MLADIN TAKES SONOMA FROM SPIES
 Yoshimura
Suzuki's Mat Mladin picked up his 55th career AMA Superbike
victory in the first race of the double-header AMA Superbike
weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California on Saturday
afternoon with his team mates Ben Spies and Tommy Hayden second
and seventh.
"It was a good race for us," said six-time AMA
Superbike Champion Mladin. "I'd like to thank my Yoshimura
Suzuki crew who've worked really hard in the off-season and
in testing to try and get the number-one plate back."
The previous day, defending AMA Superbike Champion Spies
picked up his 11th career pole position, posting a track record-breaking
lap time of 1:34.991. This accomplishment also marks Spies'
fourth consecutive pole position of the season. Spies actually
crashed after turning his fastest lap and went out on his
back-up bike in Saturday's qualifying session to focus on
race set-up.
"The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is working really good,"
said Spies of qualifying first. "I'm really happy with
it. Today, we went out on race tyres and ran the same pace
as yesterday. It was good to get my confidence up and work
on race set-up after the crash yesterday. I couldn't tell
a difference between the two bikes."
Today's race winner Mladin was second-fastest in qualifying
with a lap time of 1:35.128, while Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates
qualified third with a 1:35.875 lap time. Hayden rounded out
the second row of the grid with a 1:36.860 lap time.
In the 28-lap Superbike race, Mladin got the holeshot and
led from beginning to end. The result is that Mladin now trails
Spies in the overall championship standings by only five points.
"It was a good race for us," reiterated Mladin.
"We got a good start and we just put our head down and
tried to go as quick as possible. I just tried to reel off
some good laps and keep it as clean as possible…
I lost a little bit of rhythm, but it seems like everybody
else did too. It was a good day for us and hopefully we'll
get another win tomorrow."
Spies tucked in right behind Mladin and pursued his team
mate for all 28 laps. The young Texan rode as hard as possible
and brought home an impressive second place, maintaining his
championship lead.
"I got my butt kicked," laughed Spies. "I
guess I forgot how to ride a motorcycle. But I rode as hard
as I could and Mat rode a great race. I did everything I could
and even ran off the track on the second lap. I just tried
to get as many points as I could today. It's a long season
and this is just one race. Hopefully, we'll come back strong
for tomorrow."
Meanwhile, Hayden rode an impressive race after getting a
bad start and finishing the first lap in 10th position. But
the Kentucky native put his head down and worked his way through
the pack to finish in seventh place.
"I got a terrible start," he said after the race.
"I'm not sure what was going on. I almost stalled it
and that pushed me back a little bit. I felt like I was just
working my way up in the pack for the whole race. That start
really killed me. Hopefully, tomorrow we can make a few improvements
and get a better start and finish up a little closer to the
podium."
AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
1 Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki)
2 Ben Spies (Yoshimura Suzuki)
3 Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
4 Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
5 Jake Zemke (Honda)
6 Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)
7 Tommy Hayden (Yoshimura Suzuki)
8 Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
9 James Ellison (Honda)
10 Matt Lynn (MV Agusta)
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