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Team M4 Monster Suzuki>> HARD LUCK WEEKEND AT DAYTONA

March 12 2010

Despite showing plenty of promise and speed during the weekend, Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki left the 2010 AMA Pro Road Racing season opener at Daytona International Speedway disappointed. The squad was unable to capitalize on their potential as both John Hopkins' and Martin Cardenas' bids for victory ended early on Friday.

Hopkins retired from the 15-lap AMA Pro American Superbike final with a bike issue while working lap 6 of 15 after demonstrating the pace to run up front on his GSX-R1000. Unfortunately, the team's hopes for redemption under the lights in the 69th running of the Daytona 200 were dashed early as well, as Cardenas crashed out of the lead entering the race's second corner in the tricky, cool conditions.

Cardenas, who missed taking the pole aboard his GSX-R600 by just 0.002 seconds on Thursday evening, escaped his opening lap spill unscathed and eager to get his Daytona SportBike title campaign back on track the next out.

Former MotoGP ace Hopkins' weekend was far from the manner in which he hoped his return to AMA Pro Road Racing competition would play out, but he remains confident in the ability of himself and his team to turn things around quickly. Hopkins and the team had vastly improved the handling on the team’s GSX-R1000 for the weekend's second race.

Commenting on Friday's developments, Hopkins said, "We had a little crash this morning but that was my fault. I was on cold tires and we were fighting the set-up and I just tried to make it work when it wasn't really right. We had been in and out of the pits and there were only around five minutes left and I just lost the front.”

After the crash, the team changed to a different setting on the bike for the race. “We got off the line and I was feeling it out and it was going pretty good. I started to get comfortable and went like 1.6 seconds faster than we have been all week before we encountered an issue.

"If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have had any at all this weekend," Hopkins joked. "Hey, it is what it is but everything happens for a reason and we'll just make sure we keep doing our jobs. We'll go to Fontana and see what we can do there. We’re determined to have success."

Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki will be back in action at Round 2 of the 2010 AMA Pro Road Racing season at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA on March 26-28.

Team M4 Monster Suzuki is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens and bodywork on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes, and is the North American distribution of KR Tuned performance parts. Hotbodies Racing is the market leader in Undertails, Huggers, Windscreens, Flush-Mount Signals, Megaphone Exhausts and full-race Bodywork. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorship around the world and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.HOTBODIESRACING.com.