(NEWS RELEASE)

For immediate release: June 23, 2011

Hendersonville, North Carolina:

In just their second national, Team Öhlins USA young guns again made it a two-out-of-three in qualifying for the Budds Creek Motocross Mains, at the tricky track outside Mechanicsville, Maryland, with riders Garret Toth and AJ Catanzaro earning a gate, while advancing rider Michael Clarke gave it his best.

Toth took his Yamaha YZ450F to a 36th-place gate position for Moto 1, while Catanzaro captured the 40th fastest time for a place on the outside edge of the stating gates. In the huge field of 88 riders vying for a gate position, Clarke managed to best the times of 26 riders, coming up a bit short for the exclusive field for the Mains.

Despite the races run in high heat of southern-coastal Maryland, again both Toth and Catanzaro excelled at moving through the pack. Toth was tested twice as he ended up last after the start and then last again when he fell. Not giving up, Toth remounted to move up six places from where he’d qualified, scoring 31st at the flag. Catanzaro started Moto 1 after an engine change and worked his way through traffic for a 25th-place finish. In Moto 2 each rider was hindered by the heat and humidity, maintaining position with Toth again earning 31st and Catanzaro managing a 26th-place finish, after running as high as seventh. Overall, Toth was credited with 32nd while Catanzaro closed the day with a 25th.

Michael Clarke: “This weekend I was in the Group B practice and it was the first practice group on the track. The track started out in good condition and got worked in. I didn’t luck out with traffic in first practice and never got to put in a good lap. Second practice was 15 minutes of qualifying. I kept trying to put in fast laps but always came up to a slower rider and got held up. On the last lap of the practice I went for it. I had to switch up my line to pass about 10 riders. Unfortunately, I never got a clear track and the last lap was my fastest, a 2:15.

“Despite not qualifying, I was very pleased with the way the bike handled. It had plenty of power and was hooking up good and staying on the ground, especially on the down-hills where a rider can have his bike kicking him if it’s not set-up properly. I know I have the speed and the equipment so at the next round I’ll pull it together to get on the gate.”

AJ Catanzaro: “Before the races we had to swap out a motor from the practice bike into the race bike. I squeezed into qualifying with the 40th fastest time. In the first moto my start wasn’t great, but I worked my way up to 25th. Overall my endurance felt good and I felt good on the bike. In the second moto I had a better gate pick and got a seventh-place start. I rode up front for a while, until my vision started getting blurry and my body began shutting down. I had heat exhaustion, so I was lucky to just finish out that moto. But it was great to see that my speed is there and that I can run up front. For the future races I’m really focusing on eating the right foods and hydrating enough to make sure heat exhaustion won’t happen again. My endurance will only get better and my results will only improve, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Garret Toth: “I was pretty excited about qualifying. I made sure that I was well hydrated before the race and then I got a good jump on the start, but was on outside and ended up dead last. I worked my way up past guys before I fell on a table-top jump and was dead last again. Then I worked my way back up to 31st. In Moto2 I was suddenly completely exhausted after only about four laps. We’re learning a lot and I’m planning on finishing higher in the next motos.”

Öhlins USA distributes and services the world’s leading performance suspension for automobiles, motorcycles, and ATVs. Öhlins develops its proprietary and innovative suspension components at the highest levels of racing from open-wheel car racing, to Moto GP, to off-road competition on two and four wheels. Öhlins USA also provides training for service centers and dealers. Öhlins USA can be contacted at: 828-692-4525; http://www.Ohlinsusa.com