AMA Superbike Championship Presented by Parts Unlimited Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia September 3 Provisional Race Results: 1. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000), 25 laps 2. Ben Spies (Suz GSX-R1000), -10.499 seconds 3. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), -16.319 seconds 4. Neil Hodgson (Duc 999F06), -16.417 seconds 5. Miguel Duhamel (Hon CBR1000RR), -19.454 seconds 6. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), -23.800 seconds 7. Ben Bostrom (Duc 999F06), -31.002 seconds 8. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR1000RR), -32.789 seconds 9. Tommy Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), -39.401 seconds 10. Jake Holden (Suz GSX-R1000), -40.352 seconds 11. Steve Rapp (Suz GSX-R1000), -40.474 seconds 12. Jason Pridmore (Suz GSX-R1000), -66.692 seconds 13. Matt Lynn (Suz GSX-R1000), -71.945 seconds 14. Jason Curtis (Suz GSX-R1000), -79.652 seconds 15. Eric Wood (Suz GSX-R1000), -79.823 seconds 16. Larry Pegram (Hon CBR1000RR), -80.510 seconds 17. Taylor Knapp (Suz GSX-R1000), -80.679 seconds 18. Gary Mason (Suz GSX-R1000), -80.776 seconds 19. Brian Stokes (Yam YZF-R1), -87.624 seconds 20. Cory West (Suz GSX-R1000), -1 lap 21. John Haner (Suz GSX-R1000), -1 lap, 24.590 seconds 22. Scott Jensen (Suz GSX-R1000), -1 lap, 26.867 seconds 23. Scott Carpenter (Suz GSX-R1000), -1 lap, 63.647 seconds 24. Dean Mizdal (Suz GSX-R1000), -1 lap, 63.770 seconds 25. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), DNS 26. Roberto Pietri (Suz GSX-R1000), DNS 27. Marty Craggill (Suz GSX-R1000), DNS Provisional AMA Superbike Championship Point Standings (After 18 of 19 races): 1. Spies, 625 points 2. Mladin, 605 points (-20 points) 3. Duhamel, 496 points 4. Yates, 451 points 5. Hodgson, 440 points 6. Tommy Hayden, 430 points 7. Zemke, 424 points 8. Pridmore, 374 points 9. Ben Bostrom, 364 points 10. Pegram, 331 points More, from a press release issued by American Suzuki: Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mladin, Spies & Yates Dominate Suzuki Superbike Showdown at Road Atlanta –Next round, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, Sept. 29 Oct. 1, 2006– Round 10 AMA Superbike Series Braselton, GA Road Atlanta Sept. 1 – 3, 2006 In what looked like a repeat performance from Saturday, Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin, Ben Spies and Aaron Yates brought home first, second and third place, respectively, in the second AMA Superbike race of the Road Atlanta double-header weekend in Braselton, Ga. This race marks Mladin’s 50th Superbike career victory and his seventh win of the season, while Spies’ second-place finish means he leads the points chase going into the final round of AMA Superbike at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, at the end of the month. In Sunday’s 25-lap race, Spies nailed the start and took the lead immediately. In spite of his injured hand, the young Texan began gapping the field. Mladin got off the line a little farther back, but worked his way up to Spies quickly. The teammates swapped spots and Mladin took over the lead, and both held their respective positions until the race’s end. “I have to thank my Yoshimura Suzuki guys because we got some things sorted out with the GSX-R1000 a few weeks ago,” said six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mladin. “We came on strong at the end of the year and now I’m looking forward to next year. Getting a kick in the pants from Ben has lit a fire under me. I won’t make it so easy for him next year.” After Spies’ results this weekend, he only needs to finish 13th or better to wrap up the 2006 AMA Superbike Championship. “We definitely weren’t going to try to run Mat’s pace today,” said Spies. “But we did what we had to do. I ran at my pace and when he came up behind me, I let him go by and kept a decent gap on third place. The weekend went exactly the way I’d hoped. Now we just need to go to Mid-Ohio and ride around and hopefully seal this thing.” Meanwhile, Yates got away in sixth place and used almost all 25 laps to work his way up into a podium spot. Indeed, a daring last-lap pass gave Yates his third-place finish and Yoshimura Suzuki its second Superbike sweep of the weekend. