great weekend at AMA Barber Superbike series for AGV Dainese riders

Awesome! There's no other words to describe the weekend at round 8 & 9 of the 2011 AMA Pro Road Racing series.

American SuperBike:
Martin Cardenas takes his first win on the big bike on Saturday, ahead of Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom and Rockstar Makita Suzuki Blake Young, making it an all Dainese podium.

 

 

 

On Sunday, Blake Young wins SBK race 2, Martin takes 3rd, followed by Steve Rapp in 4th, B-Boz in 5th.

AMA SBK Riders Standings:
1 - Josh Hayes - 235
2 - Blake Young - 233
3 - Tommy Hayden - 182
4 - Martin Cardenas - 155
5 - Ben Bostrom - 130
9 - Steve Rapp - 95
10 Geoff May - 82

AMA Pro SuperSports:

Good weekend for the Dainese and AGV youngsters with James Rispoli leaving Barber with the series lead after a 2nd place on Saturday and a win on Sunday. Superbe ride for M4 Suzuki Elena Myers who went 3rd and 5th.

Very difficult weekend for David Gaviria and Tomas Puerta who both suffered crashes in both races.

Steve Rapp takes the win in the AMA Vance & Hines XR1200 race

AGV Dainese Riders Invade Top 5 at Daytona 200

Photo by John Hanson (Hanson Images)

Costa Mesa, CA – March 15^th, 2011

During a sunny weekend in Florida, at Round 1 of the series at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona last weekend, the AGV Dainese AMA riders started their 2011 campaign with bravado.

When the AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike class returned to the track in Daytona, the Dainese line up was stronger than ever with Rockstar Makita Suzuki Blake Young, Jordan Suzuki Ben Bostrom, 2010 Daytona SportBike Champ Martin Cardenas on his M4 Suzuki along with teammate Chris Ulrich, and Geoff May on the new Erik Buell Racing, along with privateers Shane Narbonne and Eric Haugo.  The AGV Dainese riders rode very strong races both on Saturday and Sunday with Blake Young making us all very proud at Dainese when he rode his Rockstar Makita Suzuki to victory in both races, taking the “double”!  Behind Blake, Ben Bostrom and Martin Cardenas were dicing it out in very close racing with a group of pretty fast contenders, Ben and Martin scoring Top 5 overall finishes.

AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike Points Standings (after 1 of 21 races) for AGV Dainese riders:

Blake Young – 1st

Ben Bostrom – 4th

Martin Cardenas – 5th

Chris Ulrich – 10th

In the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Supersport.com SuperSport Class, Dainese’s Tomas Puerta was the strongest, leaving Daytona with a win in race 1 and a second in race 2.  David Gaviria was the surprise rider of the weekend with two podiums: a third in race 1 and a victory in race 2!  He is riding with Dainese and alongside Tomas Puerta on the Team LTD Yamaha squad.  He should be someone to watch!  AGV Dainese rider James “The Rocket” Rispoli, a favorite, struggled with his bike set up in race 1 and ended up 7^th, just behind Dainese rider Elena Myers (6^th).  In race two, James had a much better bike after discussing the problems with AGV Dainese rider Jason Pridmore and was able to stay close to the leaders and manage a podium finish, giving Dainese a sweep of the SS podium in race 2!  Elena Myers felt strong in race 1, but lost out in the drafting sequence on the banking coming out of turn 4.  She performed better on the final lap in race 2, but could only manage 7^th.

AMA Pro Motorcycle-Supersport.com SuperSport Class Daytona 200 Race 1 for AGV Dainese:

1^st – Tomas Puerta

3^rd – David Gaviria

6^th – Elena Myers

7^th – James Rispoli

AMA Pro Motorcycle-Supersport.com SuperSport Class Daytona 200 Race 2 for AGV Dainese:

1^st – David Gaviria

2^nd – Tomas Puerta

3^rd – James Rispoli

7^th – Elena Myers

In the AMA Pro Vance & Hynes XR1200 series, long time faithful AGV Dainese rider Steve Rapp took his Harley-Davidson XR1200 to a 4^th place finish on the Daytona International Speedway.

AGV Dainese would like to congratulate all of our riders for racing hard and representing us with pride on the always difficult Daytona speedway.

Double wins for Dainese riders last weekend at AMA Road Atlanta

Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Blake Young and M4 Monster Energy Suzuki's Martin Cardenas swept the top of the podiums last weekend in Georgia when they both scored a double-win for Round 5 and 6 of the AMA Pro road racing series.

