Pegram Takes the Double, Moves into 3rd in the Series!

Team Foremost Ducati’s Larry Pegram made it a double by taking the win in race 2 of the AMA American Superbike Championship round at Heartland Park, Topeka today catapulting him to 3rd in the series standings.

Ducati North America probably can’t believe it’s luck. Supporting Team Foremost Ducati allowed for a relatively inexpensive pseudo return to factory Ducati racing in the AMA series but the expectations can’t have been too high. They obviously weren’t counting on Larry Pegram, who broke his decade long drought of Superbike wins by standing on top of the dais at Road America and then has followed that up with double victories this weekend to move into 3rd in the standings for the inaugural, AMA American Superbike Championship.


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Larry Wins Again on the Foremost Ducati 1098R!

After setting pole on Friday, Team Foremost Ducati owner and racer, Larry Pegram, took his Ducati 1098R to a flag to flag victory during Race 1 of the AMA American Superbike Championship round at Heartland Park, Topeka yesterday.

At the flag, Larry was 2.1 seconds ahead of Ben Bostrum’s Yamaha R1, whilst Suzuki’s Blake Young took the final podium spot.

«For me, it’s validation. At Road America, we beat maybe the best guy out there in a straight-up fight. To do it again and win here in Kansas, it proves to me we can win and it certainly feels great to do it. I always knew at the bottom of my heart I could win races if I could get on a bike capable and this Ducati 1098R certainly is capable. It’s been a great machine since the day we picked them up at the dealership and began building them into race bikes. To win here at a track where there’s more than just a fast straight is good, too. The entire team is really happy with this win.»

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I know this site is dedicated to Ducati, but sometimes it is worth resetting the lens to look at something significant in our sport. Today Mat Mladin announced his retirement from motorcycle road racing at the end of 2009 and I wanted to acknowledge his amazing career. Beside he raced a Fast by Ferraci Ducati and a Cagiva 500GP bike so that qualifies him as a Ducatista!

Mladin won his first national championship in Australia in 1981 on the dirt (flat track). He followed that up with 3 motocross championships in a single year. His switch to road-racing marked him as a phenom since he began winning almost immediately taking the Australian 250 Production championship in 1991 and followed that up with the Australian Superbike championship the very next year on a Team Kawasaki Australia ZXR750. The following year he was a factory 500GP racer. Just pause for a second to absorb all that. Imagine you started road-racing this year and in 2011 you had a MotoGP ride racing with Valentino Rossi and company? I know, it’s almost inconceivable. For young, inexperienced Mladin the pressure of trying to race at the pinnacle of 2 wheeled sport on the global stage on the less than ideal Cagiva proved difficult.


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Capitalizing on the absence of one Mat Mladin, Team Foremost Ducati’s Larry Pegram claimed pole position for the 2 races this weekend at the Topeka round of the AMA Superbike Championship.

Pegram powered his Ducati 1098R around in a time 2/10ths faster than Aron Yates on the Jordan Suzuki. Jake Holden was 3rd fastest. Can Pegram take another win for Ducati this season?

1 Larry Pegram Pegram Racing Ducati 1098R 1:36.368
2 Aaron Yates Jordan Suzuki Brand Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:36.513
3 Jake Holden Holden Racing Honda CBR1000RR 1:36.540
4 Ben Bostrom Yamaha Motor Corp Yamaha R1 1:36.643
5 Joshua Hayes Yamaha Motor Corp Yamaha R1 1:36.994
6 Michael Laverty Celtic Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:37.126
7 Blake Young Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:37.263
8 Tommy Hayden Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:37.481
9 Neil Hodgson Corona Extra Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1:37.670
10 Geoff May National Guard Jordan Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 No time, crash

Source: Superbike Planet

Xerox Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga defied the odds yesterday to emerge from the Brno round of the 2009 World Superbike championship with his series lead intact despite riding only weeks after he fractured his right ulna and cracked his left scapula in 3 places at the Donington Park round.

After severe pain from his injured scapula (which ducatinewstoday knows full well unfortunately) meant he could qualify only 14th fastest, it seemed a foregone conclusion that unexpected pole-sitter, Yamaha’s Ben Spies, would fight for a double win and take the points lead for the first time this year.

Race 1
However Haga’s teammate, Michel Fabrizio, and a fast Max Biaggi on the new Aprilia RSV4 had other ideas. During the first race Fabrizio did Haga a huge, presumably inadvertent favor when he lost the front and took himself and Spies out of the event as you can see below.




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