Ride with Chris on G4 TV!

PIETRI LEADS AT FONTANA, FINISHES FOURTH IN SUPERSTOCK

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki backed up their first-ever AMA Superstock podium finish a week earlier at Barber Motorsports Park with another tremendous showing this weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.

Robertino Pietri scored his best finish of the season and equaled the best of his AMA career by finishing fourth in the AMA Superstock race aboard his Pirelli-shod GSX-R1000. Meanwhile, teammate Chris Ulrich fought up from outside the top ten to take seventh in the race and hold down third in the 2008 points race.

Venezuelan Pietri demonstrated his speed in qualifying, securing his first-career AMA front row grid position by clocking the fourth best time of the session at 1:25.744. He elevated his game another notch in the 16-lap, red-flagged race, taking control of the contest on lap 2 and leading until lap 14, earning the bonus point paid for most laps led.

Pietri was ultimately shuffled back to fourth in the late stages of the race but made his mark with a breakthrough, confidence-building ride.

After the race he explained that this result was even sweeter than his fourth place taken last year at Miller Motorsports Park. "This time I earned the fourth because I really had to fight for it. Before this weekend, I never earned a front row start and I never led a lap in the AMA and today I led the most laps, which was great. And nobody crashed ahead of me or anything so I was the fourth fastest guy in the race, which I'm very proud of.

"I want to thank my dad for believing in me, John Ulrich for giving me a chance, and my mechanics for working so hard. The first couple races this year have been pretty tough for me. I've always been fast but for some reason something always happened but this time everything went great.

"I asked my guys to believe in me and they did. This is a real confidence booster; now we know we can run up front with these guys."

Following a restart due to a red flag brought out by teammate Santiago Villa's early race crash, Ulrich didn't get the opening lap his was looking for coming off his Alabama podium result, running off course momentarily and falling well down the order.

However, the Californian battled his way up through the field, ultimately climbing to seventh position and holding off Scott Jensen for the position at the flag by less than two tenths of a second.

"We had a pretty good run back up from as low as 14th place," Ulrich said. "I had a great launch but I ran off the track. From there, I was just working my way back up. We'll take the points and that will go towards our season's goal.

"It was a great day for the team with 'Tino leading most of the race. I could see what was happening in the lead pack ahead of me and as you might imagine it was fantastic to see our bike out front. We're always working hard to improve as a team and today was a great day for us."

Unfortunately, after qualifying on the fourth row with the 16th best time of qualifying at 1:30.143, Villa's early-race crash brought out a red flag, and the Colombian was transported to a local hospital for further treatment.

Thanks to another consistent run, Ulrich now sits third in the points at 80 while Pietri is ranked sixth at 63.

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will head to Infineon Raceway on May 16-18 for the fourth round of the 2008 AMA Superstock Championship.

ULRICH THIRD IN BARBER SUPERSTOCK

Chris Ulrich earned the first-ever AMA podium finish for Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki on Sunday afternoon at Barber Motorsports Park, claiming a spectacular third-place result in the Superstock final with a charge to the podium.

Starting from the second row after qualifying seventh (1:27.769) on Saturday, the Californian found himself in seventh position following the first of 17 laps. He bettered his position to fifth place on lap 2 and quickly stretched out a gap behind him.

What looked to be shaping up to a lonely ride for a fine top-five result became considerably more nerve-racking when first Blake Young, and later Geoff May, crashed out of contention in front of him and Chris found himself in third on lap 13.

Ulrich brought his Pirelli-shod GSX-R1000 home safely, claiming his first top three of the 1000cc Superstock era. He was a race-winner in the previous version of the class, AMA 750 Supersport.

Venezuelan Robertino Pietri nearly added to the team's joy, working his way up from tenth after qualifying on the third row (9^th -- 1:27.940) into an intense four-rider duel for fourth. Unfortunately, Pietri crashed out of seventh on the race's final lap and was ultimately credited with 19^th.

Colombian Santiago Villa fought up from 29^th to 21^st in the race after qualifying 22^nd (1:31.119).

After standing on the podium to receive his trophy, Ulrich said, "Well for sure I didn't really expect to be up here 100%. My start was good and I was sitting in fifth and trying to run Blake down. He was just pushing too hard and he tucked the front. Then I was trying to hang on to Geoff and he was just edging away and I needed to think about my tires. I just decided to take fourth and then I came over the hill and saw him on the ground and I couldn't believe it.

