Suzuki’s Spies Completes Superbike Sweep at Infineon Raceway SONOMA, Calif. — Suzuki’s Ben Spies completed the sweep on Sunday at Infineon Raceway with a victory in the Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, presented by Supercuts. The Texas native completed a perfect weekend in the Sonoma Valley, winning the pole, as well as both Superbike main events, including Sunday’s 28-lap feature race. Moreover, Spies also led every lap of each race (56 laps). The perfect weekend enabled Spies, who is second in the Superbike point standings, to narrow the deficit to teammate Mat Mladin to just nine points (242-233). Neil Hodgson (Honda) is third with 181 points. “I was riding as hard as I could,” said Spies. “I was just trying to be consistent and not make too many mistakes. I made a couple, but towards the end we caught a little break with the (lapped riders) and got to ease up a bit, but it was looking like it was going to be a pretty hard fight.” It was Spies’ fourth career Superbike win at Infineon Raceway and the 22nd of his career, good for third place on the all-time list. The two-time defending AMA Superbike champion took the checkered flag 8.042 seconds ahead of Mladin. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki), Aaron Yates (Suzuki) and Neil Hodgson (Honda) rounded out the top five. “The pace was a little quicker today for us. We got a few things sorted on the bike and felt a little more comfortable. In the end I just couldn’t get on the back of Ben,” Mladin said. In other racing on Sunday, Petaluma High School graduate Ben Bostrom (Yamaha) posted his second career victory at Infineon Raceway, taking the checkered flag in Pro Honda Oils Supersport. San Francisco native Jake Zemke (Erion Honda) was second and Danny Eslick (Suzuki) third. Bostrom led 16 laps of the 17-lap feature, edging Zemke by 3.480 seconds for the win. Zemke was looking for his second victory of the weekend; he won on Saturday in Formula Xtreme. “This is like my home crowd. I really want to thank Yamaha – the R6 is phenomenal,” said Bostrom, who retained the Supersport points lead over teammate Josh Herrin (145-124), who placed sixth. “Those guys pushed me to the end and that was fantastic. That’s the way I wanted to win it.” Jake Holden (Corona Honda) notched his first-ever win at Infineon Raceway in the Superstock feature. It was his second consecutive win of the year. He was followed by Jordan Suzuki teammates Aaron Yates and Geoff May. Despite taking second place, Yates maintained the points lead over Holden (138-126). “I kept hearing the Jordan Suzukis behind me and I knew I couldn’t make a mistake because they were right there,” said Holden, who edged Yates by 0.237 seconds. “It was a great race. I just tried to hold the tight line and not let those guys get by me.” In action off the track, the raceway held its 5th annual Motorcycle Charity Auction, which generated $5,900 for Speedway Children’s Charities, the charitable arm of Infineon Raceway. All proceeds benefit qualified youth groups in Sonoma County. AMA Superbike Results Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown SONOMA, Calif. – Final results from Sunday’s Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown at Infineon Raceway (Rider, make of motorcycle and laps completed): 1. Ben Spies, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 82.3, 28 2. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 28 3. Jamie Hacking, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 28 4. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 28 5. Neil Hodgson, Honda CBR1000RR, 28 6. Eric Bostrom, Yamaha YZF-R1, 28 7. Miguel Duhamel, Honda CBR1000RR, 28 8. Geoff May, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 28 9. Chris Peris, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 27 10. Ryan Elleby, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 27 11. Scott Jensen, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 27 12. Martin Szwarc, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 27 13. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 27 14. Eric Haugo, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 27 15. Johnny Rock Page, Yamaha YZF-R1, 26 16. Reno Karimian, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 26 17. Jason DiSalvo, Yamaha YZF-R1, 14 18. Matt Lynn, Honda CBR1000RR, 14 19. Robertino Pietri, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 4 More, from a press release issued by Ben Spies’ publicist: SONOMA, Calif. Ben Spies completed a clean sweep of the Kawasaki Superbike Showdown at Infineon Raceway Sunday, by winning the second of the doubleheader AMA Superbike event in Northern California. Defending champion Spies held off a determined challenge by Rockstar/Makita Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin to win Sunday’s race by 8.042 seconds. Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking finished third. The victory moved Spies to within nine points (242-233) of Mladin in the AMA Superbike Championship standings after seven of 19 rounds. He shaved 11 points from Mladin’s series lead this weekend. “I want to thank my team for giving me a great bike and helping me to crawl back into this championship,” Spies said after earning his second-career doubleheader sweep at Infineon. “It seemed like Mat found something and gave me a pretty good challenge early on. Fortunately I was able to get some breaks and get a gap in the end. We still have a long way to go in this championship and I’m looking forward to getting to Miller [Motorsports Park] and renewing this battle.” Spies now has 22-career AMA Superbike wins. The championship moves to Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, Utah, for the combined AMA and World Superbike event on May 29 June 1, with momentum clearly on Spies’ side. Spies swept the Utah event last year. If he duplicates that feat this year he could take over the series lead. More, from a press release issued by Pirelli: Rome, GA: On a seriously sunny Sunday in Sonoma, California, the AMA Superstock race came to a close with an even split of the top-ten finishers; five of them being Pirelli riders. In order of finish, that’d be five, six, seven, nine and ten, and they’d be Blake Young, Robertino Pietri, Chris Ulrich, Scott Jensen, and David Anthony, in that same order, all using Pirelli Superbike Slicks. Young rides for M4 EMGO Suzuki, Pietri and Ulrich ride for Roadracingworld.com, and Jensen rides for Team Moto-Garage By the way, in 11th was Hawk Mazzotta on the HALOF Racing/Bravo Condoms Suzuki GSX-R1000, also on Pirelli tires. The Superstock points for the season show six Pirelli riders in the top ten, though weirdly three of them are in fifth. Leading the group is Chris Ulrich in third, tied with Geoff May. Tied for fifth are Blake Young, Robertino Pietri, and Scott Jensen, with David Anthony alone in eighth, once fifth becomes solid. With seven rounds remaining, all of them have a mathematical chance at the championship. The sun shone the same Sunday afternoon on the AMA Supersport race, where Pirelli riders numbered three in the top ten, led by M4 EMGO Suzuki rider Blake Young, who finished fourth. His teammate Cory West earned seventh and Attack Kawasaki’s Chaz Davies was tenth. After sitting out each round since Daytona, Michael Barnes took 11th in Supersport for the M4 EMGO Suzuki team. The Supersport points have Young in fourth with teammate West in eighth. Attack Kawasaki’s Davies is listed as sixth for the season, with his teammate Rapp in tenth. The next round of the AMA series is at Miller Motorsports Park, May 29-June 1, combined in one weekend with the USA round of the World Superbike series. More, from a press release issued by Team M4 EMGO Suzuki: TWO TOP FIVES FOR BLAKE YOUNG AT INFINEON Team M4 EMGO Suzuki added two more top-five race results to their weekend tally on Sunday at Infineon Raceway as Blake Young battled his way to fourth and fifth place finishes on the day. With all three of the team’s riders qualifying in the top ten for the 17-lap Supersport race, Team M4 EMGO Suzuki carried high hopes into the middleweight race at the Sonoma, California circuit. Young got away quickly aboard his Pirelli-shod GSX-R600, scrapping with Jake Zemke and Josh Herrin during the race’s opening laps. After trading spots back and forth with Zemke, Young overtook Herrin on lap 6 of 17 and set his sights on chasing after third-place Danny Eslick. Late in the race Young turned his attention to holding off Josh Hayes for fourth, winning out at the checkered flag by less than a half second. Cory West backed up his Saturday fourth-place ride in the Formula Xtreme final with a seventh-place finish in the Supersport final. West tussled with Herrin and just lost out for sixth on the final lap. Michael Barnes took the checkered flag just over two tenths of a second off a top-ten result, claiming eleventh in his 2008 debut with the team in place of the injured Martin Cardenas. Despite a somewhat difficult weekend in the big-bore class, Young managed to finish fifth aboard his GSX-R1000 Superstock machine, even after being forced to swap over to his backup machine just prior to the start of the race. Young summed up his day, stating, “I got to a pretty good start in the Supersport race. I saw those guys trying to pull away so put my head down and got by Herrin. I close the gap a little bit on Danny but wasn’t able to reel him all the way in. At the end I could see Josh was coming on my board but we held on for fourth. We wheeled that bike off the truck and didn’t turn a wrench. It was phenomenal. “Superstock was a struggle this round. We were just missing it. My guys worked hard to get me the best bike they could and I was actually pretty confident going into the race but we encountered some problems on the parade lap and I had to switch to my backup bike which had different forks and tires. I just jumped on the bike and put my head down and did what I could. It wasn’t perfect but we ended up fifth, so I can’t complain about that.” Following four rounds Young is ranked fourth in the Supersport championship with 104 points and fifth in Superstock at 88, while West is eighth in Supersport with 84 points. Team M4 EMGO Suzuki will next visit Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT alongside the World Superbike Championship on May 29-June 1. More, from a press release issued by American Suzuki: Jordan Suzuki Double-Podiums at Infineon Superstock Race Aaron Yates & Geoff May bring home second & third Round 4 AMA Superstock Series Sonoma, California Infineon Raceway May 16 – 18, 2008 Michael Jordan Motor Sports Suzuki’s Aaron Yates and Geoff May doubled up on the AMA Superstock podium at Infineon Raceway on Sunday afternoon by finishing in second and third positions, respectively. The Jordan Suzuki duo was charging hard for first and second positions when the 17-lap race was abbreviated after a red flag was thrown when riders went down. For the Jordan Suzuki team, Sunday’s results mean that three-time AMA Superstock Champion Yates has two AMA Superstock victories and two additional podium positions this season. Additionally, the Georgia native maintains the lead in the championship