Spies answers Mladin at Cal Speedway

Spies answers Mladin

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Defending AMA Superbike champion Ben Spies answered Mat Mladin’s success of a week ago in emphatic fashion on Saturday at California Speedway. The Yoshimura Suzuki ace escaped from a fierce battle with teammate Mat Mladin for the lead on lap 11 of 28 and then put on a dominating display, powering away at the front.

Barber double winner Mladin appeared determined to prevent Spies from taking control of the race in the early stages, repeatedly shutting the door or immediately responding to a pass by Spies with an aggressive maneuver of his own.

The six-time champ could only hold back the harrying Spies for so long, however, and once the Texan finally established himself in first, he immediately opened up a full second gap at the front. Spies quickly added to that advantage, working it up by big chucks before finally settling in around seven seconds in front of the fight for second.

That’s right, the fight for second. Third qualifier Eric Bostrom got another of his trademark fast starts before subsequently falling to fifth. The Yamaha USA runner managed to turn it around this time, working up onto Mladin’s tail about the time Spies swung into first.

Bostrom actually split the Yosh duo for a time, holding down second from laps 16 to 20 before the six-time champ reclaimed the runner-up spot, a position he would hold to the checkered flag.

The win was the 13th of Spies’ young Superbike career, tying him with legendary former AMA and World Superbike champ Doug Polen for tenth all time.

After his triumph, Spies said, “It’s great. Right now I’m just doing the best I can and riding as hard as I can. (Mat) kicked our butts last week and we needed to rebound this week. We got off to a decent start and mixed it up for the first few laps and it should have been pretty good on TV. I just tried to get into a rhythm and click the laps away and I ended up with a first place.”

Spies admitted that it was important to strike back following Mladin’s Barber performance. “Momentum is the key to everything and so is confidence. We knew going in today that we had a real good bike for the race and it showed. Once we got down we did a couple of ‘23s and got out and put it on cruise control with about 12 to go.”

Commenting on the early dogfight with Mladin for the lead, he said, “I got a little impatient. He was strong where he needed to be strong and he was making himself wide. It’s so hard when you’re on the same bike and you’re riding them to the limit. When you’re not next to them on the brakes, to come by on the brakes is really hard. I was strong coming onto the front straightaway with my drives, and was hitting the limiter and running out of gear. I finally bumped it up to sixth to get the slingshot and was having to downshift too many gears. I just had to make some changes. I was a little impatient but I knew the bike was working really well and I just had to time it right. I don’t believe it will be that easy tomorrow.”

Despite giving it his best efforts, Mladin understood from the start that keeping Spies behind him was going to be a tall order in this race. “I knew it was going to be a long day. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to hold the lead or not. I was making it as wide as I could for ten laps, that’s for sure, but to do that for 28 laps is very difficult. Today I made a couple changes to the bike before the race and I made a bit of a mistake.”

Speaking about responding to the fight put up by Bostrom for second, Mladin said, “I just tried to pick up in as many spots as possible -- just try to make things a little bit cleaner to get back around. When Eric came around, Ben actually slowed up a little bit. We made up a little bit of ground and I was thinking Ben might be having a few problems possibly. I pushed as hard as I could, but Ben wasn’t having too much of a problem. The only problem he was having was how much he was going to win by today.”

Bostrom’s third-place result is Yamaha’s first Superbike podium in five years, dating back to Anthony Gobert’s race-winning weekend at this very track in 2002.

“It feels good to be on the podium, but it feels even better to race with some people,” Bostrom commented. “In particular we got to mix it up with Mat. I realize he might not have had the best of days but it was still a huge step for us. The team is really excited and it has been a long time since Yamaha has gotten on the podium. It was a really big accomplishment… It was the first time all year we came back by people and actually started advancing. It was a big race for us.”

As Bostrom joined the usual suspects on the podium, the next pack put on their usual entertaining scrap for position. Third Yoshimura Suzuki runner Tommy Hayden ultimately secured a top-four repeat from qualifying, finishing more than a second ahead of Miguel DuHamel on the American Honda-developed CBR1000RR for fourth.

DuHamel’s teammate, Jake Zemke, and Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates fell back into a two-rider tussle for sixth. The Californian survived the pressure being applied by the Georgian to cross the line in sixth, some 20 seconds off the race winner.

Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden put in a lonely ride in eighth, followed by second Yamaha pilot Jason DiSalvo, while FBF MV Agusta’s Matt Lynn overtook Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking late to give the Italian manufacturer their first top ten finish in AMA Superbike racing.

The fifth round of the 2007 Spies/Mladin duel will take place tomorrow afternoon at California Speedway, scheduled to get underway at 3:00 pm local time.