AMERICAN HONDA RACE REPORT
Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA

Honda continues to win at Infineon Raceway
At the fourth round of the 2008 AMA Superbike Championship at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA this past weekend, Honda riders won two championship rounds and filled four spots on the podium.
Superbike

Honda Racing Superbike pilots Neil Hodgson and Miguel DuHamel continued to make inroads in their 2008 championship campaigns. Heading into round six and seven of the Superbike series, Hodgson held fifth-place in the points standings. His sixth-place finish in race one and fifth place in race two boosted the Hodgson to third in the championship chase. Duhamel also continued to chip away at his point standings, moving up in the points tally from ninth to eighth place.

In the first Superbike race, Duhamel got away to a great start, jumping from eighth off the grid to fourth place in the opening turns. Unfortunately, he overshot a turn, letting all but one of his competitors pass before rejoining the fray and fighting his way back to 10th place in the race. Hodgson battled throughout the first race, finishing a strong sixth. In race two, Duhamel improved his race one result and finished in seventh place while Hodgson went one better and crossed the line in fifth.

Superstock

Corona Honda's Jake Holden was awarded his second consecutive Superstock class victory onboard his CBR1000RR, taking the race lead on lap six and crossing the line the round winner. Battling hot track conditions and lapped riders, Holden held off his rivals to take the checked flag 0.237 of a second ahead of second place.

"My crew worked hard. We came out right off the bat and we were cutting some good times here in practice and I knew it was going to be a good race. I was trying as hard as I could not to make any mistakes, though I made a couple but then started charging."

Formula Extreme

Erion Racing's Jake Zemke continued his winning ways by edging out teammate Josh Hayes for the Formula Xtreme win on his CBR600RR. Hayes finished a scant 0.067 of a second behind Zemke in second place. Zemke quickly asserted his CBR600RR's authority over the race, leading from the start. Getting off the line in third place, Hayes launched his assault on Zemke's charge, and took the lead on lap 10. Three laps later, Zemke returned the favor, holding Hayes off to the finish. The pair pulled more than nine seconds ahead of third place.

"Beating Jake, I'm still figuring out what that's going to take," said Hayes. "He's racing really well. I'm just going to have to find some new tricks. I think its testament that we're both on Honda's and we're both on Dunlop's. We've got great guys behind us working on our crew, we've got some other good teams that are still pushing us pretty hard, and we have each other to race, and that really helps us to set our own pace."

Supersport

Qualifying on the first and third row of the Supersport grid respectively, Zemke and Hayes came out ready to continue Honda's charge in Sunday's Supersport final. Zemke rocketed away to a solid start and on lap five took second place where he rode out the race. Hayes fought his way from tenth up to fifth place by lap nine; consistently picking riders off one by one. Hayes continued his charge but simply ran out of time to move farther up the finishing order.

"It was a good race," said Jake. "I got off the line really good but forgot to shift out of second gear. I just dug myself a deep hole in the beginning of the race and it took a while to get around those guys."

The AMA series next heads to Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah on May 29 through June 1 for the 2008 Honda Summit of Speed, featuring an AMA Superbike double-header as well as the U.S. round of the HANNSPREE FIM World Superbike Championship.