AMA Superbikes: Suzuki dominate Fontana

Rockstar Makita Suzuki team mates Mat Mladin and Tommy Hayden dominated both days of racing in the AMA Superbike Championship race at Fontana in California.

On Saturday less than a second separated Mladin and Hayden with third place going to Geoff May on a National Guard-backed Suzuki and new Rockstar Makita team rider Blake Young fourth.

It could have been five Suzukis in the top five had Michael Jordan Motorsports’ Aaron Yates not low-sided his GSX-R1000 while holding a comfortable third place.

Sunday’s second race was a repeat of the first as far as the two front-runners were concerned with Hayden and Mladin swapping places until Mladin capitalised on a nearly-flawless race to take the chequered flag.

Hayden was not able to keep pace with Mladin in the final laps but succeeded in holding off the rest of the field, earning another second-place.

Mladin said: “I had a good race today. (after Saturday’s race) We learned a little bit from Tommy yesterday and changed a couple things.

“We made some improvements and it allowed me to stay close to him and make the move when I needed to. It’s great to have Suzuki up here on top again with first and second-placed finishes”

Hayden added: “It was shaping up to be a pretty good race battling with Mat. I got on the front straightaway and missed a couple gears. I had some issues with grip today so it was a little harder for me to run with Mat.

“He had his head down today. It was a good weekend with two second-placed finishes. I’ve got a little momentum going into Road Atlanta and we’ll try to keep up what we’ve been doing.”

With Neil Hodgson recovering from injuries sustained in a crash last week during training on a supercross track, Jake Holden took the Corona Honda to fifth place in Saturday’s race but was sidelined with a misfire in Sunday’s race.

Race 1
1 Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2 Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
3 Geoff May (Suzuki)
4 Blake Young (Suzuki)
5 Jake Holden (Honda)
6 Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
7 Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
8 David Anthony (Suzuki)
9 Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
10 Aaron Gobert (Honda)

Race 2
1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
3. Larry Pegram (Ducati)
4. Geoff May (Suzuki)
5. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
6. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
7. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
8. David Anthony (Suzuki)
9. Blake Young (Suzuki)
10. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)

Championship points (after 3 races): 1 Mladin 94, 2 Hayden 72, 3 May 50, 4 Young 46, 5 Bostrom 45, 6 Hayes 43, 7 Pegram 39, 8 Yates 31, 9 Gobert 30, 10 Knapp 26.