Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Aaron Yates took the win in the 25-lap AMA Superbike final by 2.8 seconds over Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom Saturday at Road Atlanta.
The win was the sixth of Yates’ career, his first Superbike race win at his home track and his first Superbike victory since winning both races of a double-header at Mid-Ohio July 15-16, 2000.
The win combined with Mat Mladin’s DNF puts Yates in the AMA Superbike point lead.
Anthony Gobert got the holeshot into turn one but was quickly overtaken by Eric Bostrom, Mat Mladin and Yates on the first lap. Mladin took the lead from Eric Bostrom on the second lap of the race and quickly began to pull away by 0.5 second per lap.
After a string of laps hovering around 1:24.0, Mladin had a 3.8-second lead on lap ten. Then just as Mladin sat up to brake from an estimated 175 mph for the turn ten chicane, his rear Dunlop practically exploded, coming apart in big chunks of rubber.
Mladin gave a heoric effort trying to save it. He kept his bike up and going straight despite his rear wheel skidding side-to-side on only a few remnants of rubber for approximately 350 feet of pavement. Still carrying a great deal of speed, Mladin jumped the transition between the track and the gravel trap, continued to try to bring his bike under control in the gravel but lost the front end and finally crashed. Mladin pointed fans to his rear tire before attempting to ride the bike back into the pits, but he couldn’t get the bike out of the impact zone and walked back to the pits.
After he was displaced to second by Mladin, Bostrom worked hard for seven laps to hold off the advances of Yates. Yates finally got by Bostrom on the brakes for turn ten on lap eight and quickly pulled out a comfortable gap. Eric Bostrom closed the gap at times in traffic but had nothing for the Georgia rider.
Kurtis Roberts ran a steady race in fourth, which eventually became third, from the second lap.
Anthony Gobert was as far back as seventh on lap ten before pushing forward past Ben Bostrom and a fading Miguel Duhamel to score fourth, his best finish of the 2003 season.
Ben Bostrom came home fifth in front of Michelin-shod Larry Pegram, Corona Extra Suzuki’s Jordan Szoke, Prieto Racing’s Michael Barnes, Team Embry Geoff May and HSA Racing/Kaufman Trailers’ Shawn Higbee.
Duhamel started fading quickly on lap 13, slowing from a early pace of 1:25s to 1:28 before settling in at 1:31s. Duhamel finished 11th, one lap down.
AMA Superbike Race One Results:
1. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 25 laps
2. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki, -2.857 seconds
3. Kurtis Roberts, Honda, -20.449 seconds
4. Anthony Gobert, Ducati, -26.454 seconds
5. Ben Bostrom, Honda, -44.789 seconds
6. Larry Pegram, Ducati, -56.206 seconds
7. Jordan Szoke, Suzuki, -68.781 seconds
8. Michael Barnes, Suzuki, -79.779 seconds
9. Geoff May, Suzuki, -1 lap
10. Shawn Higbee, Suzuki, -1 lap
11. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, -1 lap
12. John Dugan, Suzuki, -1 lap
13. Mike Ciccotto, Suzuki, -1 lap
14. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki, -1 lap
15. Scott Jensen, Suzuki, -1 lap
16. Rich Conicelli, Suzuki, -1 lap
17. Scott Harwell, Suzuki, -1 lap
18. Tom Wertman, Suzuki, -1 lap
19. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki, -1 lap
20. Jake Holden, Suzuki, -1 lap
Provisional AMA Superbike Points:
1. Yates, 187
2. Mladin, 175
3. Eric Bostrom, 170
4. Ben Bostrom, 168
5. Roberts, 160
6. Duhamel, 141
7. Pegram, 124
8. Higbee, 120
9. Haskovec, 111
10. Pridmore, 100