(Note, all press release from any given event are run in the order received) From a press release issued by Valvoline EMGO Suzuki: Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki concluded their weekend at Infineon Raceway with an up-and-down raceday. It was expected to be a trying round, with no testing and a lack of data available to help them get to speed at the 2.2-mile circuit as quickly as many rival squads that did test at the track. The team got off to a strong start in the morning’s Superstock final, with Steve Rapp and Vincent Haskovec each claiming top ten finishes. While the team’s strategy of taking advantage of the GSX-R750’s superior tire conservation characteristics was spoiled by a red flag, the team made the best of the situation, altering their Michelin-shod racebikes’ set-ups during the red flag period with positive effect. Rapp took full advantage of the improvements, finishing seventh, right on the tail of the official Suzuki factory entry. “We went out there and did the best we could,” the Californian said afterwards. “We weren’t hoping to see a red flag, but when we did we used the opportunity to get a few things sorted out a bit better. It ended up being a pretty positive race, and it was good to be running with the factory bike.” Vincent Haskovec came home a solid ninth, less than three seconds behind Rapp. In the 17-lap Supersport race, held in 93-degree F heat, Rapp and Canadian Chris Peris finished twelfth and 18th. Peris said, “We were working really hard to get our set-up 100% this weekend, but we were unable to really get it perfect. We made some changes before the race, and kind of went the wrong way, but overall, I feel we’re coming along. I really tried hard and the team did as well. It just didn’t go our way this time.” In the weekend’s final race, the team’s brightest hope for a spot on the podium evaporated in disappointing fashion. Haskovec, who qualified third for the Formula Xtreme final, was running in the top three during the race as well, but was forced to retire when his machine suffered a rare mechanical problem. And now a fleet of press releases issued by Proforma: ACREE AND CAYLOR FIND THE LIMIT AT INFINEON RACEWAY Lee Acree tested his fitness again this weekend at Infineon Raceway, finishing well in four events, three on the same day on his Suzuki GSX-R600 and GSX-R1000. Teammate Opie Caylor had his weekend cut short with a crash on Sunday morning that took him out of the day’s final events. Opie Caylor Saturday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 14th Place “I blew the start,” said Opie. “The clutch, we’ve been having some problems with it, it just grabbed really bad, and the bike just wheelied straight up. I think I came around the first lap 21st or 22nd. I just started making up as many places as I could without throwing the thing down the road. Then I jumped on that four bike train with Lee (Acree), (Shawn) Higbee, Ken Hill and (Clint) McBain, it took me a while to get to them. I ended up having a good five or six lap race with Lee, had a good time doing it. It was a really fun race, Sears Point has done a great job with the upgrades, I’m sure there’s a bit more, but the pavement’s great.” Sunday Opie was unable to compete after a crash in Sunday morning’s Superbike warmup practice session. Caylor suffered a concussion in the fall, and elected not to ride in the Repsol Superstock or Chevrolet Superbike events. Lee Acree Saturday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 13th Place “I got, for me, an above average start,” joked Lee. “Because of the way the clutch acts, I’m starting with the revs lower than I normally would. Almost like you pull away from a red light on the street. Initially, I just wanted to see what the pace was going to be. For a while, I wanted to get with Geoff May to see if he could tow me away from (Shawn) Higbee. At the beginning of the race, I was sure Opie was gone, just gone, I couldn’t even see him,” said Lee, who was eventually reeled in by his teammate. “Because for the first three laps I was about ten bike lengths behind Josh (Hayes). After Higbee broke, I thought I was by myself. Then I went into a corner, and I could tell somebody was there, that sort of harmonic sound you get when two bikes are together.” Sunday’s Repsol Superstock Final – 15th Place “In the end, I kinda outsmarted myself,” said Acree. “On the second start, everyone was a little haywire in (turn) two, it took a few laps to get sorted out. Shawn came by and I got back around him. Eric (Wood) got just barely wide in four, a couple of inches was better than no inches, so I took the spot. At the end, when Shawn got around me, I defended the line going in, I got a bad drive out and he beat me to the line.” Acree is now 12th in Repsol Superstock points. Sunday’s Pro Honda Oils Supersport Final – 13th place “The Supersport race was harder than the Superstock race!,” said Acree, who had qualified in ninth place. “It started out pretty good. Tony Meiring was gridded ahead of me and I stayed in contact with him. I made a mistake going into the carousel. I inadvertently got one too many backshifts