Ben Spies raced his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to its sixth consecutive victory at today’s second-leg AMA Superbike Championship double-header at Infineon Raceway in California.

The young Texan led from the start of the rescheduled 28-lap event – avoiding forecasted and impending rain – to beat team mate Mat Mladin by 5.2 seconds.

Aaron Yates, fresh from his second place in the morning’s Superstock event, finished fifth on his Yoshimura GSX-R1000 after a close battle with Ducati’s Neil Hodgson.

Said Spies: “If you would’ve told me that I was going to have six consecutive wins at the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have believed it. I really have to thank my crew because they’re doing a great job. I’m riding really hard but the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is making it easy for me.”

As on Saturday, Sunday’s 28-lap race commenced with Spies taking the holeshot and leading the field to what seemed like an easy victory. “It was a good race,” he summed up afterwards. “The Suzuki GSX-R is running really good right now and I’m riding pretty decent and my Yoshimura Suzuki crew is doing a great job. I was just trying to get out front, ride my own race and click off fast laps.”

When Spies got out front, Mladin was right behind him and stayed put in second place to the flag. “It was a good race for us today,” said Mladin. “I tried to make it as close as I could but I couldn’t get around Ben today. We’ll go home and do some homework and see if we can catch him at Road America. I reckon he’s got a few too many wins under his belt now!”

Meanwhile, Yates started out strong and went on to bring home a top-five finish. “I got a really good start and was up to third on the first lap,” said Yates. “Then some guys got by me and it was kind of tough to get around. But I did, and then charged hard on my Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. I’m happy with the changes we’ve made to the bike and I’m looking forward to testing and fine-tuning the bike for Road America.”

Yoshimura Suzuki has won seven of the last eight Superbike events at Infineon Raceway, dating back to 2003. Mladin has five of the seven wins.

Superbike Race Two

1. Ben Spies (Team Yoshimura Suzuki)

2. Mat Mladin (Team Yoshimura Suzuki)

3. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)

4. Neil Hodgson (Ducati)

5. Aaron Yates (Team Yoshimura Suzuki)

6. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki)

7. Ben Bostrom (Ducati)

8. Jake Zemke (Honda)

9. Jake Holden (Jordan Suzuki)

10. Steve Rapp (Jordan Suzuki)

Superbike Championship Standings

1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 257

2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 227

3. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 198

4. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 183

5. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 179

6. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki) 173

7. Ben Bostrom (Ducati) 168

8. Jake Zemke (Honda) 156

9. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki) 148

10. Larry Pegram (Honda) 133

Superstock

Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates brought home a second-place finish in the AMA Repsol Superstock race, the defending AMA Superstock Champion moving from third-place to second-place overall in the points standings.

The Superstock racing action began late Saturday afternoon when Yates qualified in fifth position on the second row after posting a best lap time of 1:37.557. He fell during the morning’s practice and tweaked the shoulder he’d injured during testing last February.

He said: “I hurt my shoulder when I fell this morning and I just can’t push as hard as I need to.”

In Sunday afternoon’s 17-lap race, however, Yates got a good start and was out front in third position. He stayed put for several laps before taking over second place and was riding aggressively on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 when a red flag was thrown with eight laps completed. Because of anticipated weather, the AMA called the race at that point.

“You always want to win the race,” said Yates afterwards. “But it was a good race. I got hung up for a while in third place and then I was able to get by and get into second. I tried to chase after the leader but he was too far out there when we got the red flag. Even though I’d rather get the win, second is good for the points in the championship.”

Superstock Race Results

1. Jamie Hacking (Yamaha)

2. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki)

3. Eric Bostrom (Ducati)

4. Geoff May (M4 EMGO Suzuki)

5. Jake Holden (Jordan Suzuki)

6. Marty Craggill (Hotbodies Racing Mat Mladin Motorsports Suzuki)

7. Steve Rapp (Jordan Suzuki)

8. Josh Hayes (Honda)

9. Matt Lynn (Suzuki)

10. Aaron Gobert (Honda)

Honda Report

American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel captured a pair of podiums at Infineon Raceway on the weekend that he was honored as one of the first motorcycle racers to be inducted into the Infineon Raceway Wall of Fame.

