the second position with a qualifying time of 2:14.647, Yates quickly moved into first place on lap one. While Yates was able to gain a five second gap on the competition, he was slowed due to lapped traffic. In a battle on the final drive to the checkered flag, M4 Emgo Suzuki’s rider Blake Young was able to draft past Yates. “I looked over my shoulder and saw him coming [Young] so I moved over to protect my line, and he got past me,” said Yates. “My Jordan Suzuki was running well and in the end we still brought home some good points.” Yates earned second place, retaining the overall points lead toward the AMA Superstock championship. Yates’ fellow Jordan Suzuki rider Geoff May earned the pole position in qualifying, but was forced to start from pit lane on his back-up after an incident on the warm-up lap. May attacked the field from the drop of the green flag from his last place start. By lap five, May moved himself solidly into eighth place, but gave fans a scare when he ran off the wet track surface on lap six. May quickly regained his composure and completed the race in ninth place at the checkered flag. On Saturday, between heavy downpours, high winds and thunderstorms, Race 1 of the Suzuki Superbike doubleheader got underway. Yates, who qualified for the second row in seventh position (2:14.456), rode his Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a top-10 finish. In the 16-lap event, Yates shifted back and forth between fifth, sixth and seventh positions, eventually settling for sixth place. Teammate Geoff May also qualified for the second row and finished in ninth place. In Sunday’s Superbike Race 2, May bettered his eighth place starting position (2:14.534) by finishing in seventh place on his production-based Suzuki. Yates, who ran as high as fifth position, was forced to stop trackside on lap six to adjust his chain. Yates re-entered the race in eighth position and where he crossed the finish line. Yates and May have each earned eight top-10 finishes in the premier Superbike class. AMA Superbike Championship points standings (after six rounds): AMA Superstock Points: Aaron Yates, 1st place (203) Geoff May, 3rd place (164) AMA Superbike Points: Aaron Yates, 8th place (234) Geoff May, 9th place (199) The next stop for the Jordan Suzuki team and the AMA Superbike Series is Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, CA June 18-20, 2008. For more information on Jordan Suzuki or for team merchandise, visit www.23race.com. Fans can watch the AMA Superbike Championship series on SpeedTV. More, from a press release issued by Honda: AMA Superbike Championship at Road America Saturday, Sunday June 7-8, 2008 Weather: Warm, overcast Temperature: 29-degree ambient American Honda’s Neil Hodgson maintained third place at the halfway point in the in the AMA Superbike Championship with a pair of fourth place finishes in difficult weather conditions at Road America in the American heartland of Wisconsin. Teammate Miguel Duhamel did nearly as well, making a late pass to finish fifth on Saturday and finishing sixth on Sunday. Severe weather plagued the area on the weekend, with a tornado sighting south of the track. Thunderstorms came and went and Saturday’s races were delayed by rain and lightning. Sunday’s practice was run in a steady rain. The overall affect was a lack of dry set-up time and a green track after the downpours. Duhamel was especially affected after a fuel pump failed, denying him almost any dry practice. Hodgson was away behind the leaders in both races, which were held under warm, overcast skies on a track with several sixth gear straightaways. On Saturday, he lost touch with the leaders early and raced by himself to fourth. Sunday he turned off his traction control in a bid to have more control on corner exit. The 2003 World Superbike Champion was closer in the early stages, but any chance at repeating his podium performance from the previous week at Miller Motorsports Park ended when he lost the draft of the lead trio. Again he found himself alone en route to another fourth. “I sit here now and think, ‘I should have pushed harder on them first laps to get the proper tow,’ but then I could have been sat in the gravel hating life,” he said while keeping third in the point standings. “Tough weekend really. I’m not happy with two fourths at all. But I’ve got to step up my riding, I think, and try to improve my settings.” Duhamel was part of a four-rider battle for fifth place on Saturday. The veteran used the speed advantage of his Honda CBR1000RR to re-pass Aaron Yates (Suzuki) on the final lap to take fifth. Sunday he passed Yates’ teammate Geoff May on the final lap to take sixth. Saturday’s race was won by Ben Spies (Suzuki) from teammate Mat Mladin. Mladin reversed the order on Sunday. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) was third on both days. Neil Hodgson, 4th, 4th When you come to a track like this, and you get your one 40 minute practice session all weekend, because obviously we don’t get a lot of practice anyway, and the weather’s been iffy, it’s difficult. New bike, all new traction control system, all new everything, it’s hard. That’s a lot of it. We made some real small changes on Sunday. I rode without any TC (traction control), because I just felt I was being held up too much. It’s such a fine line between getting it right and not. It probably was a little bit better, which shows how bad it was for the first race, because I was just killing power out of the corners. Certain corners it didn’t do too bad. Anywhere it spun, obviously, it killed power and that was that. It was a bit like yesterday. It’s so frustrating. I had him (Jamie Hacking) in sight. Jamie managed to get the tow of the leaders and I just sort of missed it. Obviously, it’s tricky conditions, the track’s pretty green and both of our rear tires were sliding. Miguel Duhamel 5th, 6th We had brake issues on Saturday. They kind of glazed over and I couldn’t stop the bike. Even though it looked good on TV, every time I hit the brakes I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the corner. But at least the bike was good enough that I could fight and get that good fifth and I really felt like we should have been a little higher. We had a fuel pump go bad on us in practice, so we had no dry track time at all. I got to hand it to Jon (Cornwell, of Ohlins) and (crew chief) Al (Ludington). I hand it to them too when it doesn’t go well, but I got to hand it to them for Sunday’s race. They gave me a real good set-up. I was hoping Sunday would be dry, but it was wet in morning warm-up, and in the wet we went pretty good. I was just putting sections together and when I put the sections together I was pretty fast. And then we went to dry for the race and we tried some different brakes and we went with a little bit of a different tire and I couldn’t get comfortable. The brakes were working pretty good where I was backing the bike in. It’s frustrating, a little tough to see those guys pull away, but it was good on the other hand because we’ve got a good bike. I didn’t destroy the bike. Hopefully, luck will go our way and we’ll be able to put this thing on the podium, for sure.” American Honda Road Race Manager Ron Heben A pair of fourths for the weekend isn’t what we wanted. Obviously, Saturday we were kind of encouraged and tried to move forward and get back on the box. Today presented all of the teams with a bunch of challenges with the weather conditions and we came up a little bit short. And it was a frustrating weekend again for the American Honda team. We go next week to Mid-Ohio for a test and we’ll look at some of the things that held us back and hopefully we’ll return to race at Laguna in front of the world and we can put the new CBR1000 up front. Sunday Superbike: 1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 2. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 3. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 4. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 5. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 6. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 7. Geoff May (Suzuki) 8. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 9. Alastair Seeley (Suzuki) 10. Chris Peris (Suzuki) Saturday Superbike: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 3. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 4. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 5. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 6. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 7. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 8. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 9. Geoff May (Suzuki) 10. Alastair Seeley (Suzuki) Championship Standings: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 378 2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 338 3. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 293 4. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 292 5. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 265 6. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 254 7. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 238 8. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 234 9. Geoff May (Suzuki) 199 10. Scott Jensen (Suzuki) 188 More, from a press release issued by Pirelli: Pirelli’s Young Wins, Pietri and Pegram Podium, Rapp Poles and Waxes, and Farrell Flies Rome, GA Blake Young took his first-ever win in the AMA Superbike series with a come-from-behind triumph on Pirelli tires in Sunday’s Superstock race at Wisconsin’s Road America. Young qualified his M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R1000 on row two of the grid in fifth, but by turn one on lap one of the race Young was momentarily in the lead. At the line on each lap Young was recorded in second until the final crossing, after he dramatically closed on the race leader, passing for the win on the up-hill approach to the line. During the race Young had also toasted the competition with the fastest lap, so fast it was nearly a full half second faster from the second-fastest rider, the Pirelli shod Robertino Pietri of the Roadracingworld.com Suzuki team, who himself ripped off a lap some seven tenths faster than any other competitor, in the race’s wet but drying conditions. So yeah, Young’s best lap was 1.2 seconds quicker than any Pirelli competitor. After the race Young said, “It seemed as though I had second locked up but then when I came down into turn five on the last lap I could see that I was suddenly closing fast on Yates. From there I kept closing and I knew there was a lot of water in turn 13 so I just set myself up for the drive up the front straight and had no trouble motoring by. While celebrating after the race, I discovered that Pirelli rain tires are terrible for doing burnouts; they have so much traction that while spinning in mid-burnout they hooked up on me and tried driving the bike. They’re unbelievable.” The equally popular Pietri also finished on the podium for Pirelli in Superstock, continuing his compellation of a more and more stunning resume of race results. Others excelling at rain dancing on Pirelli’s were Young’s teammate Michael Barnes finishing fifth after battling for third, Scott Jensen in eighth and David Anthony in tenth, each of those last two again confirming their top-ten consistency. Young and Pietri are now fourth and fifth in Superstock points for the season, followed by Chris Ulrich, Anthony, Jensen and Ryan Elleby counted in at seventh through tenth. Ulrich was unable to compete at Road A. due to a hand injury suffered during practice. In Saturday’s Formula Xtreme feature, Larry Pegram led half of the race on his Leo Vince/Foremost Insurance Ducati, only to finally finish third. Attack Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp was fourth on his ZX-6R, with his teammate Chaz Davies sixth, Jason Farrell seventh, Ryan Clay ninth, and Michael Barnes tenth. Local rider Farrell had the race of his life, earning his best-ever AMA race finish the hard way. Farrell had qualified 18th and early after the first start he was taken out by another rider, which destroyed his bike and brought out a red flag. Since the race was stopped within just two laps Farrell was able to restart on his back up bike. As Farrell said, “My second bike had rain tires mounted on it and I had no time to get my other rims so I was hoping for rain but the race was restarted in the dry. I had to start from the last row since I was in the red-flag incident and then the race was stopped again, this time because of the lightening. When it was started for the third time it was raining and though I was still on the last row now I had the right tires. So, it was perfect. I was passing guys on the brakes and inside turns all over the track.” By race’s end Farrell had passed over 20 other riders. In Sunday’s Supersport final, Attack Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp totally dominated the field, legitimately riding out to an unchallenged lead on a set of standard Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa DOT racing tires, from in the race’s restart from his fourth-place on the grid. Unfortunately, in the race’s original start where Rapp slipped back from his pole position to fourth, he had been on cut DOT rear tire, which was a technical infraction resulting in his ultimate disqualification. Rapp’s excellently earned pole for the race had been timed out in Sunday morning’s rescheduled Supersport qualifying, where Rapp showed the field the fast way around Road A. with a killer time that was unbelievably nearly a full three-seconds faster than the next rider. The race win was awarded to a gracious Ben Bostrom. Other Pirelli riders finishing near the top in Supersport include Cory West in fifth riding for M4 EMGO Suzuki, Rapp’s teammate Chaz Davies in seventh, and Michael Barnes in 11th. The next AMA Superbike racing event is at the combined MotoGP/AMA races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, July 18-20. Also featured at the Road A. event was a thundering round of the Pirelli spec-tire series, the Sun Trust MotoST, run Saturday evening though shortened from its planned 3-hours to 1:40, due to weather interruptions in the day’s schedule. This multiple-rider endurance event is characterized by a field of twins only, and the overall