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Zemke clinches 3rd in Superbike Championship |
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Posted by Staff
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Monday, 17 September 2007 |
Zemke Clinches Third in AMA Superbike Championship
American Honda's Jake
Zemke clinched third place in the AMA Superbike Championship after holding a
podium position until the final laps of the final race of the 2008 season at
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Starting from the front row, Zemke got away
with the lead Suzukis of Mat Mladin and Ben Spies, the teammates who were
racing for the championship. Zemke kept the pair in sight for the first 10
of 28 laps before slightly slipping back. Still, he was comfortably in
third until the 26th of 28 laps when he was passed by Aaron Yates
(Suzuki). But Zemke wasn't conceding the position. The Californian fought
back in traffic, but Yates was just slightly quicker at the end, and also
in the signature Corkscrew turn, and bested Zemke by little more than half a second. But the fourth place finish gave Zemke the points he
needed to finish third in the championship.
Spies defended his
championship title by beating Mladin. The difference after 19 races was a
single point.
Now the American Honda team has a short break before
preparing for the 2008 season. Testing begins in October with Miguel
Duhamel, who was injured over a month ago and missed this race, and former
World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson, who joins the team in
'08.
Jake Zemke, 4th Place
We kept them (Spies & Mladin) in sight
for ten laps at least. You know, I was actually surprised. I thought their
pace was going to be a bit quicker in the beginning like they normally do.
It didn't seem like they were going flat out from the beginning. It seemed
like they were playing cat and mouse with each other and just kind of
hanging out to see who was going to do what, I think. While I was
chasing them, I was really happy with my bike. The crew did a great
job.
I think that's probably where we would have been or should have been back in
July (at the USGP) when we were here. Aaron (Yates) just seemed to have a
couple tenths a lap on me. I could see him coming, see him coming. Then he
made a mistake. Then we got into lappers and he caught back up pretty
quickly. There, the last three, four laps, when he got by me, we got into a
couple of lappers and I just kind of got out of rhythm and I ran a couple
slow laps there in a row and the last lap I picked it back up, but it was
too late. He was going good. He did a good job, but my guys did a great job
this weekend. We had a good bike all weekend.
Team Manager Ron
Heben
Jake (Zemke) rode really rode well this weekend, from the beginning
of the weekend. Started out in practice and got up there with some
really good competitive times and qualified on the front row, which is a
real plus. Makes his life a lot easier for him out there on the race track.
Got a good start. Raced with Mat (Mladin) and Ben (Spies) for a while and
little at the end had a couple little hiccups, but overall not a bad way to
end the season. For Jake, he ended up
finishing third in the championship.
That's not what we started out to do, but it's also better than some of the
other riders and programs out there. We'll learn from what happened this
year and start regrouping and get ready for '08.
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