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[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 by Betarev3, 26 April 2007 - 09:41 PM.