The race was a virtual duplicate of Saturday’s 25-lap affair. Title-leading teammate Ben Spies grabbed the early led while Mladin set off on one of his typical ‘less than ideal’ starts from the front row, dropping to seventh on the opening circulation, just like yesterday.

And again, the Australian ace made a rapid charge through the factory stars standing in his way, dropping third Yosh runner Aaron Yates, Parts Unlimited Ducati’s Neil Hodgson, Team Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden, and the American Honda duo of Jake Zemke and Miguel DuHamel in a matter of four lap’s time.

Just two more laps were needed for Mladin to swing past Spies, who had no desire to dogfight with the defending champ on this day, and take control of first on the back straight on lap six.

Once through, Mladin set off to a double-digit margin of victory, ultimately claiming the checkered flag with 10.500 seconds to spare.

The win was Mladin’s fourth straight as he’s gained momentum just at the same time that Spies has been forced into conservative mode by his strong championship position and still-mending broken right hand. Mladin, who’s anxiously awaiting another shot at Spies in ’07, clearly feels that while those two realities may be related to some degree, they are not 100% tied together.

He commented, “I’ve come on pretty strong at the end of the year and a few things have come together. Ben’s doing what he has do. Only Ben knows how hard he’s riding and I’m looking forward to next year.”

He continued, reflecting on his epic career to date, remarking “Six championships, 50 wins, and 50 poles -- if I decided to stop after Ohio I’d have to be pretty happy with where my career is at the moment. This year getting a bit of a kick in the pants for most of the year from Ben has certainly lit the fire under me. I looking forward to the offseason and I’m looking forward to getting on the new bike. I’m going to come back next year and somehow I don’t think he’s going to have it so easy.”

While Spies didn’t push Mladin at the front, no one else had anything for the 22-year-old Texan, who apparently is, even when riding hurt and safely, a good six seconds a race better than the third best rider on the track.

“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” said Spies, who needs to finish only 13th or better in Ohio to assure himself of the 2006 AMA Superbike crown. “We got a good start and we pulled out a couple seconds. We knew Mat was coming and I just ran my pace and he ran me down. When I saw he was right behind me we kind of rolled off down the back straightaway; I wasn’t going to even attempt to slow him down. And I just rode the race exactly like I wanted to. We didn’t have to push too hard. We got a decent gap on third and just kind of hung out and just waited for the end of the race.

“The weekend went exactly how we wanted it to. We got the extra point that we could (pole) and got a couple seconds. Now we can go to Ohio and if everything works out -- it was obviously a very comfortable track for us last time we were there -- so we’ll go there, ride around, and try to seal this thing.”

And just like in Saturday’s race, third Yoshimura man Yates came from behind to complete a Suzuki sweep of the podium. Systematically working past Hayden and the Honda pilots, Yates was only in a position to steal third place away from former World Superbike champ Hodgson in the race’s final stages.

Unable to find a way past in the more conventional passing zones, such as Turn 1, the back straight, or on the brakes in 10, Yates saved it until the final trip down the hill to go driving past the Englishman in one of the scariest corners in the world.

Yates later explained that while others may shy away from it, Turn 12 is his money section on the Road Atlanta circuit. “It was just an area I’ve been strong at all day. In the Superstock race I passed Geoff May there and I think I passed everybody in the Superbike race there. I just can’t seem to be close enough to get anybody on the brakes, and that’s about the best place to try to out-drive somebody. It all worked out.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen for a while. I was a ways back and once I got to some clear track I tried to chase Neil down. He was going really good. I just kept my head down trying to chase him down. I smelled something burning down the back straight. I didn’t know if it was my motorcycle or something was on fire…

“Once I got close up to Neil I realized what it was. On the last lap there were parts falling off his bike all over the place out there. Coming onto the back straight at the kink I was real close to him and a big ‘ole piece of insulation flew out of the daggum muffler. My bike stepped out real big sideways. It was pretty exciting right there. I knew I couldn’t get him on the straightaway or on the brakes. He actually tried getting in a little too hot in Turn 10 and went a little wide which kind of helped out a little bit for me to be a little closer on the drive out.”

Canadian DuHamel picked up fifth after running in second early, surviving a serious challenge from Kawasaki-mounted Hayden late.

Hodgson’s teammate, Ben Bostrom, dropped a tire-smoking and fading Zemke to eighth on the final lap after threatening to do so for an extended run.

Tommy Hayden finished ninth after being pushed to the brink by the Jordan Suzukis of tenth-place finisher Jake Holden and eleventh-placed Steve Rapp.

Spies will look to tie up his first career AMA Superbike title at the 2006 series finale, which will take place at Mid-Ohio on September 29-October 1.