Suzuki: GSX-R Hunting Podiums at VIR

AMA Pro Racing

Suzuki motorcycles were on track at VIR in Alton, Va., this weekend hunting for podium spots at Round 8 of the AMA Pro Road Racing series.

Suzukis made it to top spots in both the highly competitive Daytona SportBike class and the American SuperBike class.

In Saturday’s race in the Daytona SportBike series, Suzukis diced for the lead in a thrilling race. Martin Cardenas of the M4 Monster Energy Suzuki team and Danny Eslick with his Geico Powersports RMR Suzuki battled for the lead throughout the entire race, with Cory West on his Vesrah GSX-R600 trying to get in on the action. The lead of the race changed multiple times, and West led for a while before making a mistake and going off track.

He was unable to finish the race, but Cardenas kept the throttle of his Suzuki GSX-R600 rolled on to battle for the win in the final seconds of the race. In one of the closest photo finishes in recent AMA road racing history, Cardenas finished second in the race, with Eslick pulling into third to fill the podium. RoadRacingWorld.com’s Santiago Villa took 11th, while Vesrah Suzuki rider Chris Fillmore crossed the finish line in 15th place.

On Sunday, there was another battle to the finish in the Daytona SportBike class. The racing in the series has been extremely exciting, and Danny Eslick was determined to keep his GSX-R600 at the front of the pack. Eslick kept himself in the lead with his late braking into Turn 1 and the power of his Suzuki always at the ready.

With a number of lead changes throughout the race, the competition was tight. Cory West was once again dicing at the front of the pack when he was forced off the track in Turn 1 by another racer. West recovered to finish seventh, but Eslick made his podium power stick with another third-place finish. Martin Cardenas and his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki took fifth for the day, while Villa again took 11th.

Eslick leads the Daytona SportBike by 12 points and Cardenas is in third, but very close to overtaking second. Cory West is fifth overall in the series and his teammate Chris Fillmore is in 10th, making a total of four Suzukis in the top 10 of this tough and talented class.

In the American SuperBike class, Tommy Hayden nabbed his fourth win of the season on Saturday, while Taylor Knapp took fifth with his RidersDiscount.com GSX-R1000. Brett McCormick took sixth place aboard his Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki, and Eric Bostrom and his Cycle World Attack Performance Yoshimura Suzuki took seventh.

Jake Zemke followed on his National Guard Jordan Suzuki in eighth and the M4 Monster Energy Suzuki of Chris Ulrich in ninth.

On Sunday, Hayden finished in third place aboard his Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000, while Bret McCormick followed in fourth with his Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki and RidersDiscount.com’s Knapp finished fifth again, marking his best performances so far of the 2010 season. Ulrich pulled up in seventh place and Zemke finished eighth on Sunday.

Tommy Hayden is currently 11 points behind the leader in the American SuperBike series, while Jake Zemke is in third overall. The class is full of Suzuki GSX-R1000s, and six of the top 10 riders are aboard a Suzuki, including Blake Young in sixth, Chris Ulrich in seventh, Taylor Knapp in eighth, and Brett McCormick in ninth.

In the AMA Pro SuperSport class, Nicholas Hansen took his Vesrah Suzuki GSX-R600 to seventh place on Saturday. Daniel Guevara just missed the top 10 with his RoadRacingWorld.com Suzuki, Elena Myers took her RoadRacingWorld.com Suzuki to 12th place, and National Guard Suzuki’s Corey Alexander took 13th.

After Sunday’s Pro SuperSport battle, Elena Myers broke the top 10 with her ninth-place finish aboard her Suzuki GSX-R600, closely followed by Corey Alexander in 10th.

The next race on the AMA Pro Racing schedule is set for New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J., on Sept. 3-5. Expect to see more Suzukis on top there.

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