English  

Tu Carro De compras esta vacio

M4 Monster Energy Suzuki >> CARDENAS CLOSES POINTS GAP IN OHIO

July 19 2010

Sunday was a dramatic but ultimately positive day for Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki at Mid-Ohio as Martin Cardenas made a heroic recovery to beat the odds and make up ground in the 2010 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike title fight.

Cardenas was again firmly in the mix at the front of Sunday's 21-lap SportBike contest, swapping positions at the front of a six-man dogfight. However, apparent disaster struck on lap 11 as the Colombian crashed out of second place while negotiating the Carousel.

Undaunted, Cardenas quickly picked his GSX-R600 up off the ground and re-entered the battle. He raced back up to sixth position with just one lap to go. Unexpectedly, the championship leader crashed on the final lap, elevating Martin to fifth at the stripe while re-energizing his championship hopes.

Cardenas now stands third with 222 points, 27 out of first.

He said, "I started well and the race was much the same as yesterday with the same riders up front. In the first few laps I got a warning from the front tire. I wasn't ready for that but I saved that one. A few laps after that in the Carousel, I don't know what happened. Maybe I hit the curb a little bit or maybe was a little too tight with my line and I lost the front tire. I picked the bike up as fast as I could.

"I did what I could to gain as many positions as I could and I finished fifth in the end. It's bad that I crashed but I think it's an okay result for crashing.

"I'm going to continue to try to close the gap and try to beat them in every race."

Chris Ulrich suffered a poor start in the afternoon's AMA Pro American Superbike race, falling from his second row grid position to 14th at the conclusion of the opening lap. However, Ulrich put his head down and charged his GSX-R1000 back up to eighth at the flag. Still, he was left wondering what might have been.

"Today's race was over at the start," Ulrich said. "I rolled a little bit and I pulled the clutch back in and when I let it out it wheelied. I came through the pack but I never completely recovered. I'm disappointed because I felt I had the pace to run in the top five today. Yesterday I picked the wrong tire and today I just had a bad start. If I could merge the two it would be a great day.

"The positives are that I'm much, much faster this year and the bike is pretty good. Last year I would have been doing back flips about eighth place but today I'm gutted. We're looking forward to getting some redemption next weekend at Laguna."

Jake Holden was unable to add to his run of two consecutive top-five placings for the team as he was forced to retire from the contest with a mechanical issue.

Holden said, "It was a tough weekend for us, but we'll regroup and come back strong next weekend."

Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki will be back in action next weekend, July 23-25 at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California as they share the spotlight with the superstars of the MotoGP World Championship in the highly anticipated combined MotoGP/AMA Pro Road Racing weekend.

Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki uses and endorses fine products from M4 Performance Exhaust, Monster Energy, Suzuki, Geico Powersports, Arai Helmet, Dainese Leathers, GPR Stabilizers, Hotbodies Racing, Vortex, Bazzaz Performance, Galfer Brakes, DID Chain, Roadracingworld.com, and Chicken Hawk Racing.

-------------

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