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to make the pass for third place,” said Yates. “But I just kept my head down, and kept pushing. Being from Georgia, I wanted to represent all the Georgia folks at a Georgia track. Nothing is better than having three Suzukis on the podium on a Suzuki weekend.” Mat Mladin, Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, #1 1st Place AMA Superbike 2nd Place — Overall Championship Points Standings Ben Spies, Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, #11 2nd Place AMA Superbike 1st Place — Overall Championship Points Standings Aaron Yates, Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, #20 3rd Place AMA Superbike 4th Place — Overall Championship Points Standings More, from a press release issued on behalf of Dunlop: Dunlop Motorcycle Tires Race Report: 2006 AMA Superbike Series, Round 10, Road Atlanta Braselton, Ga. Yoshimura Suzuki’s six-time national champion Mat Mladin took both Superbike wins””the 49th and 50th of his career””and Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking captured the Superstock title at round 10 of the 2006 AMA Superbike Series at Road Atlanta, September 1-3. Hacking also snared the Supersport win after locking down that class title two weeks ago and, with just one round remaining, Erion Racing Honda’s Josh Hayes stormed to the Formula Xtreme victory and the series lead. For Dunlop teams it was a very successful weekend as 44 of 50 riders competing in the weekend’s five competitions took the top ten finishing positions. A capacity crowd enjoyed the Superbike doubleheader weekend at one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious road racing venues. While Georgia’s ever-present humidity reminded the racers and attendees alike that Labor Day weekend is just the halfway point in the region’s summer, the temperatures were mercifully moderate as clouds frequently shielded the 2.54 mile, 12-turn course from the sun. Road Atlanta is a “right-hand” circuit that generates significant heat in the right side of the rear tire, particularly after finishing the back straight. The surface is aging and bumpy in places and, due to the concrete patches in some turns, surface traction can be inconsistent. With track temperatures rising and falling under the scattered cloud cover, the racing teams played a guessing game with tire selections. Fortunately, Dunlop””prepared for every contingency””brought approximately 2100 tires to support the factory teams and support riders in Superbike, Superstock, Supersport and Formula Xtreme. Superbike Race One – Saturday Entering the penultimate round of the Superbike series, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies has shown that he has the goods to earn his first Superbike championship””particularly after his gutsy performance at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) two weeks ago when he broke his hand. Teammate Mladin cut deeply into his lead with two VIR wins but Spies still managed to post 2-4 finishes and, coming into the Road Atlanta weekend, only 29 points separated the pair. A mistake by Spies was all that it would take to open the door for Mladin. Friday’s provisional qualifying round went to Mladin, but on Saturday Spies fought back in the second qualifying session and took the pole””and the point that goes with it””with a time of 1:21.685. In the race, Honda Racing’s Miguel Duhamel took the early lead but by lap two Spies was around him and into the lead. Mladin started off in fifth but, in trademark fashion, worked his way through the pack and by lap five he was around Spies as well. From that point Mladin opened up a gap on his GSX-R1000 and he was never headed, taking the win by 5.090 seconds over Spies. Teammate Aaron Yates was third after a spirited battle with Duhamel, assuring a Suzuki sweep of the podium. “The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 was running great, the Dunlop tires were working well,” said Mladin of his third consecutive win. “All we can do is go and try and win some races and see if we can keep the pressure on a little bit.” The gap from Mladin to the first non-Dunlop rider across the line was more than 1 minute, 16 seconds as the first 10 riders to finish rode on Dunlop tires. Superbike Race Results, Saturday: Dunlop finishers in the Top 10 1. Mat Mladin – Suzuki 2. Ben Spies – Suzuki 3. Aaron Yates – Suzuki 4. Miguel Duhamel – Honda 5. Neil Hodgson – Ducati 6. Jake Zemke – Honda 7. Tommy Hayden Kawasaki 8. Steve Rapp – Suzuki 9. Jason Pridmore – Suzuki 10. Jake Holden – Suzuki Formula Xtreme Race – Saturday The most closely contested series of the year has pitted the