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M4 Monster Energy Suzuki>> CARDENAS SECOND AFTER PHOTO FINISH IN VIRGINIA

August 16 2010

Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki's Martin Cardenas missed out on scoring his seventh AMA Pro Daytona SportBike victory of the season by just 0.001 seconds today at Virginia International Raceway.
 
Cardenas, in trademark fashion, lurked at the tail end of the lead group aboard his GSX-R600 for much of the once red flagged and restarted contest before making his move. The Colombian surged into the lead with just four laps remaining and put his head down as he charged to the checkered flag.
 
Martin was unable to shake his rivals, however, and a slingshot bid for the win brought his opponent directly alongside as the two crossed the stripe for the final time. With even the photo finish nearly impossible to decipher, Cardenas was ultimately judged to have finished as the runner-up by the narrowest of margins in what was possibly the closest finish in AMA Pro Road Racing history.
 
Despite falling just short of victory, the second-place result aids Cardenas' title hopes as he closed the gap to the lead and moved into second place in the Daytona SportBike title fight. He now sits just nine points removed from the championship leader at 277 with five races remaining.
 
"My goal today was to try to win the race and get as many points as I could, but it wasn't possible to win," Cardenas said. "I got beat to the line, but it was a very good race with lots of good battles. My bike worked great today so I can’t complain. We’ll try tomorrow to be as good as today or a little bit better.”
 
John Hopkins demonstrated incredible speed in his first American Superbike race since recuperating from wrist surgery. The Californian clung onto the leading trio deep into the contest as they powered away from the rest of the pack before running off course and ultimately crashing out on lap 19 of 23.
 
Despite the mistake, Hopkins' ability to immediately match the front-runners' pace following such a long layoff was extremely impressive.
 
He said, "I got on the throttle and ran out of track. I laid it down before I hit the Airfence. It was my mistake, but to be honest, I'm still pretty excited about how the race went. I managed to run right at the front after not having ridden for three months. Coming straight back out and being that fast is very encouraging.
 
"We do have quite a bit of setup stuff we have to work through, but I know the team is going to keep working hard and they improved it considerably from this morning. If we make another step for tomorrow like we did for today's race, we should be able to fight for the podium."
 
Commenting on the condition of his surgically repaired right wrist, Hopkins said, "I feel good. The wrist is good. It's about 70% right now, which is a lot better than 10%, which is where it was. I can twist the throttle and to be honest, I don't even notice it when I'm out on the track. Three months ago, three doctors told me I had to retire and now I'm here running at the front in my first race back so I'm really, really grateful and happy to be back."
 
Meanwhile, Chris Ulrich battled his way up from 13th early to claim another top-ten result at the flag. Ulrich piloted his GSX-R1000 to tenth place, his eleventh top ten result of the season. His consistent finishes see him ranked seventh in the 2010 AMA Superbike Championship with 150 points.
 
Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki will look to improve upon Saturday's strong performances as the VIR weekend concludes on Sunday.

M4 Monster Energy Suzuki is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our  windscreens and bodywork on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes and is the market leader in Windscreens, Undertails, Huggers, Flush-Mount Signals, MGP and Megaphone Exhausts, and full-race Bodywork. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorships around the world, and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.hotbodiesracing.com