Zemke Podiums at Laguna Seca

AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series
Round 12: Monterey, California
July 12, 2003

Red Riders experience rough seas in Monterey

With over half of the 28-lap Laguna Seca Raceway Honda Superbike Classic in
the books, it appeared that Erion Racing Honda's Kurtis Roberts was a
shoe-in for at least a runner-up finish in the premier AMA event. Starting
from the second position on the front row, Roberts spent the opening laps
in fifth place challenging Honda's Ben Bostrom. The battle amongst
teammates was classic, and Roberts eventually came out on top of the
all-Honda RC51 scuffle for fourth place. After overtaking Bostrom, Roberts
went on a charge that didn't stop until the young Northern Californian
reached second place. From there he spent several laps trying to minimize
the lead of eventual race winner Mat Mladin, but on lap 24 Roberts was
forced to pit row after his rear tire spun on the rim, causing a severe
vibration.

"The rear tire started spinning on the rim," explained a disappointed
Roberts, who up until that point was bidding for his seventh podium finish
in 12 Superbike rounds. After the tire change Roberts mitigated his damages
by re-entering the racetrack and completing the final few laps to finish
11th. The disappointing result was still good enough for Roberts to
maintain his fourth place standing in the points race.

Roberts wasn't the only Honda rider to have tire difficulties. Bostrom, who
has enjoyed much success at Laguna Seca Raceway in the past, qualified for
the Superbike Final on the second row and admitted to a struggle in finding
his form during practice and qualifying. When it came time to race, Bostrom
finally found his form, but he also found out that his rear tire did not
hold up to the temperature of the extremely warm California racetrack.

"The bike was working great during the race, the best that I had ridden all
weekend," said Bostrom, who maintained fifth place for a majority of the
event. "Unfortunately the tire went bad and it was causing the bike to hop
around a lot. There wasn't much we could do. The positive thing that came
out of it is that we ended up with a good motorcycle. So good that I feel I
could have been up front."

With Roberts out of contention, Bostrom advanced one spot to fourth, where
he eventually finished. Meanwhile, Honda Road Racing's Miguel Duhamel,
himself a past Superbike winner at Laguna Seca, was trying to advance the
#17 RC51 ahead of its sixth place qualifying position.

"I struggled with my set up over the weekend," said Duhamel of his four-day
weekend in Monterey. "We were zigging when we should have been zagging, but
I take responsibility for that since I'm the guy that tells the crew what I
want and they just try to give it to me. Unfortunately we couldn't find the
set-up we needed.

"We were up there for a few laps with Kurtis and Ben," continued Duhamel,
"but then it just got too dangerous to keep that pace with my set-up. I
brought it home in sixth, got us some points and I'm looking forward to
improving on that throughout the rest of the season."

There's no doubt that Duhamel, Roberts and Bostrom will all improve their
results when the Red Riders head to Lexington, Ohio on July 25-27 for round
13 of the AMA/Chevy Trucks Superbike Series.

AMA Superbike Overall Results:
1. Mat Mladin - Suzuki
2. Aaron Yates - Suzuki
3. Eric Bostrom - Kawasaki
4. Ben Bostrom - Honda
5. Jason Pridmore - Suzuki
6. Miguel Duhamel - Honda
11. Kurtis Roberts - Honda

AMA Superbike Point Standings:
1. Mat Mladin - Suzuki - 356
2. Eric Bostrom - Kawasaki - 350
3. Aaron Yates - Suzuki - 345
4. Kurtis Roberts - Honda - 321
5. Ben Bostrom - Honda - 320
6. Miguel Duhamel - Honda - 303




AMA/Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport Series
Round 8: Monterey, California
July 12, 2003

Zemke red hot at Laguna Seca

The Honda Superbike Classic dawned with a sea of Red Riders entered in the
eighth round of the AMA/Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport Series at Laguna
Seca Raceway. In addition to the Honda CBR600RR-mounted series regulars
such as Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke, Roger Hayden, Alex Gobert and Marty
Craggill, full-time Superbike racers Ben Bostrom and Kurtis Roberts stacked
the Supersport class in support of the Honda-sponsored race weekend.
Regardless of their presence, it was Zemke, not only a Supersport regular
but also a class favorite, who headed the Red Rider effort. The 27-year old
from nearby Paso Robles, California finished the 17-lap race in second
place.

