Suzuki Report

Team Yoshimura Suzuki dominated today’s AMA Superbike Championship penultimate round at Road Atlanta and are now assured of the 2006 title – but it all comes down to the final round next month between today’s winner Mat Mladin and team mate and series leader Ben Spies.

Mladin won his fourth Superbike race in a row from Spies with Aaron Yates third – the same result as yesterday – but with just 20 points between first and second, the final round at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on October 1st will be an exciting showdown for the GSX-R1000-mounted team.

Spies, who needs to finish 13th or better, has been riding with a broken hand - incurred two weeks ago at Virginia International Raceway - and should be at nearly full strength.

Today was Mladin's 50th Superbike win and the third time he's swept both races at Road Atlanta: He has won five of Road Atlanta's last six races.

The final podium spot today was determined in the final corner: After stalking Ducati’s Neil Hodgson for the final several laps, Yates made a daring inside pass in the final downhill run to the finish line.

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 further back, but worked his way up to Spies quickly. The team mates 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 and I won’t make it so easy for him next year.”

Said Spies: “We definitely weren’t going to try to run Mat’s pace today, 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 and 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; 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.”

HRC Report

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