AMA SuperBikes: 2008 Daytona Race Results

Mladin runs away with opening victory

(AMA Pro Racing Release) The 2008 AMA Superbike Championship opener took a familiar shape, as six-time series king Mat Mladin powered off the line from pole and was never seriously challenged throughout the 15-lap contest at Daytona International Speedway.

As was so frequently the case in ’07, one of the series’ top two riders managed to nail the start while the other missed it ever so slightly and was never able to rebound. Defending series and race champion Ben Spies dropped a couple positions off the line, and while he fought to quickly work his way up to the runner-up position, his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki teammate opened an early two-second advantage by the second lap.

From there the Australian did what he does, putting his head down and maintaining a relentless pace, never allowing Spies to make any headway.

Mladin, whose goal this season is to re-break his year-old mark of 12 AMA Superbike wins in a single season, is off to an ideal start, quite the contrast to ’07 when he started his championship campaign in a big hole after crashing during the opener.

The victory was a record-extending 64th of Mladin’s illustrious AMA Superbike career.

While Spies was unable to triumph, he did manage to keep his season-plus streak of runner-up finishes intact, an approach that allowed him to successfully defend his crown last season.

Late last season Yamaha USA’s Jason DiSalvo appeared to be in danger of losing his factory Superbike ride following his rookie season. Ultimately, Yamaha decided to retain the youngster and he’s made them look wise already, backing up his first-ever Superbike front row qualifying performance with his first-ever class podium result.

Once Spies dropped him from second to third following the opening lap, DiSalvo held strong in third, opening several seconds of padding back to fourth aboard his YZF-R1 Superbike, which also looks to have turned a corner over the offseason.

Third works Suzuki entry Tommy Hayden escaped from a four-way tilt for sixth, which included his brother Roger Hayden on the Monster Energy Kawasaki ZX-10R and the American Honda duo of Neil Hodgson and Miguel DuHamel, to track down Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking.

Hayden overtook the English-born Kawasaki ace on the final lap to steal away fourth with Hacking holding on for fifth and Yates claiming sixth.

Despite running wide in the infield Hodgson took seventh, followed by the younger Hayden.

Team M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Blake Young followed up his Superstock runner-up finish with a ninth-place ride in the premier class opener, edging Jordan Suzuki’s Geoff May and former World Superbike star Akira Yanagawa.

DuHamel finished off an already frustrating day by crashing his all-new CBR1000RR, while DiSalvo’s teammate, Eric Bostrom, was forced to retire with a mechanical issue.

Mladin and Spies will go back at it when the series picks up at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL on April 18-20.