win went to Shawn Higbee and Steve Crevier, on their Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing Buell 1125R. Second was 31 seconds adrift in the changing conditions, earned by Aprilia USA/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports, and third went to that team’s second Tuono. Riders in all classes were stunned by the Pirelli Rain “Slicks” that provided excellent grip while holding consistent for the race’s entire duration. Pirelli Tire North America specializes in the manufacture and marketing of high-performance tires for passenger vehicles, motorcycles and motorsports. An industry leader in technology and quality, Pirelli operates its highly advanced Modular Integrated Robotized System (MIRS) in Rome, Georgia, to better serve the North American OEM and Replacement markets. For more information please visit: www.us.pirelli.com. More, from a press release issued by Buell: BUELL TAKES OVERALL WIN AT MOTO-ST ROAD AMERICA 500 First North American Pro Win for 1125R Elkhart Lake, Wis. (June 9, 2008) The No. 8 Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing Buell 1125R ridden by Shawn Higbee and Steve Crevier clinched pole and took the overall and Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins class wins at the MOTO-ST Road America 500K in Elkhart Lake, Wis. June 7. It was the first major North American professional road racing win for the Buell 1125R. Unpredictable and rapidly changing weather conditions delayed the start of the originally scheduled 3-hour race by more than an hour and ultimately reduced its length to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Tire choice was a gamble, with the formation of a dry racing line hampered by sporadic light drizzle throughout the race that favored teams that chose intermediate or full-wet Pirellis. But the Buell pulled to the front on Lap 17 of the 36-lap race and pulled away to a 31-second lead over the second place No. 6 Aprilia USA/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Aprilia Tuono 1000R. “I don’t have a lot of rain experience at this track,” said Higbee. “We were a little conservative early and after about 10 laps a dry line started to appear. Then it started drizzling just as I was getting happy with the track and I think that was a defining moment. I backed it down a lot and from then on the race seemed to go our way.” Canadian Steve Crevier, who joined the Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing team at the Road America round, echoed his teammate’s comments about the weather: “It was crazy out there,” the six-time Canadian Superbike champion said. “We thought about going to a slick tire on the final stint, but didn’t want to take the chance in case we got downpour.” In the BMW Motorcycles GrandSport Twins (GST) class, the No. 70 James Gang/Hoban Brothers Racing Buell XB12R sponsored by Harley-Davidson/Buell of Appleton and ridden by Paul James and Jeff Johnson took third place and jumped to the lead in the GST class standings after the first three rounds, taking over the points lead from the No. 7 Ritchie Morris Racing/Hal’s Harley-Davidson/Buell XB12R ridden by Clint Brotz and Dan Bilansky, which retired early with a rear wheel bearing failure. The No. 70 now leads the GST class with 92 points followed by the No. 7 with 88. The James Gang/Hoban Brothers team also earned the Roaring Toyz Best Looking Team award. “Tire choice was critical,” said Paul James. “We made the call to switch to DOT tires during our final pit stop, but the Pirelli rain tires the class leaders used appeared to hold up for the whole race distance, and in hindsight those were the better choice. But it’s great to have a solid finish on our home track, and I always knew we had the best-looking team!” To learn more about Buell motorcycles, visit your local Buell dealer today and experience the pure streetfighter attitude, style and performance only found on board a Buell. For the Buell dealer nearest you, pull into www.buell.com. More, from a press release issued by Build Momentum: LeoVince Foremost Insurance Ducati Takes Third Podium in Sixth Race of the Season Pegram Places Third After Two Restarts Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (June 9, 2008) – It was a stormy weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. But despite the weather and two restarts it was Larry Pegram, of the LeoVince Foremost Insurance Ducati Team taking another third place finish – his third this season. The race at Road America was the sixth of the ten-race series. Pegram is currently in third place in the point’s standings with 167 points, just three points away from second overall. Pegram qualified in fourth place with a lap time of 2:20.155. Pegram’s practice times for the weekend were 2:29.606 on Friday and 2:20.322 on