YOSHIMURA SUZUKI 1-2-3
 Yoshimura
Suzuki dominated the first of two AMA Superbike races in the
double-header weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
on Saturday.
Six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin won the 16-lap
race and moved into the championship points lead while team
mates Ben Spies and Tommy Hayden finished second and third,
respectively. This victory is Mladin's sixth win of the year,
his seventh Road America victory and his 57th career AMA Superbike
win.
"I'd like to thank my Yoshimura Suzuki crew and Suzuki
for delivering such a great motorbike in the GSX-R1000,"
said Mladin. "The bike allowed Yoshimura Suzuki to sweep
the podium today and hopefully we'll come back and do it again
tomorrow."
With intermittent rain in the morning, the day's earlier
qualifying session was more reminiscent of Superbike practice.
As a result, Mladin's provisional lap time of 2:11.541 from
Friday remained the fastest time and he picked up his 51st
career pole position. This is Mladin's first pole position
of the 2007 season and his sixth pole at Road America. The
35-year-old Australian has more AMA Superbike pole positions
than any other rider.
"It was certainly important to get something done (on
Friday)," said Mladin. "We don't have special tyres
for qualifying anymore, just race tyres. So we got a pretty
decent lap on fresh race tyres... and if you can get the bike
set-up right, you can break away."
Defending AMA Superbike Champion Spies was right behind Mladin
in the second spot on the grid, thanks to a lap time of 2:12.330,
while Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates rounded out the front row
with a best time of 2:13.166. Yoshimura Suzuki rider Hayden
qualified close behind on the second row with a fast 2:13.268
lap time.
With rainy weather threatening, Mladin started the race from
the pole but didn't get the perfect start. Even so, he moved
quickly into the lead and held on until the race's end.
"Wet or dry, you have to stay focused and be prepared,"
said Mladin of the potentially sketchy weather. "We had
one bike set up for rain and one bike set up for dry. 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, meanwhile, got a great start and holeshot the race
in spite of having taken a nasty spill on the pre-race warm-up
lap. Even with the get-off, the young Texan put his head down
and rode a great race - leading the first few laps before
bringing home second position.
"It wasn't our day to win today," said Spies. "I
did everything I could but it just wasn't enough. We learned
some things that we can use tomorrow but after the day I've
had, I'm content with second place. (Because of the crash
on the warm-up lap) my crew will have to rebuild a whole motorcycle
tonight and this is two weekends in a row that I've done this
to them. But it's great to get one-two-three for Yoshimura
Suzuki, I'm really happy for Tommy to get on the podium and
congratulations to Mat on a great race."
Two-time AMA Supersport Champion Hayden celebrated his second
AMA Superbike podium -- and his first with the Yoshimura Suzuki
team. Hayden got a decent start on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000
and methodically picked off the competition to move into fourth
place. With a few laps to go, he took over third position
only to get passed on the penultimate lap. Undaunted, Hayden
fought back and made the pass for the podium spot at the start-finish
line.
"It feels good to finally get on the podium this year,"
said Hayden. "It's been a long season and I'd like to
thank my Yoshimura Suzuki crew for being patient with me.
I feel like we've been making good progress this season, though
it's taken a little longer than I would have liked. At a few
races, I felt like I was on the pace but I just didn't have
what it took. This weekend, I felt good and I thought I had
a good chance. It was a good race and the Yoshimura Suzuki
GSX-R1000 is obviously running good to make that pass on the
straight-away."
AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
1 Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki)
2 Ben Spies (Yoshimura Suzuki)
3 Tommy Hayden (Yoshimura 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)
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