 

The two Dainese riders battled hard in their respective classes to dominate their competition during the weekend.

In the American Superbike class, Dainese's Blake Young took his first win of the season on  Saturday, repeating his performance the next day after leading the whole race. Blake is now third in series standing, only 15 points from the leader, with 12 more races to go.

It was another positive weekend for AGV Dainese's Chris Ulrich who took his Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R 1000 to two Top 10 finishes. Ulrich is now 6th in the series points standing.

In the Daytona Sportbike class, Dainese's Martin Cardenas dominated Road
Atlanta with 2 race wins for Team Monster Energy M4, making it 3 for the season. Cardenas now stands 3rd overall, 14 points from the leader.

Road Atlanta was a great weekend too for Vesrah Suzuki's Cory West. The AGV Dainese rider scored a very much deserved 2-3 finishes, taking him to 4th in the series points standing.

Joining West in the race for the podium on Sunday was AGV Dainese's Steve Rapp. Both riders were part of a group of 6 very close riders who diced it out until the the checkered flag. Despite leading the pack for a while, Latus Ducati's Rapp finished 6th on Sunday, repeating his Saturday results. 6th is also Steve's point standing position after 5 races.
 
In the Supersport class, Dainese's Tomas Puerta went 5-4, taking him to 4th in the points standing, while AGV Dainese's James Rispoli, after an unlucky Saturday race, finished 7th on Sunday.

We would like to also wish a prompt recovery to Dainese's Aaron Yates, the
Team Jordan Suzuki rider being out for a few rounds after breaking his leg
at the previous round at Fontana.

 

Team Dainese 2010 riders

On the eve of the first MotoGP of the 2010 season, here's a quick recap of who are the Dainese racers:

Moto GP
Jorge Lorenzo
Marco Simoncelli
Valentino Rossi

Moto 2

Stefan Bradl
Yannick Guerra
Simone Giorgi Grotzkyj
Fonsi Nieto

125 cc
Marcel Schroetter
Luca Vitali
Lorenzo Salvadori

National Championships

Europe: Danilo Dell’Omo, Marco Borciani (Italy); Maxime Berger (France); Guy Martin (UK); Michael Ranseder (Austria); Joan Lascorz (Spain); Niklas Ajo (Finland)
USA: Geoff May, Aaron Yates, Blake Young, Steve Rapp, Chris Ulrich, Martin Cardenas, James Rispoli, Tray Batey, John Jacobi, Steve Atlas, Mark Junge, Sammy Halbert

Blake Young Still Daiting the Gixxer

It's Friday Video time and here's a small one from our friends at OnTheThrottle, on Dainese and Suzuki Factory rider Blake Young.

Road Racer X Tuesday Conversation: Blake Young

Road Racer X's Tuesday's Conversation with Dainese' Blake Young.


Blake Young was a 2009 newcomer to both the AMA Pro American Superbike class and the Rockstar/Makita factory Suzuki team, but that didn’t prevent him from making the podium four times, placing top-ten at all but three races, and finishing sixth overall in class points. His superbike foray impressed many in the paddock and gave Young a chance to learn from riders like Mat Mladin and Kevin Schwantz. We asked the Wisconsin native for his thoughts on his rookie season.

Brian J. Nelson photo

Was the season harder than you thought it would be?
The season went really good for us, I think. As far as if it was as hard as I thought it was going to be, I think working with a new team, a new crew chief, and being back on Dunlop tires…. It was a lot, and I think it was a pretty good season having had all that stuff thrown at us.
It was your first year on a factory team; how would you describe that experience?
You know, there’s obviously a really high level of expectations to do well over there. The Yoshimura team has been winning numerous championships and it was a relief to get over there and see how it works, and to start working with some of the guys. It was one of my goals last year to ride for a factory team and now that I’m here, one of my goals is to hopefully win a championship for them. Now that Mat is gone, the expectation will be even higher for me to do well.
How was working with Mat, and do you wish he’d stuck around for another year?
Yeah, absolutely, it was great and it’s kind of a bummer to see him go. I think that only being able to ride with him and be his teammate for a year, there was only so much I could learn, but I definitely still learned a lot. I wish that I had been able to learn a lot more, and I would have liked him to stick around another year, for sure. Racing against him was good, and having him there was really speeding up the process of learning as quickly as possible how to win the superbike championship.
What did you learn this year?
It’s hard to place a finger on one thing, but one thing that I learned from Mat is how to be a champion off the racetrack. I think that if you look at Mat, there’s really nobody else better out there in our paddock that has won seven championships.  He’s probably one of the best teachers to have riding on the same truck, so to speak. It’s a big honor.

