TEAM ROADRACINGWORLD.COM SUZUKI WRAPS UP 2009 IN NEW JERSEY

Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki's Chris Ulrich ended his 2009 AMA Pro American Superbike campaign on an encouraging note in the New Jersey Motorsports Park season finale.

Over the course of the weekend Ulrich unlocked some crucial secrets to his '09 Suzuki GSX-R1000 and showed competitive speed despite being prevented from displaying his true potential in either race.

The Californian opened the weekend's twin 23-lap Superbike main events from the inside of the fourth row after qualifying 13^th with a best time of 1:22.615.

In Saturday's final Chris battled with some well-proven Superbike contenders for a top-ten finishing position before ultimately accepting twelfth. He was anxious to capitalize on the positive outing and improve even further on Sunday but was controversially judged to have jumped the start. Even after serving his ride through penalty, Ulrich raced his way to a 13^th-place result but felt he was good for much more on the day if not for the call.

Ulrich closed out the season ranked 12^th in the 2009 AMA Pro American Superbike standings with 156 points and a pair of top-ten finishes.

"It was a positive weekend for us actually," Ulrich said. "We made some drastic changes during the Thursday test day here, some stuff that I would have never thought of. Mike Fitzgerald from Öhlins brought over some information and we made the change and it was worth 1.2 seconds. It was a significant for my confidence with the K9. That was big.

"We also had a new engine package with our in-house program that was very, very good. I'm very pleased with the hard work our guys have been putting in.

"On Saturday I was in the fight for ninth with Geoff May and Jake Holden. I made a couple mistakes but the pace was good. I was very happy with that. Today we felt like we could build on that and improve and we had good pace but we got robbed. The officials said I jumped the start, but I saw the video and I did not move at all. It's unfortunate because I feel a strong earned top-ten finish was stolen from me today."

Russ Wikle impressed in Saturday's AMA Pro Daytona SportBike final, claiming 18^th in the extremely competitive class. Unfortunately, the youngster suffered a Sunday morning crash and sat out the day's SportBike and SuperSport finales as a result.

He joined Santiago Villa on the sidelines after the Colombian wisely decided to rest his healing leg after making a courageous effort early in the weekend.

Wikle finished the season ranked fifth in the SuperSport East Division with 90 points and 26^th in SportBike at 41 points. Villa ended the year 31^st in SportBike with 23 points.

"Santiago tried to give it a go, but it was too dangerous," Ulrich explained. "Two-and-a-half weeks post-op on a broken leg isn't exactly a great idea, but hopefully the toughest man in racing will be back with us next year.

"We diverted Santiago's crew to Russell. He learned a lot of stuff this weekend and did a good job on Saturday. But he had a big crash in practice this morning and was pretty beat up. We opted to sit it out. I know how it is -- it's no fun after you crack your head that hard. It's tough luck, but he showed some great progress this year."

Ulrich summed up the season by saying, "100% I wish this was the first race rather than the last. We finally got everything together. I just needed to get a bike under me that allowed me to prove what we can do. I'm happy with that and confident for next season. I think we can be competitive for top tens in AMA Superbike next year."