Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing's Martin Cardenas celebrated his second AMA Pro Superbike victory of the season and moved up a notch in the overall championship points at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.
Cardenas turned in a stellar performance on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to bring home the win, while team-mate Chris Clark picked up one of his better finishes of the season with a ninth-place result. Currently, Cardenas is only nine points off the lead in the title chase.
Although Yoshimura Suzuki's Cardenas struggled a bit at the start of the weekend, he went on to finish with fireworks. On Saturday, the Colombian got a good start on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and turned in a solid ride to finish fourth. On Sunday, Cardenas redoubled his efforts, getting a good start and moving into a podium position almost immediately. As a result, he was in position to capitalise on opportunities and took the win with a few laps to go.
"It was a pretty hard race," said Cardenas. "On Sunday, we were able to find a little bit better set-up for the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and I was able to go a little faster and ride a little more consistently than on Saturday. The pace was fast but I was able to stay with the leaders, then some things went our way and I was able to get the win. I'm happy for myself and also for the Yoshimura Suzuki team and I'm looking forward to good results at the last two races."
Clark also wrapped-up a solid weekend of racing, bouncing back from some bad luck earlier in the season. On Sunday, Clark put his head down and raced his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a respectable ninth place. The day prior, he battled for a top-10 spot for most of the race before bringing home 11th.
"This weekend was a step in the right direction," said Clark. "We found a setup on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 that we like and I feel like I'm getting back up to speed. Unfortunately, we found the right setup a little late in the weekend, so I didn't really have the pace to hold on to the guys in the top five. But I still finished ninth and that's a really positive direction for the rest of the season. Now, I'm going to work on my fitness so I can come back and get some good results at the last two races of the season."
The Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing team's next event of the 2013 AMA Pro Superbike Championship series is at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, New Jersey on September 13-15th.
Miller Superbike Results, Race 1:
1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 2. Roger Hayden (Jordan Suzuki) 3. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 4. Martin Cardenas (Yoshimura Suzuki) 5. Danny Eslick (Jordan Suzuki) 6. Larry Pegram (Yamaha) 7. David Anthony (Suzuki) 8. Chris Fillmore (KTM) 9. Geoff May (EBR) 10. Taylor Knapp (KTM)
Miller Superbike Results, Race 2:
1. Martin Cardenas (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2. Roger Hayden (Jordan Suzuki) 3. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 4. Danny Eslick (Jordan Suzuki) 5. Geoff May (EBR) 6. Aaron Yates (EBR) 7. David Anthony (Suzuki) 8. Taylor Knapp (KTM) 9. Chris Clark (Yoshimura Suzuki) 10. Dustin Dominguez (EBR)