going in there and I ran really wide, like, thought I was going in the grass wide. Rapp came undernerath me, I hung with him most of the rest of the way. Barney (Michael Barnes) came through, and the last couple of laps I got really tired. I felt good about the way the 600 worked, we’re still progressing with it.” Lee currently lies 10th in Pro Honda Oils Supersport points after three rounds. Sunday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 11th Place “When I went out for the parade lap, I said ‘even the parade lap’s hard!’,” joked Acree, who had qualified 16th for the two Superbike finals. “I got a whole lot better start the second time, after the red flag. I was just trying to rest as much as I could. The red flag ended up helping me. I was able to rest and regain my composure. It’s just a lot of racing in one day, on a track like this.” Acree remains in fifth place in Chevrolet Superbike points after five races. GEOFF MAY MOVES TO FOURTH IN AMA SUPERBIKE POINT STANDINGS AT INFINEON RACEWAY Geoff May continues to impress on his Prieto Racing-sponsored, Pirelli-shod Suzuki GSX-R1000, with two top-ten finishes in the premiere Chevrolet Superbike class and a solid finish in Repsol Superstock after a crash late in the race. His finishes caught the attention of AMA Tech Inspection, who had Geoff tear his engine down after the day’s events, finding only that his stock motor was in need of a re-build. Saturday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 9th Place “I got a halfway decent start, right behind Larry (Pegram),” said Geoff. “I tried to stay with him, but I wasn’t sure I was gonna be able to hang with him and then get him at the end like I did at Fontana. We’ve been so behind the eight-ball, trying to figure out what works for Superbike and what works for Superstock. I have a lack of experience here, last year it rained the whole time we were here. I missed three sessions yesterday, the bike kept blowing a fuse. The bike had a lot of chatter and it kept running wide, it just wore me out. I just did the best I could with it. I looked behind and saw I had a big gap, and just settled into a pace I could run for the rest of the race. Just be smart and get some good points.” With only one bike, Geoff changes between 17″ wheels for Superstock and 16.5″ wheels for Superbike, adjusting the geometry, gearing and even spring rates between wheel sizes. Sunday’s Repsol Superstock Final – 18th Place A crash late in the race set Geoff back, but he re-mounted to finish 18th after running as high as 11th in the ultra-competitive class. “I felt really good for that race,” said May, who had qualified 14th. “I was feeling really good in the first half, then the red flag kinda threw a curve at us. We came in and put a new rear on, but I stayed with the same front, and it was tearing. We went back out I was riding hard. I came up on Alex Gobert, that Honda was just so fast, I couldn’t catch him anywhere. We’d go into the chicane and I would gain on him so much through there. When he flicked back to the left, he just totally backed off, and I was carrying so much speed through there, I hit the inside of his back wheel, I tucked the front and the bike just went spinning off into the dirt. I slid, ran, and jumped back on it. I was facing the wrong way, so I had to let a pack of guys go by before I could get back on. I was a little disappointed in myself for that, because I had a pretty good finish going before that.” Sunday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 9th Place “I was just so worn out from the whole weekend,” said May, who had qualified thirteenth for the final. “I was able to put my head down in the first part of the race and get a bit of a gap, then I got so worn out I could hardly ride the thing. During the red flag, Steve Rapp gave me a Red Bull, and amazingly enough, after about the second lap of the re-start, the thing kicked in and I felt like it was first thing in the morning and I had tons of energy for about fifteen laps. We switched to a different rear tire that was shorter, and it took me about five laps to re-adapt to the bike. I spent the whole race just trying to pick people off and get up front. I had a few issues with the transmission popping out of gear in the last corner. Other than that, it was a hard race, very hard.” With two strong finishes this weekend, privateer Geoff May now finds himself fourth in Chevrolet Superbike points after five rounds. HOOTERS SUZUKI’S JOHN HANER HANGS ON AT INFINEON RACEWAY John Haner rode his Hooters Suzuki GSX-R1000 to solid finishes in what was a long weekend of racing on a motorcycle that was difficult to ride on the physically-demanding Infineon Raceway road course at round three of the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship. Saturday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 15th Place Haner and crew missed on a set-up that would allow John to turn the kind of lap times needed to finish in the top ten, finishing 15th. “We made some progress since yesterday, so we’re looking better for tomorrow,” said Haner after the race. Sunday’s Repsol Superstock Final – 13th Place “We made huge strides the last day or so,” said John. “I was able to run better lap times for longer. It’s gonna take a little time, but I have total confidence in my crew, they’ve been bustin’ their butts for me.” John is currently ninth in Repsol Superstock points after three rounds of the championship. Sunday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 16th Place “My hands hurt so bad, I was losing focus,” said Haner, who struggled with the handling of his GSX-R1000 throughout the weekend. “Things are moving in the right direction, just not as fast as anyone on our team would like. It should be better at Barber.” Haner is currently eighth in Chevrolet Superbike points after five rounds. ESLICK AND HIGBEE FIGHT MECHANICAL GREMLINS AT INFINEON Millennium Technologies Suzuki riders Danny Eslick and Shawn Higbee each had races taken away from them with fluke mechanical problems during round three of the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma this weekend. Both riders made progress on the respective setups of their bikes, giving them confidence going in to the next round at Barber Motorsports Park. Shawn Higbee Saturday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – DNF Shawn’s bike quit unexpectedly on lap 17 while running in 11th place. A broken battery cable was discovered after the race. Sunday’s Repsol Superstock Final – 14th Place “We made improvements to the setup since yesterday, so I was happy with that,” said Higbee, who had qualifed 19th on Saturday afternoon. “I got a pretty bad start and really had to play catch-up through the race. The setup came around late in the race, I was able to get three guys in the last couple of laps.” Shawn is currently tenth in points after three rounds. Sunday’s Chevrolet Superbike Final – 10th Place “The tire started sliding, but unlike Daytona and Fontana where it was so sketchy, here it just took me a couple of laps to figure out that it was more progressive, and I could control the slide,” said Shawn. “It was real predictable. We made a lot of progress on the bike over the weekend. The red flag helped me out, it gave me a break to catch my breath.” Danny Eslick Sunday’s Pro Honda Oils Supersport Final – DNS After qualifying 20th on Saturday, Danny’s bike blew a fork seal on the warmup lap for Sunday’s final, forcing Eslick off the grid for the race. Sunday’s Lockhart Phillips USA Formula Xtreme Final – 9th Place Danny finished ninth in his second Formula Xtreme race of the year. After a strong start, he started to move forward, bringing Jason Pridmore with him. “I was ahead of Jason for a while,” said Danny. “I went into (turn) 11 a little deep and ran wide, he got a better drive. I ended up behind Barney (Michael Barnes) and (Larry) Pegram. The bike was sliding a lot, no grip, I probably lost the front end fifteen times.” Danny is 11th in Formula Xtreme points after running two of three rounds of the series. HEATH SMALL STRUGGLES WITH MECHANICAL WOES AT INFINEON After two days of progress on the setup of both his Supersport and Formula Xtreme-spec Yamaha R6s, HAS/Shogun Racing rider Heath Small suffered problems on both bikes in the final events. The crew suspected electronic shifter mechanisms to be the cause of the problems. In Sunday’s Pro Honda Oils Supersport final, Heath ran as high as 23rd when the intermittent misfire became bad enought that he felt it was safer to pull in than continue. “Our weekend went from good, to bad, to worse,” said Heath. “We went faster this morning on both bikes. About four laps into the Supersport race, I hit the shifter on the curbing. Another lap or two and I noticed that the bike was cutting out. I stayed out a few more laps, but it got really bad, so I pulled in.” In the Lockhart Phillips USA Formula Xtreme final, Heath finished 19th after running in tenth early on. “Same thing in the race,” said Small. “I didn’t hit anything. Third or fourth lap in, it started doing the same thing. It wouldn’t do it everywhere. It was pretty frustrating, but I stayed out there and got points.” Heath is 12th in points after running two of the three rounds so far this year. More, from a press release issued by Snarl Sport Racing Group: Snarl Sport Racing Group/CRS Tires Triumph Daytona 600 Crashes and Still Finishes Event Rider Eric Pinson highsides and carries on to complete his debut AMA Pro race San Francisco—Round 3 of the AMA’s Supersport race weekend at California’s Infineon Raceway began with extensive setup and tuning for Snarl Sport Racing Group’s (www.snarlsport.com) Triumph Daytona 600 to prepare it for new rider Eric Pinson. Pinson is known in local dirt track circles as a wild rider for Bill Bartel, and came to Snarl Sport through California Race Services, the west coast distributor for Pirelli tires. Chassis setup and engine tuning on the Dynojet Model 250 dynamometer was carried out over the first three days of the four-day event, which took place in California’s wine country. During this time, Pinson had to acclimate to riding a Supersport 600 while learning the layout of the highly technical track. Throughout practice, adjustments were made to both the chassis