From a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:

2004 American AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship

Rounds 6 & 7 – Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Event Preview

MLADIN CHASES ALABAMA SUPERBIKE VICTORIES

This weekend’s double-header rounds of the American AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama will bring back a host of positive memories for Mat Mladin and his Yoshimura Suzuki crew as it was at this circuit that Mladin wrote his name in the AMA history books after claiming an unprecedented fourth AMA Superbike crown.

The corresponding round last year capped off a sensational 2003 season for the Australian. After placing his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 on pole position, a fourth and third place finish from the two Superbike Nationals was sufficient for him to wrap up the title.

A rescheduling of the round sees the Alabama circuit appear much earlier in the season, with five of eighteen races of this year’s championship complete and Mladin holding a 24-point lead on the points table over Honda’s Miguel DuHamel, 177 to 153.

After winning the opening four races of the series, Mladin has made his intentions known that a fifth title is what he is seeking and that he is following the same plan as he always has done, mixing race wins with consistency.

This weekend marks the beginning of a crucial mid-season sector of the series and a point at which Mladin will be aiming to consolidate his position at the top of the championship point’s ladder.

“The next five races, the two here at Barber, the one at Pikes Peak (Colorado) and the double header at Road America (Wisconsin) will be very important to us,” said Mladin. “If we can get out of the races with a solid points lead we will be satisfied. The team knows what has to be done and we will be working as hard as we can to extend that lead as much as we can at these next three circuits.”

Off-season resurfacing of the circuit has left it with slightly different characteristics that previous. Mladin has tested at Barber earlier in the year and was happy with the results achieved then.

“The new surface as far as traction goes feels similar to how it was before, but it’s definitely more bumpy than the old surface. It has a lot of corner entry bumps, like little ripples, that unsettles the bike into the turns. This is the case on a few of the turns.”

“Another thing to take into consideration is the weather. It gets quite warm here and also very humid, so it can drain the energy out of you quite quickly during a race. The nature of the track also means that there is no room to rest, as there are no long straightaways. It’s a challenge around here, especially on a big bike. It’s a fairly small and tight racetrack, that relies on good bike set up.”

Practice and qualifying for this weekend’s double-header Superbike round begins on Friday, with Saturday featuring the final qualifying session and the first of the 28-lap Superbike races prior to Sunday’s second Superbike national.


FAST FACTS – Barber Motorsports Park

Circuit Length: 3.70km / 2.3 miles

2003 Pole position: Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:25.176

2003 Race results:
Race 1
1. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki)
2. Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda)
3. Ben Bostrom (American Honda)

Race 2
1. Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda)
2. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati Austin)
3. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki)

Superbike lap record: Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:25.176 (2003)

2004 AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship (Points after 5 of 18 rounds)
1. Mat Mladin (177, 4 wins); 2. Miguel DuHamel (153, 1 win), 3. Jake Zemke (150); 4. Geoff May (108); 5. Lee Acree (105), 6. Larry Pegram (97), 7. Eric Bostrom (96), 8. John Haner (84), 9. Ben Bostrom (79), 10. Cory West (77).