Martin Cardenas Doubles At Barber Motorsports Park and Wins 2010 AMA Daytona SportBike Championship

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Martin Cardenas on the #36 M4/EMGO/Pirelli/Ohlins-backed Suzuki GSX-R600 is shown during a very damp practice session for the AMA Formula Xtreme Series at Road America in June of 2008. This was the Colombian's first full year working with the M4 Suzuki team and he finished the season ranked 7th in the championship standings. 2009 was the first year for the new AMA Daytona SportBike Championship Series, and Cardenas won more races than eventual champ Danny Eslick, but unfortunately also had more DNF's and crashes.
The 2010 AMA Daytona SportBike Championship started off at Daytona, and for the second year in a row, under the Friday Night Lights. Unfortunately, Martin binned it on the first lap of the 200 mile race and started the season with a goose egg in the point standings on the #36 Monster Energy M4 Suzuki. He went on to do a great job this year in winning nine of 18 races to win the 2010 AMA Daytona SportBike Championship by 8 points over title rival and 2009 AMA Daytona SportBike Champion Danny Eslick. And it was also announced this last week he will be back for more with the M4 team for 2011 and 2012.
Great job Martin and congratulations!
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Martin Cardenas fought it out until the end, not only winning both races in the season finale round of the AMA Daytona SportBike Championship at Barber Motorsports Park, but clinching the 2010 AMA Daytona SportBike Championship in the process. Cardenas won his 8th and 9th races this weekend in the 18 race season, and took his #36 M4 Monster Energy Suzuki GSX-R600 to his first United States-based road racing championship in the process. The Columbian won the 2010 championship over '09 AMA DSB Champ Danny Eslick by 8 points, 405-397. Josh Herrin on the Graves Yamaha ended up third in the championship hunt with 377 points.
It was another exciting year of close racing between Cardenas, Eslick and Herrin, who among them won 17 of the 18 races. Bobby Fong on a Ducati won race one at VIR back in August. The class has seen some great racing since it's inception last year, with multi-brand racing and close finishes in virtually all rounds except for the season opener at Daytona, which for the most part is more of an endurance race compared to the other 17 races on the schedule.

You can check out the full results as well as the official write-up's on the races below.

And please join me in congratulating 2010 AMA Daytona SportBike Champion Martin Cardenas and the M4 Monster Energy Suzuki team for a damn fine year, and a damn fine year of racing at that! Great job guys!
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Motorcycle-USA.com's Matt Davidson has the story of race two this afternoon at Barber Motorsports Park in the AMA Daytona SportBike Championship:

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/748/8034/Motorcycle-Article/2010-Daytona-SportBike-Barber-Race-2.aspx
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Cycle News.com's Henny Ray Abrams has the story on race one at the beautiful Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, AL. for the season finale of the AMA Daytona
SportBike Championship fight for 2010. Cardenas came into the final round third in the championship with seven wins in 16 races. Saturday's win helped him to grab the lead in the standings with only Sunday's race until the season end, and also gave him eight wins overall. Read about Saturday's day one action here:

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2010/09/25/cardenas-wins-title-fight-tightens
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Here are the results of race one in the AMA Daytona SportBike class at Barber from yesterday afternoon thanks to AMA Pro Road Racing:

http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/results.cfm?year=2010&eid=2010011050&discipline=RR&class=DS&type=F&rnum=1&class_sort=all -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here are the results of race two in the AMA Daytona SportBike class from this afternoon at Barber from the folks at SuperBikePlanet.com:

http://superbikeplanet.com/2010/Sep/sp2/100926a.htm
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Here are the overall results for the AMA Superbike/AMA Daytona SportBike Championship weekend at Barber Motorsports Park from AMA Pro Road Racing:

http://results.amaproracing.com/pdfresults/rr/2010/10-barber/default.aspx
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Hayes and Cardenas Bag Race 1 Wins at AMA Infineon Raceway

