Mladin wins Road Atlanta Race 1

Mladin takes win at Road Atlanta

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Mat Mladin scored his third consecutive AMA Superbike victory by running away at the front this afternoon at Road Atlanta. The Yoshimura Suzuki legend clawed a bit closer to his title-leading teammate Ben Spies in the season’s point race as a result, although the Texan was able to largely minimize the damage with a secure second-place ride of his own.

While Mladin eventually cleared off to a 5.090-second margin of victory over Spies (it was more than 20 seconds back to the best of the rest), he was forced to work for his race win in the early going. As has happened so many times before, the Aussie stumbled off the line from pole and found himself behind early leader Miguel DuHamel, Spies, Parts Unlimited Ducati’s Neil Hodgson, third Yosh runner Aaron Yates, and DuHamel’s American Honda teammate Jake Zemke during the contest’s opening circulation.

Despite his early disadvantage, Mladin made a swift and forceful charge up through the pack. He dropped Zemke on the opening lap, sliced past Yates and Hodgson on lap 2, and then relegated DuHamel to third with a deft outbraking maneuver in Turn 10a on lap 3.

The 34-year-old six-time AMA Superbike champ used lap 4 to erase the gap to first and then ducked into the lead at the start of the fifth lap, overtaking Spies on the entrance to Turn 1.

Spies, mindful of his championship lead and his still-mending hand, wisely decided against attempting any sort of counterattack and just watched as his veteran teammate slowly pulled free by a few tenths each time around the 2.5-mile racecourse.

After moving to within 25 points of the lead with his 49th career AMA Superbike victory (and eighth at Road Atlanta), Mladin remarked, “I had to come through at the start and I felt pretty good. I got through and got up to Ben and then got through in Turn 1. I just tried to keep it reasonably clean. There was a lot of spinning going on out there, that’s for sure. I just held on to the end. It was pretty uneventful really.”

Despite earning a clear advantage at the front, Mladin continued to push right to the checkered flag. “I actually tried to get within a few tenths of my best lap on the last lap but I screwed up in Turn 6. I just wanted to push and see what the tire was capable of doing. I had a few lappers there with a few laps to go and I was in the ‘24s just having to get through people. On the last lap I wanted to get back into the low ‘23s. I pushed and pushed and then just tucked the front in Turn 6 wanting to see what the tires were capable of doing on the last lap. I ended back up in the ‘23s but wasn’t where I wanted to be. But it was good. The bike felt good. The tires felt pretty good -- there was a lot of spinning going on but the tires were capable of going quick all the way through. We’re looking forward to tomorrow.”

Runner-up Spies stated, “We got off to a pretty good start. Miguel came off the line like he was on a drag bike. I got behind him; I wanted to get to Turn 1 first and… not do a super-hard lap but just try to get a little bit of a gap, but I couldn’t do it. I passed him going into 1 and put a couple laps together. I saw where Mat was on my pitboard and saw that he caught me relatively quickly. It was 0.2 going in one lap and I knew he was going to catch me. I could hear him in 10 right behind me. I came out of the last corner and kind of left the door open in 1 and wasn’t really going to slow his progress down.

“He went by me and I just tried to get in behind him. I didn’t really want to try to run his pace early because I didn’t know what was going to happen with my hand -- if it would get tired or what not. About midway through I could see we were kind of staying about the same gap and then I was wishing I did push a little harder in the beginning. The bike was working great but we don’t need to be up there if it’s not super-comfortable.”

The battle for third was perhaps the most entertaining aspect of what was otherwise a processional affair at the front following a furious first few laps. DuHamel appeared well positioned in third, having ripped away from the ‘pretenders’ while clinging onto the tail end of the early Mladin/Spies duel.

However, third Suzuki star Yates made an impressive charge at his home venue, closing from nearly three seconds back to arrive on the rear wheel of DuHamel’s California-developed CBR1000RR by lap 12 of 25.

The hard-charging Georgian spent the vast majority of the remainder of the race making tire-spinning, sideways attempts to power past DuHamel but the Honda pilot repeatedly rebuffed his bids for third.

Yates finally got an ideal launch down the back straight and drafted past with just over a lap to go. He followed that up with a hard push through the esses to prevent DuHamel from getting any ideas of pulling another rabbit out of that hat of his on the final lap.

Yates was pleased to have put the final touches on the Suzuki podium sweep, especially after struggling early in the weekend following a Friday morning spill in which he injured his shoulder. “It was a pretty good run. I wasn’t real sure about how things were going to go. I’ve been going pretty slow so far this weekend. In the first session I threw myself down and hurt myself right off. I’ve been trying to get better and better and luckily we are.

“I was up there running strong and we had a good race. Definitely at the Suzuki Superbike Showdown we wanted to get the Suzukis up there 1-2-3. We’ve been going pretty strong the last few races and it just worked out for us.”

Parts Unlimited Ducati’s Neil Hodgson scored a relatively lonely fifth, while Miller Motorsports Park race winner Jake Zemke just held off Team Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden at the flag for sixth. Hayden was actually towed up to Zemke by his Kawasaki teammate, Roger Hayden, but the Kentuckian slowed late in the race, ultimately exiting the contest on lap 18.

Jason Pridmore overcame his Jordan Suzuki teammate Steve Rapp for eighth following a lengthy scrap, while third Jordan man Jake Holden completed the top ten.

Mladin will attempt to claim his 50th career AMA Superbike victory in Sunday’s 25-lap final.