Brian J. Nelson photo

How did you get along with the ’09 factory GSX-R1000?
It’s great. We got a new bike that came out this year, but we didn’t get on it right away. We had to go three races on the 2008s, but once we did [switch to ‘09s], it was great. Suzuki always puts out a bike that keep getting better and better. We had kind of an up-and-down season working with it, but I think that things will only get better for me.  There were a lot of firsts this past year, things that I won’t have to go through next year. So, I’m looking forward to testing on the bike this November.
What kind of goals do you have for the 2010 season?
For next year, it would be to win a superbike race, and then to win a whole lot of them, and then a championship will come with those wins. I’d like to definitely pick up the ball that Mat has left behind and run with it, and hopefully keep that championship streak going for Suzuki.

AMA Superbike at VIR, fist photos

First photos from AMA Superbike round in Virginia. Most pics from Dave Williams at OnTheThrottle.com

Aaron sporting his Dainese gloves during the kart race on Thursday.


First pics from Friday practice.

Geoff May's pits


Working on Blake Young's bike


Steve Rapp getting ready to hit the track for the Daytona Sportbike practice

Blake Young feature on SpeedTV.com

A very good in depth feature on Dainese's Blake Young.

Blake Young on SpeedTV.com

Better late than never: AMA Pro Mid-Ohio photos

Miscelanious photos from Mid-Ohio. You can click on the slideshow if you wish to watch the photos in bigger size.

AMA Pro Road Racing at Mid-Ohio 2009

AMA Pro Road Racing celebrated a great weekend of racing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with battles to the checkered flag in all 3 classes, both Saturday and Sunday.
Since the beginning of the season, AGV Dainese riders have established their very strong presence in the fields, in American Superbike, Daytona Sportbike and the very disputed youth class, Supersport. All our riders were coming into Mid-Ohio, on the momentum of their good performances at Laguna Seca, especially for Superbike contenders Rockstar Makita suzuki's Blake Young and Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates, Daytona Sportbike racer Steve Rapp and Supersport class Russ Wikle and James Rispoli who all had great finish in California, including podium spots for Young and the #23 of Yates.

American Superbike:

Mixed results with an outstanding performance by the fastest man on track this weekend, Aaron Yates who finished second on Saturday, after being slowed down by a lapper during his battle with Factory Yamaha's Josh Hayes. Despite a heavy crash on Friday Blake Young managed to finish in the Top 10 with Dainese teammates National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Geoff may and Corona Extra Honda's Jake Holden.
On this physically demanding track, AGV's Neil Hodgson was still suffering from his previous injury as the Honda rider was suffering from shoulder pain.

 

Sunday saw the return of a very strong Yates who would clock the fastest lap times in the morning warm-up. Racing was strong and intense between Hayes, Bostrom, Hayden and the #23, but Yates fell victim to a crash due to a gear jump in the carrousel. Blake Young took his Rockstar Makita Suzuki to a 4th place finish while Geoff May finished 8th after a race long battle with Matt Mladin, ahead of Corona Extra Honda's Neil Hodgson and his Roland Sands custom-painted AGV GP-Tech.

AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike
Point Standings (after 14 of 20 races):
1. Mladin, 390 points
2. Hayden, 264
3. Bostrom, 246
4. Hayes, 245
5. Pegram, 223
6. Young, 201
7. May, 199
8. Yates, 198
9. Knapp, 127
10. David Anthony, 120
11. Holden, 113
12. Ulrich, 100
13. Hodgson, 94

AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike Presented by AMSOIL:

 

We strongly recommend to watch the races on Speed TV because the Daytona Sportbike races at Mid-Ohio were intense from start to finish. On both days, Steve Rapp battled up-front, taking his Yamaha to a 6th finish, on both days, making it 3 in a row since The Rapper also took 6th at the previous round in Laguna Seca. Steve is now 8th in points in a tie with Honda's Jake Zemke.