The very popular veteran rider followed his Saturday induction with a third in the Superbike race, held under cloudy skies on the undulating 12-turn race track in the heart of Sonoma’s wine country, north of San Francisco.
Duhamel battled Suzuki’s Aaron Yates for the second half of the race before making the final pass on the 26th of 28 laps.

Duhamel backed up that finish with a much more competitive run aboard his American Honda CBR1000RR on Sunday, this time taking third on the 13th lap and chasing the second place rider to the end.

“Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise,” Duhamel said about the distinction.
“It's just - I'm very honored, obviously. I'm very pleased and honored.”

The prolific Duhamel has nine wins at Infineon; five in Superbike, three in Supersport, and one in Formula Xtreme. In addition to his proficiency on the track, he was chosen for the selfless work he’s provided to the track on behalf of the safety of his fellow riders.

“There’s nobody who has been more open, more helpful, more available…than Miguel Duhamel,” track president Steve Page said in the winner’s circle.
“For all the memories and all the involvement he’s had at this track, we are very proud to have Miguel Duhamel inducted into the Infineon Raceway Wall of Fame.”

Teammate Jake Zemke will have to wait for his induction into the Wall of Fame. Brake problems prevented him from finishing higher up than eighth on Saturday. On Sunday, he discovered a lack of drive grip on the warm-up lap that stymied his best efforts to ride around the problem.

“We’ll just come back for the next one, definitely have to do a lot better than we did today,” he said.

The podium order was identical both days, Suzuki’s Ben Spies in front of teammate Mat Mladin and Duhamel.

Miguel Duhamel, 3rd Saturday, 3rd Sunday I thought about sticking it in (on Aaron Yates) a few times, but I was saving that for a little later (in Saturday’s race). But then he went extra wide. So I went inside, and I figured he'd try and come down on me anyway, but I had the right of way, basically. I don't know where he went and I didn't really care. I just wanted to make that pass, because I knew I was faster than him through some of the sections, and I was just holding it back a bit. When he did come by we did pick up the pace a bit, and it actually made me discover a few things for tomorrow's race.

I felt yesterday I could have been a little closer to the guys in front.
And the key to that is to be closer. Tommy (Hayden) was actually doing a good job of keeping Mat (Mladin) honest and even Ben (Spies) for a while there. I was like, this is good, this is real good. Usually when you’re in third place, you only just see open track. And I was like, whoa, look at that. I was in fourth place at that moment. And (Hayden) was riding really good and then I had to ride really hard and got by him. I was really good on the brakes. Got by Tommy. He was braking good too, but not good enough. He went into the dirt, through the chicane, twice I think. That time actually I got by. Once I did that I think it looks like he couldn’t keep up the pace. By then Mat already did a little gap and I was trying to keep that gap honest and try and get a little closer and it was fluctuating depending on the lap and lapped riders. Of course I wanted to get up for the championship and get in front of Mat, but he didn’t want me to.

Jake Zemke, 8th Saturday, 8th Sunday
Early on we had the pace to run with the guys for third. I would like to think we would have been at least a challenge for those guys up there and would have a four-rider race for third instead of three, but that’s the way it goes. It just seems like the brakes glazed over a bit and I just didn’t have the stopping power I needed getting in the corners and couldn’t get in there like I was earlier in the race, and just kind of faded back from there. I just felt like I could get through the corners OK once I got in there, it was just I couldn’t get into the corners. I just kind of just ended up going backwards there.

First lap out, warm-up lap I could tell it wasn’t quite the grip I had yesterday. Sometimes it takes a lap or two to get the tires where they’re gripping to their full potential. It just never, ever came in. It was kind of bad right from the get-go. I think it was more our setting that was bad, because we had the same tire we had yesterday and, shoot, I drove right by a couple of guys early in the race, where today that wasn’t going to happen. they were driving by me instead. We thought we had something that might be a little bit better, but ultimately it just didn’t have the grip I had yesterday. So I couldn’t get off the corners and we had changed the shock and it also affected going into the corners as well. I just couldn’t get much of anything done today. We’ll come back.