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Martin Cardenas on the #36 M4 Emgo Suzuki GSX-R600 leads eventual winner Ben Bostrom on the #155 Graves Yamaha YZF-R6 in AMA Supersport action at Mid Ohio in July of 2008. Bostrom got around Cardenas and romped to the Supersport final win that day and went on to clinch the 2008 AMA Supersport Championship later in the year. Following close on their heels are Erion Parts Unlimited Racing team mates Josh Hayes on the #4 and Jake Zemke on the #98 Honda CBR600RR's. Zemke went on to win the AMA Formula Xtreme Championship in '08 over team mate Hayes and between them won 8 races and garnered 16 podiums in nine rounds.
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Josh Hayes on the #4 Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 won his first race of the year today in the AMA Superbike West Coast Jam at Infineon Raceway, while Martin Cardenas on the #36 Monster Energy Suzuki GSX-R600 took top honors in the Daytona Sportbike class in race one action today. Hayes amassed over a 5.5 second lead in the AMA Superbike race before cruising to an eventual 3.6 second win over Ben Bostrom on the #155 Clark Motorsports Yamaha R1, with Larry Pegram on the #72 Foremost Insurance Ducati 1198R another 3.5 seconds back. The Daytona Sportbike race went back and forth between Cardenas and '09 AMA Daytona Sportbike Champion Danny Eslick on the #1 Geico RMR Racing GSX-R600 until Martin pulled away to win by just over .8 seconds. Tommy Aquino on the Graves Yamaha YZF-R6 #6 was another tick behind to finish third with the top three covered by less then a second.
Results of both races are below, and you can catch the action on SpeedTV tonight 10 P.M.-Midnight EDT and more to be shown Sunday at 2 P.M. EDT and then again Sunday Midnight-2 A.M. EDT. I've also included AMA links to their results and live timing to follow tomorrow's action as well if you get the chance.
In other news, Kurtis Roberts return to the track didn't go quite as planned as the Ace Racing Yamaha R1 suffered what sounded to be semi-terminal electrical gremlins that kept him and the team off the track all day on Friday. We hope the team can get these problems ironed out before the next round at Road America in early June. Hang in there, Kurtis!
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AMA Superbike race one results from the once-known-as Sears Point Raceway courtesy of the great people at RoadRacingWorld.com:
http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=40464
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AMA Daytona Sportbike race one results are here again thanks to RRW.com:
http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=40465
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AMA Event Info for Infineon Raceway:
http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/event.cfm?eid=2010011020
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AMA Live Timing and Scoring for Infineon:
http://laptraxtg.racersites-cluster.com/LapTraxTG/AMA/livescoring.html?LAPTRAXID=2010011020
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Stu's Shots Previews the Daytona 200 and the 2010 AMA Daytona SportBike Season

With practice for the upcoming Daytona round of AMA Pro Road Racing only six days off, we can already smell the smoke and racing fuel in the air. As noted in the previous post, AMA Pro Racing and the AMA/DMG folks have been making wholesale changes to the series in the last several weeks, among them personnel changes and increased purses for the Daytona SportBike class premier Daytona 200 event, as well as adding a second Superbike round and increasing purse and place payouts for this event. We can only hope that these changes will help to bring public sentiment back around in their favor, and to give the series it's much needed bounce that was missing from last year's running of the series.

As of today's writing, there were 50 entries for the Daytona SportBike class for the Daytona round, so the that signals a very good sign considering just a little over a month ago less then 20 entries were showing. Today we will do a short profile on a few of those riders.

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Danny Eslick #1-'09 AMA Daytona SportBike Champion-Suzuki GSX-R600

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Richie Morris Racing's Geico-sponsored Danny Eslick set the world on fire during the '09 season riding the Buell 1125R. What many considered a bike that should never have been allowed in the class, Danny and the Buell won six races and clearly showed that talent and bike set-up were the key to the championship. Several other riders, among them Danny's teammate Michael Barnes, also raced the Buell last year, but not with near the results as young Mr. Eslick.

With Buell now defunct thanks to operations out of Milwaukee's 'finest' Harley Davidson, Eslick and the RMR team will be riding Suzuki GSX-R600's this year in their quest to retain the title.

With Danny having ridden Suzuki's in the past, the transition may not be as severe as what could be expected. The top shot shows Danny on the #69 Matsushima Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000 while qualifying for the Barber round in Leeds, AL., for the April '07 round of the AMA SuperStock class.

