Suzuki Report

Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies battled record-breaking heat as well as the competition to win his eighth AMA Superbike race of the season and extend his points lead at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday. Teammate Aaron Yates finished up in fifth position and Mat Mladin came home in sixth place.

“I really want to thank my team and credit the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000,” said Spies of his first Laguna Seca victory. “I asked them to bring me a bike that we wouldn’t have to make too many changes on because we had so little track time. And that’s exactly what they did -- I just sat on it and rode around.”

Earlier in the day, Spies picked up his fifth career pole position after posting a fastest lap time of 1:24.946. Teammate Yates qualified a close second with a best time of 1:25.433, while Mladin rounded out the front row of the grid in fourth with a 1:26.025 posting.

“Right now, getting pole position is just another point toward the title,” said Spies. “It’s going to be a hard fight today, but we’ve found a good set-up for the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and the bike is working really well.”

Spies showed just how well the bike was working by taking the lead immediately and leading all 28 laps of the main event. “I just have to give all the credit to the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and my crew,” Spies reiterated. “I knew we had to show up with a bike that was good to go and the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 was just that. I rode as hard as I could, but the bike and the Dunlop tires made it easier this weekend.”

Teammate Yates also got a good start and was running in the top five for most of the race. “I got a decent start and then I got hung up behind some guys and couldn’t make any passes,” said Yates. “I got caught up in the pace and then I made a few mistakes. As the race went on, I had a hard time getting a good drive off the corners and it just got worse. I made a charge toward the end of the race but almost went off the track so I backed off. I was hoping to put my Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 up on the podium, but it just didn’t happen today.”

Mladin, unlike his teammates, did not get a good start and was forced to play catch-up. Even so, the defending AMA Superbike Champion rode hard and charged up to sixth place before the end of the race.

“I made a mistake at the start and it bogged,” he said. “Then I was just doing the best I could and by the time I got up into a decent position it was too late to make any real difference.”

AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
1. Ben Spies, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
2. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki
3. Neil Hodgson, Ducati
4. Miguel Duhamel, Honda
5. Aaron Yates, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
6. Mat Mladin, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
7. Ben Bostrom, Ducati
8. Jake Zemke, Honda
9. Jason Pridmore, Jordan Suzuki
10. Steve Rapp, Jordan Suzuki

HRC Report

Even before the start of the AMA Superbike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, there were problems. There was intense, near record heat in the beautiful Monterey Peninsula. There was a lack of practice and qualifying time for the 12th round of the championship, held as a support race for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. And then there was the track itself. A recent repaving had been badly executed and there were extraordinary bumps throughout the track, but especially out of the signature Corkscrew turn.
What it all meant was that the valuable data gathered by the American Honda mechanics and engineers in years of racing and testing was of only marginal value.

Despite those difficulties, American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel felt his Honda CBR1000RR was capable of a third place finish. But the track temperature wreaked havoc with his rear tire and he just missed out on his fifth podium finish of the year. Teammate Jake Zemke, the winner of the previous round at Miller Motorsports Park, wasn’t as fortunate. Zemke struggled with the elements and wasn’t able to properly set up his Honda CBR1000RR in the less than one hour of practice and qualifying allowed.

It all added up to a less than satisfying weekend, one race after American Honda showed themselves to be serious race contenders with Zemke’s win

Duhamel led off the start, held late on a 38 degree afternoon in the hills east of Monterey, California. But his moment of glory was short-lived. A multi-rider first turn incident brought out a red flag and forced a re-start.

The second time around Duhamel was strong-he ran second for the first two laps and third for the next nine-before he struck traction problems at the rear. Every time he tried to close the gap on the leaders, he’d find himself on the razor’s edge of grip. Rather than risk crashing on a track surface that was rapidly deteriorating, he sensibly decided to finish fourth.

The finish allowed him to maintain third in the championship with seven races to run.

Zemke found it more difficult to find a solution for the bumps. The team solved one problem, but it caused another, and he rode smartly to an eighth place finish.

The race was won by Suzuki’s Ben Spies from Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden, the older brother of Repsol Honda’s Nicky Hayden, and Ducati’s Neil Hodgson.

Miguel Duhamel 4th Place

The guys did a great job. Al (Ludington) and the boys gave me a really good bike. I made a few little mistakes in there and the leaders got away. And every time I started getting going good pace, starting going low 26’s, the tire got really hot and started sliding a lot. Every single time I went pretty fast, I’d make time, I’d lose time. I felt like I had a lot more speed. But as the race wore on and the tire got a little bit hotter…I should have gone harder a little bit quicker. But the bike was good.
everything was really good. Just a little click here, a click here. Laguna doesn’t forgive. You make a mistake in four and you’re almost paying for it in 11 before you get your rhythm back. So had a couple of slides. Our tire was not bad, but every time I got to mid to low 26’s, the thing started moving around quite a lot. But anyway, all that being said the bike was still good enough. I think I could have been and maybe should have been, but could have been on the podium.

Jake Zemke, 8th Place

It was a long race. Well, we showed up here and we were having a big difficulty dealing with the new bumps that have come up here at this race track, especially with the rears. So we went into qualifying making some big changes to the rear end of the bike, changing the link and the suspension to try to absorb those bumps better. It made it absorb those bumps a little bit better on acceleration, but then under deceleration, going into the corner, we had a horrible, horrible chatter in qualifying.
Basically, we had to go into the race on something, just roll the dice and gamble. And we got rid of that deceleration chatter a little bit, but the bike didn’t really want to turn once we got into the corner. It was a long day for sure.

Superbike:
1. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
2. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki)
3. Neil Hodgson (Ducati)
4. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
5. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
6. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
7. Ben Bostrom (Ducati)
8. Jake Zemke (Honda)
9. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki)
10. Steve Rapp (Suzuki)

Championship Standings:
1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 426
2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 392
3. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 329
4. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 317
5. (TIE) Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki)/Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 304
7. Jake Zemke (Honda) 296
8. Ben Bostrom (Ducati) 268
9. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki) 259
10. Steve Rapp (Suzuki) 226