Superbike series heads to California

From AMA Pro Racing

FONTANA, CA - Round 2 of the 2009 AMA Pro Road Racing Series will be held at Auto Club Speedway this weekend, where the Suzuki AMA Pro Superbike Challenge will feature five races in a full weekend of AMA Pro motorcycle road racing action on the 2.36-mile Fontana speedway road course.

AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike and AMA Pro Daytona SportBike will co-headline the weekend card, with each division running dual Saturday and Sunday races for the first time this season. The weekend also features the emerging 16 to 21-year-old riders of the AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei division.

The 2009 AMA Pro Road Racing season began two weeks ago with the Daytona 200 by Honda weekend at Daytona International Speedway where Ben Bostrom scored his first career win in the legendary Daytona 200 by Honda AMA Pro Daytona SportBike race under the lights on Friday, March 6, while Mat Mladin won the AMA Pro American Superbike opener a day earlier.

Bostrom will shift his focus to AMA Pro American Superbike competition this weekend and for the rest of the season, but several of the other top finishers from the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike opener are among the 47 riders entered for Fontana. The list includes Bostrom's Yamaha teammate and second-place Daytona 200 runner-up Josh Herrin (No. 8 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) and third-place finisher Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600).

Other riders to watch based on their strong Daytona 200 results include Jamie Hacking (No. 88 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) and Shawn Higbee (No. 11 Higbee-Racing.com Buell 1125R) who rounded out the top-five in the opener.

Race one for AMA Pro Daytona SportBike will close Saturday's schedule at 4 p.m. local time with the weekend's second race for the division getting the green flag at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races are 21 laps for 50 miles.

The AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class is just one part of AMA Pro Road Racing's premier class competition at Auto Club Speedway. Sharing the spotlight is the AMA Pro American Superbike class which is home to some of the top riders in the sport.

Bostrom (No. 2 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1) joins teammate Josh Hayes (No. 4 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1) in leading Yamaha's effort against several potent Suzuki, Honda, Ducati and Buell teams. Bostrom finished sixth in the Daytona American Superbike opener while Hayes crossed the finish line in eighth place.

Daytona winner Mladin and his No. 7 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX- R1000 are just one of several fast Suzuki entries. The Yoshimura team placed each of its three Suzukis in the top five at Daytona with Tommy Hayden (No. 22 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) finishing third and Blake Young (No. 79 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) snagging fifth place.

Another top Suzuki threat comes from Jordan Suzuki. The Michael Jordan-owned Jordan Suzuki effort includes bikes for Georgia-based riders Aaron Yates (No. 23 Brand Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000) and Geoff May (No. 54 National Guard Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000). Yates finished seventh at Daytona and May was 10th.

The weekend's first American Superbike race kicks off Sunday's racing schedule at 2:30 p.m. local time. Race number two goes down at 4 p.m. on Sunday and closes the 2009 Suzuki AMA Pro Superbike Challenge weekend. Like the Daytona SportBikes, both American Superbike races are 21 laps for 50 miles.

The Daytona 200 by Honda weekend marked the debut of the new AMA Pro SuperSport class, which is AMA Pro's showcase of America's future motorcycle racing stars today. The race proved to be one of the most competitive of the Daytona weekend with Erion Racing's Tyler Odom (No. 46 Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) taking the victory and an early lead in the SuperSport West standings.

SuperSport is divided into East and West Championships but the Daytona kick-off was a combined race that allowed Odom and some others to race against their East series colleagues while still earning West division points. Odom tops the Fontana entry list that also includes fourth-place Daytona finisher Chris Clark (No. 48 Bazzaz/Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R6) and Clint Shobert (No. 26 American Honda CBR600RR), who finished seventh at Daytona.

The green flag is scheduled to drop for the 17-lap (40 miles) SuperSport race at 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Flag-to-flag coverage of the four featured races as well as highlights of the SuperSport event will be showcased on the new AMA Pro Prime Time show on SPEED, Saturday, March 28 and Saturday, April 4 at 10 p.m. ET. The series premiere of AMA Pro Prime Time - which will feature the season-opening Daytona AMA Pro American Superbike race - will be this Saturday, March 21 at 11 p.m. ET.