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[Andy]

American Honda teammates Miguel Duhamel and Jake
Zemke dominated the podium in the opening round
of the AMA Superbike Championship with second and
third place finishes at Daytona International Speedway.

“It was the best start we’ve had in several
years,” team manager Ron Heben said, adding that
he expects the team to be more competitive after
a winter’s development on the Honda CBR1000RR.
“We’ve learned an enormous amount about our
motorcycle, the electronics and such. Dunlop’s
got some great new tires right now. We’re putting
the whole package together. The fans are going to
like it. I think it’s going to be a great season.”

The first of 11 rounds on the American calendar
was plagued by attrition. Warm Florida sunshine,
combined with the stress of the 31 degree
banking, wreaked havoc on tires, specifically
fronts. Six-time champion Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
lost a piece of his front tire and crashed. The
Australian re-mounted and was running in eighth
on the final lap when he had to slow drastically,
allowing two riders to pass. Eric Bostrom
(Yamaha) was forced into the pits to change a
failed front tire. And a number of front-runners
crashed, many in front of Zemke.

“I saw every incident,” Zemke said with a laugh.
There was a two rider crash on lap one and
another crash in the first turn on the fifth lap.
Zemke was behind Mladin when he fell. “It was a
bit greasy out there today. It seemed like there
was a bit less grip than there's been all week. I
don't know if it was from the fog overnight or
what, but it definitely didn't seem like we - I
didn't have grip all week, but it seemed like
nobody else had grip during that race.”

Duhamel was in the top three on the second lap
and moved into second on lap seven of 15. From
there he continued to give chase to the race
leader, Suzuki’s Ben Spies, but wasn’t able to
close the gap. Spies, the defending series champion, won by 3.022 seconds.

Zemke didn’t start as quickly. Having qualified
in 11th place, it took the Californian a few laps
to join the leaders. It was on the 12th of 15
laps that he passed Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom for third, where he’d finish.

Miguel Duhamel, 2nd Place “I just wanted to get a
really good start, and just be up there. I didn't
want to let these guys go. I was a little worried
when I saw Eric (Bostrom) started pulling away
quite a bit. Then Mat (Mladin) and Ben (Spies)
was there, and I'm like, "Man, these guys aren't
too worried about this, are they?" But then we
reeled him in back pretty quick. It was good
racing up there, for sure. I think I had the
pace, and I was trying to do the best I can. It's
just great to be up there. Obviously we're here
to win, and we came up one short of it, but I'm
really proud of the team. It just shows how hard
these guys have been working and sweating. Big
thanks to them. It was definitely a team effort.
And I think we will get faster. This is just one
of the ways that we evolve the bike, with the
Öhlins suspension, and all the work that we're
putting together. So I'm excited. We're not going
to slower from here. We're going to be going
faster. So I'm very pleased about that.”

Jake Zemke, 3rd Place” We just couldn't ever go
any quicker throughout the race, in practice or
anything. Even with softer tires in qualifying,
the speeds were the same. I just was at a wall in
my lap times, it seemed like, and we couldn't get
any better. But the race is always different than
qualifying, that's what's great. I'd be a much
better racer than a qualifier any day of the
week, and that's the way it worked out. Luckily,
a lot of guys made it a lot easier for us. It
felt like we had a pretty decent pace in the
beginning of the race. After the first wreck, I
got kind of blocked up, and these guys were
trying to split up front. I was slowly making
some ground on them, and I was just getting up to
Rog (Hayden), and then he highsided right in
front of me for the second year in a row, and I
had to kind of hold up and wait for him, because
where he highsided at, coming out of Turn One, he
was sliding straight down the middle of the
racetrack and I had nowhere to go. So I had to
wait for him to slide out of the way first. Once
he did, these guys and Eric (Bostrom) were
already gone. And it's funny. I didn't even know
I was in third place until I saw Eric coming out
of the pits. I was like, "I think Eric was in
front of me. Hmmm. That's interesting." And I
looked up and I just saw those two guys in front
of me, and I'm like, "Wow, I'm in third place.
This is a nice little gift everybody gave me today.”

Ron Heben, Team Manager “ Miguel last year got us
a third on the box and through the course of the
week and practice we thought we were moving
forward and getting closer to the front. And
obviously in qualifying, we didn’t qualify where
we wanted to. We made some more changes. Guys
were comfortable with the bike in the this
morning’s practice. Same thing, the guys got to
put themselves in the front of the pack and get
in there and mix it up with those guys. For
Miguel, we’re really, really pleased. Jake didn’t
have his best day but he was in the right place
at the right time. We’re really happy moving into
the second round in second and third. “

Superbike:
1. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
2. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
3. Jake Zemke (Honda)
4. Akira Yanagawa (Kawasaki)
5. Geoff May (Suzuki)
6. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
7. Jake Holden (Suzuki)
8. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
9. James Ellison (Honda)
10. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)

Championship Standings:
1. Ben Spies (38)
2. Miguel Duhamel (32)
3. Jake Zemke (29)
4. Akira Yanagawa (27)
5. Geoff May (26)
6. Jason Disalvo (25)
7. Jake Holden (24)
8. Tommy Hayden (23)
9. James Ellison (22)
10. Mat Mladin (21)