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2006 AMA SUPERBIKES

2006 AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP

RACE RESULT:

SUPERBIKES:

RACE 2

• 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
  2. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
  3. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
  4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
  5. Neil Hodgson (Ducati)
  6. Ben Bostrom (Ducati)
  7. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki)
  8. Jacob Holden (Suzuki)
  9. Larry Pegram (Honda)
  10. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki)

RACE 1

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

SUZUKI RACE REPORT

• Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies raced to his first-ever double-header victory at today’s second AMA Superbike Championship race at Barber in Alabama to take the lead in the series after three rounds.
• The GSX-R1000-mounted Texan fended off Miguel Duhamel (Honda) to win by 2.8 seconds as team-mate and reigning champion Mat Mladin crashed out on the fifth lap. Mladin rejoined the race in dead last in 29th position and carved through the field to 14th before the race was red flagged on lap 21 of 28.
• Mladin, starting from the fourth row, quickly caught the leaders and when third Yoshimura rider Aaron Yates and Tommy Hayden fell, he moved into third place and the final rostrum position. Yates remounted to take a well-deserved fourth place ahead of Neil Hodgson (Ducati).
• Said six-time AMA Champion Mladin: "We got lucky with the red flag for sure! To come from the fourth row and put it up here on the box, we’re very, very happy."

HONDA RACE REPORT:

• American Honda's Miguel Duhamel and Jake Zemke each earned a podium spot in the AMA Superbike Championship double-header at Barber Motorsports Park, with Duhamel coming within seconds of winning Sunday's race.
• The results were a clear indication that the work done in the past year by American Honda's R&D department, with help from Honda Racing Corporation in Japan, is paying dividends with the new Honda CBR1000RR.
• "We're miles ahead of where we were last year," Duhamel said after nearly winning Sunday's race, the third round of the AMA Superbike Championship. "The bike is so much better. I'm thanking Honda for giving us such a great chassis this year. The bike is better by itself. But with the guys at Honda here in the U.S R&D still working hard, they're making some great progress. And I've got to thank Honda Japan for assisting. This weekend was a team effort."
• Sunday's race, held in glorious Alabama sunshine, was reduced to an eight lap sprint after a red flag stoppage on the 21st of 28 laps. At the time the race was stopped, Duhamel was in second place, where he'd been since the 11th lap of the race.
• On the re-start he hounded the race leader to the finish, while fending off an attack from Suzuki's Mat Mladin, who tried to make a final corner pass of the veteran Honda rider.
• The final order was Ben Spies (Suzuki), Duhamel, and Mladin. It was Duhamel's second podium in three races.
• American Honda's Jake Zemke high-sided on the fifth lap of the original race while challenging for fourth.
• Zemke's day to shine in the sun was Saturday, when the Californian fought his way to third, one spot in front of teammate Duhamel. It was his first podium of the young season, and he predicted many more to come.
• Duhamel's successful weekend vaulted him to third in the point standings after three of 19 races.
• Miguel Duhamel, 4th Saturday, 2nd Sunday Yesterday (Saturday) was a bit of survival. We had a bit of trouble getting the right set-up on the bike. We picked the wrong tire, I guess, for the bike and we were really sliding a lot from the word go. And a little bit my fault. These new tires from Dunlop are bullet-proof. Sometimes I fall into the old trap of trying to save them. You don't save these tires, you abuse them. I was really, really pleased to get fourth.
• I didn't ride my race bike from yesterday. It was one little ingredient missing. I stood there for three hours and at the last minute said 'Let's take some oil out of the front fork,' and that was the miracle cure. And the bike was really wonderful after that. We went from the last factory bike in this morning's warm-up to finishing second and having a shot at winning. In the first race, until they red-flagged it, I thought I could reel Ben (Spies) in. If he starts relaxing, I'm going to go get him, because my bike was wonderful in that first race. At the end, when I was racing with Mat (Mladin), I know when I went full throttle and he went full throttle, his bike, fortunately it missed a bit. And it went pop, pop, pop. And when it did that I just went by him. And after that it was a heat race all the way to the line.
• Jake Zemke, 3rd Saturday, DNF Sunday: We're definitely making progress from last year, but those two guys were out in front and they were pretty far gone. We still have a ways to go, that's for sure. The boys are working hard at it. Hopefully sooner rather than later we'll be up there challenging these two up at the front. Right when I got up to fourth I was catching Aaron (Yates) just a little bit, but then he definitely picked up the pace. We just kind of evened out for a long time.
• I'm just disappointed about my crash today (Sunday). The guys worked really hard this weekend to give us something competitive. And we felt we had something to do something with this weekend. At least today, it seemed like we were a little bit on pace. I was running about half a second quicker than I was yesterday. Just kind of bummed out. My crash was spectacular. The next to the last corner up there in the right hander right as it tightens up right as you clip the apex of the curb there. Right when I get to that point, the back end just started coming around on its own. Picked up the throttle a little bit and just to keep it from high-siding me but the thing just kept going and going and I tried to stand the bike up a little bit to get some traction, but the thing just kept coming around.

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