SUZUKI SWEEPS LAGUNA SECA
Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies led all laps to take the victory
in this weekend's AMA Superbike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna
Seca on Sunday afternoon with team mate Mat Mladin second
place and Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki's Aaron Yates
third.
Spies and Mladin's Yoshimura Suzuki team mate Tommy Hayden
recovered from an off-track excursion to bring home 13th place
and pulled within one point of fourth-place overall in the
championship standings. This weekend not only saw defending
AMA Superbike Champion Spies pick up his sixth pole position
of the season and his 13th career pole, but he also extended
his lead in the AMA Superbike points chase.
The race result also marks Spies' sixth win of the season
in the class as well as his 17th AMA Superbike career victory.
Six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mladin, who started from second
position beside Spies, carded his 10th podium spot of the
season after riding his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to an impressive
second place. Yates, meanwhile, gave the Jordan Suzuki team
its first-ever AMA Superbike podium finish with his third-place
result.
Ben Spies:
"We threw down a pretty good time to get the pole position.
We got it done but it was close. The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000
was working good right off the truck, though we made a few
changes during the middle of the qualifying session that helped
us find a little more time. In the race, we got off the line
good and that's key now with Mat and I running the same pace.
But Mat rode a great race today and I'm really happy for Aaron
that he got on the podium for the Jordan team. Overall, it's
just great to get all three Suzukis on the box."
Mat Mladin:
"In qualifying, the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 felt
really, really good. At the end of the session we got a little
messed up trying to go for a fast lap, but the bike felt good
for the race. Unfortunately, we're having some issues with
starts. I pushed hard for a while; we started to catch up
to Ben and then got into some
lappers and backed off again. But congratulations to Ben for
a great race and I'm just looking forward to Mid-Ohio."
Aaron Yates:
"In today's race I got off to a pretty good start on
my Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 and I was pushing really hard.
I made a couple of mistakes and it took me about half the
race to settle down and work my way back up. It feels good
to be on the podium because I really wanted to get up there
for the Jordan Suzuki team. They're working hard and the bike
is getting better every race weekend. I have a
good group of guys behind me and it really motivates me to
get up on the podium for them."
AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
1. Ben Spies (Yoshimura Suzuki)
2. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki)
3. Aaron Yates (Jordan Suzuki)
4. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
5. Neil Hodgson (Honda)
6. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
7. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
8. Jake Holden (Jordan Suzuki)
9. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)
10. James Ellison (Honda)
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