"After that I saw '+10' on my board and, man, I just made sure I didn't crash. It's been a long road to get back on the podium. It's very difficult and a few of these guys are very, very fast and they're on good equipment. To get out of Barber with a podium at what I would say is Pirelli's toughest track on the entire tour is fantastic.

"I can't thank my crew and my team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki and Pirelli enough. We kind of gambled on a race tire and we've got a new tire technician who knows what he's going. I'm just looking forward to a long hard season and a lot of fun racing, that's it."

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will be back in action next weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA for the third round of the AMA Superstock Champion on April 25-27.

ULRICH, PIETRI, AND VILLA TEST IN ALABAMA FOR ROADRACINGWORLD.COM SUZUKI

Expectations are sky high for Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki following their terrific 2008 AMA Superstock season opener at Dayton International Speedway. Coming off a pair of top-ten results, including Chris Ulrich's fourth-place run, Ulrich and teammates Robertino Pietri and Santiago Villa are eager to carry the momentum they gained earlier this month in Florida into next month's second round at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, AL.

The team traveled to the Alabama circuit this week for two days of testing in order to put themselves in the best position possible to meet their goals.

After working through settings on their GSX-R1000s and a number of Pirelli tires, Ulrich declared the test a success and laid out his aim to better what was one of the team's best-ever combined results in Daytona when they next travel to Barber Motorsports Park.

He said, "The team had a successful test. We ran through a lot of different settings and got to try some off-the-wall stuff before coming back to what was working for us. Robertino ended up going about a second or so faster than he ever went before at Barber. He's recovering from Daytona and got a lot done with his setup. As far as my side of the team goes, we made some changes and learned a lot. We weren't quite able to reach our goal of last year's pole time, but we achieved some very competitive laps and are encouraged for the race. Testing and racing are always two different things and we feel good about coming back."

Colombian Santiago Villa also tested for the team in Alabama. Santiago is the newest member of the team and finished 17th in Superstock at Daytona. "Villa made progress at the test. Every time he gets on the bike, he's moving forward and improving his lap times," said Ulrich. "We're happy to see faster lap times and think his part of the program is going well. The objective with Villa is to find some more speed and he's going faster every time he gets on the bike."

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki faced some challenges at the test. "The weather wasn't that great and the temperature will be higher when we come back. We didn't have the actual race tire we'll use in April but Pirelli has some stuff in the pipeline that's going to be an improvement," said Ulrich.

"Our goal is to get both Robertino and me in the top five, and continue the progress with Santiago," Chris continued. "Traditionally, Barber is one of the tougher races for Pirelli but we think they will come up with some good tires for the race. It will be interesting to see what Robertino can do when he's healed up some more."

Ulrich has another unconventional test coming up before the Alabama event. "I'm going to spend two days at Huntsville Dragway working on my starts before the race. The crew is pumped to get racing again, too. We're looking forward to carrying our Daytona momentum into the next few races."

The second round of the 2008 AMA Superstock Championship will take place at Barber Motorsports Park on April 18-20.

ULRICH FOURTH IN DAYTONA SUPERSTOCK

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki opened their 2008 AMA Superstock campaign in stellar fashion at Daytona International Speedway. Chris Ulrich and Robertino Pietri guided their Pirelli-shod GSX-R1000s to a pair of top-ten finishes, including Ulrich's fourth-place result, equaling Pietri's finish last season at Miller Motorsports Park as the best AMA result in team history.

The Californian Ulrich had to battle hard to earn his top-five placing, nearly running off course at the start of the second lap and dropping to tenth position. Ulrich sliced his way back up the pack in the short 13-lap contest and finally found himself in a late-race dogfight to the checkered flag with Michael Barnes and Chris Peris.

Ulrich moved into fourth with just over two laps to go and held strong thanks to some successful high banks strategy. He took the flag just fractions of a second ahead of his rivals, 0.04 seconds ahead of Peris and 0.047 seconds ahead of Barnes.

Venezuelan Pietri got his season off to a solid start as well, claiming eighth place just over two seconds behind Ulrich. Pietri showed his speed during the race, posting the fifth-best lap of the race at 1:39.114.

Following his fantastic season opening ride, Ulrich was in a positive mood while reviewing the race and looking ahead to the rest of the season.