Saturday. The Formula Xtreme racing at Road America was a bit like a rollercoaster ride due to thunderstorms moving through the area and a four-rider crash in the first turn of the initial race. There were two restarts, the first due to the crash and the second due to lightening from encroaching thunderstorms. In the first race Pegram was in fourth place when the red flag came out, in the second race he was in third when his clutch went. The second red flag turned out to be a blessing for the Ducati rider. In the second restart Pegram moved from sixth place to first place in one lap and stretched the lead for five laps. He later traded spots with Jake Zemke and was passed by Aaron Gobert finishing the race in third place – just 2.524 seconds behind the leader. In 2007 at Road America, Pegram finished in fifth place trailing the leader by 6.591 seconds. “I am excited about the results this past weekend. The weather both helped and hurt me. It helped me with the second restart, but then the rain stopped midway through the race that I was leading and that worked against me a little, but I am not complaining – we were happy to take another podium. Last year I think I had only three podiums all season,” commented Pegram. We are performing much more consistently this year and working towards winning. My Pirelli’s are working extremely well. The Ducati 848 is nothing short of amazing. We are running a brand new motorcycle at the top of a very competitive class,” added Pegram. The Formula Xtreme race will not be televised on SPEED Channel this week due to complications caused by the thunderstorms. The team is off for a few weeks. The next race is August 2, 2008 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio (www.midohio.com). Pegram will be attending the Moto GP and AMA Superbike races July 18 – 20 in Monterey, California at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and signing autographs at the Ducati tent. About LeoVince Foremost Insurance Ducati Hebron, Ohio-based, LeoVince Foremost Insurance Ducati is a professional motorcycle road race team competing in the AMA Superbike Championship Series. The team is owned and managed by Larry Pegram, a third-generation motorcycle racer who competes in the AMA Formula Xtreme class on a modified Ducati 848. Additional information about the team can be found on their web site at www.pegramracing.com. More, from a press release issued by Team M4 EMGO Suzuki: BLAKE YOUNG WINS ROAD AMERICA SUPERSTOCK Blake Young’s first-career AMA victory headlined a spectacular Sunday for Team M4 EMGO Suzuki at Road America. In addition to Young’s stunning Superstock win, he also claimed fourth place in the Supersport race after starting from outside the top 20 and was joined in the top five by teammate Cory West. After fighting at the front but having his races end in frustration a week ago in Utah, Young was eager to impress in front of his home fans in Wisconsin this weekend. He did that and then some with his dramatic come-from-behind triumph aboard his Pirelli-shod GSX-R1000 in wet conditions. Young blasted from the second row to the lead at the start but was overtaken by former class champion and current points leader Aaron Yates while still working the first lap. Young fell to a distant second and appeared destined to collect a fine runner-up position until he made a stirring charge on the race’s final lap. More than five seconds back at one point, the 20-year-old Wisconsin native made up multiple seconds worth of ground on the last trip around the four-mile circuit. He closed in on Yates’ rear wheel and got a superior jump out of the final corner, setting up a skillful maneuver to thread the needle between Yates and the wall as the two raced to the checkered flag. Blake edged by and scored his maiden AMA victory by a scant margin of 0.220 seconds. Afterwards, Young said, “Once Aaron went by I just tried to ride my own race in second. During that last lap I saw him kind of come back a little bit, but didn’t really get too excited over it because I didn’t think I could reel him in because he was just doing a really fast pace. But going down into Turn 5 I inched a little closer to him and just kept inching closer and closer. Still, I was content to just sit in second place and bring home second for my guys. But once I got into Canada Corner, I was thinking I really want this one bad. I got close to him into Turn 14 and just made sure I didn’t spin my Pirelli tires up that hill and got a good drive. “The hype of being at home and all the fans and family and people coming out and hanging out was a little stressful so I just kind of got to get away and just sit in my trailer and think about the race. It’s a little bit hard with everyone rooting you on, but at the same time it gives you that