CBR600RRs of Erion Racing Honda against the Graves Motorsports Yamaha-tuned YZF-R6s. Coming into this round only three points separated Graves Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom, the series leader, from his teammate Jason DiSalvo and Erion Honda’s Josh Hayes. Hayes, who has only won one competition this year but finished second on five occasions, was the first to draw blood with a scorching pole time of 1:24.430″”the only class this weekend to establish a new pole record. And it was Hayes who took the race lead from the start. Throughout the 15-lap affair Bostrom was tantalizingly close but he could never line up a pass. Hayes’ course mastery resulted in the win, a scant .823 seconds over Bostrom, with DiSalvo taking third. “I’ve had some great races and some close ones here,” said Hayes. “After all these years it’s finally good to get one in front of all my fans and all my friends from back home,” the Gulfport, Mississippi native continued. “They (Dunlop) basically brought four race tires for us to race, and I think you could’ve won on any of them. It’s neat that everyone on the podium was probably on a different race tire. Dunlop’s been stepping it up for us.” Hayes collected the maximum points possible for the weekend and takes over the series lead by three points over Bostrom, 321 to 318. DiSalvo remains within striking distance with 313 points and one round remaining. Dunlop riders turned in another dominant performance with eight of the top 10 finishers sporting the Flying D chevron. Formula Xtreme Results: Dunlop finishers in the Top 10 1. Josh Hayes (Honda) 2. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 3. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 4. Aaron Gobert (Honda) 6. Ryan Andrews (Honda) 7. Ty Howard (Honda) 8. Eric Wood (Honda) 10. Tony Meiring (Suzuki) Superstock Race – Sunday Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking is having the season of his life. The 34-year old North Carolinian locked up the Supersport title at VIR and he came to Road Atlanta needing to win by six points or more over Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates to add the Superstock trophy to his mantle. Hacking lined up on the starting grid in second position with teammates Eric Bostrom (who took the pole) on one shoulder and Jason DiSalvo on the other. When the green flag dropped, it was Hacking who took the holeshot, followed closely by Bostrom, Erion Racing’s Josh Hayes and DiSalvo. Hacking never gave up the lead despite constant pressure from Bostrom all the way to the checkered flag. He took the win by .225 seconds, with third going to DiSalvo to complete Yamaha’s second consecutive podium sweep. “First of all I have to thank my crew,” said Hacking of Yamaha’s third class title. “The Graves Yamaha R1 guys did one heckuva job all season long getting this bike just the way I like it”¦ Last of all but not least, Dunlop Tires. I If I hadn’t had Dunlop Tires beneath me I couldn’t have run that race pace like I did.” Hacking becomes only the second rider to win both the Supersport and Superstock classes in one year””Doug Polen did it in 1988. With one round remaining, Hacking leads the class by an insurmountable 45 points over Yates with DiSalvo third (315 to 306 to 281, respectively). In typical Dunlop fashion, all but one of the top 10 riders rode on Dunlop tires. Superstock Results: Dunlop finishers in the Top 10 1. Jamie Hacking – Yamaha 2. Eric Bostrom – Yamaha 3. Jason DiSalvo – Yamaha 4. Josh Hayes – Honda 5. Steve Rapp – Suzuki 6. Jake Holden – Suzuki 7. Aaron Yates – Suzuki 8. Aaron Gobert – Honda 10. Damon Buckmaster – Kawasaki Supersport Race – Sunday As if to prove he will never let up, Hacking quickly suited up for the 600cc Supersport competition and proceeded to walk away with that victory as well. After trailing M4 Emgo Suzuki’s Michael Barnes briefly, Hacking surged into the lead on his factory Yamaha YZF-R6 and dueled for half of the 15-lap event with Kawasaki Road Racing’s Roger Lee Hayden. Hayden faded and eventually succumbed to a mechanical failure on lap 13, leaving Hacking firmly in control. He crossed the finish line 5.374 seconds ahead of M4’s Geoff May and Barnes was third. “I do love winning,” said an ebullient Hacking after winning his sixth race in row. “Yamaha has given me some top-of-the-class equipment right now and that’s what it takes. My bike runs unbelievably and handles like there’s no tomorrow. It was another