(NEWS RELEASE)

For immediate release: October 10, 2012

New Orleans, Louisiana: From below-head pushrod twins to overhead cam fours, it was a weekend of six wins for Öhlins equipped motorcycles in the inaugural AMA Superbike event at NOLA Motorsports Park, just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, topped off by AMA superbike champion Josh Hayes, on his Graves Yamaha winning the defense of his title for yet another year.

The big excitement at the Big Easy track was in the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 class, where fan-favorite, Michael “Barney” Barnes took his first solo AMA Pro Championship, after a race-long, wheel-to-wheel, arm-to-arm battle with his primary rival. After the checkered flag his competition in the race, and in the championship, was penalized for purposely making contact with Barney on the final run to the flag from the last corner, when he grabbed Barnes’ throttle arm. You can’t do that! For a rider who’s had enough of the Blues, on this day down the delta from where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog, Barney finally took the prize he’s sought for more than two decades of racing.

The new track in the low delta of Louisiana saw its historic first professional motorcycle win taken on Saturday, October 6, by AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport rider Hayden Gillim and the Road Race Factory Red Bull team. Yamaha YZF-R6 rider Gillim won the race by an astounding 11.082 seconds. In the SuperSport class Race Two on Sunday, Gillim earned second place after a hotly contested, race-long battle with fellow Öhlins rider Garrett Gerloff and the Yamaha Extended Service Graves Motorsports team, who took the win.

In AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike on Saturday, it was an Öhlins sweep of the podium with three different teams awarded a trip to winners circle: Cameron Beaubier on the Yamaha Extended Service Graves Motorsports YZF-R6, Dane Westby on the M4 Suzuki GSX-R600, and JD Beach riding a YZF-R6 for the Road Race Factory Red Bull team. Just perfect. On Sunday, Beaubier brought his bike home in second place for Daytona SportBike Race Two, after multiple passes for the lead on the final lap, finishing within a wheel of race winner Martin Cardenas. Nearly perfect.

AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes did his usual feat of taking the pole and winning both races, even though the NOLA track was as new to him as it was to any rider. Hayes took each win on his Graves Yamaha YXF-R1 by nearly a ten-second margin, winding his lap times down at the checkered flags.

Öhlins USA and Öhlins Racing AB send their congratulations to these race winners and champions. We also congratulate our competitors for a great season of fair and challenging competition, and for their successes.

Öhlins USA distributes and services the world’s leading performance suspension components for automobiles, motorcycles, and ATVs. Öhlins develops its proprietary and trend-setting suspension components, steering dampers and oils, 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; www.Ohlinsusa.com