ULRICH FIGHTS TO 11TH PLACE AT FONTANA FOR TEAM ROADRACINGWORLD.COM SUZUKI
Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki's Chris Ulrich picked up a hard-earned 11th-place finish during this weekend's AMA Pro Road Racing round at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.
Ulrich overcame a lingering illness to fight his way up from 14th to ninth in Saturday's AMA Pro American Superbike race, but a spectacular save of a violent tank-slapper and resultant loss of brakes cost him several positions late in the race. The Californian carried on aboard his Suzuki GSX-R1000 to cross the line in 11th at the checkered flag.
On Sunday, his race came to an early end after he was forced out with a mechanical issue while working lap six.
Ulrich talked about the weekend, saying, "Flat out, coming into this weekend I knew I wasn't very prepared physically. Right after Daytona I went to Portugal and I think I caught bronchitis at Daytona and carried that until the day I got home. I thought I just had a little chest congestion, but I woke up in the middle of the night seven days ago and I was coughing up blood. My wife made me go to the hospital and the doctors put me on steroids to calm the inflammation in my lungs and some antibiotics. I talked to my trainer and he told me I couldn't do anything physical, so I haven't been able to train since Daytona.
"Physically, I was a little questionable but in Saturday's race I actually felt pretty good. But as the laps came on I started to feel it a little bit. I was thinking too much about the lap count and coming into the chicane I got a pretty big tank-slapper with three to go. When it did, that it knocked the pads back in the calipers. The tank-slapper was big enough that I thought I was going to bin it right then. I went in off the back straightaway and had no brakes and lost three positions. Despite that, I felt I rode very well. I think in the race we showed we're at the front of the pack of the non-factory guys. We've just got to refine a few things. On Sunday, I had good pace but we had some bad luck mechanically.
"100% the goal for me is top eighths and that's an achievable goal considering the amount of factory equipment on the grid. We're aiming to be the top non-factory guy out there."
Santiago Villa backed up his 19th-place run in the Daytona 200 by scoring 25th and 21st-place results in the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike contests aboard his Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R600 at Auto Club Speedway.
Ulrich said, "Santiago made some good improvements throughout the weekend. He's still getting used to the 600 but it's coming around. Look for more good things from him as he gets more seat time."
Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will be back in action in two weeks as the AMA Pro Road Racing series heads to Road Atlanta on April 3-5.
Ulrich overcame a lingering illness to fight his way up from 14th to ninth in Saturday's AMA Pro American Superbike race, but a spectacular save of a violent tank-slapper and resultant loss of brakes cost him several positions late in the race. The Californian carried on aboard his Suzuki GSX-R1000 to cross the line in 11th at the checkered flag.
On Sunday, his race came to an early end after he was forced out with a mechanical issue while working lap six.
Ulrich talked about the weekend, saying, "Flat out, coming into this weekend I knew I wasn't very prepared physically. Right after Daytona I went to Portugal and I think I caught bronchitis at Daytona and carried that until the day I got home. I thought I just had a little chest congestion, but I woke up in the middle of the night seven days ago and I was coughing up blood. My wife made me go to the hospital and the doctors put me on steroids to calm the inflammation in my lungs and some antibiotics. I talked to my trainer and he told me I couldn't do anything physical, so I haven't been able to train since Daytona.
"Physically, I was a little questionable but in Saturday's race I actually felt pretty good. But as the laps came on I started to feel it a little bit. I was thinking too much about the lap count and coming into the chicane I got a pretty big tank-slapper with three to go. When it did, that it knocked the pads back in the calipers. The tank-slapper was big enough that I thought I was going to bin it right then. I went in off the back straightaway and had no brakes and lost three positions. Despite that, I felt I rode very well. I think in the race we showed we're at the front of the pack of the non-factory guys. We've just got to refine a few things. On Sunday, I had good pace but we had some bad luck mechanically.
"100% the goal for me is top eighths and that's an achievable goal considering the amount of factory equipment on the grid. We're aiming to be the top non-factory guy out there."
Santiago Villa backed up his 19th-place run in the Daytona 200 by scoring 25th and 21st-place results in the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike contests aboard his Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R600 at Auto Club Speedway.
Ulrich said, "Santiago made some good improvements throughout the weekend. He's still getting used to the 600 but it's coming around. Look for more good things from him as he gets more seat time."
Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will be back in action in two weeks as the AMA Pro Road Racing series heads to Road Atlanta on April 3-5.
Labels: AMA, Chris Ulrich, Columbia, Daytona Sportbike, Santiago Villa
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