confidence boost. “I’ve got to thank my guys. This weekend got a little tough at times but they worked really hard and helped make this possible.” The Supersport grid was set by a Sunday morning qualifying session held in a driving rain in which Utah podium finisher West claimed a second row starting position by posting the eighth fastest lap at 2:44.873. Michael Barnes qualified 11th at 2:45.656 while Young was all the way down in 22nd at 2:52.862. Fresh off his Superstock success, Young quickly sliced up through the field in the once red flagged race, even leading for a brief moment before running wide in Turn 5. Young and West were part of a multi-rider drafting war for second before settling into fifth and sixth at the checkered flag. A post-race disqualification of provisional race winner Steve Rapp elevated Young to fourth and West to fifth, while Barnes just missed the top ten with a 11th place finish. Young will be able to savor his win for a while now as the 2008 AMA roadracing series takes a break before picking back up alongside the MotoGP World Championship at Laguna Seca on July 18-20. More, from a press release issued by Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki: PIETRI ON THE PODIUM AT ROAD AMERICA, BARNES FIFTH Team Roadracingworld.com overcame adversity to claim a tremendous double top-five result in this weekend’s AMA Superstock race at Road America. The weekend started on a down note when Chris Ulrich, who entered the weekend ranked fourth in the Superstock points chase, was injured in a Thursday practice crash and was forced to join teammate Santiago Villa on the shelf. However, former Latin American and Venezuelan Superbike champ Robertino Pietri and super-sub Michael Barnes came through and stepped up in his absence. On Saturday Pietri earned another front row grid position by posting the fourth fastest time of qualifying at 2:16.431 aboard his Pirelli-shod GSX-R1000. Barnes lined up a row behind after clocking the seventh quickest time of the session at 2:17.398. After the two settled into the fight for the podium, Pietri made a late push past Alastair Seeley for third on the penultimate lap and held on for his first-career AMA podium finish. He crossed the stripe just over three seconds behind race winner Blake Young on the Team M4 EMGO Suzuki. ‘Barney’ scored a fifth-place finish, making good on Ulrich’s pre-race goal for the team to place both riders in the top five in the 10-lap race. Pietri said, “It was fully wet at the beginning and my visor was fogging up a little bit. Towards the end starts drying a little bit, but since the fog was there I couldn’t really see, so it took me a little bit to get into a rhythm. The first four laps were a disaster, I think I was back in seventh or something. Barney passed me and I knew I could roll with him because in the morning I was faster than him and he passed me and he looked very smooth while I was like fighting with the bike. I said, ‘Okay, you need to relax, breathe in, start hitting your marks and ride like you did in the morning’. You know I started doing it and I started to feel I was catching the guys at the front a little bit and it was great. “I’m super excited. This is my first podium and this is my dad’s birthday today too, so happy birthday!” Ulrich explained what happened in his fall. “I’ve been healthy for a few years now and it seems like we’ve had pretty good luck crashing lately. It was one of those deals where we looked at what we did last year here in the wet and it was because we went out on Thursday and fine-tuned the bike and tried some settings. With that in mind, we did the same thing this year; I tried some different suspension stuff and we were going okay — we were already faster than we qualified last year with minimal effort — and I didn’t feel I was pushing that hard. I don’t think I was taking any risks because I knew in the back of my head it was only Thursday and we didn’t have to. I was just exploring and seeing how everything goes. “The lap before I went pretty quick and I just went through Turn 6, up shifted into second, went into 7 and just cracked the throttle and it spun. I knew I was in trouble when I was holding onto the bars, looking down at the gas tank. It spat me off, I hit my head a little bit. I landed on my left side, hand-first. I bent my hand back to the point where it blew a 3mm hole in my hand. But that finger was fine. I ended up breaking my second metacarpal and my thumb. “It’s unfortunate. We’re out for this weekend for sure but we’ve got six weeks until Laguna for Superbike and we’re going to do that and I should be 100% by Mid-Ohio.” Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will be back in action at Laguna Seca as the AMA series plays host to the MotoGP World Championship on July 18-20.