(NEWS RELEASE)

Team Hammer came out swinging on Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway to
open the penultimate round of the 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing season in
fine fashion.

The team’s four riders spread across three divisions were all solidly
on the pace today, notching up provisional second row grid positions
across the board.

The day was particularly encouraging in the premier AMA Pro Superbike
class where M4 Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich led the way, posting the sixth
best time of the session at 1:23.823. The Californian made the most of
the available dry track time, throwing down his quick lap in the
session’s early stages before the skies opened up.

Ulrich’s strong effort was backed up by that of Roberto Pietri, who
secured the outside of Row 2 on the provisional Superbike order with a
lap of 1:24.172 on the Team Venezuela GSX-R1000.

Ulrich said, “We made a big step from the morning to the afternoon. We
got out early and had a little bit of luck with the weather, but it’s
not like the guys right ahead of us are light years ahead. It’s good
to be competitive.

“It’s fun to be on the middle of the second row — it’s not like I
just squeaked on. It’s all positive. The bike settings are quite good,
and I’ve just got to ride the thing. It’s taken me all year to get to
this point. I spent the entire month of August doing what I would have
done in December last year if I would have been healthy. We’re fit and
hopefully all the hard work will pay off. Racing is a lot more fun
when you’re up front.”

Ulrich’s M4 Suzuki teammate, Dane Westby, was equally strong on
Friday, placing sixth in the day’s Daytona SportBike qualifying
session at 1:26.156. The Oklahoman is looking to solidify his current
runner-up ranking in the SportBike points standings this weekend by
adding to his tally of eight ’12 podium results.

Suzuki SportBikeTrackTime.com’s Elena Myers registered a similar
performance in the SuperSport class by qualifying seventh best
provisionally. The two-time SuperSport race winner stopped the clocks
at 1:26.825 on Friday aboard her GSX-R600 racebike.

Team Hammer will look to transform Friday’s promising start into
season-best results come Saturday’s race action at Homestead-Miami
Speedway.