points chase. Jordan Suzuki teammate May also put in an impressive ride on his Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000, picking up his second AMA Superstock podium of the season. May, also from Georgia, is currently tied for third place overall in the championship. Aaron Yates: “The race today was pretty good. I definitely felt like had something for Jake (Holden) because the Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 was working good, and getting around the track really quick. I got off to a really great start, so I just tried to put my head down and make a breakaway and see what would happen. I had a good first couple of laps on the Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000, and then those guys caught up to me. I rode around in second place for a couple of laps and Jake made a few mistakes that helped me out. I thought I could make a move toward the end of the race and I felt like the lappers could help me out. I was hoping for a little luck but the race got cut short and so we got second.” Geoff May: “We worked real hard on bike setup this weekend, and I felt like we were right there with the race leaders. I was sitting there in third for the whole race, trying to figure out where I could make a move. I don’t think any of us had anything on the other one, so it would have come down to the last lap. And I really felt like I had it at the end, I was hoping to put a last-lap pass on Aaron and Jake or maybe capitalize on they’re trying to pass each other. But it didn’t work out for us at the end with the red flag. We got cut short a lap or two, but thanks to the Jordan Suzuki team and crew for sticking with me and for helping me get up on the podium.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: Hodgson Moves to Third in the AMA Superbike Championship American Honda’s Neil Hodgson took over third place in the AMA Superbike Championship point standings after a difficult weekend at Infineon Raceway in the heart of the California wine country. Teammate Miguel Duhamel sits eighth in points. The start of the weekend was the best all year for Hodgson. The former World Superbike Champion finished a close third in Friday’s first Superbike practice, held in 40 degree heat with track temperatures approaching 66 degrees. But as the track cooled down, Hodgson wasn’t able to maintain his early form. He qualified seventh on the grid, one spot in front of Duhamel. For Saturday’s race, Hodgson tried a different, shorter set-up that soon found wasn’t an improvement. As soon as the heat took its toll on his tires, the front end began to chatter and the rear did, as well. From then on it was a matter of survival en route to a sixth place finish. The team went with a more conventional set-up on Sunday and the rideability and results improved. Hodgson was battling with Aaron Yates (Suzuki) until a mistake near the end of the race put him out of reach. Hodgson finished fifth and moved up to third in the championship. Duhamel ran afoul of brakes problems on Saturday. Infineon Raceway has a host of hard braking corners, many of which are downhill, and the lack of stopping power meant a long day at the office for Duhamel. He finished tenth, but improved to seventh on Sunday once the brake problems were cured. Now the team has a two week break until the inaugural AMA/World Superbike Championship weekend at Miller Motorsports Park outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. Neil Hodgson 6th, 5th “I had a package that I could race after the tires had gone off. Yesterday (Saturday), we went with a really short bike and the tires went off and it had no feeling. And it would break traction really quick. It just felt horrible to be honest and it just chattered its brains out. Today a little bit of chatter, but a much nicer package that I could race. But unfortunately, I was losing on the last split all my time through the little chicane and the last hairpin. For whatever reason, I just can’t get through them. It’s a little bit of it’s me and a little bit is the engine, I think. It’s just a little bit boggy off the bottom. So I basically lost all my time then to Aaron (Yates) and I had to spend the rest of the lap doing everything I could to try to get back in touch. I’d get back in touch braking into that little chicane and then I’d lose probably three-tenths, four-tenths. Everything I got, you know what I mean. Two laps to go I made a mistake just trying to make time up in those areas and he was gone. Yesterday, the tires went off, like everybody’s did. Just lost the setting really. The bike started to chatter its brains out. Wouldn’t hold a line anywhere. Fortunately, that was sort of the tail of the race. And it continued to go away, the tire. It were weird. And the harder I tried, the more it chattered. The more it chattered, the wider I went, the slower I went. That said, at the end I was on my own anyway, pretty much.” Miguel Duhamel 10th, 7th “Yesterday (Saturday), we had big problems with the brakes. They just weren’t working. That’s a big problem. We have adjusters for the brake levers and I had to click it about between 40, almost 50 times, always the same way. The lever’s hitting my hand. So I was really cautious out there. I went straight in the chicane; I think I might have glazed the brake pads over there a little bit and then I didn’t have any braking power and braking, the lever was all over the place, mostly on my hand all the time. Anyway, I just tried to survive yesterday. But today, that was good. We fixed the problem. It’s a little bit better. This is a good positive day for me and my team. I think just one of the days we were the most competitive since the beginning of the year. It’s not too bad. I had to rely on my braking to stay in there. Today the brakes were working OK. Made a few mistakes and the guys pulled away. Lap times were pretty similar to everybody, but I just needed to stay with those guys a little bit better. We’re looking at some data and we’ll get a better bike for the rest of the year and be able to be in there. There’s no reason we can’t be in there right now.” American Honda Road Race Manager Ron Heben “Well, we’re kind of disappointed. Obviously, we felt that on Friday we had a pretty decent motorcycle for both Neil and Miguel. Unfortunately, Everyone else was able to step it up in the race and we weren’t able to. So it’s going to be go back to our race shop in Torrance (California) and look at the data and try to determine what’s holding back our guys from being up front. We don’t believe it’s something very big, but some small things and we’ll continue to work to try to gain Neil’s and Miguel’s confidence. We’re heading to Miller in a couple of weeks. We’ve done well there and we’re going to look forward to go up there and show the World Superbike guys that the American Honda team can hold it’s own.” Saturday Superbike: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 3. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 4. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 5. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 6. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 7. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 8. Matt Lynn (Honda) 9. Geoff May (Suzuki) 10. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) Sunday Superbike: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 3. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 5. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 6. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 7. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 8. Geoff May (Suzuki) 9. Chris Peris (Suzuki) 10. Ryan Elleby (Suzuki) Championship Standings: 1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 242 2. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 233 3. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 181 4. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 175 5. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 170 6. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 158 7. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 143 8. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 136 9. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 133 10. Matt Lynn (Honda) 131 More, from a press release issued by Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki: ULRICH THIRD IN SUPERSTOCK POINTS AFTER INFINEON Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki scored a pair of top-ten finishes in the AMA Superstock race on Sunday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. Robertino Pietri and Chris Ulrich were awarded sixth and seventh place, respectively, after the race was red flagged and called complete following 14 of the event’s scheduled 17 laps due to a two-rider incident. Venezuelan Pietri continued to show his speed with Pirelli’s sticky qualifying tires on his GSX-R1000 racebike, circulating with a fast time of 1:37.315 on Saturday to qualify fourth and log a second consecutive front-row qualifying performance. Meanwhile, Ulrich struggled with mechanical woes during the session and could do no better than tenth with a best time of 1:38.659. The team’s third rider, Colombian Santiago Villa, qualified in 17th with a best time of 1:41.866. Pietri got away in fifth in the race with Ulrich ninth, but the two came together as the South American fell to eighth and the Californian closed in on his teammate. A collision involving Jason Pridmore and Lee Acree stopped the race late and ultimately promoted the Pietri to sixth and Ulrich to seventh in the final results. Villa matched his qualifying effort by finishing 17th in the race — a fine result in a difficult race for the Colombian racer who spent his time off the bike at Infineon getting around on crutches because of his injuries from a crash earlier this season. Following four rounds of the 2008 AMA Superstock Championship, Ulrich is tied for third in the points with 104. Pietri is sixth at 88 while Villa is 17th with 38. Afterwards, Ulrich said, “For sure for me it was frustrating. It was difficult from the get-go. We had some problems we tried to work out and we tried some different forks. We went back to the standard stuff this morning and that’s what we raced on. “Qualifying was definitely really hard on me. I ended up tenth on the grid due to a mechanical problem we had with the shocks. A little part failed on it and ruined our qualifying. “But on the bright side, ‘Tino did a good job this weekend and sixth and seventh isn’t too bad. We got a little bit of help, but we’ll move on from here to Miller. This was a hard, hard weekend for me and I’m glad to get out of here with good points. VIlla had a tough challenge this weekend but he put in a fine effort.” Ulrich admitted that his expectations have been raised as the team has continued to improve. “Last year this would have been a fantastic result for us. But this year we’re leaving frustrated about the finish. We need to keep digging and I’m excited about what’s to come. ‘Tino goes really well at Miller and I go really well at Road America. I’m looking forward our team leading more races and getting some more podiums this year. Hopefully, Santiago