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Infineon Raceway
Sonoma, CA May 18, 2008
DOMINATION! CORONA EXTRA HONDA’S JAKE HOLDEN TAKES EVERYTHING AT INFINEON SUPERSTOCK RACE
Jake Holden continued his Superstock charge with a dominating performance at Infineon Raceway, taking his Corona Extra Honda CBR1000RR to pole position with a new lap record, leading most race laps and finally victory in the Superstock race. Teammate Matt Lynn took a well deserved and best finish to date eighth place in the first Superbke race, but was taken out in the second race by another rider, finishing his chances of an even better result.
In blistering and unseasonable heat, Supebike qualifying saw Matt having to settle for eleventh on the grid, with set-up gremlins holding him back. The crew ended up making a number of changes before the race in order to get the bike somewhat to Matt’s liking. At the drop of the flag, Lynn quickly worked up a position by the end of the first lap and then started a race-long battle with Geoff May which moved them both up a position during their charge and which eventually Matt got the better of for a fine eighth at the checkered flag. The crew made some more changes to the bike before the second race and this seemed to fix some of the problems that had slowed him down in the first race. His lap times in the race immediately showed improvement and had him well in touch with the factory bikes of DiSalvo, Duhamel and Hodgson. Lynn closed the gap on the three and by lap fourteen was challenging for position and making his move to pass DiSalvo when Jason went down trying to avoid a lapped rider. The Yamaha took out Matt’s front wheel and ended his race!
A very dejected Lynn said, “I was going really well and had caught Jason, Miguel and Neil and knew I could get by them. We were passing a lapper who moved over and it looked like he hit Jason. He went down and his bike took out my front wheel!” The finish has Lynn tenth in the SuperBike championship.
The Superstock race confirmed Jake Holden and his Honda CBR1000RR’s rise to dominance of this historically “Suzuki-only class.” From the get-go of qualifying he was not going to be bested, posting a new lap record and pole position, nearly a second ahead of the second place qualifier! His time would have put him sixth on the Superbike grid. Come the race, Jake settled for second after the start and stalked Yates for five laps before making his move to the front. He stayed at the head of the field for the rest of the race which was unfortunately red flagged two laps from the finish owing to a crash back in the field. After the race Jake said, “I got past Aaron and put my head down but could hear him all through the race so I knew he would try a move near the end. I was getting ready to hold him off when out came the red flag!”
Jake currently stands second in the Superstock championship points.
Corona Extra Honda Racing is proud to be partnering with industry leaders: Parts Unlimited, Cycle Gear, Dainese, Castrol, Dunlop, FMF, Sidi, Hotbodies Racing, GPR, Motion Pro, K&L, Thetrackclub.com, HRC, Ohlins, VP Racing, Race Tech, Vortex, Ogio, CR&A, Adran, DynoJet, RK, Rage’n Trailers, Brembo, Marchesini, Galfer, STM, Powerstands, JETT Tuning, EFI Technology, Performance Solutions, Bellco, EBSCO Media, MTS.
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