Two-time Supersport Champion Tommy Hayden joins defending Superbike Champion Spies & six-time Superbike Champion Mladin BREA, Calif., Just a few short months after winning the 2006 AMA Superbike Championship, Yoshimura Suzuki is already preparing for the upcoming 2007 road race season. The team’s talented lineup for next year includes the return of both the reigning 2006 AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies as well as six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin. Joining Spies and Mladin for the 2007 season is newly signed Tommy Hayden. The new Yoshimura Suzuki trio rode together for the first time at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 1. This was their first outing on the brand-new 2007 Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike. The goal was to prepare for the more formal test in Malaysia later this month, according to Team Manager Don Sakakura. “We didn’t have much in the way of testing components on Wednesday,” said Sakakura. “Those will arrive for the Malaysia test on Nov. 15 -17. This was more of a ‘Superbike shakedown.’ Obviously, Tommy Hayden is the newest member of our team and we wanted to get him on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 for a few laps. This was the first time for Tommy and our staff to work together and we wanted to get him as comfortable as possible on the bike as quickly as possible.” Suzuki signed Hayden, 28, to race the GSX-R1000 in the premier Superbike class and the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R600 in the Supersport class for the next two years. Kentucky native Hayden is a two-time AMA Supersport Champion, having won the prestigious title in both 2005 and 2004. “The Willow test was a lot different for me because I’ve been riding another bike for a long time,” said Hayden about his first ride on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike. “It was real exciting, just trying to take it all in. I was real happy and everybody on the team was great. They’re really knowledgeable and I feel like we accomplished what we set out to accomplish. This was my first opportunity to work with my crew chief, Katsu Yanagawa, and I just tried to learn from him as much as I could. We’re taking things slow, trying to get our communication down so he understands what I’m looking for and I understand what kind of procedures he likes to do in testing. It was a good day.” Newly crowned AMA Superbike Champion Spies, 22, also put in some laps at the Willow Springs shakedown and is optimistic about the 2007 season. Spies will defend his AMA Superbike Championship and will also race in the AMA Superstock class next year. “It was good to get back out on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 after a few weeks off,” said 22-year-old Spies. “We didn’t do a whole lot of laps, more like we were just getting familiar with the new 2007 bike. But it looks like we’ll have another great motorcycle to race this year.” Australian Mladin echoed Spies’ sentiments. “The shakedown of the new Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 was awesome,” said 34-year-old Mladin, who will again race the Superbike class only. “We did a few laps at Willow Springs that were surprisingly good. It looks like Suzuki has delivered another great motorbike that makes even more horsepower than last year’s bike.” For more information on the 2007 Yoshimura Suzuki team, please log on to www.teamsuzuki.com.