TOP TEN FOR ULRICH AND TEAM ROADRACINGWORLD.COM SUZUKI

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki came away from the AMA Pro Road Racing series' return to Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, KS in a positive mood, as Chris Ulrich broke back into the American Superbike top ten and Russell Wikle continued to run up front in the AMA SuperSport class.

Ulrich qualified on the outside of the third row aboard his developing GSX-R1000 K9, posting the twelfth best lap time during Basic Qualifying at 1:38.835. He picked up a position in Saturday's 50-lap final by finishing eleventh.

The Californian continued his improvement over night, scoring a ninth-place ride on Sunday, his second best result of the 2009 season.

Ulrich is currently eleventh in the AMA American Superbike championship race with 122 points.

"It's good to get back in the top ten," Chris declared. "It's a decent finish. We need to work on the gap a little bit and close down the distance to the top guys, but we moved forward and the bike was continuing to feel more comfortable for me this weekend. We got some new parts and we're pretty happy with that.

"It's encouraging that we're moving farther forward but there are some guys we know we should be racing with that we've still got to track down. We've got to work on that for VIR. We've got the chassis to where we're pretty happy with it, so now we've got to start dicing with those guys. I got away with them but they were just about to pull a tenth here and a tenth there and the next thing you know, they've got a few seconds on me.

"Our goal for the rest of the year is to stay in the top ten and close the gap. It's going to be difficult but I think it's doable."

Russ qualified sixth fastest for the SuperSport contest despite some tricky wet-dry conditions. Facing a deep field comprised of the top riders from both the East and West divisions, Wikle fought an entertaining battle with newly crowned West champ Ricky Parker and just missed out on fourth place by 0.239 seconds.

His fifth-place result has him ranked third in the AMA Pro SuperSport East standings with 79 points.

"Russell did a great job again," Ulrich said. "They changed his bike a lot before that race and he did a good job to ride that bike well. He got himself into a really good battle with Ricky Parker. He's fighting and he's pretty gritty. We're really pleased with his performance once again."

Santiago Villa was an innocent victim of another rider's mistake on Saturday, being collected in a crash in the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike race through no fault of his own.

The gritty Colombian came back to finish 20^th aboard his GSX-R600 on Sunday, however, his eighth top 20 of the 2009. Villa also earned the podium in a Moto-GT ride with another team this weekend.

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will head to Virginia International Raceway for the penultimate round of the 2009 AMA Pro Road Racing season on August 14-16.