will continue to recover and we’re trying to get him up to speed as well.” Next up for Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki is the combined AMA/World Superbike race weekend at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT on May 29-June 1. More, from a press release issued by American Suzuki: Rockstar Makita Suzuki Captures Second Superbike Double-Podium at Infineon Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Spies & Mladin again first & second! Round 7 AMA Superbike Series Sonoma, California Infineon Raceway May 16 – 18, 2008 Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing continues to hold sway in AMA Superbike racing, as defending AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies and six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin again finished first and second in the second AMA Superbike race of the weekend at Infineon Raceway on Sunday afternoon. Two-time AMA Superbike Champion Spies started from pole position and led all 28 laps of the race to take the win. This victory is Spies’ fourth consecutive AMA Superbike win of the season and his 22nd such career victory. Teammate Mladin was right on Spies’ tail for the entire race and brought home second place. With this result, Mladin maintains his lead in the AMA Superbike championship points standings. Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden is recovering from injuries sustained at a recent round of AMA Superbike and did not race this weekend. Ben Spies: “Today’s race was a whole lot tougher than yesterday. Mat had a bit of a go and got the gap down really low. I was just trying to be consistent and go fast, because I knew he was coming but I didn’t know if he was going to keep on coming. I was just riding my Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 as fast as I could, and I got a little break with some lappers with about 12 laps to go. It was a tough race, we were sliding around quite a bit. I mean, it was fun but it was definitely very difficult. This was a good weekend overall — we did everything we could do. We just had a maxed-out weekend and that’s what we needed. Now we’re going into Utah, and we’ve had some decent success there. Considering the hole we’ve dug for ourselves with the championship, things are going well, but we’ve got to keep it up for the next several weekends.” Mat Mladin: “We had the same results today, but the pace was a bit quicker. We got a few things sorted on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 and I felt more comfortable on the motorbike. But I still couldn’t get on the back of Ben. We certainly made some improvements today, which made things better for me today. And we look forward to getting to the next race and building up some confidence. I’ve had five crashes this year and that’s not like me to crash so much at the beginning of the season, so I want to build some confidence back up. So we’ll move on and try to challenge Ben for some race wins because he won pretty handily this weekend.” AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers: 1. Ben Spies, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 2. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 3. Jamie Hacking, Kawasaki 4. Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki 5. Neil Hodgson, Honda 6. Eric Bostrom, Yamaha 7. Miguel Duhamel, Honda 8. Geoff May, Jordan Suzuki 9. Chris Peris, Suzuki 10. Ryan Elleby, Suzuki AMA Superbike Points Standings: 1. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 2. Ben Spies, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 3. Neil Hodgson, Honda 4. Jason Disalvo, Yamaha 5. Jamie Hacking, Kawasaki 6. Eric Bostrom, Yamaha 7. Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing 8. Miguel Duhamel, Honda 9. Aaron Yates, Jordan More, from a press release issued by American Suzuki: Team Matsushima Performance Suzuki’s Danny Eslick on the AMA Supersport Podium Round 4 AMA Supersport Series Sonoma, California Infineon Raceway May 16 – 18, 2008 Team Matsushima Performance Suzuki’s Danny Eslick celebrated a tremendous AMA Supersport race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, on Sunday afternoon. The young Oklahoma rider started the weekend by getting his first AMA Supersport front-row grid position, thanks to posting a fastest lap time of 1:38.186. He then followed that up by getting the holeshot in the 17-lap race and then charging hard on his Matsushima Performance Suzuki GSX-R600 and bringing home his second-ever AMA Supersport podium position with a third-place finish. Currently, Eslick is in fifth place in the overall championship points standings. Danny Eslick: “Coming into this race, we were just trying to move forward. We’ve been making progress all year, starting with Daytona, and we’ve just been trying to keep moving forward. Today’s race was pretty exciting, I’m not used to leading these things and I knew these guys would be coming through, and hopefully no one else would. I held my own for a few laps and the leaders were able to tow me along and we were able to get away from everyone else, so it was a pretty good race. I was looking over my shoulder every once in a while, because I knew the guys behind me were gaining on me, but I tried to keep the gap as good as I could and, well, here we are.” AMA Supersport Top 10 Finishers: 1. Ben Bostrom, Yamaha 2. Jake Zemke Honda 3. Danny Eslick, Matsushima Performance Suzuki 4. Blake Young, Team M4 EMGO Suzuki 5. Josh Hayes, Honda 6. Josh Herrin, Yamaha 7. Cory West, Team M4 EMGO Suzuki 8. Michael Beck, Yamaha 9. Aaron Gobert, Honda 10. Chaz Davies, Kawasaki