Mladin goes top of AMA Superbike championship

Six-time champion Mat Mladin won the first of two AMA Superbike races at the weekend as Yoshimura Suzuki dominated the podium in Wisconsin.

Mladin moved into the lead in the championship following his win of the 16-lap race as his teammates, Ben Spies and Tommy Hayden finished second and third respectively.

Intermittent rain had disrupted the qualifying session on Saturday at the Elkhart Lane circuit, but 35-year-old Mladin’s Friday time of 2:11.541 was enough to secure his 51st career pole for the start of the race.

This was enough to give Mladin the advantage going in to the first corner and he managed to hold on to this lead for the duration of the 16 laps on his GSX-R1000.

After the race Mladin said: “Fortunately, it was a dry race; the spectators want to see a good race and not a bunch of guys splashing around.  Hopefully, we gave them a good show and they got their money’s worth.”

Spies improved on his race one result to win race two on Sunday on a wet track.
Jamie Hacking finished second almost 12 seconds behind on his Kawasaki ZX-10R
Saturday’s winner, Mladin, did make the podium in third place just over 36 and a half seconds behind Spies.

AMA Superbike race one top 10 results:
1 Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2 Ben Spies (Suzuki)
3 Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
4 Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
5 Jake Zemke (Honda)
6 Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)
7 Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)
8 Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
9 Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
10 Jake Holden (Jordan Suzuki)

AMA Superbike race two top 10 results:
1. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
2. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
3. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
5. James Ellison (Honda)
6. Jake Zemke (Honda)
7. Jake Holden (Suzuki)
8. John Haner (Suzuki)
9. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)
10. Dominic Jones (Honda)