Ama Superbike Championship, Barber

[Andy]

Results AMA Barber Motorsports Park

Climate: Sunny

Temperature: 24 degrees

Crowd: 30,000

Double Superbike Podium for Duhamel

American Honda's Miguel Duhamel scored a pair of podiums in the

second round of the AMA Superbike Championship at the picturesque

Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama.

Duhamel finished third twice on the undulating bends of the track

which is the most scenic on the American calendar and one of the most

challenging. With long, looping bends and near constant elevation

changes, the track puts a premium on handling and agility.

Starting from the second row in the first race, Duhamel quickly

joined the battle for third. He lost the position briefly, then took

it back with a crafty move over fellow veteran Aaron Yates (Suzuki)

on the penultimate lap.

Though happy to be on the box, the competitive French-Canadian wanted

to be closer to the front, which he was on Sunday. Duhamel battled

almost to the end for the second position and took 16 seconds out of

his deficit to the winner while finishing third.

He stands third in the AMA Superbike Championship after three of 18 rounds.

Teammate Jake Zemke had a less successful weekend. Tire problems in

both races blunted his early race aggression. Front tire problems

dropped him to sixth on Saturday. The solution for Sunday's race

fixed the front, but there were other problems with the rear.

Suzuki's Mat Mladin won both races, with teammate Ben Spies again second.

Miguel Duhamel, 3rd Place, 3rd Place

Saturday

We came through the field a bit, got through those guys, and I put my

head down. All I could do was run for third, but then Aaron (Yates)

came back by me. We ran a good pace for us in the 1:25's and 1:26's.

There were a few places where I thought I might

pass him, but it might be pretty tight. I said, 'I'm just going to

take the opportunity when it presents itself.' I thought if I could

get him-we were pretty evenly matched-it would be hard for him to get

back by me. It worked out.

Sunday

We got third, but 26 seconds behind yesterday and today, until about

eight laps to go before I decided, OK, just couldn't hang with them

any more, I was like three seconds or whatever it was to Mat

(Mladin), because I was with Ben (Spies). So yeah, that was real

good. Learned a lot. We need to do some modifications to the bike, a

little different set-up. When the tires get hot, when you're running

a harder pace, the bike starts doing little things that we need to be

online. But we did improve a lot. Like I called it yesterday; we're

going to get better today and we did, so we got a good start. The

goal is to win and I think we're on the right track.

Jake Zemke, 6th Place, 10th Place

Saturday

We made some changes in the morning and the thing was quite a bit

better, but we had a couple problem areas with the front end. We only

had about six laps on the set-up we qualified on. I basically just

used up the front tire. The issues we're fighting with the front wore

out the tire. Those last five laps, I think I lost a second a lap

those last five laps. We changed a lot of the geometry this morning

because we were having problems with the bike backing in going into

the corner. We actually changed the thing quite drastically in the

morning to alleviate those problems. We got one problem fixed with it

backing in, but we didn't have time to get it to go around the corner

the way I needed it to.

Sunday

In the race I just didn't seem to have the same grip levels I had

this morning. The rear, I just couldn't get off the corners. Then all

of a sudden on the right side, every time I'd lean the thing into the

corner I'd lose the rear. I almost crashed the thing about ten times

in two laps. And I said, alright, I better slow down. I stood up to

take a look to make sure all the parts and pieces were there and

there was nothing on the tire. I just basically circulated and

brought home some points. Actually the bike wasn't that bad. When I

was in that group of guys I was just kind of sitting there waiting

for themselves to wear themselves out because they were dicing pretty

good. And I figured I'll sit back here until they go back into single

file and then work my way through them. About that time I started

having no grip.

Superbike Race One:

1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)

2. Ben Spies (Suzuki)

3. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)

4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)

5. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)

6. Jake Zemke (Honda)

7. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)

8. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)

9. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)

10. James Ellison (Honda)

Superbike Race Two:

1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)

2. Ben Spies (Suzuki)

3. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)

4. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)

5. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)

6. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)

7. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)

8. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)

9. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)

10. Jake Zemke (Honda)

Championship Standings:

1. Ben Spies (103)

2. Mat Mladin (95)

3. Miguel Duhamel (90)

4. Tommy Hayden (76)

5. Jake Zemke (75)

6. Aaron Yates (73)

7. Jason DiSalvo (71)

8. James Ellison (63)

9. Eric Bostrom (58)

10. Jamie Hacking (47)

[bob abell]

Canadian Superbike champ (and fellow trials rider) Jordan Szoke finishing 14th both days on his Kawasaki ZX10R at Barber.

[the addict]

Good old Miguel hes about 67 now but still claims hes in his mid thirties? Be great to see Mladin and him in WSB getting there arses kicked but the big US money keeps them over there. Isnt it about time Ellison packed it up? Be great to see young Ben in World supersport soon dragging his elbows and shoulders round the tracks, hope he gets his chance

Edited April 26, 2007 by Betarev3