STRONG FINISHES FOR SUZUKI RIDERS FROM GEORGIA TO CALIFORNIA TO ARGENTINA
April 18, 2015
BREA, CA – There were some notable highpoints for Suzuki riders this past weekend in both AMA/FIM Supercross action at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California and in MotoAmerica Road Racing at the scenic Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, as well as the MotoGP round in Argentina.
Suzuki highlights of this weekend action included:
- An AMA Superbike pole position for Roger Hayden, setting the fastest time on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000.
- Hayden’s teammate Jake Lewis also broke through to score his first career Superbike podiums.
- In MotoGP, Aleix Espargaro impressed the world by qualifying on the front row on the new Suzuki GSX-RR.
- In AMA/FIM Supercross it was Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett scoring his best result in over a month.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett Scores Best Finish in Four Races
In front of 42,336 fans at the inaugural race inside Levi Stadium, home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s Blake Baggett scored a solid sixth-place finish aboard his Suzuki RM-Z450. Baggett mounted an early charge that saw him go from mid-pack to top-five and then ultimately to sixth at the checkered flag.
It was Baggett’s best result since he scored a podium at Daytona in March. It also marked his 11th top-10 finish of the season and kept the number 4 Yoshimura Suzuki rider ranked sixth in the AMA/FIM Supercross Series with just two events remaining on the Supercross calendar.
“I felt good in some sections tonight,” Baggett said after the race. “I just got tight in the Main. I came up on (Justin) Barcia and got behind him and couldn’t really find a good opening to get around him. Then I made a mistake in a rhythm lane and the guys behind me caught me. It was what it was; I’ll just have to go back and work on my racecraft and get ready to do battle next weekend. I’ll be doing some outdoor testing as well and see what we can do next week in New Jersey.”
RCH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy Johns Suzuki Factory Racing’s Broc Tickle finished 12th in Santa Clara and heads to next week’s Supercross event at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, ranked eighth. Three other riders, Nick Schmidt, Dustin Pipes and Ronnie Stewart also made the Main event in the premier class at Levi Stadium. Brandon Scharer put his Suzuki RM-250 in the final of the 250 West event.
Racing continues next weekend at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the first-ever live broadcast of Monster Energy Supercross will take place on FOX at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Fans will get the opportunity to meet and get autographs from both Yoshimura Suzuki riders Blake Baggett and James Stewart, as well as RCH Suzuki riders Ken Roczen, Broc Tickle, Ricky Carmichael, and Carey Hart on Friday, April 25, from 6:00-7:00 pm at Motorcycle Mall located at 655 Washington Avenue, Belleville, N.J. 07109.
Jake Lewis Scores First-Career Superbike Podium at Road Atlanta
Jake Lewis netted a major accomplishment aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki Factory racing GSX-R1000 in the MotoAmerica Road Racing Championship at Road Atlanta. The AMA Superbike rookie earned his first-ever Superbike podium finish during Sunday’s race one with a third place finish. He then turned around and improved on this result in race two, finishing second in the rainy conditions.
“It feels great to get my first podium finishes,” Lewis said. “Even though I’m new to Superbike my goal is to race for podium finishes. I was really happy for me and my crew for being able to get on the podium twice this weekend. There were some very challenging conditions with rain on and off all weekend. I used to be a really good rain rider and I sort of had a challenge getting that feeling back riding a 1000, but this weekend I feel like I got that confidence back in wet conditions. I’m hoping these are the first of more podiums to come this season.”
Lewis left Road Atlanta third in the AMA Superbike standings.
Fellow Yoshimura Suzuki rider Roger Hayden started the weekend off on a high note, scoring his first Superbike pole of the season. Unfortunately for Hayden though, things went south from there. He led both races Sunday before crashing out of each. Hayden was disappointed, but vowed to come back strong in the next MotoAmerica round at Virginia International Raceway next month.
Other notable Suzuki finishers at Road Atlanta included GEICO Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich, scoring a pair of top-five Superbike finishes. Elena Myers was sixth in both Superbike legs on the McGraw Powersports/Team 21 Suzuki. Brad Burns took a 6-7 finish combo in Superstock 1000 aboard a Jimmy Winters Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000.
David Anthony was a leading competitor in MotoAmerica Supersport, taking a 4-5 result in the two races on his M4 Suzuki/Sportbike TrackGear.com GSX-R600. Anthony is now ranked fourth in that championship.
Nick McFadden, on his McFadden Racing Suzuki GSX-R600, finished sixth in both of the opening rounds of the Bazzaz Superstock 600 Series. The Kentuckian heads to VIR next month ranked fifth in the series.
Aleix Espargaro Earns Front-Row Start in GP of Argentina
Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales raced to seventh and 10th positions respectively in the GP of Argentina. In only the third race for Suzuki in the 2015 MotoGP season, both its riders showed how far the team has come at the early stages of the 18-round championship. The paddock was abuzz on Saturday when Espargaro qualified second for the Grand Prix.
“Aleix finished second in qualifying and Maverick entered directly into Q2,” said Team Director Satoru Terada. “These results are in-line with our expectations and we must be proud of them. For this I want to say thank you to the riders, who put a lot of effort in – and to all the team here in Termas de Rio Hondo – as well as our engineers in Japan. These results also confirm that the project course of this bike is good. Of course we need to improve it and make it more competitive but I’m confident about the potential overall.”
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