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.