AMA Infineon
Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki had a mixed Sunday to round out the AMA Pro Road Racing weekend at Infineon Raceway, as the squad picked up two more strong Superbike results but suffered a stinging disappointment in the SportBike final.
Coming off Saturday’s thrilling victory, Martin Cardenas had aspirations of pulling off yet another doubleheader sweep aboard his GSX-R600 at Infineon Raceway, but those hopes were dashed early when the Colombian crashed out of the race on the second lap.
Martin made contact with another rider and ended up in the dirt. Despite his difficult day, Cardenas leaves Infineon Raceway third in the Daytona SportBike title race with 133 points.
Jake Holden and Chris Ulrich put together similar outings compared with Saturday, the two once again claiming the checkered flag while running in seventh and eighth positions, respectively.
Holden, riding in place of the injured John Hopkins, stuck with the front pack during the contest’s early stages again before accepting a relatively lonely seventh.
Ulrich, meanwhile, upped his pace aboard his GSX-R1000 and kept the lead group in sight for an extended period as well before securing his seventh top-ten result of the season.
Ulrich retains his seventh-place ranking in the American Superbike championship standings.
Chris Ulrich says: "Today’s race was similar to yesterday’s but our split was better today. I held onto the lead group a lot longer today. We made some small changes to the front and I went faster today than I qualified."
"It was key to get in a strong first lap and cling onto the lead group and they pulled me into the ’37s and I stayed there as long as I could. I was at my limit and I feel good about my race. It was a big improvement from last year where we could ride at a good pace for half-distance or so where now I’m able to push at the limit for the entire race."
"The bike is getting better every week and so am I. Let’s be honest, we struggled at Atlanta, but we got down to business here and went pretty good. We have Road America coming up and I’m looking forward to going there."
Team M4 Monster Energy Crew Chief Keith Perry remarked, "It seems like in SportBike we’re either going to be on top of the podium or throwing it down, one or the other. Martin is such a competitor and such a hard runner there’s no doubt he’s going to bounce back and be running for the front again at Road America. We’ll just go into the next one and see how it shakes out.
"We had very solid Superbike results today," added Perry. "I know both of them would like to be a couple positions higher than that, but we worked some things out that will allow us to make some progress with the big bikes and we’re looking forward to Elkhart Lake for sure."
Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki will be back in action on June 4-6 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI.
