Yates wins Superstock opener

By John Hopkins

DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Aaron Yates rode his Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 to victory in the opening round of the AMA Superstock Series at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday.

The Milledgeville, GA rider took the lead on lap 9 of the 13-lap race and held off the M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R1000 of Blake Young by 0.112 secs. for the win.

Yates' teammate Geoff May placed third on another GSX-R1000.

"From the start I knew it was going to be really tough," Yates said. "Blake's bike was really strong coming out of the first horseshoe driving through the infield. He started gapping me. I was thinking it was going to be a real long race."

Starting from the outside of the front row Young grabbed the lead off the start and stayed in front for the opening six laps. May then took over for a couple of laps before Yates, who had qualified on the pole, finally got in front.

"Around the seventh or eighth lap, Geoff had gotten out in front and had a little distance on me," Yates said. "We had a real good run in the chicane, and managed to get by with some speed. I was thinking if I could get by before turn 1, maybe I could get a good enough draft to where guys couldn't draft me."

Chris Ulrich came back from a run off the track in turn 1 on lap 2 that dropped him to 11th to claim fourth at the finish on his M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R1000. He just held off the Team ESP/Dunlop/Ohlins/GPR Suzuki of Calgary's Chris Peris and the Celtic Racing Gixxer ridden by Michael Barnes.

Peris started the race fifth and was part of a five-rider lead group in the early laps before he also ran wide in turn 1 on lap 4, slipping to sixth and losing touch with the leaders.

"I just got in a little hot, the front started chattering and I figured it was better to run it in too wide and come back than try to save it," Peris explained.

Ulrich edged Peris for fourth in the run to the line, sticking low on the track while Peris went up high.