(NEWS RELEASE)

Hendersonville, North Carolina: For Öhlins it was three wins in the AMA Road Racing classes at this weekend’s combined AMA Pro Racing/MotoGP at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, located in Monterey, California, with Tommy Hayden taking the win in National Guard Superbike, Benny Solis in Motorcycle-SuperStore.com SuperSport, and Steve Rapp in the e-power FIM/TTXGP.

In Superbike, as reported in various media, Hayden’s Yoshimura Suzuki team has been experimenting this season with different shock brands, which is totally proper due to them not having an Öhlins contract — an Öhlins Racing AB’s policy of not sponsoring teams or riders. But since Hayden’s bike has recently been back on Öhlins, in both front and rear, he’s won the last two races — the final race at Mid-Ohio and this single race at Laguna Seca — dramatically improving his season points standing. With Josh Hayes taking second on the Graves Yamaha and Hayden’s teammate Blake Young earning third, it was a podium sweep in AMA National Guard Superbike for Öhlins.

In Motorcycle-SuperStore.com SuperSport, Benny Solis rode his Roadracingworld.com Honda CB600RR to a runaway victory, despite the rider taking a brief off-track excursion. In AMA SuperSport West, Solis has now recorded the most wins in the class and is ranked second overall, a mere seven points behind the championship leader.

The combined FIM/TTXGP race, for non-carbon-base fueled motorcycles, was dominated by the Mission R, piloted by Steve Rapp. During the weekend Rapp shattered the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca lap record for e-powered motorcycles, which was a record that Rapp set at a previous event at Laguna Seca earlier this summer. During Saturday’s qualifying, Rapp cut a lap at 1:31.376, nearly six-seconds faster than the second-fastest rider. For comparison, the MotoGP pole winner set a time of 1:21.202, and the AMA Superbike pole was at 1:24.480, putting the Mission R within ten seconds of the world’s best MotoGP bike. Second place in the FIM/TTXGP was taken by Michael Czysz on a Motoczysz E1PC, using an Öhlins shock. How cool is that to build a bike and then pilot it to a podium? Both the Mission R and Motoczysz suspensions were put together by Dave Behrend of Öhlins USA certified service center Fast Bike Industries (FBI).

Just a note of mention for clarity: since all machines in MotoGP use Öhlins suspension, that race win, podium positions, and all places, combine for a clean-sweep by Öhlins too.

Öhlins USA distributes and services the world’s leading performance suspension for automobiles, motorcycles, ATVs, and snowmobiles. 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. http://www.Ohlinsusa.com.