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AMA SuperBikes VIR

AMA SuperBikes: Mladin closes to within 6 points of Spies

(AMA Pro Racing Release) The 2007 AMA Superbike Championship appears to be headed towards an appropriately exciting conclusion to a title battle already considered one of the greatest in the series’ history. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin reduced the difference to reigning AMA Superbike championship Ben Spies to a slim six points thanks to a perfect haul this weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

Mladin’s Sunday accomplishment brought up numbers more commonly associated with mainstream sports, securing a triple double -- six wins in a row at VIR -- while upping his career wins tally to a Roger Maris-esque level.

There’ll be no asterisk next to this ’61,’ however, as Mladin’s Sunday victory was never in question. The six-time AMA Superbike king took full advantage of a new clutch that may have finally eliminated his frequent starting woes, and the Aussie quickly cleared off into the distance.

Spies was the one struggling early this time around, being shuffled back to sixth on the opening lap and having to fight hard to make his way up through the order. After one false attempt on Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking and Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates in Turn 1 on lap 4, Spies finally established himself in second at the start of the lap 6 of 28.

The Texan was already nearly three seconds down, however, and combined with Mladin’s superior pace, he realized he had little chance of racing for the win and just made sure he minimized the damage heading into the season’s crucial final three races.

Following his 10th win of the season, Mladin talked about once again charging back from a rather significant points deficit. “It’s the second time we’ve done it this year. After Daytona we had a little bit of a points gap to catch back up and we got in the lead in Road America. And then in the wet race on Sunday we gave it back again and lost a few after that. And (crashing) in Utah, we really did ourselves a lot of harm if we’re thinking about championships. I’m just fighting to come back as strong as possible and win as many races as I can and see what happens at the end.

“I’m enjoying this season more than any I’ve had so far because it’s such a good challenge to race Ben and to get the measure of him. To be honest with you, I hope we can win the next couple in Atlanta because I really want to be able to go to Laguna Seca and have it winner take all because that would just be the ultimate. Laguna’s never been one of my strongest tracks, but to me it’s a challenge. I’d really enjoy to be able to have to go there and put it on the line at Laguna Seca and win one.”

Runner-up Spies continued his season-long streak of top twos, but needs more than that with Mladin stringing together four consecutive wins and tightening the points chase.

He said, “Obviously second isn’t getting it done. But I’m not upset because I rode it 100% both races. We obviously just, like I’ve said all weekend, if it’s me or the bike, we didn’t have something right and that’s all it took. But when it came down to riding the motorcycle I was rode as hard as I could both races so I’m not upset with myself.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming Road Atlanta contest, Spies commented, “We got to do everything we can do. Worse case scenario, if he cleans house there -- of course we don’t want that to happen -- but it looks like it will come down to Laguna the way the points are… It’s still going to be tight but any single point from here on out is going to matter on Sunday at Laguna Seca. We’re just going to go for everything. We’ve got to go for pole, most laps, the wins, whatever we can get we’ve got to do it.

“It’s going to be tough. We had a test at Road Atlanta a week or two ago and we were both going really well. It’s going to be hard to go back and find more time of what we laid down there. I think there it’s going to be who can go fast and save the tire because tire wear is definitely going to be an issue there. I guess this is what championships are all about. You like winning them from way out front, but whoever does win this championship on Sunday is going to be a lot more excited than winning it by 30 or 40 points.”

Yates and Hacking resumed their Saturday battle for a time, but the Kawasaki runner appeared to have some minor intermittent problem that allowed the Georgian to break free into a clear third. Yates’ second Superbike podium for the squad was a fine way to celebrate today’s announcement that he had re-signed with the team for 2008.

Yates remarked, “We’ve been on the podium a bunch of times in the past and going to a new team, I didn’t expect anything different. It just took a while to get going, get the bike sorted. It’s really come around lately. We made a few changes last night that really made the bike get through the turns easier. I wish we could have had it yesterday; we might have been up here then too.

“Hopefully (at Atlanta), we’ll get a top three again -- make it a Suzuki 1-2-3. That’s the goal every race. We’re getting a good enough package now where that’s realistic and that’s what we’re working towards.”

Behind fourth-placed Hacking, a thrilling dogfight for fifth took shape, involving Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden, Yamaha USA’s Eric Bostrom, American Honda’s Jake Zemke, and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden.

Eventually Zemke faded and Tommy Hayden looked to have a fine view of the Roger Hayden-Eric Bostrom scrap for the position. That quickly changed when the youngest racing Hayden went off in 1 on lap 26 and shortly thereafter stopped momentarily on the course and Bostrom pulled off the track seconds later, gifting the elder Hayden fifth place.

Zemke was elevated to sixth, while FBF MV Agusta’s Luca Scassa and Matt Lynn combined to give the Italian manufacturer a fine 7-8 result.

Despite running off course, Jordan Suzuki’s Jake Holden picked up ninth, one spot ahead of Roger Hayden, who soldiered on to tenth.

Bostrom’s teammate, Jason DiSalvo, joined him in the DNF column, coming into the pits following 13 laps, as did Corona Extra Honda’s James Ellison, who completed just five.

Expect the tension to be through the roof in two weeks time, as the 2007 AMA Superbike Championship heads to Road Atlanta on August 31-September 2 for the penultimate round of the season with Spies looking to bounce back and protect his six point advantage (550-544) over fierce rival Mladin.