Motourage

Yoshimura Suzuki is preparing for its second World Superbike Championship race on May 30 at the Miller Motorsports Park fifth round in America.

Following its inaugural WSBK points-scoring ride with Australian Josh Waters at the Australian series opener at Phillip Island last month, Yoshimura is currently evaluating all data gathered and further developing the team’s GSX-R1000 ahead of the US race, in which 22-year-old Waters will compete in only his second-ever World Championship event.

At Phillip Island, the team tested several new Yoshimura factory parts, including an all-new R-11R racing exhaust, which will be further developed by R&D testing in America and also at the Suzuka 8-Hour in Japan at the end of July.

“At Phillip Island, Josh did a great job in his first ride on the Yoshimura GSX-R1000; his first race on Pirelli tires and his first race on the world stage,” said Yoshimura’s Keiko Oshimi. He finished 18th in race one because of a puncture, but was 13th in race two and earned three points.

“Although we were happy with our result, we always want to do better and we have found some areas to work and improve on before we go to Miller Motorsports Park in May.”

Team Suzuki Alstare riders Leon Haslam and Sylvain Guintoli have their own reasons for wanting to do well in the seventh round of this year’s Superbike World Championship at the Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City, Utah.

After his superb performance in the last round in Kyalami, Haslam is fired up and ready to claim another pair of podiums and make up for last year’s result at the circuit when he finished 10th in race one and scored a DNF in race two.

Guintoli campaigned in BSB last year and therefore didn’t race at Miller, so once again he will have to learn a new circuit and try and get down to competitive business right from day one. It’s a task that has caused a few problems for the Frenchman this season, but Miller is a more straightforward track than Kyalami, and Guintoli is looking for a big improvement in qualifying and on race day. Like Kyalami in the last round, the similarly high altitude will affect the performance of all the bikes, so a good set-up will be crucial.

The race in Miller on May 31st will be unique because it will be the first time in WSBK history that a race takes place on a Monday. Monday is Memorial Day in America and commemorates the United States men and women who died in military service.

Leon Haslam:
“Kyalami was a tough one and I’m looking forward to Miller because it is an easier circuit to deal with. Having said that, the altitude will make our bikes feel slow and we need to get them dialed in as soon as we can for the track and then push hard. Last year Miller was not such a good event for me, so I am really looking forward to showing what I and the Suzuki can do and hopefully get another couple of podiums. Max Biaggi is a threat and I want to make sure I either beat him or at least leave USA still in the championship lead. May is a busy month for us, with three races on three different continents, so it will be good to end it on top of the standings – with a good lead maybe? – and have a good break before the next round.”

Sylvain Guintoli:
“Obviously I need to improve, especially in practice and qualifying and be in a better position on race day. I have never been to Miller before, so it will be another new track for me to learn. But it looks less difficult than Kyalami in the last round, so I think I will be able to get on with it much better on the first two days of practice and qualifying and then be on the first two rows of the grid on race day. As I said before, this Championship is so competitive that the smallest of errors in qualifying can make a big difference to your grid position come. Starting from way down the gird is never easy, but with so many good riders and good bikes it is almost impossible to get a good result if you begin from the third or fourth row. Hopefully, this time I will not be in that position!”

2009 Miller Motorsport Park results:

Race 1: 1 Spies (USA-Yamaha), 2 Checa (ESP-Honda)), 3 Fabrizio (ITA-Ducati). 10 Leon Haslam (GBR-Honda). Sylvain Guintoli DNS.

Race 2: 1 Spies, 2 Fabrizio, 3 Rea (GBR-Honda). Leon Haslam DNF. Sylvain Guintoli DNS.

The fine Pegasuses, Pegasi, Pegapeople over at SoCal Buell Riders recently – via Twitter – brought up the idea of putting together a meeting of Twitter users (the cool kids call it a Tweetup) who’ll be attending the US round of the World Superbike Championship May 29-31 at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

Since the main reason for Motourage’s existence is to bring together fans of racing across the country – and around the world – to share our love for our sport, we think this is a great idea, and would be more than happy to get the ball rolling.

If anyone would like to be included in the official twitter list for the Inaugural Miller Motorsports Park World Superbike Tweetup, please use the comments section below to include your twitter handle and real name – if you so choose.  We’ll get a good list together and grab a few prizes from the Motourage closet to give away at the races. Maybe Miller itself (twitter.com/utahmmp) would be so kind as to join us and recommend a suitable place to skirt the crowd to get together, or maybe they’d be willing to put together something special for the attending Twitteratti.

Please feel free to spread the word.  We’re looking forward to finally putting some faces with Twitter names and meeting our fellow motorcycle boys and girls in the real world and not just from behind a computer screen.

Not on Twitter? It’s cool. Bookmark this page or subscribe to the Motourage RSS feed for the latest updates about the Tweetup and the latest news from regional, national and international racing organizations.

We’ll see you in Utah!

Salt Lake Motorsports presents Track Day at Miller Motorsports Park this Saturday, July 25th

For more information, visit Salt Lake Motorsports