SBK
Zemke Clinches Third in AMA Superbike Championship
18 settembre 2007 Starting from the front row, Zemke got away with the lead Suzukis of Mat Mladin and Ben Spies, the teammates who were racing for the championship. Zemke kept the pair in sight for the first 10 of 28 laps before slightly slipping back. Still, he was comfortably in third until the 26th of 28 laps when he was passed by Aaron Yates (Suzuki). But Zemke wasn’t conceding the position. The Californian fought back in traffic, but Yates was just slightly quicker at the end, and also in the signature Corkscrew turn, and bested Zemke by little more than half a second. But the fourth place finish gave Zemke the points he needed to finish third in the championship. Spies defended his championship title by beating Mladin. The difference after 19 races was a single point. Now the American Honda team has a short break before preparing for the 2008 season. Testing begins in October with Miguel Duhamel, who was injured over a month ago and missed this race, and former World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson, who joins the team in ’08. Jake Zemke, 4th Place We kept them (Spies & Mladin) in sight for ten laps at least. You know, I was actually surprised. I thought their pace was going to be a bit quicker in the beginning like they normally do. It didn’t seem like they were going flat out from the beginning. It seemed like they were playing cat and mouse with each other and just kind of hanging out to see who was going to do what, I think. While I was chasing them, I was really happy with my bike. The crew did a great job. I think that’s probably where we would have been or should have been back in July (at the USGP) when we were here. Aaron (Yates) just seemed to have a couple tenths a lap on me. I could see him coming, see him coming. Then he made a mistake. Then we got into lappers and he caught back up pretty quickly. There, the last three, four laps, when he got by me, we got into a couple of lappers and I just kind of got out of rhythm and I ran a couple slow laps there in a row and the last lap I picked it back up, but it was too late. He was going good. He did a good job, but my guys did a great job this weekend. We had a good bike all weekend. Team Manager Ron Heben Jake (Zemke) rode really rode well this weekend, from the beginning of the weekend. Started out in practice and got up there with some really good competitive times and qualified on the front row, which is a real plus. Makes his life a lot easier for him out there on the race track. Got a good start. Raced with Mat (Mladin) and Ben (Spies) for a while and little at the end had a couple little hiccups, but overall not a bad way to end the season. For Jake, he ended up finishing third in the championship. That’s not what we started out to do, but it’s also better than some of the other riders and programs out there. We’ll learn from what happened this year and start regrouping and get ready for ’08. Superbike: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 4. Jake Zemke (Honda) 5. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 6. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 7. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 8. James Ellison (Honda) 9. Jake Holden (Suzuki) 10. Matt Lynn (MV) Final Point Standings: 1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 652 2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 651 3. Jake Zemke (Honda) 468 4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 465 5. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 454 6. Jamie hacking (Kawasaki) 403 7. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha) 362 8. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 360 9. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 359 10. Roger Hayden (Kawasaki) 344 |
|
Print version
Send to a friend
Write your comment » Related headlines
Commenti dei lettori| Attenzione: si prega di non utilizzare un linguaggio offensivo, eventuali commenti volgari o offensivi saranno rimossi, così come link non giustificati. I commenti sono inseriti dai lettori, che se ne assumono la responsabilità |
|
Non sei registrato? Registrati, è gratis! |
|
|
Commento |
|
Ultime news:
