AMA SuperBikes: Miller Motorsports Park

Ben Spies doubles at MMP

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies put on a virtual repeat of Saturday's AMA Superbike performance at Miller Motorsports Park on Sunday, powering into the lead from pole and tearing open an immediate gap just a handful of corners into the 100k event.

Spies slowly eked out his advantage on his GSX-R1000 and was never seriously challenged en route to his 24th career AMA Superbike victory. The win was the Texan's sixth straight, again tying the all-time record he already shared a piece of along with Miguel DuHamel and Mat Mladin.

In fact, the entire podium was a repeat of Saturday's, right down to Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking running off line briefly, forcing him to work back past former World Superbike champion Neil Hodgson to claim the runner-up position ahead of his fellow countryman.

One key difference on Sunday, however, was the way Hacking and Hodgson elevated themselves into podium contention. Six-time champ Mladin didn't crash out of second on this day, instead he was tracked down and passed, first by Hodgson on lap 5 of 14 on the front straight, and then by Hacking a lap later in the same place.

Hacking made minor inroads on Spies' lead for a couple laps mid-race, but the GP aspirant stepped his pace back up and immediately added additional chunks to his lead.

Spies ultimately took the checkered flag with a 6.897-second margin of victory.

Mladin settled into a clear fourth, some 17 seconds behind race winner Spies, while Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates beat Hodgson's teammate, Miguel DuHamel, for fifth.

Geoff May, who claimed his first-career AMA win yesterday, took his Superstock-spec Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 to seventh in Sunday's Superbike race, nearly tracking down Yates and DuHamel, while Yamaha USA teammates Jason DiSalvo and Eric Bostrom finished eighth and ninth, respectively.

Team ESP's Chris Peris completed the top ten.

Next week the AMA Superbike Championship travels to Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. Worth noting -- the last time Spies won six races in a row, Mladin snapped his streak with a double victory at Road America, one of the Australian's favorite circuits on the tour.