great weekend for us.” Dunlop riders represented seven of the top 10 finishers and in the race for the series runner up, May leads MPT Performance’s Danny Eslick by two points, 233 to 231, while Attack Kawasaki’s Ben Attard is fourth with 225. Supersport Results: Dunlop finishers in the Top 10 1. Jamie Hacking – Yamaha 4. Danny Eslick – Suzuki 5. Ben Attard – Kawasaki 6. Damon Buckmaster – Kawasaki 7. Blake Young – Suzuki 9. Josh Herrin – Yamaha 10. Tony Meiring – Suzuki Superbike Race Two – Sunday The final race of the weekend was the second Superbike event and the result was a carbon copy of the first: a podium sweep for Suzuki led by Mladin, then Spies and Yates. Spies led early while Mladin worked his way forward from sixth position. By lap six he was in front for good while Spies settled into second. Mladin’s winning margin was 10.499 seconds over Spies while Yates clawed his way forward to rob Parts Unlimited Ducati’s Neal Hodgson of the final podium spot by just .099 seconds with a dramatic last-turn pass at the line. “It’s a shame it’s a little bit too late in the year, but I’ve got to thank my guys,” said Mladin. “We got some stuff sorted our a few weeks ago and we’ve had some really good races, really just trying to push hard and see what we could get out of everything. We tried a bit of a different tire today to see how it would go and it worked very well.” Despite sweeping the historic venue for the third time in his Superbike career (2000, 2004 and now 2006), Mladin still trails Spies for the championship by 20 points (625 vs. 605) going into the final round, where Spies only needs to finish 13th or better to secure the championship. Duhamel is third with 496 points. Overall the contest was another crowning achievement for Dunlop, whose riders took the top 12 finishing positions. Superbike Race Results, Sunday: Dunlop finishers in the Top 10 1. Mat Mladin – Suzuki 2. Ben Spies – Suzuki 3. Aaron Yates – Suzuki 4. Neil Hodgson – Ducati 5. Miguel Duhamel – Honda 6. Roger Lee Hayden – Kawasaki 7. Ben Bostrom – Ducati 8. Jake Zemke – Honda 9. Tommy Hayden – Kawasaki 10. Jake Holden – Suzuki Next stop for Dunlop and the 2006 AMA Superbike road racing tour is Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, September 29 October 1. More, from a press release issued by Honda: American Honda Secures Third in AMA Superbike Championship American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel was guaranteed a third place finish in the 2006 AMA Superbike Championship, despite a frustrating weekend at Road Atlanta, site of the penultimate round of the championship. Saturday was the stronger of the two days for Duhamel. He led the first lap, ran second on the second lap, then settled into third for the duration. It was only on the 24th of 25 laps that he lost the spot to Aaron Yates, the Suzuki rider drafting pass on the long back straight. Duhamel countered with a strong move into the hard braking turn ten, but couldn’t find his away past the Georgian. The difference at the flag was .533 seconds. “I was frustrated,” Duhamel said. “After that race I was like, man, I let one get away.” Duhamel was determined not to let it happen again on Sunday. Again he started well and slotted into third, but was dropped to fourth on the 11th of 25 laps. Yates came past four laps later and, soon after, a lapped rider cost Duhamel any hope of keeping up with the lead pack. “That eight-tenths of a second, or whatever it cost me-I did a 26-something (1:26.084)-that was the difference between me getting back to those guys at the end of the race and getting a shot at third again,” Duhamel said. “So that was very frustrating, but at least at the end I found myself again.” With only the final round of the championship remaining, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in a month’s time, Duhamel is an unassailable third in the championship. Teammate Jake Zemke spent the weekend trying to find a good set-up, not only for the race, but also for next season. Zemke and Duhamel both struggled with rear grip problems on Saturday, the result of the suspension overworking the tire, and had more success on Sunday. On Saturday Zemke was sixth and he came eighth on Sunday, but in a spectacular way. Zemke was smoking the rear tire of his American Honda CBR1000RR to keep up with the leaders. But eventually he wore the tire out and Zemke’s forward march was slowed. “Every time we’ve gone out on the track we’ve