Zemke sets win record

From AMA Superbike.com

Erion Honda's Jake Zemke became the all-time wins leader in the Formula Xtreme class on Friday at Miller Motorsports Park, racking up his 16th career class win by storming to a fourth straight FX victory.

Zemke entered the weekend tied for the lead with Eric Bostrom, but stepped up all alone in first in somewhat atypical fashion; he pulled free early and held a clear lead throughout the contest, while so many of his earlier wins were dogfights right to the checkered flag, whether it was matched up against Miguel Duhamel or his current teammate, Josh Hayes.

Hayes made it a bit easier on Zemke Friday, falling back to around 10th from pole at the green light, before charging into sixth in the opening corner and pushing up to second at the end of the first lap.

Attack Kawasaki's Steve Rapp also suffered from a poor start and followed Hayes up through the hectic opening lap that saw Rapp's teammate, Chaz Davies, highside out of contention, and Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Michael Barnes fall as well before re-entering the fray.

After finally breaking free of Rapp's challenge, Hayes kept Zemke honest by pushing hard from second but he could never fully make up the early gap he surrendered.

Afterwards, Zemke said, "I got a good start and saw that Josh came off the line good but it looked like he might have bogged it a little bit. Larry (Pegram) raced me pretty good down into turn 1 and I had to go around the outside of him there. From there it was pretty much clear sailing.

"I was setting a decent pace there at the beginning and I opened up a second and it just kind of stayed there at a second. I kept going quicker and it kept staying at a second. I could see Josh's pitboard too and I saw when he got up into second. I saw when he made a little push there and got it down to about eight tenths so I put my head down the last couple laps and ran my fastest laps of the race there I think on the last two laps."

Defending class champion Hayes explained, "My race wasn't too bad... My start was pretty miserable. I was pretty far back there for a while. I kind of bonsai'ed it down into turn 1 on the outside and went a little wide but I was able to eliminate a couple people I'd have to race through pretty early. Cory West, and Chaz and Larry... it was typically first lap 600 racing. People were all over the racetrack. Unfortunately, Chaz, he was trying to be real aggressive on the first lap and make sure he didn't let Jake get away and he made a small mistake and ended up on the ground. I think he would have added to the race and made it fun for sure."

Rapp took third, while Leo Vince Foremost Insurance Ducati's Pegram just held onto fourth, narrowly edging Rockwall Honda's Aaron Gobert to the line. Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Cory West took sixth in his second ride in replacement of the injured Martin Cardenas.

Following five of 11 rounds, Zemke leads the points chase 169 to Rapp's 143. Pegram is third at 138 following by double champ Hayes at 122.