geometry and suspension settings. The chassis continued to show it’s previous responsiveness to change, prompting Pinson to echo teammate Charlie Hewitt’s comment that the bike is, “…easy to just jump on and ride.” “We haven’t had to do any major work on the suspension since we got it back from Aftershocks. The only changes that we’ve done have been to suit the bike to track and rider. The Race Tech valves that Phil (of Aftershocks) gave us along with his setup work have proven really top notch,” said team owner Karl Uribe. When it came time for qualifying, Pinson looked at the team owner and team manager and said, “I’m gonna’ put his thing on the grid…” Both team riders managed to do just that, after each making several stops throughout the session to receive minor suspension adjustments at trackside from Race Tech technicians. Unfortunately, Hewitt was plagued by chatter coming from the rear of his bike, later determined to be from an out-of-round tire. “We’re going to move Charlie over to Pirellis like what Eric is running. We’ve run Pirellis on other bikes in the past, and we’ve yet to run into any problems with them. Besides, it just makes more sense to have both riders on the same brand,” said Erik Rocha, the team manager. “Consistency is key.” Both riders started the race strong, but Pinson was thrown-off when his bike highsided him near the completion of the second lap. “The power (delivery) had been changing throughout those two laps, and then it just kicked-in like a turbo while I was just getting back on the gas,” said Pinson. Hewitt, who was following Pinson at the time, concurred. “Yeah, his bike was doing something funny. I could tell that there was definitely something going on there. I was right behind him when it happened, too, and I really had to work to not hit him!” It was determined post race that the ECU’s adaptive technology was the culprit for the crash by unpredictably changing the fuel and ignition maps while running. But Pinson determinedly picked-up his bike and re-entered the race. “I had to punch the handlebars back into position with my fists! I was like, there’s no way I’m not bringing this thing home across the finish line. I was hurting, but I was mad, too!” Pinson finished the race in 34th position out of a field of 41. Hewitt was forced to retire early when his brakes finally gave up, a problem traced to the master cylinder. Overall, the team was pleased with everyone’s performance, and is looking forward to their next event. More, from a press release issued by American Honda: Chevrolet Superbike Series Round 3: Sears Point, CA, Race 1 May 1, 2004 What a difference a year makes, especially at Infineon Raceway. Last year, Saturday was a wash-literally, as heavy rains washed out the entire day’s schedule. In 2004, sunny skies dawned on a newly altered track layout with new sections of pavement, changes that seemed to agree with the Honda Red Riders as Team Honda’s Miguel Duhamel took second place, Jake Zemke nailed down third and Ben Bostrom finished just off the podium in fourth place aboard his Honda CBR1000RR. Action at the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Round 3 double-header at Sears Point, California, got underway with plenty of lead changes and lots of fast action to follow. Aaron Yates claimed the holeshot but on the second go-round Erion Honda pilot Zemke took over the lead in commanding fashion in Turn 7, and Mat Mladin also quickly passed his teammate Yates. Team Honda ace Ben Bostrom was snapping at Yates’ heels, and Duhamel waited patiently in fifth place as the running order settled down. When Yates ran off the track on lap 4, Ben and Miguel took over third and fourth place, respectively. Lap 6 saw Mladin and Zemke trade the lead back and forth several times, with Mladin finally taking the lead for good. That running order held good for 10 laps before Duhamel finally worked his way around his hard-charging Honda teammate Bostrom. After the race, a visibly disappointed Ben said, “It wasn’t very good out there today. I was having fun out there at first, then I blistered a tire halfway through. After that I just tried to get around the track. “The tires just didn’t last for us. They were identical to everyone else’s tires. We didn’t do any endurance work with them, but other people did. We’re usually not too hard on tires, but we were today.” Although the front-runners now looked set with Zemke trailing Mladin by 3.2 seconds and Duhamel following the leader by about 7.4 seconds, the French-Canadian rider knows all about attacking tenaciously. As Duhamel later explained, “I just put my head down and caught up to Jake. He looked like he was just trying to get home; he wasn’t trying to ride very aggressively.” Indeed, Zemke was also struggling with his tire selection. After the race Jake said, “In practice this morning track temperatures were definitely cooler. They’ve been cool all weekend, so we were on the fence on what to do about tire choice. So we went with what we knew worked in practice, and it worked-for about 10 laps. We knew the softer tire was a good tire and it was one I was comfortable with, so