Jake Zemke on the National Guard Suzuki. (Courtesy National Guard Suzuki)

It’s hard to believe, but Michael Jordan’s team has been in American Superbike for seven years. Today the Jake Zemke finally broke the ice and gave Jordan its first American Superbike victory and it’s a big one – the season opener at Daytona.

Zemke has the experience and has won Superbike races before, but the last one was nearly four years ago and Zemke wasn’t mentioned often in pre-race winner predictions.

The Daytona opener was a great Superbike race. The top five stayed in a pack the entire way and just 3-10ths of a second separated first from fifth at the finish. Zemke pushed it to get just enough of a gap to keep the next four – Tommy Hayden, Aaron Yates, Larry Pegram, and Blake Young – from being able to draft him.

Three notables finished down in the list. Josh Hayes, Ben Bostrom and John Hopkins. Hopkins was the first out. He pulled into the pits on the first lap with problems on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki. Hayes and Bostrom were off the track early and had to fight from behind just to finish (13th and 18th respectively).

The gang will start it all up again tomorrow at 4:00pm as a predecessor to tomorrow night’s Daytona 200.