Point Standings (after 14 of 20 races):
1. Cardenas, 285 points
2. Eslick, 275
3. Hacking, 241
4. Herrin, 211
5. DiSalvo, 201
6. Peris, 177
7. Davies, 176
8. TIE, Zemke/Steve Rapp, 157
10. Aquino, 155

AMA Pro SuperSport Presented by Shoei:

 

Depsite excellent qualifying by Roadracingworld.com Suzuki's Russ Wikle and a 4th row on the grid for James Rispoli, our AGV Dainese riders were unlucky in the youth class. Russell crashed out while fighting for 4th in the 5th lap and James "The Rocket" Rispoli suffered a low-side crash, while going for 5th with 5 laps to go. not the expected results for our two riders, but a positively good weekend as they once again showed their speeds and potential confirming their strong presence in the class.

SuperSport East Championship Point Standings (after 5 of 9 races):
1. Day, 94 points
2. Leandro Mercado, 81
3. Wikle, 63
4. TIE, Pascarella/Nash, 62
6. Carter, 52
7. Wacker, 51
8. Kyle Wyman, 48
9. TIE, Worrell/Lazo, 43

AMA Pro Racing at Mid-Ohio - Race Day 1

It was a pretty good race day at the Mid-Ohio Sport Cars Course track in Lexington, OH for the AGV Dainese riders. Mid-Ohio is a very fun track set in the beautiful green Ohio countryside, and the racing today, both in Daytona Sportbike and AMA Superbike was excellent. Especially in the superbike race where we saw a train of 9 riders racing it out all race long, all withing 1 second for a while.

Daytona Sportbike:
Our star rider in this class, Steve "The Rapper" Rapp had another great performance, battling all race long with Aprilia's Chaz Davies. Despite being in Davies' wheel most of the race, Steve didn't manage to pass the liter bike and settle for 6th, equaling his Laguna Seca results. Let's keep in mind that this is a class with 41 riders.
AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Presented by AMSOIL - Race 1 Mid-Ohio
1. Danny Eslick (Buell 1125R), 21 laps
2. Josh Herrin (Yam YZF-R6), -2.317 seconds
3. Tommy Aquino (Yam YZF-R6), -2.365
4. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR600RR), -4.744
5. Chaz Davies (Apr RSV1000R), -7.653
6. Steve Rapp (Yam YZF-R6), -8.421
7. Taylor Knapp (Buell 1125R), -18.154
8. Chris Peris (Hon CBR600RR), -18.284
9. Jason DiSalvo (Suz GSX-R600), -20.303
10. Shawn Higbee (Buell 1125R), -39.115
16. Barret Long (Duc 848), -61.727
20. Santiago Villa (Suz GSX-R600), -63.480
26. Russ Wikle (Suz GSX-R600), -97.155

 AMA Superbike:

What a race we got (don't miss the broadcast on Speed TV!). From Superpole where Dainese riders scored 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 10th to today's thrilling race, the fans were treated to some exciting racing.
the first laps saw Yamaha's Josh Hayes and Tommy Hayden lead the pack while Dainese riders Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Blake Young and Jordan Suzuki's aaron Yates were battling it for 4th. Very quickly Young and Yates passed Hayden and pushed towards Hayes. Aaron passed Blake towards the mid-point while behind them Matt Mladin was working his way up the field. With 6 laps to go Aaron Yates was about to make a pass on Josh Hayes when they both got slowed down by a lapper who didn't move out of the way and held Yates back. The #23 charged in the last two laps, trying to catch back the time lost on Hayes but could get there on time before the checkered flag. Josh Hayes won the race 0.183 seconds ahead of the Yates. Exciting race and best results for aaron after two 3rd place finishes at Road America and Laguna Seca.
Blake Young, who had suffered a big crash in qualifiers on Friday, finished in 7th, ahead of National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Geoff May and Corona Extra Honda Jake Holden.
Finishing 11th was AGV's Neil Hodgson who is still not physically 100%, especially on a track like Mid-Ohio where his shoulder is working hard.

AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike Presented by Parts Unlimited - Race 1 Mid-Ohio
1. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), 21 laps
2. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000 K9), -0.183 second
3. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000 K9), -3.055 seconds
4. Ben Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1), -3.251
5. Larry Pegram (Duc 1098R), -5.300
6. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000 K9), -6.792
7. Blake Young (Suz GSX-R1000 K9), -7.746
8. Geoff May (Suz GSX-R1000 K9), -16.261
9. Jake Holden (Hon CBR1000RR), -31.205
10. Michael Laverty (Suz GSX-R1000 K9), -22.997
11. Neil Hodgson (Hon CBR1000RR), -31.205
12. Taylor Knapp (Buell 1125RR), -47.247
13. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000 K9), -55.379
14. Scott Jensen (Suz GSX-R1000 K8), -80.927
15. Shane Narbonne (Suz GSX-R1000 K8), -81.021
16. Russell Holland (Yam YZF-R1), -81.496
17. Barrett Long (Duc 1098R), -82.090

Laguna Seca AMA Superbike

Better late than never. :-)

Great performance for the AMA Superbike AGV Dainese riders at Laguna Seca with more podium for Rockstar Makita Suzuki' Blake Young and Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates. Despite a nasty crash in the first lap, followed by a re-start, AGV's Neil Hodgson took his Honda to 6th, followed in 7th by his teammate Jake Holden. National Guard Jordan Suzuki's Geoff May in 9th and Chris Ulrich in 12th close the AGV Dainese Top 15.

Series standings:
6th - Aaron Yates 173 pts
7th - Geoff May 173 pts
8th - Blake Young 169 pts
11th - Jake Holden 101 pts
12th - Chris Ulrich 92 pts
14th - Neil Hodgson 72 pts

Dainese's Blake Young to World Superbike

Cyclenews.com - June 22, 2009

Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Blake Young will make his World Superbike debut at Donington Park this weekend, Cycle News has learned from multiple sources.
Young will replace Fonsi Nieto on the Alstare Suzuki Brux machine at the track in the British Midlands that plays host to the ninth round of the World Superbike Championship. Nieto was riding in place of the injured German Max Neukirchner. The Alstare Suzuki Brux entry is currently listed as TBC (to be confirmed), according to a World Superbike spokesman who would neither deny nor confirm Young's entry.
The deal to put Young on the Suzuki was sealed at Misano Adriatico this past weekend, where Young attended the race along with his mentor Kevin Schwantz. Alstare Suzuki Brux team owner Francis Batta was looking for a young rider to replace Nieto. When Batta asked Schwantz if he knew a young rider to try out, Schwantz introduced him to Young.
The final approval had to be made by American Suzuki, which today agreed to allow Young to race. Young may be racing with his familiar number 79, though that has yet to be confirmed. An official announcement from Suzuki on Young's entry is expected on Tuesday.
By lining up on the World Superbike grid, the 21-year-old Wisconsinite will increase the American contingent to four. He'll join former teammate Ben Spies (Yam), Stiggy Racing Honda's John Hopkins, and Jamie Hacking, the Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki rider who's racing the factory Kawasaki in place of the injured Makoto Tamada for the second week in a row. The race also extends Young's first ever trip to Europe by a week.

Young's first ever trip to Europe is ending better than it began.  It started with the airline losing his luggage when he and Schwantz landed in Barcelona about ten days ago for  the Catalunya Grand Prix north of Barcelona. From there the pair visited the Dainese factory in Italy before going traveling on to Misano. In Misano, Schwantz made a guest appearance in the television commentary booth for race one, World Superbike's first ever flag-to-flag race. The race was won in a runaway by Spies.
Very few riders have more insight than Schwantz into Donington Park, a circuit that flows well, but can have a tricky surface, especially in the wet. The 1993 World Champion's successes and failures at the track are legendary, starting with his Match Race battles with Wayne Rainey through an illustrious GP career that ended with four wins, including three in a row starting in 1989. Schwantz was such a fan favorite that he had a corner named after him. Schwantz Curve is a fast left that feeds into the much slower McLeans right.
But Schwantz won't be able to offer advice in person, at least not for the first day of practice. He'll be at Barber Motorsports Park for a two-day Schwantz School on June 25-26. Whether he plans to return to the UK for Saturday and Sunday isn't known.

From Donington Park Young heads to Monterey, California for the seventh round of the AMA Pro Road Race Championship in support of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Young currently sits eighth in the American Superbike point standings.

Dainese's Blake Young OnTheThrottle Vid-interview

Blake Young and Aaron Yates Road America incident video

Before I get into the weekend's race results, here's a video of the racing incident between Dainese riders Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Young and Jordan Suzuki's #23 Aaron Yates.

AMA Superbike stamped Dainese!

What an amazing photo from Brian Nelson (MotorcycleUSA), nothing could describe Dainese's renewed strong effort in AMA Pro Racing than this shot.

