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Mladin Ups Win Streak To Four

Yoshimura Suzuki?s Mat Mladin extended his recent return to dominance, scoring his 57th career AMA Superbike victory on Saturday afternoon at Road America. After the skies cleared just in time to allow for a dry final, Mladin stumbled out of the gates from pole, but quickly regrouped to battle his way into the lead by the end of lap two, a position he would hold to the checkered flag.

As per usual, only one man was able to even keep the Australian legend honest: defending series champion Ben Spies.

The 22-year-old Texan rocketed to the holeshot and pulled an early advantage as Mladin dropped to fourth behind Jordan Suzuki?s Aaron Yates and American Honda?s Jake Zemke. During the time it took the six-time champ to work his way into second, Spies had opened up a 1.213-second advantaged on the race?s first circulation of the four-mile raceway. However, with a clear track in front of him, Mladin quickly gobbled up the gap and positioned himself to steal the lead as the two crossed the stripe to start the third lap.

Mladin then went about adding several tenths to his padding for the next couple laps but mysteriously slowed while working lap 5 and 6, allowed Spies to close back to 0.692 seconds after having fallen back to 1.371 seconds off the lead only two laps earlier.

Mladin picked his pace back up and, while Spies kept him honest to the end, he proved to be in complete control to the flag.

After the race, the former Cagiva GP runner explained what caused his momentary dip in performance. ?Lap three, I believe, I split an exhaust pipe — at least I think that’s what happened. I had my head down, I?d taken off, and something happened. It was very hard to concentrate for all the race from there because the bike was just very, very loud. I couldn?t hear myself thinking. It was that bad.

?And I lost of lot of top-end power up the front straight. On all the straights I was changing the gears much, much later. And by the time I got into top gear on most of the straights I was 150 or 200 yards past where I was in the warm-up. I really had to change my riding a little bit as of when that happened, to try and carry more rolling speed, because the thing wasn?t accelerating like it was on the first two laps. So we had some issues in that race and it was nice just to hold on and get the win. I?m sure we?ll fix it tonight and come out tomorrow with a better motorcycle.?

Spies put in a courageous performance just to finish second. After the early afternoon had seen some heavy rainfall in the area, the riders were given a short practice prior to the race to get a last look at the quickly drying surface before they raced on it. Disaster struck Spies for the second time this weekend as the champion crashed heavily in Turn 3 during the mini-warm-up and was limping around afterwards, visibly favoring his right leg following the spill. Minutes later he was back on the circuit, leading the Superbike final.

?It wasn?t our day to win today,? Spies said on the podium before immediately leaving the circuit for therapy. ?Mat rode a great race today and I did everything I could but it just wasn?t enough today. 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 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.?

Tommy Hayden completed a Yoshimura Suzuki sweep of the podium in dramatic fashion, locking down the position just inches before the finish line.

The Kentuckian made a steady climb up from seventh early, working through and breaking away from a three-rider scrap with Zemke and Yamaha USA?s Eric Bostrom for fifth on lap 9 of 16. He then closed from three seconds back on the dogfight for the final podium position, waged the majority of the race by Yates and Zemke?s American Honda teammate, Miguel DuHamel.

Hayden took over third on lap 13 when Georgian Yates lowsided right in front of him in Turn 5. However, DuHamel slid underneath Hayden on the last lap in the Carousel, threatening Hayden?s first Superbike podium finish for Yoshimura.

Hayden wasn’t finished quite yet though. He got a brilliant drive on the start/finish straight and powered past DuHamel just as the two took the flag, claiming his second career Superbike podium by a scant 0.027.

?I knew Miguel was there,? Hayden remarked. ?I could hear him with a lap-and-a-half to go. I really tried to put my head down the last lap and I felt like I did most the lap pretty good. I got to the Carousel and lost the front really bad in the middle and ran wide and he got by on the inside. After that I just tried to look for anywhere I could get past him. He was a little over defensive in the last corner and allowed me to square up real nice and get a good run on him. The finish line was at the right spot today.?

?I feel like we?re making good progress,? he continued. ?It?s just taken a little bit longer than I would have liked. I?ve felt not too bad at a couple races, like I had the pace to be on the podium, I just didn?t race well enough. I was definitely focused on trying to get that behind me this weekend and get my first podium of the year. I got the one, hopefully the rest of them start coming a little more often and I can start inching up on these guys a little bit.?

Zemke rounded out the top five, while Bostrom, who ran off the track in 5 on lap 8 came home in sixth. Team Kawasaki?s Roger Hayden picked up seventh, just 0.039 seconds in front of Bostrom?s teammate, Jason DiSalvo, who also ran off in 5. The New Yorker spent his entire race playing catch up after his first-lap mistake, charging up from outside the top twenty to finish just fractions off seventh.

Hayden raced most of the contest in formation with his Kawasaki teammate, Jamie Hacking, before the ?07 Superstock/Supersport champ ultimately fell off the pace late and finished ninth. Jordan Suzuki?s Jake Holden rounded out the top ten.

Mladin now boasts a 6-point title lead over Spies (276-270), which he?ll bring into Sunday?s 100k Superbike final at Road America.

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