22/07/2010
Team Suzuki Press Office - July 22.
Peter Doyle is Crew Chief for the Rockstar Makita Suzuki AMA Superbike team.
"This year has been interesting so far for the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team. With Mat Mladin retiring, we went from a three-man roster to a two-man team. Mladin was a force on the racetrack and just about everywhere else he went.
"Tommy Hayden and Blake Young were both riding the GSX-R1000 for us last year, so the change hasn't been abrupt. We started 2010 hoping to get both our racers on the podium as much as possible, and we've been successful so far. Tommy won his very first Superbike race in March, in his fourth year with the team. We knew he had it in him to win because he's won other championships, and this year he seems to have really stepped it up a notch. Since that first win, he's won two additional races.
"We're pretty happy with the results and think that Tommy has a chance to win the whole thing this year. Blake also has had great results this year. He won the doubleheader at Road Atlanta in April and has been on the podium plenty. Unfortunately he had a get-off at a test in Alabama last month and is recovering from a back injury. In the meantime, we brought over the reigning Australian Superbike champion Josh Waters to fill in for Blake in two of the AMA races. Josh is a good young racer, a great guy, and since he races a GSX-R1000 in Australia we though it would be a good fit for him and us. Josh was practicing two weeks ago and crashed at Willow Springs in California. He missed the race last weekend, but he's set to be on track for Laguna Seca this weekend. Then he'll go back to Australia and keep on defending his title. Overall, we're happy with our team, the racers, our technicians, and our GSX-R1000s. With Mat, we knew what to expect from a race season. Now in this year of transition, we're happy to know that we're still capable of winning on any given weekend."