He said, "I came through at the end of the first lap and almost ran off the track. I was all the way out on the white paint in Turn 1. I got a big draft and I thought that I was in big trouble. Then I started passing people, one guy here, one guy there. All of the sudden I was past Peris and saw Barnes. I was like, 'Wow, I'm catching Barnes and I'm catching the leaders too.'

"I got Barnes and just put my head down really hoping he'd hold Peris up. I got by him and saw +0 on my board. I looked back going to the white flag and thought, 'If he doesn't pass me now, he's not passing.' In the infield and in the chicane I just made sure I got a really good drive. Peris pulled up next to me but I pulled it down to the yellow line. He wasn't getting by. Right at the line I felt someone sucking on my draft but we just got to the line first. It was close but we got fourth. It was a great finish.

"It's very good to start the season on a high note. The crew was very happy. I ran really fast the entire time. It's taken me a while to get back to the level where I feel I should be but I'm very optimistic about the season. I changed a lot of things during the winter and I feel pretty good. In '06 we were hoping for top tens, last year it was top fives, and now we feel we will be fighting for podiums and the top three in the championship."

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will head to Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, AL for the second round of the 2008 AMA Superstock Championship on April 20-22.

Team RoadracingWorld.com Suzuki Prepares for 2008 Season

Team RoadracingWorld.com riders are training in Southern California in preparation for the AMA opening round at Daytona in March. While their crew is busy putting the final touches on their 2008 equipment at the race shop, Chris Ulrich and Robertino Pietri are left to their own devices in a garage with two (previously) functional dirtbikes and an old crescent wrench from Venezuela.

CU changes the air in his tires

while Tino adjust the muffler bearings.

Definitely shot before disassembly.

2-Up Rides at 11/24-25 Fundraiser with Chris Ulrich at California Speedway

Team Roadracingworld.com and Chris Ulrich, the sixth-place finisher in the 2007 AMA Superstock Championship, will be holding a fundraising event November 24-25 at Fontana, California's California Speedway, in association with Fastrack Riders Association (FRA).

In exchange for a cash donation, which will be split between the Red Flag Fund (a non-profit organization that provides financial support and assistance to road racers who are seriously injured, like Ulrich's former teammate Vincent Haskovec) and the Roadracing World Action Fund (a non-profit organization which advocates and promotes the use of soft barriers to prevent racetrack injuries), Ulrich will take donors for a couple of fast laps around California Speedway's 2.3-mile, 21-turn infield road course on the back of his Pirelli-slick-shod,185-horsepower, 198-mph GSX-R1000 racebike, which has been fitted with a passenger seat and footrests.

Ulrich normally uses the retired racebike as an outreach tool during the race season, giving rides on the racetrack to local mainstream media representatives prior to AMA Championship events to help them better understand the sport of motorcycle road racing. Prior to the Suzuki Superbike Challenge Weekend earlier this year at California Speedway, Ulrich gave rides to KTLA-TV Sports Anchor Damon Andrews, KNBC-TV's Amanda Maynard, Squeeze OC reporter Laila Derakhshanian and 1993 500cc GP World Champion Kevin Schwantz.

1993 World Champion Kevin Schwantz relegated to passenger duties

Last November, Ulrich and FRA put together a similar fundraiser, giving rides to 44 individuals, including tourists who just happened to be visiting the racetrack that day before returning home to Denmark. Ulrich, Team Roadracingworld.com and FRA are teaming up again to hold another ridealong fundraiser to benefit the Red Flag Fund and the Roadracing World Action Fund this Thanksgiving Day weekend. Gates for the FRA event open at approximately 6:45 a.m. each day, and rides on the two-seater will be available from approximately 9:00 a.m. until approximately 5:00 p.m. contingent on weather, the condition of the track, the condition of the bike, etc. Full professional riding gear will be provided on loan free of charge courtesy of FRA and Team Roadracingworld.com, however, due to limited supplies, all sizes may not be available and not everyone will be able to ride. All rides will be on a first-come, first-served basis. No reservations are required. The minimum donation amount will be $50. Larger donations will earn additional laps. Photos and videos of the rides may be available for an extra donation.

Video footage from a 2007 two-seat ride with Ulrich at California Speedway

Squeeze OC's ride with Ulrich, go to http://www.squeezeoc.com/video/ and look for the "Fast and Furious" video.

Watch Team RoadracingWorld.com rider Chris Ulrich give CycleSpace.com reporter Danielle Teal a two-up ride around Road Atlanta during the 2007 AMA Superbike weekend.