The Golden Years of Grand Prix Racing

The box set of every GP from 1984 to 1991 showed up at RRW HQ today. I'm ready to teach four-month-old VU about the Golden Years of 500cc Grand Prix racing. At least every year except 1985; I didn't care for that one. It has something to do with Freddie Spencer winning and Eddie Lawson losing. I watched 1986 last night. It was everything I though it would be and more. I'm going to check out 1988 tonight. Lawson's win at the USGP was epic.

STRONG FINISHES FOR ULRICH AT ROAD ATLANTA

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki's Chris Ulrich came away from the Road Atlanta round of the AMA Pro Road Racing series with a pair of finishes just outside the top ten to add to his 2009 American Superbike campaign.

The Californian qualified his GSX-R1000 in 12th on Friday with a best lap of 1:28.616, a performance that effectively established the standard for the weekend to come.

Ulrich put in an 11th place ride despite battling with an imperfect set-up in Saturday's 50-mile contest. The team made significant improvements overnight and he upped the pace in Sunday's 20-lapper, but he got caught up in traffic on the opening lap as the leading group made an early escape. The end result was a 12th-place finish.

Ulrich explained, "We just didn't have the pace on Saturday that we hoped to have. I was bottoming the forks quite hard and that was it. I missed on the set-up a little bit. We improved on the set-up overnight and improved on the lap times, but we didn't improve enough.

"We just needed a little bit more. The pace in the second race was faster but it wasn't fast enough. Off the start in the second race I got stuck behind (Aaron) Gobert on the first lap and lost the gap to the group. If I could have stayed with them it would have been a lot better.

"We've just been around 12th all weekend and stuck in no man's land. We've got to make some improvements with everything. Now that we've got some time, we're going to go home and get our '09 bike and try to step up our game."

Russ Wikle looked capable of scoring another podium finish for Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki at Road Atlanta, building upon his third-place run in the Daytona AMA Pro SuperSport season opener.

Wikle qualified second on the grid with a time of 1:32.426 aboard his Suzuki GSX-R600 and ran in contention for podium position during the race's opening stages. However, a rain shower caught out several of the front-runners, including Wikle, bringing out a red flag. Unfortunately, his machine was too badly damaged in the fall to make the restart.

The 17-year-old managed to impress in the weekend's twin Daytona SportBike contests, picking up a pair of 18th-place results in the deep category after qualifying 24th (1:33.369).

Colombian Santiago Villa improved upon his 32nd-ranked SportBike qualifying position (1:35.434) to finish 27th on Saturday and 20th on Sunday.

Ulrich said, "It was just super bad luck for Russ. In the SportBike class he put in two solid top twenties in, which is good for a developmental rider. He was really competitive in SuperSport but just had bad luck.

"Santiago is hovering around twentieth and that's good. As long as he keeps doing top twenty we'll be happy."

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki will be back in action on May 1-3 for Round 4 of the AMA Pro Road Racing series on May 1-3.