PODIUM FOR YATES
09 August 2006 - Suzuki Racing

In spite of a red flag and a complete restart in Sunday’s AMA Repsol Superstock race, Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates rode to an impressive third-place finish at Mid-Ohio in Lexington.

This year, the defending AMA Superstock Champion has been on the podium for every event and this race was no exception: He said: “The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is running really strong and we had a good race. The red flag helped us a bit because I got a better start the second time out and it’s tough to get around folks on this track.”

On Saturday afternoon, Yates qualified on the front row of the starting grid after posting a fastest lap time of 1:26.530 on his GSX-R1000 Superstock bike.

“We had a good session,” he said about picking up the fourth spot on the grid. “I was happy with the way the Suzuki was running. The qualifying tyre didn’t work that well but we also had a soft race tyre to try. I went out on that and did my fastest lap on that tyre. I felt like if we’d had a standard race tyre, we could have been a little quicker. I feel good about the race, though it looks like the other guys are going to be strong too.”

As in qualifying, Yates set the fastest lap of the 16-lap race: In the first start, he was out in fourth position when a rider went down and a red flag was thrown. After the restart, the Georgian got an even better start on his and was quickly into second position. He rode a fast and aggressive pace and wound up in third place.

“I tried hard and the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is great,” said Yates. “The bike is running good; I’m giving it my all and I hate to see the championship start to slip away but I’m doing my best. In a few weeks we go to Virginia and that track has treated me fairly well. My Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 has given me some good success there and I’m looking forward to the race.”

Superstock Top 10 Finishers:

1 Jamie Hacking (Yamaha)
2 Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)
3 Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki)
4 Geoff May (Team M4 EMGO Suzuki)
5 Jake Holden (Jordan Suzuki)
6 Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
7 Aaron Gobert (Honda)
8 Josh Hayes (Honda)
9 Marty Craggill (Hotbodies Racing Mat Mladin Motorsports Suzuki)
10 Chris Ulrich (Suzuki)

www.suzuki-racing.com

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