had a completely different motorcycle, just trying to find some answers for next year,” Zemke said. “We kind of did the same thing we did at the last race, just kind of said, ‘Alright, look, we need to figure out our stuff sooner than later and let’s not worry too, too much about our results and try and get the bike figured out.” The podium was identical both days, with Mat Mladin leading Suzuki teammates Ben Spies and Aaron Yates. Miguel Duhamel 4th/5th Saturday It was a really good result considering I overheated the rear tire and it chunked with 12 laps to go, like almost at mid-race. And the whole time I was thinking, ‘Should I just come in and change the tire.’ It went through my mind to point to the team and show them the tire. Even with the chunked tire I think my bike would’ve been good enough to get third. I made a little mistake in the chicane, which I was struggling a bit and (Yates) got away there and I just couldn’t get close enough to make a safe pass again, so Aaron got third. Sunday Today we tried a different set-up, tried to get more grip, made the bike a little shorter. We used the same tire, shaved down a little bit to help with the heat. The grip wasn’t as good as yesterday because of the shaving down, obviously, but at least it didn’t overheat. And I spun it ten times more than yesterday. I tried really hard to stay with the Suzuki for a while. I was kind of enthused about that, because I was staying with Mat (Mladin) and Ben (Spies). Nobody had nothing for Mat. But I was going ‘Wow, I might get Ben.’ Next thing you know I think I got caught by Neil (Hodgson) and Neil got by me and then (Aaron) Yates got by me and I was just trying to get used to the new set-up. It had different strengths and I had to try to find them before the end of the race and I found them about halfway. Jake Zemke 6th/8th Saturday We lacked grip quite a bit; most of the guys did. Everybody, I think, was kind of in the same boat. But being that we were searching around for a set-up, I think ours was a little bit worse and our bikes don’t make funny sounds (of traction control) coming off the corners and that doesn’t seem to help us at all either. Especially on a track like this where it’s pretty slippery. It’s definitely an advantage here. And when everybody you’re racing against, you can hear their bikes make funny noises, it’s a little tough. Sunday I got a little bit better start today for sure. At least I could see the front for a while. But the same thing; the bike was so different. The first time I rode it was the first lap of the race, basically. It was good until the tire started to drop off a little bit, after about eight laps, and then after that it was all downhill. We could run at a fairly good pace, at least for the guys fighting for third, but we couldn’t sustain that pace. We were definitely working the tire, but if I back off enough for the thing to have grip and not have it out of line, to keep the wheels in line, the guys just drive away from me. It’s the only way I could even keep up to where I was, to do what I was doing. Sunday Superbike: 1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 2. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 4. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 5. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 6. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki) 7. Ben Bostrom (Ducati) 8. Jake Zemke (Honda) 9. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki) 10. Jake Holden (Suzuki) Saturday Superbike: 1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 2. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 4. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 5. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 6. Jake Zemke (Honda) 7. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki) 8. Steve Rapp (Suzuki) 9. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki) 10. Jake Holden (Suzuki) Championship Standings: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 625 2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 605 3. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 496 4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 451 5. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 440 6. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki) 430 7. Jake Zemke (Honda) 424 8. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki) 374 9. Ben Bostrom (Ducati) 364 10. Larry Pegram (Honda) 331