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.