Zemke qualified for Friday's Supersport race in the third position on the
front row and his stellar spot on the grid, no doubt aided his first-turn
holeshot to Laguna Seca's famed Andretti Hairpin; both times. Before the
42-man field could complete a lap around the 2.238-mile circuit, a down
rider forced a red flag and the event was restarted. The restart was no
problem for Zemke, who again pulled ahead of the pack, but not every Red
Rider was able to duplicate the results of their original start.

Bruce Transportation Honda's Marty Craggill jumped the restart and was
assigned a stop- and-go penalty, which prevented him from finishing better
than 17th. Duhamel did the opposite of Craggill, not reacting quick enough
to the restart.

"I really messed up the second start and then I got pinched out on the top
of the hill (going into turn one)," said Duhamel, who qualified seventh and
started well within the top ten before the restart.  "I was 15th on the
first lap."

Duhamel, a three-time winner of the Supersport class at Laguna Seca since
1995, weaved his way through traffic to a seventh place finish behind
teammate Bostrom. Bostrom too had to deal with the extra effort of
advancing around traffic when the 29-year old failed to qualify better than
eleventh. Combined with a tenth place start and the fact that he hasn't
raced a CBR600RR since the series kick-off in Daytona, Bostrom got caught
behind a train of slower riders, forcing some scary moments at times.

"I ran off the track trying to pass them," said Bostrom of his brief moment
in the dirt.
"Then I had to come back by all the guys that passed me. At that point it
was too late to make anything happen."

The youngest member of Erion Racing, 19-year old Gobert was slowed in the
same group of riders as Bostrom. Once he was clear of the group, Gobert
raced to a tenth place finish, which boosted Gobert to third place in the
series points standings.

Ahead of Bostrom and Gobert, Erion Honda's Zemke, Roberts and Hayden were
making things happen. Zemke unfortunately lost his lead, but was defending
second place valiantly. Meanwhile, Hayden silently lurked behind the lines
waiting to pounce. As it turns out he capitalized from many of his
competitors misfortunes, including one from his teammate Roberts. Roberts
used the restart to get an eighth place start and then used the first four
laps of the race to move to fifth place. Unfortunately Roberts' charge
would go no further than lap five.

"I leaned my bike over so far that I bounced the engine case on the
ground," said Roberts. "That lifted the bike off the ground and that's
never good."

Luckily Roberts survived the ugly crash unscathed and headed back to the
paddock to prepare for Saturday's Superbike Final. Hayden hung in for the
long haul and finished fifth, his best result since placing runner-up at a
rain-soaked Road America circuit in early June.

The nail-biting race for second place came down to the final lap. Zemke,
Damon Buckmaster and Ben Spies headed out on the 17th lap in a tight enough
formation to throw a blanket over the trio. After completing the 11-turn
Laguna Seca circuit and crossing the uphill sloped finish line Zemke and
Spies put some breathing room on Buckmaster, but not between themselves.
Zemke's CBR600RR won the drag race for second place by 0.416-seconds. The
result marked Zemke's best Supersport finish in the series thus far, which
has been full of ups and downs for the approachable racer.

As the series heads east to Lexington, Ohio's Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on
July 25-27, Zemke hopes to improve his round eight results by one step up
on the podium, and he hopes to take a sea of Red Riders with him.

