Suzuki Runner-up in Norwalk
By: Jack Korpela •  Photos: Matt Polito, www.dragbikephotos.com

The newly formed Team Brock’s Performance Suzuki squad enjoyed its best outing of the year with a runner-up performance in 1000 Super Sport at the AMA/Prostar Norris Motor Sports Cyclefest, June 26th-27th, in Norwalk, OH, near the team’s headquarters.

“To say we made progress is an understatement,” Team manager Brock Davidson said. “It’s a new program and we’ve had an awful lot to learn. I’m proud to say that Dustin and I have learned very quickly. In addition to good old fashioned hard work, we have enjoyed our newly formed relationship with Ammar Bazzaz of Bazzaz Performance Design. He was very influential in Matt Mladins initial AMA Road race championships with Yoshimura USA. Ammar is a very bright guy and his fully programmable ECU’s worked flawlessly all weekend.”

Dustin Clark recorded a personal best on Saturday and qualified his GSXR 1000 in the number-three spot with a solid 9.12 at 150 mph. Clark chopped his way through Sunday’s elimination bracket before losing a tight race to Kawasaki’s Chip Ellis in the final, running a 9.18 to Ellis’ 9.17.

“It was very exciting,” Clark said. “I was a little nervous but when it came down to it I did what I had to do and ran my fastest pass of the day against Chip.”

“The highpoint of the weekend for me was watching Dustin do what I knew he could do,” Davidson said. “Dustin was so nervous about facing Rickey Gadson; I though thought he was going to need Oxygen from the Medic crew!” joked Davidson “Once he repaid Rickey for some past losses, it gave him the confidence needed to do a great job in the final. He has nothing to be ashamed of. The nice thing about runner-ups is that they make you even hungrier for a win the next time.”

Davidson also had a good weekend, qualifying fifth with a 9.25, which, including Keith Dennis, gave Suzuki three of the top five qualifying spots.

“I won’t lie, the Kawasakis are certainly no joke, those guys are running very well. But, I think we proved this weekend that the Suzukis can compete for a championship,” Davidson said.

Vince Woska qualified his GSXR 600 in the number six spot with an on-pace 9.93 at 134 mph. Woska advanced to the quarterfinals where he lost to Richard Gadson who ran a 9.95 to Woska’s 10.01.

“I was hoping for a little better performance this weekend,” Woska said. “We’ve found that it’s very difficult to get my bike to run in low barometric pressure, and that’s what we had this weekend. We’re not discouraged; we’ll be stepping up real soon.”

“Vince continued to get faster throughout the weekend,” Davidson said. “He did a great job on the tree. We just need to do some more testing to put him ahead of the pack.”

Next up for the Team Suzuki/Brock Performance Products Team will be the Pingel Thunder Nationals, August 21st and 22nd, from Clark’s home town of Indianapolis, IN.

“I feel so much more comfortable on the bike now than I did in the beginning of the season,” Clark said. “I think our team has a ton of potential.” Clark extended a special thanks to his crew member Dave Owen.

The team expressed gratitude towards all of its dedicated sponsors and thanked; American Suzuki Motor Corp., Ohlins shocks, World Wide Bearings, Bates Leathers, NUTEC Racing Fuels, Millennium Technologies, Alisyn Oils and introducing Bazzaz Performance Design and Spiegler Brake Systems USA.

With a special thanks to Dean Shields of American Made Cycles for putting up with the chaos associated with Dyno time for a program of this nature!