Blake Young video portrait by the On The Throttle crew

The crew at OTT brings us another great video, this time featuring Dainese rider Blake Young.

On The Throttle

AGV Dainese Riders Storm AMA American Superbike Podiums at Road Atlanta

Here's the AGV Dainese P.R for the Atlanta weekend.

Costa Mesa, CA – April 7^th, 2009

During a sunny weekend in Georgia, the AGV Dainese USA riders reinforced with bravado their presence in AMA Pro Racing, during Round 3 of the series at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA, last weekend.

In the AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited we were proud of the Superpole results of top Dainese riders Blake Young and Geoff May qualifying 3^rdth on the front row, ahead of Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates (8^th) on 2^nd row, followed by Team Roadracingworld.com’ Chris Ulrich (12^th) on 3^rd row. and 4

For a short while we fear for rain as stormy clouds approached the track and got the deep knee sliders out of the box for all our Dainese riders, but luckily, apart from a short rain fall during the Sportbike race, the track remained mostly dry for the weekend.

The AGV Dainese riders rode very strong races both on Saturday and Sunday with Geoff May making us all very proud at Dainese when he rode his National Guard Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 to the podium twice, finishing 3^rd in both races. On Sunday Geoff and his Dainese team mate Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Young had a great battle for 2^nd which saw Blake make a final pass in the last laps.

Aaron Yates had a very good weekend too scoring a 5^th and 6^th, on his Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000, and improving his standing in the series.

AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike Road Atlanta results for AGV Dainese riders:

Geoff May (Suz GSX-R1000) 3-3

Blake Young (Suz GSX-R1000) 4-2

Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000) 6-5

Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000) 11-12

Barrett Long (Duc 1098R) 12-18

Shane Narbonne (Suz GSX-R1000) 20-20

AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike Points Standings (after 5 of 21 races) for AGV Dainese riders:

Geoff May – 3^rd

Blake Young – 4^th

Aaron Yates – 8^th

Chris Ulrich – 14^th

Barrett Long – 17^th

In AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Presented by AMSOIL, AGV Dainese’s Steve Rapp, who was on his first ride for team Bazzaz/Pat Clark Motorsport, took his AGV GP-Tech and Dainese W-Frame leather suit to a 9^th finish on Sunday after a great battle with Michael Beck, allowing him to secure a 9^th place in points standings. Steve, who settled in with his new team, was happy to get more seat time on his new ride.

We salute Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki’s Russ Wikle and his impressive performance over the weekend who saw him scoring two 18^th place finish in a very deep field of riders, after qualifying 24^th in practice.

AMA Pro Pro Daytona SportBike Road Atlanta results for AGV Dainese riders:

Barrett Long (Yam YZF-R6) 17-16

Russ Wikle (Suz GSX-R600) 18-18

Santiago Villa (Suz GSX-R600) 27-20

Steve Rapp (Yam YZF-R6) DNF-9

Shane Narbonne (Yam YZF-R6) DNS-24

AMA Pro Pro Daytona SportBike Points Standings (after 5 of 21 races) for AGV Dainese riders:

Steve Rapp – 9^th

Barrett Long – 13^th

In the AMA Pro SuperSport Presented by Shoei, 17year-old Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki’s Russ Wikle was on track for another podium finish for AGV and Dainese, after his amazing third-place podium finish in the AMA Pro SuperSport season opener at Daytona.

Wikle qualified second on the grid aboard his Suzuki GSX-R600 and was running in the lead group for podium position during the race's opening laps. Unfortunately, a rain shower caught out several of the front-runners, including Russ, bringing out a red flag. Despite very strong effort from his Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki his machine was too badly damaged to make the restart.

From all at AGV Dainese USA, congratulation to all our riders for racing hard and representing us with pride on the AMA Pro Racing circuit. See you all in Birmingham, Alabama for Round 4.

“Providing people with head-to-toes protection in action sports” has been the Dainese’s mission since 1972 when the company was founded by its President Lino Dainese.

Kevin Schwantz talks about the new AMA Superbike (video)

Great interview of Kevin Schwantz giving his views on the state of the new series. Always good to listen to the #34 and cool to see him sport the Dainese colors! ;-)

More photos from Daytona

Photos by Riles/Nelson from Road Racer X magazine

Aaron Yates and the rest of #23 crew

Roadracingworld.com's Russ Wikle (left) on the podium in AMA Supersport

Blake Young getting plenty advices from his mentor Kevin Schwantz