AMA 600 Supersport Overall Results:
1. Jamie Hacking - Yamaha
2. Jake Zemke - Honda
3. Ben Spies - Suzuki
4. Damon Buckmaster - Yamaha
5. Roger Hayden - Honda
6. Ben Bostrom - Honda
7. Miguel Duhamel - Honda
10. Alex Gobert - Honda
13. Lance Isaacs - Honda
15. Chris Peris - Honda
16. Jason Curtis - Honda
17. Marty Craggill - Honda

AMA 600 Supersport Points Standings:
1. Jamie Hacking - Yamaha - 252
2. Damon Buckmaster - Yamaha - 226
3. Alex Gobert - Honda - 178
4. Ben Spies - Suzuki - 175
5. (Tie) Roger Hayden - Honda/Tony Meiring - Kawasaki - 165
8. Jake Zemke - Honda - 161
11. Miguel Duhamel - Honda - 129
13. Jason Curtis - Honda - 124
14. Doug Chandler - Honda - 110
15. Chris Peris - Honda - 75
16. Marty Craggill - Honda - 68



AMA/Chevy Trucks Formula Xtreme Series
Round 9: Monterey, California
July 13, 2003

Hayden just misses Formula Xtreme podium

Nestled within a hidden alcove in the oak-studded rolling hills of the
Monterey Peninsula, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca basks in a storybook kind of
setting immortalized by author John Steinbeck. However, like many things
beautiful, Laguna Seca holds hazards and challenges aplenty beneath a
skin-deep veneer. Undulating through the California countryside, the tight
and technical track proved to be the undoing of many riders in the AMA
Formula Xtreme race, as Erion Honda's Roger Hayden battled to fourth, just
off the podium, and Jake Zemke netted a seventh-place finish.

At the start, Ben Spies garnered the holeshot, with a thick knot of riders
pressing right behind. As the running order sorted out, Zemke and Bruce
Transportation Racing's Marty Craggill found themselves in sixth and
seventh place respectively, with Hayden close behind in tenth. Zemke began
a ferocious charge to the front of the pack, taking over second place in
convincing style on lap two. By the close of the next lap, Craggill took
charge of fourth place, with Hayden trailing right behind in sixth.

But just as the three-man Honda brigade seemed poised to solidify their
gains, things came unraveled. As Craggill pitched left and downhill into
Laguna's breathtakingly spectacular and justly notorious Corkscrew, a
trailing rider centerpunched Marty's rear wheel from behind, sending both
riders tumbling to the tarmac. "I have no idea what that guy was doing,"
Marty said later as he was having ice packs taped to his banged-up left
wrist. "He didn't offer any explanations or apologies."

Double trouble struck the Red Riders on the same lap when AMA officials
flagged Zemke for a stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start. The enforced
delay relegated the number 98 bike to seventh place, which Zemke maintained
all the way to the checkered flag.

The quick attrition left Hayden as the sole Honda front-runner, and he was
engaged in a three-man battle for fourth place. The right to lead this
group see-sawed back and forth a few times before Roger took over fourth
place for keeps on lap 13 of the 17-lap race. "I felt pretty good towards
the end of the race," young Hayden recounted after the race. "I felt like I
was getting faster during those last three laps. We got into some lapped
traffic, and with one guy, Josh Hayes went inside and I went wide, which
turned out to be the better way around the lapper. Then I used some more
lappers to pull out a little gap, and it all worked out pretty good, at
least good enough to give me a fourth-place finish."

"I've been working on smoothing out my riding style, and it's been paying
off pretty well. This is a good result, and now I want to build on my
momentum and get on the podium at the next race."

AMA Formula Xtreme Overall Results:
1. Ben Spies - Suzuki
2. Adam Fergusson - Suzuki
3. Jason Pridmore - Suzuki
4. Roger Hayden - Honda
5.  Josh Hayes - Suzuki
7. Jake Zemke - Honda
10. Mark Ledesma - Honda
20. Alex McElyea - Honda


AMA Formula Xtreme Point Standings:
1. Ben Spies - Suzuki - 212
2. Damon Buckmaster - Yamaha - 205
3. Josh Hayes - Suzuki - 189
4. (Tie) Jake Zemke - Honda/Adam Fergusson - Suzuki - 185
7. Marty Craggill - Honda - 144
9. Roger Hayden - Honda - 135
12. Jason Curtis - Honda - 75
15. Ty Howard - Honda - 61
16. Craig Connell - Honda - 55