BRASELTON – Gainesville’s Geoff May got his wish Sunday at Road Atlanta.
Team Jordan Suzuki teammates, May and Aaron Yates, finished first and second respectively in the AMA Superstock race with one of them clinching the series championship.
May earned his second career victory in a thrilling side-by-side wheelie finish over Aaron Yates of Milledgeville, who clinched the series points title with one race to go this season.
May won the race by 0.044 seconds.
Yates grabbed the lead at the start with May third behind the Suzuki of Blake Young of Wisconsin.
May got around Young on a restart following a red flag for a crash, and then chased down Yates until he was able to draft past him on lap 8.
Yates haunted May until he was able to get past his teammate on the backstretch.
"This is so neat," May said. "This is just perfect. I had to work hard to pass Aaron, but I got a good jump off turn 7 and tucked up underneath him. We were going into a good head wind, and the tow he was giving me helped me slingshot around him."
It was the first victory for May at his home track, and it helped solidify his hold on third place in the standings heading into the season finale at Laguna Seca.
Yates clinched his second Superstock title, the first for former basketball star Michael Jordan’s team.
Yates also won the Superstock title in 2005 when he rode for the Yoshimura Suzuki factory team. He now has five AMA championships.
"I would like to dedicate this championship to my mother-in-law, who passed away a month ago," Yates said. "She was a big supporter. "I just had fun today. I didn’t want to know or think about the championship. I knew what I had to do (pad his lead by just three points over Jake Holden). It’s been a really good year, and I want to thank my crew."
Later in the day Sunday, May finished 10th in the 25-lap feature Superbike race.
Texan Ben Spies made a daring pass off Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin coming out of turn 7 on lap 19 to claim his first career Superbike victory at Road Atlanta. Spies also leads the championship standings with one race left.
Mladin won Saturday’s Superbike race, extending his Road Atlanta win streak to five.
The last time anybody else won a Superbike race at Road Atlanta was Sept. 4, 2005 when Yates beat Spies.