SBK
AMA Barber Motorsports Park: Double Superbike Podium for Duhamel
23 aprile 2007 
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) |
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