SPIES MAKES SIX CONSECUTIVE VICTORIES
 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.
AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
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)
|
