From a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing:

AMA Chevy Trucks Superbike Championship Showdown at VIR

Pickerington, Ohio – It all comes down to this. The 2002 AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship will be decided this weekend, August 9-11, during the VIR Lightning Nationals at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia. Honda’s Nicky Hayden and Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom are the two riders left in contention for the title. Hayden comes to this weekend’s Superbike doubleheader at VIR the defending winner of the race and holds a 35-point lead over Bostrom in the series standings. Bostrom rides into the series finale having won two of the last three Superbike races and is looking to close the season on a winning note.

Hayden, who turned 21 last week, is having an outstanding season. He’s ridden his factory Honda RC51 to eight victories this year. That’s the second highest number of AMA Superbike wins during a single season in the history of the series. Hayden has an opportunity at VIR to match Fred Merkel’s 1984 record of 10 AMA Superbike wins in a year if he manages to take both rounds. If Hayden wins the championship, he will become the youngest rider in the history of the series to win the AMA U.S. Superbike Championship.

He seems cautiously optimistic on his chances of winning the title. “Any little mistake and it’s out the window,” Hayden said. “So I’m real excited about Virginia. It’s a track I like a lot and hopefully I’ll go in there and just get it done. I’m pretty excited about being in this position with two races to go, but I’m not going to let up at all. I’m just going in there to try to do whatever it takes to win the title.”

Bostrom’s plate has been full this year competing in both the Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship and select rounds of the World Superbike Championship. The results have been impressive. The world competition seems to have made Bostrom a better rider and the results have been showing during the second half of the season. Since the Pikes Peak round, which marked the midway point in the season, Bostrom has been the winningest rider in the series.

It’s possible that this could be the last opportunity for U.S. racing fans to watch both Hayden and Bostrom race in person for a while. Both are being mentioned as top candidates for world championship MotoGP and or World Superbike rides for next season.

While the focus will be on the Hayden/Bostrom battle, several other riders hope to close the season on a high note. Chief among those would be three-time and defending AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin, who holds the official track record with a lap of one minute, 25.428 seconds at 95.238 miles per hour on a Suzuki GSXR750. At VIR, Mladin will be trying to keep from having his first winless season in six years. Last year at VIR, the Aussie was protecting his series lead, but this year he’ll likely pull out all the stops to put his No. 1 Suzuki atop the podium.

Miguel Duhamel is the all-time wins leader in AMA Superbike and is ranked third in the series coming into this weekend’s doubleheader. At 35, Duhamel shows little sign of slowing down. He’s added two more wins to his victory tally already this year with his Road America doubleheader sweep and would love nothing better than to end the season with another pair of victories. This is the second year of the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship has visited the recently renovated Virginia International Raceway. The facility has quickly become a rider and fan favorite with its scenic rural surroundings and the track itself offers a great combination of low and high-speed corners and offers viewers some spectacular vistas with its elevation changes.

For additional information contact VIR at (434) 822-7700 or visit www.virclub.com.

Same-day coverage of the Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship begins at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, Saturday, Aug. 10 (Superbike race 1), with repeats at 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. Sunday’s Superbike final will be live and coverage begins at 3 p.m. Eastern, with repeats at 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., Aug. 11, all on Speed Channel. For immediate post-race results, points, and live transponder scoring from each race in the championship, log on to amaproracing.com’s Superbike Mediacenter, the official home of the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship.