Yoshimura Suzuki

Round 10 - AMA Superbike Series
Braselton, GA
Road Atlanta
Sept. 2 - 4, 2005
In a stunning end to the Suzuki weekend at Road Atlanta on Sunday, Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin clinched his third record-breaking AMA Superbike Championship by taking an unprecedented sixth title. Teammate Aaron Yates carded his first Superbike win of the season while Ben Spies came in a close second to Yates.

“It was a good year for us,” said Mladin. “And Suzuki delivered a motorcycle that made life a lot easier than last year. As I’ve said all along, the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is an amazing motorcycle.”

Mladin had a record-breaking qualifying session in that he not only broke the track record with a time of 1:21.685, but he is also the first AMA Superbike rider to capture every pole position in a single season -- that’s 10 for the season and 47 for his career total. Mladin’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammates qualified closely behind him on the front row, with Spies in the second spot with a 1:23.161 and Yates in third with a 1:23.242.

The 25-lap race started late on Sunday afternoon and was almost immediately red-flagged after a rider crashed. The riders were re-gridded for a full re-start. Although Spies got the holeshot, Yates took over the lead almost immediately. The duo led the race entirely.

“What can I say? Let’s give it up for the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000,” announced Yates from the podium. “It was a good day and a good race. We got a good start out there and I think I was a little stronger in a couple of spots and I just tried to take advantage of the opportunities -- then I sort of got into cruisin’ mode. It’s just really great to get the race win for Suzuki.”

Teammate Spies rode hard and consistently and made a few runs at Yates, however, after 25 laps he maintained a strong second. “I wish there’s been no red flag,” said Spies. “But I just did the best that I could and tried to be conservative and get on the podium.”

Mladin, meanwhile, got a bad start and worked his way through traffic. With his sixth championship in mind, Mladin rode a conservative race and finished fourth. Mladin’s five previous AMA Superbike titles came aboard the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 in 2004 and 2003, and aboard the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 in 2001, 2000 and 1999.

Dunlop Report

The old guard in AMA road racing showed race fans at Road Atlanta why they are still the champs at the final stop of the 2005 Superbike series in Braselton, Georgia, September 2-4. Despite a late-season challenge by 21-year old teammate Ben Spies, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin won one of two Superbike races to earn an unprecedented sixth AMA Superbike crown and stake out the 33-year old Australian’s legacy as the most successful AMA Superbike racer ever. The winner of the second Superbike competition was Mladin’s teammate, 32-year old Aaron Yates, who also salted away the 1000cc Superstock title; Yates’ third AMA championship was secured with a safe ninth-place finish in a hotly-contested battle that was won by Kawasaki Road Racing’s Roger Lee Hayden. The 22-year old Hayden also took the Supersport win, but the season-long 600-class championship went to his older brother and teammate Tommy Hayden, whose fifth-place finish earned the 27-year old veteran his second consecutive Supersport title. To cap it off, 37-year old Miguel Duhamel earned a second consecutive Formula Xtreme title for Honda Racing and his eighth AMA national championship with a remarkable, upset performance over teammate Jake Zemke.

For the weekend, Dunlop-shod riders captured 38 of 50 top-ten finishing positions. And for the 2005 season, Dunlop riders finished in the top ten 349 times out of 460, an impressive 75.9 winning percentage.

Road Atlanta is a "right-hand" track that generates significant heat in the right side of the rear tire, particularly after finishing the back straight. The surface is bumpy in places and, due to the concrete patches in some turns, traction can be inconsistent. Dunlop brought 2583 tires to support the factory teams and support riders in the Superbike, Superstock, Supersport and Formula Xtreme classes at Road Atlanta (as well as last week’s round at VIR), including rain tires. The factory Superbike teams had four front and three rear tire options, including multi-compound rear tires utilizing Dunlop’s NT (New Technology) construction. The factory Superstock riders had seven front and five rear tire compound choices.

As he has all season, Mladin dominated Superbike qualifying, capturing an unprecedented 10th consecutive pole position and the 47th of his career. His best lap of 1:21.685 on race tires smashed his own record of 1:22.065 set here last year on a qualifying tire, an indication of how well the Suzuki GSX-R1000 and Dunlop’s multi-compound NT rear tire design work together. The point earned gave Mladin a 22-point margin over Spies, his nearest competitor for the championship. In the first Superbike race, Mladin rocketed to the lead and set a blistering pace until a red flag came out on lap 18. He restarted well in the ensuing seven-lap sprint race and took the lead right away, with teammates Spies and Yates following close behind. Though he lost his right knee puck and had to adapt his riding style, it was Mladin at the checkered flag by .721 seconds over Spies for his 11th win of the season (a new AMA record) and 43rd career Superbike victory. “It was nice to get the win. It was a great race there at the end,” said Mladin. “It's nice to get 11 wins and to get the record, but we still got work to do tomorrow.” A tumble by Yates on the second-to-the-last lap handed a pursuing Duhamel the third podium position. With the win, Mladin increased his lead over Spies by 29 points going into the final race of the season on Sunday.

How many championships hinge on every lap of the very last race? That was the scenario that played out in Saturday’s Formula Xtreme event as Honda Racing teammates Duhamel and Jake Zemke battled each other on their CBR600RRs to determine the 2005 class victor. Duhamel came into the weekend knowing that he had to collect every point possible – pole, most laps led, and the win – to capture the crown. He took the pole on Friday with a blistering 1:24.866, the fastest any 600 has ever circulated at Road Atlanta (current configuration). When the race began, the two riders rocketed away, swapping the lead on every lap (18 lead changes in all) with some very dramatic slides and saves by both riders in the battle to lead the most laps. On the final lap of the 15-lap event they had seven apiece when, going into turn one, Zemke ran wide and off the track, crashing out of the race. He was OK but did not continue and Duhamel went on to collect his second consecutive Formula Extreme title and Honda’s 20th win in a row since the series was reconfigured to 600-class machines for 2004. “I knew it was going to be close,” said Duhamel. “Jake has been such an incredible rider this year. It was a great race, we were both really close and it was perfect racing, really hard championship racing. To win it at the end was really hard to do.” Duhamel dedicated his championship to M4 Emgo Suzuki’s Vincent Haskovec, who was paralyzed from the chest down when he crashed at Infineon Raceway on May 14. Finishing second in the race was Attack Kawasaki’s Ben Attard, followed by M4 Emgo Suzuki’s Michael Barnes. In the final points tally, Duhamel racked up 314 points, while Zemke finished second on the season with 295. Third place went to MPT Racing’s Danny Eslick, who garnered 198 points.

Coming into Sunday’s season-ending Superstock race, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates carried a 21-point lead over Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo and only needed to finish 14th on his GSX-R1000 to secure the championship. The race itself was a barn-burner between two young lions – DiSalvo and Roger Lee Hayden - who hope to secure championships of their own in the near future. DiSalvo led the most laps on his Yamaha YZF-R1 (8-7), but Hayden made a daring pass on the outside of the last turn before the finish line to take the win by .009 seconds on his ZX-10R. “It was a pretty good day, I got my first Superstock win out of the way, which I’ve been working toward for a long time,” said Hayden. Of his last-turn pass, he said, “I really wanted to win a big bike race before the year was out, so I wasn’t going to give up. It was a fun race, we were going back and forth and if anybody left a door open, someone was coming in. It could have gone either way.” Finishing third was M4 Emgo Suzuki’s Geoff May, who makes his home in nearby Alpharetta.

Meanwhile, Yates played it safe and the Georgia native finished ninth to take the Superstock title. “Thanks to Suzuki for putting together such a great motorcycle because the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is awesome,” said Yates. “My team has been great all year, putting together a good race set-up and Dunlop has given us excellent tires this season. It’s all because of these guys that I’ve got this number-one plate.” Like Duhamel the day before, Yates dedicated his championship to Haskovec. For the season, Yates finished with 323 points, followed by DISalvo with 314 and Jordon Motorsports Suzuki’s Steve Rapp with 255.

The 600cc Supersport championship was also on the line Sunday. Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden had built a comfortable 31-point lead over younger brother Roger Lee and only needed to finish mid-pack to secure the title. The younger Hayden took the pole on Saturday with a record 1:25.775 lap time on his ZX-6RR, besting the time of 1:26.082 set by older brother Tommy in 2004. If there was any doubt that Roger Lee was having his best weekend ever, it was erased at the conclusion of the race. In the race start, Roger Lee took off after Attack Kawasaki’s Attard and commandeered the lead by the second lap. From that point on he built a comfortable lead to eventually win by just 5.1 seconds over Yamaha’s DiSalvo, securing his third consecutive win and fourth victory of the season. “I am really happy,” said Roger Lee. “I got my first pole. My team has been behind me all year, I am glad to make them proud. It was definitely the best weekend of my career.” In third place was Attard.

As for Tommy Hayden, he motored around at a conservative race pace and finished in fifth position with plenty of points to lock down his second consecutive Supersport title. “I started out well this year and everything was going according to plan and then, towards the middle of the year I had a lot of problems. I had the best bike for sure by far, that made things a lot easier. It’s really special, two in a row.” For the season, Tommy finished with 327 points to Roger Lee’s 308, while DiSalvo was third with 272.

The weekend’s final event was Superbike race two and the competition was not without drama. An early red-flag forced a complete restart and Mladin’s poor launch off the line left him in 21st position after the first lap. Meanwhile Yates rocketed off to a near-perfect start on his GSX-R1000, overtaking teammate Spies on the first lap. From that point he was never headed, taking the win by 6.2 seconds over Spies for his first Superbike win of the season. “What can I say?” said Yates. “It was a good day and a good race. We got a good start out there and I think I was a little stronger in a couple of spots and I just tried to take advantage of the opportunities. It’s just really great to get the race win for Suzuki.” In third was Ducati Austin’s Neal Hodgson.

But the day would belong to Mladin, who charged through the pack to finish fourth overall, cementing his record-setting sixth AMA Superbike Championship. “It was a good year for sure. Suzuki delivered some motorcycles this year that certainly made life quite a bit easier than last year. It’s nice to win six of them, but as everyone knows, I’ve signed for another three years, so I’ll be disappointed if I don’t have nine (titles) three years from now.” On the season, Mladin amassed 536 points, followed by Spies with 514 and Ducati Austin’s Eric Bostrom with 431.

Dunlop congratulates all of the 2005 AMA Superbike Series champions and salutes all of the racers that make this road racing series the most competitive in the world.

Superstock

Team Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates won the 2005 AMA Repsol Superstock Championship after coming in ninth in the final event of the season at Road Atlanta in Braselton on Sunday.

"Thanks to Suzuki for putting together such a great motorcycle because the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is awesome," said Yates. "My team has been great all year putting together a good race set-up and Dunlop has given us excellent tyres this season. It's all because of these guys that I've got this number-one plate."

Going into the final round, Yates had a good qualifying session and ended up in third position on the front row with a best time of 1:23.748. "I went out on race tyres and did some good laps and then went out with a qualifier and did a pretty good lap. I tried to go faster and almost crashed, but I ended up with a lap time that's better than I've ever done on the Superstock bike so I'm happy with it."

When preparing for the race, Yates knew that he didn't have to win to take the title because he was going in with a 21-point lead. His race strategy, however, was undecided.

"I've been thinking about the race," he said after qualifying. "But you can't really make any plans because it just depends on how the race actually goes. It depends on how I feel when I wake up in the morning - whether I want to go for it or just ride around. I really want to finish the race and I don't want any issues to come up and trouble us. It's kind of nice to have the points cushion."

He played it safe when Sunday rolled around. He got a pretty good start and went out in eighth place and rode conservatively to a ninth-place finish in the 15-lap race. "It was hard just hanging back there just cruising along," said Yates. "I usually don't make a plan for a race but this time I decided to take it easy off the line and see how it goes. I knew I had to get 14th or better and this was the smart thing to do, I reckon."

Honda Report

American Honda's Miguel Duhamel won his second consecutive Formula Xtreme Championship with a thrilling victory after a race long duel with teammate Jake Zemke in the season finale at Road Atlanta. The victory, his fourth of the season, came barely an hour after he'd ascended the podium in Saturday's Superbike race.

In order for Duhamel to win the Formula Xtreme title, he had to score every available point-the point for the pole, the point for the most laps led, and the 36 points for winning-in the final two races aboard his Honda CBR600RR. The cagey 37-year-old set the stage by sweeping the points table the previous weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

Duhamel put in a repeat performance at Road Atlanta. The French-Canadian, who calls Las Vegas home, began by setting a new lap record in qualifying.
The laps led point came down to the final lap with each of the Honda riders leading seven laps after Duhamel came back from a 6-3 deficit. The six-month, nine-race season would be decided on the final lap of the final race and Duhamel wasn't giving his teammate an inch.

Chasing Zemke into turn one, he watched as his teammate ran wide and off the track, falling uninjured. Duhamel sped home to win both the race and championship by a comfortable margin.

Duhamel's fourth win, along with Zemke's five, gave Honda a series sweep for the second year in a row. No other brand has won a Formula Xtreme race since the Honda CBR600RR was eligible.

"You close your shield and do 100% and that's what I tried to do today,"
Duhamel said after his record eighth AMA pro road racing title and the record 78th AMA win of his distinguished career.

Duhamel's ride in Saturday's Superbike race was equally impressive.
Eleventh on the first lap, the Honda CBR1000RR-mounted speedster made his way through the field and was in sixth when the race was red-flagged on lap 18. The Superbike race became an eight-lap sprint.

Off the re-start, Duhamel was away with the leaders, quickly into fourth and up to third when Suzuki's Aaron Yates fell on the penultimate lap.

Teammate Zemke began the race in third and was running in the top five when a front end problem forced him to retire before the red flag.

Zemke's luck turned around on Sunday. Second by the seventh lap, he battled for position to the very end, finishing fifth. Duhamel was running in the top five when a slight problem developed that sapped his engine of power.
Still, he soldiered on to finish ninth.

Suzuki's Mat Mladin won Saturday's race over teammate Ben Spies and Duhamel. Suzuki's Aaron Yates came first on Sunday, with Spies second and Ducati's Neil Hodgson third. Mladin finished fourth and earned the 2005 AMA Superbike Championship.

Miguel Duhamel 1st Formula Xtreme
Like the pitcher at a baseball game or chess, whatever, you want to always change your strategy a little bit. On the championship race with the points led, you're being pushed in position. If we didn't have the points led thing, then the championship would be on whoever won the race, then it would have been a different race for sure. But I didn't have a choice; I had to fight like every lap counted and it did. That was the only thing I was trying to do. I was trying to figure out what he might be thinking I might do and do the opposite. So move around a little bit and make it hard for him to draft. Even doing that he was still able to outbrake me a few times and the few times he went a little too deep and I got him back and of course he was strategizing to try to block me coming over the bridge. I was hoping to outdrag him on the outside. By the time I did he'd be so surprised. I had to lead that lap. I had to lead every lap. And that's what you saw. Every lap was a totally new script and it was wonderful to the end there.

Jake Zemke 17th Formula Xtreme
It was a barn burner. It was, I'm sure, for everybody watching it, it was the show they were expecting to see. But you know in the end I got in to turn one, I'm not sure I'm waiting to look at the data to see, but seemed like I got in there and when I let the clutch out it just didn't seem like the thing slowed down, like I didn't have engine braking or something. Not really sure, but all in all it was a good year. You know, the guys have done a wonderful job on that bike. Two main guys working on that thing just worked their tails off all year long on that program. I'm proud for those guys. I'm proud that we were able to get five wins on the season. A little disappointed we didn't win the championship. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Miguel Duhamel 3rd Saturday Superbike
For a while I was thinking, 'I think I can win this thing,' because I caught up. But then after that they got in the same tempo. You're always shooting for first. I mean Mat (Mladin) was just there, he wasn't leaving us, which was a terrific thing for the team and for me too. I saw Aaron
(Yates) go in there and just when he tucked it down he lost the front. I went a little wide in that corner and by then Ben (Spies) had a bit of a gap and everything. I looked behind me and I just tried to bring it home.

Jake Zemke DNF Saturday Superbike
The bike was running, but was I having a little problem with the front on the thing. Shoot, even from the second lap right form the get-go, I was losing the front, losing the front. And I just kept slowing down like half a second a lap and I kept losing the front. So finally I came in. we were like well, it's not going to do us much good to go back out now, so we just sat that one out.

Miguel Duhamel 9th Sunday Superbike
Got better starts and I had a really good bike. I was really disappointed to see that the bike started slowing down. Either a fuel injection problem or a pump or something like that. I was looking at the temperature gauge and it wasn't high, so I knew it wasn't an engine, so that's why I stayed out there. You never know if somebody stops or something happens to their bike. Get enough points to get up to fourth in the championship, which would've been pretty fun for us. Anyway, bike was really good and I was really confident I was going to get on the podium.

Jake Zemke 5th Sunday Superbike
We were third for a while, we were second for a while. We got by (Ben) Spies. Things were going pretty good. I was able to make time on the brakes and of course I cooked the brakes doing that. The first probably ten laps, eight laps, whatever it was. I ended up glazing the brakes over doing what I was doing. Then I had that bit of a moment up there and Spies got by. And kind of we were starting to lose traction at that point in the race anyways. We just ended up going backwards from there and couldn't get going today.
 

Superbike Race 1

1. Mat Mladin, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
2. Ben Spies, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
3. Miguel Duhamel, Honda
4. Neil Hodgson, Ducati
5. Eric Bostrom, Ducati
6. Josh Hayes, Kawasaki
7. Jason Pridmore, Jordan Suzuki
8. Kurtis Roberts, Honda
9. Marty Craggill, Mat Mladin Motorsports Suzuki
10. Lee Acree, Suzuki

Superbike Race 2

1. Aaron Yates, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
2. Ben Spies, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
3. Neil Hodgson, Ducati
4. Mat Mladin, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
5. Jake Zemke, Honda
6. Josh Hayes, Kawasaki
7. Jason Pridmore, Jordan Suzuki
8. Eric Bostrom, Ducati
9. Miguel Duhamel, Honda
10. Steve Rapp, Jordan Suzuki

Superbike Points

1. Mladin 536
2. Spies 514
3. Bostrom 431
4. Yates 414
5. Duhamel 392
6. Hodgson 384
7. Craggill 331
8. Rapp 305
9. Hayes 302
10. Acree 301

Superstock Race

1. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)
2. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
3. Geoff May (M4 EMGO Suzuki)
4. Damon Buckmaster (Yamaha)
5. John Haner (Suzuki)
6. Steve Rapp (Jordan Suzuki)
7. Michael Barnes (M4 EMGO Suzuki)
8. Jason Pridmore (Jordan Suzuki)
9. Aaron Yates (Team Yoshimura Suzuki)
10. Jason Perez (Yamaha)

Superstock Points

1. Yates 323
2. Disalvo 314
3. Rapp 255
4. R Hayden 241
5. Haner 222
6. Holden 195
7. Buckmaster 192
8. May 189
9. Aa Gobert 187
10. T Hayden 168

Supersport Race

1. R Hayden
2. Disalvo
3. Attard
4. Buckmaster
5. T Hayden
6. Jensen
7. Spies
8. May
9. Acree
10. Young

Supersport Points

1. T Hayden 327
2. R Hayden 308
3. Disalvo 272
4. Spies 231
5. May 228
6. Aa Gobert 222
7. Buckmaster 215
8. Attard 201
9. Jensen 199
10. Peris 187

FX Race

1. Duhamel
2. Attard
3. Barnes
4. Eslick
5. Jensen
6. Peris
7. Caylor
8. Andrews
9. Al Gobert
10. Hale

FX Points

1. Duhamel 314
2. Zemke 295
3. Eslick 198
4. Attard 197
5. Al Gobert 175
6. Barnes 160
7. Peris 160
8. Moore 158
9. Caylor 139
10. Knapp 139