AMA Superbike Championship Presented by Parts Unlimited Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida March 10, 2007 Provisional Race Results: 1. Ben Spies (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 15 laps 2. Miguel Duhamel (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, -3.021 seconds 3. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, -12.637 seconds 4. Akira Yanagawa (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, -24.000 seconds 5. Geoff May (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, -30.595 seconds 6. Jason DiSalvo (Yam YZF-R1), Dunlop, -37.453 seconds 7. Jake Holden (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -42.581 seconds, chunked tire 8. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -43.733 seconds 9. James Ellison (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, -46.397 seconds 10. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -46.580 seconds, crash 11. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -53.935 seconds, crash 12. Martin Cardenas (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, -62.399 seconds 13. Tristan Palmer (Suz GSX-R1000), -62.505 seconds 14. Doug Chandler (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, -63.684 seconds 15. Scott Jensen (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, -64.455 seconds 16. John Haner (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -85.675 seconds 17. David Weber (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -94.257 seconds 18. Kurtis Roberts (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, -94.269 seconds 19. Dominic Jones (Suz GSX-R1000), -99.141 seconds 20. Dean Mizdal (Suz GSX-R1000), -99.801 seconds 21. Eric Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1), Dunlop, -1 lap, pitted, chunked tire 22. Matt Lynn (MV Agusta F4-1000R), Dunlop, -2 laps, pitted, chunked tire 23. Luca Scassa (MV Agusta F4-1000R), Dunlop, -6 laps, DNF, crash 24. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, -11 laps, DNF, crash 25. Santiago Villa (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -15 laps, DNF, mechanical 26. Jamie Hacking (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, -15 laps, DNF, crash 27. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, DNS Provisional AMA Superbike Points 1. Spies, 38 2. Duhamel, 32 3. Zemke, 29 4. Yanagawa, 27 5. May, 26 6. DiSalvo, 25 7. Holden, 24 8. T. Hayden, 23 9. Ellison, 22 10. Mladin, 21 11. Yates, 20 12. Cardenas, 19 13. Palmer, 18 14. Chandler, 17 15. Jensen, 16 16. Haner, 15 17. Weber, 14 18. Roberts, 13 19. Jones, 12 20. Mizdal, 11 21. Bostrom, 10 22. Lynn, 9 23. Scassa, 8 More, from a press release issued by Daytona International Speedway: Ben Spies Takes AMA Superbike Opening Round At DIS DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies continued his winning trend at Daytona International Speedway this weekend capturing the AMA Superbike Opening Round on Sunday. On Thursday, Spies earned his first Daytona victory when he captured the 13-lap Superstock event. “Actually made a big mistake a couple laps in and had to find my way back,” Spies said. “We got back up front and charged and got right on the back of Mat (Mladin), then he made a mistake. We got out and I got a second and a half lead and just kind of saved the tire and brought it home. To do the double here that’s nice” Spies will take home the maximum amount of championship points with the Daytona Superbike victory, most laps led and the pole position as he attempts to defend his AMA Superbike title. Rounding out the podium was a pair of Hondas. Miguel Duhamel took second with Jake Zemke coming home in third. “The bike felt good right through testing,” Duhamel said. “Even here I knew I had a good bike. I just wanted to go out there and prove it. Talk is cheap. We’re going to be there all year. I really want to go out there and make a statement that we aren’t just showing up to fill the grid we’re here to win this championship.” The wild 15-lap race included several top factory riders going off track including Jamie Hacking, Aaron Yates, Roger Lee Hayden and Mladin. Daytona 200 Week By Honda concludes with the Daytona 200 By Honda later Saturday afternoon. More, from a press release issued by Yoshimura Suzuki: Yoshimura Suzuki’s Spies Wins Daytona Superbike Race, Hayden & Mladin Rally after Mishaps with Top-10 Finishes Round 1 AMA Superbike Series Daytona Beach, FL Daytona International Speedway March 8-10, 2007 Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies started the 2007 AMA Superbike year with a bang by winning the AMA Superbike race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Saturday afternoon. This victory is the defending AMA Superbike Champion’s 12th AMA Superbike career victory and it’s Suzuki’s 11th Daytona AMA Superbike win. Teammates Tommy Hayden and Mat Mladin both had troubles but made impressive recoveries and finished in eighth and 10th positions, respectively. “Winning at Daytona was a great way to start out the season,” said Spies of his first-ever Daytona Superbike victory. “It’s nice to show up with the number-one plate and get the pole position, lead the most laps and win the race.” As he mentioned, Spies picked up the pole position by posting a fastest lap time of 1:37.546. Overall, this is Spies’ eighth career pole. Teammate Mladin was hot on his heels with a lap time of 1:37.581, while Hayden followed up with a 1:38.931. In Saturday’s 15-lap AMA Superbike race, Spies got a good start and was running up front with teammate Mladin. The duo swapped spots a few times and then Spies took over the lead. The 22-year-old Texan went on to create a gap and take the win. “It was a good race,” said Spies. “We got off to a pretty good start”¦ and the race played out as good as it could. Everybody knows that Daytona is a place where you can lose a lot of points quick and you can’t win the championship here. We made good progress with the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 here. The team did great, the bike was awesome. I had to ride hard, but the bike’s working good. We just did what we could and tried to stay consistent.” Yoshimura Suzuki’s Hayden also got a good start but had an off-road excursion when riders in front of him crashed and forced him into the grass. But the two-time AMA Supersport Champion remounted, put his head down and reeled in as many competitors as possible for an eighth-place finish. “I was on the outside when two riders tangled up and forced me off the track,” said Hayden. “I got back on the track in about 23rd and it was an uphill battle from there. I tried to get as many spots as I could and salvage as many points as possible. It was a little frustrating but we got enough points to start the season out pretty good. The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 felt good, I just need to work on qualifying a little better and get on the front row and away from that mess in the back.” Similarly, six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mladin got a good start on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and had taken the lead when, unfortunately, he went down. In true championship-winning form, however, he recovered and finished in 10th position. “We just didn’t get it done today,” said Mladin. “It’s a little disappointing but this is only the first race and it’s a long season. The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 was working good and I just tried to pick up as many points as I could.” Yoshimura Suzuki will return for round two of the AMA Superbike Series at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.., the weekend of April 20 – 22, 2007. Ben Spies, Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, #1 1st Place AMA Superbike at Daytona 1st Place — Overall Championship Standings Mat Mladin, Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, #66 10th Place AMA Superbike at Daytona 10th Place Overall Championship Standings Tommy Hayden, Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, #22 8th Place AMA Superbike at Daytona 8th Place — Overall Championship Standings AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers: 1. Ben Spies, Yoshimura Suzuki 2. Miguel Duhamel, Honda 3. Jake Zemke, Honda 4. Akira Yanagawa, Kawasaki 5. Geoff May, M4 EMGO Suzuki 6. Jason Disalvo, Yamaha 7. Jake Holden, Jordan Suzuki 8. Tommy Hayden, Yoshimura Suzuki 9. James Ellison, Honda 10. Mat Mladin, Yoshimura Suzuki More, from a corrected press release issued by Honda: Honda’s Dominate Superbike Podium in Daytona American Honda teammates Miguel Duhamel and Jake Zemke dominated the podium in the opening round of the AMA Superbike Championship with second and third place finishes at Daytona International Speedway. “It was the best start we’ve had in several years,” team manager Ron Heben said, adding that he expects the team to be more competitive after a winter’s development on the Honda CBR1000RR. “We’ve learned an enormous amount about our motorcycle, the electronics and such. Dunlop’s got some great new tires right now. We’re putting the whole package together. The fans are going to like it. I think it’s going to be a great season.” The first of 11 rounds on the American calendar was plagued by attrition. Warm Florida sunshine, combined with the stress of the 31 degree banking, wreaked havoc on tires, specifically fronts. Six-time champion Mat Mladin (Suzuki) lost a piece of his front tire and crashed. The Australian re-mounted and was running in eighth on the final lap when he had to slow drastically, allowing two riders to pass. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) was forced into the pits to change a failed front tire. And a number of front-runners crashed, many in front of Zemke. “I saw every incident,” Zemke said with a laugh. There was a two rider crash on lap one and another crash in the first turn on the fifth lap. Zemke was behind Mladin when he fell. “It was a bit greasy out there today. It seemed like there was a bit less grip than there’s been all week. I don’t know if it was from the fog overnight or what, but it definitely didn’t seem like we – I didn’t have grip all week, but it seemed like nobody else had grip during that race.” Duhamel was in the top three on the second lap and moved into second on lap seven of 15. From there he continued to give chase to the race leader, Suzuki’s Ben Spies, but wasn’t able to close the gap. Spies, the defending series champion, won by 3.022 seconds. Zemke didn’t start as quickly. Having qualified in 11th place, it took the Californian a few laps to join the leaders. It was on the 12th of 15 laps that he passed Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom for third, where he’d finish. Miguel Duhamel, 2nd Place “I just wanted to get a really good start, and just be up there. I didn’t want to let these guys go. I was a little worried when I saw Eric (Bostrom) started pulling away quite a bit. Then Mat (Mladin) and Ben (Spies) was there, and I’m like, “Man, these guys aren’t too worried about this, are they?” But then we reeled him in back pretty quick. It was good racing up there, for sure. I think I had the pace, and I was trying to do the best I can. It’s just great to be up there. Obviously we’re here to win, and we came up one short of it, but I’m really proud of the team. It just shows how hard these guys have been working and sweating. Big thanks to them. It was definitely a team effort. And I think we will get faster. This is just one of the ways that we evolve the bike, with the Öhlins suspension, and all the work that we’re putting together. So I’m excited. We’re not going to slower from here. We’re going to be going faster. So I’m very pleased about that.” Jake Zemke, 3rd Place” We just couldn’t ever go any quicker throughout the race, in practice or anything. Even with softer tires in qualifying, the speeds were the same. I just was at a wall in my lap times, it seemed like, and we couldn’t get any better. But the race is always different than qualifying, that’s what’s great. I’d be a much better racer than a qualifier any day of the week, and that’s the way it worked out. Luckily, a lot of guys made it a lot easier for us. It felt like we had a pretty decent pace in the beginning of the race. After the first wreck, I got kind of blocked up, and these guys were trying to split up front. I was slowly making some ground on them, and I was just getting up to Rog (Hayden), and then he highsided right in front of me for the second year in a row, and I had to kind of hold up and wait for him, because where he highsided at, coming out of Turn One, he was sliding straight down the middle of the racetrack and I had nowhere to go. So I had to wait for him to slide out of the way first. Once he did, these guys and Eric (Bostrom) were already gone. And it’s funny. I didn’t even know I was in third place until I saw Eric coming out of the pits. I was like, “I think Eric was in front of me. Hmmm. That’s interesting.” And I looked up and I just saw those two guys in front of me, and I’m like, “Wow, I’m in third place. This is a nice little gift everybody gave me today.” Ron Heben, Team Manager ” Miguel last year got us a third on the box and through the course of the week and practice we thought we were moving forward and getting closer to the front. And obviously in qualifying, we didn’t qualify where we wanted to. We made some more changes. Guys were comfortable with the bike in the this morning’s practice. Same thing, the guys got to put themselves in the front of the pack and get in there and mix it up with those guys. For Miguel, we’re really, really pleased. Jake didn’t have his best day but he was in the right place at the right time. We’re really happy moving into the second round in second and third. ” Superbike: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 2. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 3. Jake Zemke (Honda) 4. Akira Yanagawa (Kawasaki) 5. Geoff May (Suzuki) 6. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha) 7. Jake Holden (Suzuki) 8. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 9. James Ellison (Honda) 10. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) Championship Standings: 1. Ben Spies (38) 2. Miguel Duhamel (32) 3. Jake Zemke (29) 4. Akira Yanagawa (27) 5. Geoff May (26) 6. Jason Disalvo (25) 7. Jake Holden (24) 8. Tommy Hayden (23) 9. James Ellison (22) 10. Mat Mladin (21)