we stuck with that one, hoping that it would come good for us. But it just got overheated and cooked itself. The track is now way more abrasive too, so that also makes the tire heat up.” Now with second place firmly in control, Duhamel continued his charge. He later said, “After I got by Jake I was just trying to get some good laps together and focus on doing my thing and I saw Mat coming back to me. I wanted to see if I could do something, and coming out of the chicane I got a false neutral. I slammed it into second like an amateur and stretched my chain out and then the chain was jumping over the sprocket. For the rest of the race I still tried to do some good laps, but then I thought it would be a shame to throw away this hard-earned second.” Second place is where Duhamel would indeed end the day, which was a big accomplishment in and of itself. “My crew worked so hard; they tore my bike down four times before the race. My race bike was working completely differently than the bike I had this morning.” As Duhamel’s crew chief Al Ludington explained, “Basically, we started with two different setups for the CBR1000RR at Infineon. We had one that steered real well but it had a chatter. Then we had another setup that didn’t have a chatter but wouldn’t steer worth a darn. So we mixed the two settings together. Between the last qualifying session and the race, we changed just about everything: we changed the triple clamp offset, the front and rear ride heights, the rear spring rate and we changed all of the clicker positions. We did leave the wheelbase alone, however,” he said with a laugh. As far as the end-of-day judgment regarding the newly reborn Infineon Raceway was concerned, Jake Zemke summed things up very well. “This new surface actually makes the track a bit tighter because we’re carrying higher speeds now,” he said. “In the past, the roughness of the track limited your speed, but now it’s a lot smoother so you can carry a lot more speed. But the track surface itself ends up being more abrasive. We saw this before at Barber Motor Speedway last year when it was brand new; it was just tearing tires up too. “When we finally arrived at Barber for the race it wasn’t nearly as bad because the track had gotten some races on it and had worn in a little bit. When asphalt’s new like this, it just tears up tires and makes things tougher. So you have more grip but you also have more tire wear at the same time.

“But overall, Infineon is great because the people here at this track really listened to the motorcycle guys. We appreciate the fact that Infineon kept us involved as they were making changes to the race track. They wanted to make this track good for motorcycles and they’ve done a really good job of doing that with the repaving job, by improving runoff areas and just making it safer altogether for us, which is really nice to see. At a lot of the tracks we’ve gone to for many years, the bikes keep progressing, but the tracks don’t. But this is one track that is progressing right with us and it’s nice to see the effort that they’re putting in.” AMA Superbike Overall Results Race 1: 1. Mat Mladin – Suzuki 2. Miguel Duhamel – Honda 3. Jake Zemke – Honda 4. Ben Bostrom – Honda 5. Eric Bostrom – Ducati AMA Superbike Point Standings: 1. Mat Mladin – Suzuki – 150 2. Jake Zemke – Honda – 117 (tie) 2. Miguel Duhamel – Honda – 117(tie) 4. Eric Bostrom – Ducati – 96 5. Geoff May – Suzuki – 86 14. Ben Bostrom – Honda – 53 AMA Chevrolet Superbike Series Round 3: Infineon Raceway, CA, Race 2 May 2, 2004 Ardent fans of AMA road racing who were not present at Infineon Raceway on May 2, 2004 will forever regret their absence. Because on this date, an epic battle was fought, a race that will go down in history as one of the all-time best. Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke first led the race, wielding his CBR1000RR with fierce determination and blazing speed. In short, he looked unstoppable-until a red flag halted the entire field. Upon resumption of action, it was Miguel Duhamel’s turn to take command, as he completed a seemingly impossible charge from behind to overtake Zemke in the second-to-last corner on the last lap-an awesome display of motorcycle racing prowess. And with that win, Duhamel raises his total career wins to 72, which surpasses the all-time AMA road racing tally of victories set by Rich Oliver. As the knot of racers entered turn 1 to begin the 28-lap race, Aaron Yates first grabbed the lead. On the next lap Jake Zemke squeezed his Erion Honda CBR1000RR past Yates, and then proceeded to pull away from everyone else. Riding with a deft and masterful touch, Jake had pulled out a gap of nearly three seconds over Miguel Duhamel, who had relegated Yates to third place on lap 7. Just as Zemke looked to take complete command of the event, the race was red-flagged when a rider went down. The break gave everyone a chance to mount fresh tires, which promised a 20-lap sprint to the checkers. At the second start Duhamel led the way but he was repeatedly challenged by Yates, and then Zemke. Mat Mladin followed behind in fourth place, with Team Honda’s Ben Bostrom