(NEWS RELEASE)

Team Hammer closed out the 2013 AMA Pro Road Racing season opener at Daytona
International Speedway on a high note, registering top-ten results from Melissa
Paris in the 72nd running of the Daytona 200 and Chris Ulrich in the AMA Pro
Superbike class.

The unforgiving nature of Daytona International Speedway and the 57-lap Daytona
200 frequently results in heart-breaking openers. And while the team did not
escape adversity altogether during a difficult weekend, the squad rallied to
score strong results that can be both celebrated and built upon.

Paris maintained an impressive pace throughout the prestigious yet tricky
200-miler aboard her MPH Honda CBR600RR, which is prepared and crewed by Team
Hammer. Even being forced to come in for a ride-through penalty due to a pit
stop infraction couldn’t prevent Paris from finishing in the top ten. Secure in
ninth at the time, she rebounded to finish in tenth position.

The result was the best of her AMA Pro career. She said, “My goal was top ten so
to make it happen even after a poor qualifying session was really nice. It’s
frustrating to lose a position due to that meatball flag but it is what it is.

“That’s such a long race. Team Hammer did such an amazing job on these bikes. As
far as I could tell, there was no one out there I couldn’t draft by at will. The
thing was so good and so easy to ride. It was fast but not hard to ride.

“It’s my best Daytona SportBike result by a long way. I’m really pleased. I feel
like we have a good jumping-off point. It feels like I’m getting my feet back
underneath me and that’s a great feeling. I can’t wait for Road America.”

Team Hammer owner John Ulrich commented on the penalty, stating, “The penalty
that Melissa got was really unfortunate. Clearly, the penalty was excessive for
the crime. Yes, an intern jumped over the wall and handed her a water bottle and
yeah, on the way back he picked up a rear tire that had been taken off the bike
and was lying there and took it with him. If that tire would have stayed in
place, it wouldn’t have had any impact whatsoever on Melissa leaving. What the
guy did was wrong; he shouldn’t have done it but it had no impact on the speed
of that stop whatsoever. If they wanted to give us a 15-second penalty or a
20-second penalty — whatever — okay. But giving someone a ride-through for
that, something that had no material effect on the speed of the stop, is
completely excessive and it reeks of old-school AMA Pro.”

The grueling contest was less kind to Benny Solis. After running in ninth in the
race’s opening stages, the Californian encountered electrical equipment issues
and was forced to retire after nine laps.

M4 Broaster Chicken Racing’s Ulrich successfully bounced back from yesterday’s
electronics-related difficulties to race to a top-ten position in Saturday’s
15-lap AMA Superbike final.

Ulrich diced amongst a four-ride pack aboard his Honda CBR1000RR deep into the
contest while posting impressive lap times en route to an eventual ninth-place
finish.

He said, “It went a lot better today. Yesterday, what bit us was a slight change
in the aftermarket engine management electronics — the downshift parameter —
which made the bike inconsistent and unstable during braking. It showed when I
ran off the track three times. It was a challenging race for sure. But today
started off good when I ran P4 in the morning warm-up and we discovered a
couple things with the chassis of the CBR1000RR that don’t necessarily
correlate to the bike we used to ride. We had to soften the back of the bike up
a little bit to get it to transfer some weight and it improved grip a lot. We
also fixed the electronics and it was good.

“We made a slight mistake midway through the race but for the most part, every
lap was faster than my qualifying time and I also turned my fastest-ever lap
around Daytona today. It bodes well for the future, since we’ve had this bike
on track for a total of just four days. We’re just scratching the surface and
the CBR1000RR has a lot of potential. I’m really confident in the M4 crew’s
ability to go forward with my Honda.”

Team Hammer now faces an extended layoff before the next round on the 2013 AMA
Pro Road Racing schedule, scheduled for May 31-June 2 at Road America in
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

About Team Hammer: In 2013, Team Hammer, Inc. is competing in its 33rd
consecutive racing season, and is marking its seventh year of offering
technical and logistical support through its Contract Services Department.
Riders on Team Hammer-prepared racebikes have earned 54 AMA Pro National race
wins; 130 AMA Pro National podium finishes; 5 AMA Pro Championships; 133
Overall National Endurance race wins; 13 National Endurance Championships and
assorted other race wins and titles.