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Geoff May #99-Vallely Racing/GMR Racing Suzuki GSX-R600 for 2010

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Geoff will be aboard his own equipment this year with help from Leo Vince, Ohlins and Dunlop, among others. Having raced for the M4 Emgo Suzuki team and Michael Jordan Motorsports over the course of the last five seasons, Geoff is going it on his own year, more a result of the lack of rides and sponsorship for the 2010 season then lack of effort. Having ridden Suzuki's with these teams as well can only help as well in his quest to run this class this year after having run AMA America/U.S. Superbike and AMA SuperStock and SuperSport the last 5-6 seasons. The second shot above shows Geoff in qualifying at Road America during the '06 event. Aboard the #99 M4 Emgo SuperStock Suzuki GSX-R1000, this was just coming out of turn 8.

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Martin Cardenas #36-Seven Time AMA Daytona SportBike Race Winner-Team M4 Emgo Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R600

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In what will be his fourth year of riding in the States, Martin returns to the M4 Emgo Suzuki team and again will be Suzuki GSX-R600 mounted for the 2010 season. Martin won seven races and garnered 10 podiums in his debut in the Daytona SportBike class, and pretty much lost the title due to a late season crash that put him out of action at the last round. This year could be pivotal for Mr. Cardenas as he will be on like-equipment as his main adversary, Danny Eslick, and with four seasons of racing for M4 and on Suzuki's the transition shouldn't be too severe. Martin is shown in the third shot above at Road America in 2008 in the turn 10 area off of the carousel during rain practice for the AMA FX class.

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Steve Rapp #15-2007 Daytona 200 Winner-Team Latus Motors-Ducati 848 for 2010

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The senior member of the class, Steve Rapp has been throwing his leg over a racing motorcycle in the expert ranks now going on a decade and a half. Having won the Daytona 200 in '07, Steve has raced for Michael Jordan Motorsports, Vance and Hines Racing, and Valvoline Suzuki among others in his road racing career. With a new off-season deal with Latus Motors--the same folks who have sponsored 2000 AMA Flat Track Champion Joe Kopp for several years--the '10 season could be a new lease on racing life for Mr. Rapp. Having raced Ducati's for Vance and Hines and for HMC Racing back in the '00 and '01 seasons, adapting to the characteristics of the grunt from the twin shouldn't be a problem here. And with the Big Buell gone now, the 848 could prove to be a strong force in this class. Steve is shown in the fourth shot above on the Michael Jordan Motorsports GSX-R1000 during qualifying for the Road America SuperStock round in '08 coming out of the turn 8 area before heading under the bridge into the carousel.

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Jake Holden #23-Three Time AMA SuperStock Race Winner-Ducshop Racing Ducati 848 for '10

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Jake is another rider who has amassed a 'journeyman's' resume in AMA Road Racing over the course of the last several years. Michael Jordan Motorsports, Hypercycle Racing and Corona Honda Racing are among some of the teams he has raced for, and he won an AMA SuperStock race in '07 while with the Team Jordan Suzuki team and winning two rounds in '08 while riding for the Corona Honda Racing team. Jake will be on the #23 Ducshop Racing Ducati 848 in the Daytona SportBike class, and will be riding his own Honda CBR1000RR in the American Superbike class for the 2010 season. Jake is shown in the fifth shot above at Road America in 2006. As a team mate to Steve Rapp and Jason Pridmore, Jake was on the #59 Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 for the SuperStock class and is shown coming out of the turn 8 area during practice.

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Here's wishing not only the Daytona SportBike class but the entire field and all the entrants for Daytona, as well as the 2010 season, the best of luck. Keep in mind that the same-day tape-delayed Daytona 200 WILL be shown on SpeedTV on Friday, March 5th at 9 P.M Eastern Time. You can also follow it and all the racing 'live' via the AMA Live Wire timing/scoring link, which you can find on the left column side bar here as well. And the two Superbike races which are to run on Thursday March 4th at 3 P.M. Eastern and Friday March 5th at 4 P.M. Eastern are scheduled to be shown on SpeedTV on Saturday, March 6th at 10:30 P.M. Eastern as of this writing.

Thanks for coming by, and stay tuned and please come back in the next few days as we preview who will be coming back to the SpeedTV booth this year to help announce the races, and we will also do a preview on the AMA Flat Track rounds at Daytona scheduled for Wednesday March 3rd and Thursday March 4th. We will do our best to showcase the archives of Stu's Shots while we talk about the upcoming racing as well. Take care and we hope to see you back soon!