rounding out the top five. Jake took over the lead once again on lap 11 with Duhamel following closely, trailing behind about a half-second or less all the way through lap 23. Then Jake caught a break; gliding deftly between lappers, he slipped through traffic and used the rolling roadblocks to gain a 2.5-second lead on lap 25. At that point, everyone thought the race was over. Everyone, that is, except one man: Miguel Duhamel. Duhamel made a small dent in Zemke’s lead, but the gap remained 1.93 seconds on the last lap-a seemingly insurmountable difference. But Duhamel dug deep. “On that last lap I just rode my you-know-what off,” he said. “I just rode as hard as I could. I was sliding, going over curbs and getting headshake but I kept it pinned, doing what you have to do to pull off something like that on the last lap. Jake rode a great race, but I just threw caution to the wind.” With all eyes averted to the duel for third place between teammates Aaron Yates and Mat Mladin, Duhamel suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere, glued on the tail of the #98 Erion Honda as the pair entered the chicane preceding the final short straight leading to the hairpin-shape turn 11. He flashed by Zemke on the inside, passing in the blink of an eye and held on by a scant margin of 0.196 second at the finish line. After the race, Jake said, “I was completely surprised when Miguel came past me. When I came across (the start/finish line at the white flag) I held up a little bit because I had a little over two seconds on him. I had come through traffic and I knew Miguel had to do the same so I really didn’t think he was going to be coming on. So on the last lap I really didn’t expect to see him.” Duhamel concurred, saying, “On the pass, it really didn’t look like he was expecting me. That was wonderful, because it’s a hard track for passing. He didn’t do anything wrong; he held a great pace. I was able to get a 37 out of my bike (a 1:37 lap), so again a lot of the credit goes to my crew. I figured, ‘What the heck, let’s give it a shot and I’ll see if I can surprise him.’ So coming out of that corner he used his usual race line and I got in tight inside of him. I was just real happy to pull that win off.” After the race, Zemke felt hugely disappointed with his runner-up position, but he was also magnanimous enough to give credit where credit was due. “To be honest, I can’t tell you the last time someone came from almost two seconds back in a race in one lap. He definitely caught me by surprise, for sure.” Once again, Duhamel was quick to give credit for his win to his crew, but crew chief Al Ludington said, “We didn’t make many changes from the setup we used Saturday, just a few small changes. We brought the front end up to try and get it to turn a little better, and we went to a harder tire this morning for a little better durability. It all seemed to work out okay.” To top off his masterful ride, Duhamel exhorted the enthusiastic Infineon crowd to look at the larger picture in life by reminding everyone, “The freedom that we have here is not free. Guys are out there fighting in the desert in Iraq, and I want to dedicate this win to those guys because they’re working a lot harder than we are.” AMA Superbike Overall Results: 1. Miguel Duhamel – Honda 2. Jake Zemke – Honda 3. Aaron Yates – Suzuki 4. Mat Mladin – Suzuki 5. Ben Bostrom – Honda AMA Superbike Point Standings: 1. Mat Mladin – Suzuki – 177 2. Miguel Duhamel – Honda – 153 3. Jake Zemke – Honda – 150 4. Geoff May – Suzuki – 108 5. Lee Acree – Suzuki – 105 9. Ben Bostrom – Honda – 79 AMA Lockhart Phillips Formula Xtreme Race Round 3: Infineon Raceway, CA May 2, 2004 Heat, dehydration and fatigue may deter mere mortals, but they pose little obstacle to the Honda Red Riders. With the Formula Xtreme race kicking off immediately after the draining second Superbike contest held Sunday afternoon at Infineon Raceway, it would seem only natural for Miguel Duhamel and Jake Zemke to show signs of fatigue. Instead, the two CBR600RR pilots staged yet another epic battle on the twisty and hilly circuit, with Duhamel completing the second dramatic come-from-behind victory of the day over Zemke. Meanwhile, Jake’s Erion Honda teammate Alex Gobert joined the pair on the podium with a strong third-place finish. Having just surrendered what appeared to be the first Superbike victory of his career, Erion’s Jake Zemke was in no mood to linger when the track went green for the Formula Xtreme race. Zemke immediately seized the holeshot, then quickly distanced himself from everyone, including Duhamel, who held the runner-up position. Within three laps Zemke had built a three-second lead, and he stretched that advantage to almost six seconds by lap 10 in the 17-lap event. As Jake explained after the race, “Straight from the get-go my bike was working well and the tires were working well. After that Superbike race there was no way I wasn’t going to ride 100 percent the whole race. Unfortunately, my tire just couldn’t hold up to what I was doing to it. In hindsight, I probably chose the wrong tire, but that’s just part of racing and part of winning.”