Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin and Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts battled for all 26 laps of the red-flagged-and-restarted AMA Superbike race Saturday at Mid-Ohio, but when the checkered flag waved it was Mladin taking his eighth win of the season and 22nd of his career.

Roberts and Mladin swapped the lead three times on the last lap, but Roberts pushed too hard in turn eight, lost the front end and crashed while leading the restarted race.

Roberts was able to re-mount and finish eighth.

Attack Suzuki’s Jason Pridmore took his best-ever AMA Superbike finish with a second, and Miguel Duhamel beat teammate Ben Bostrom in the race for third.

Bostrom finished fourth ahead of Mladin’s teammate Yates, who got a terrible launch for the short re-start and came back from eighth to finish fifth.

With Eric Bostrom sitting out the race, Mladin’s point lead grew to 25 over Yates.

Roberts dropped to fifth in the Championship standings, and his deficit to Mladin grew from 37 to 51 points.

Provisional AMA Superbike Race Results:

1. Mat Mladin, Suzuki, 26 laps
2. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki, -6.140 seconds
3. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, -7.810 seconds
4. Ben Bostrom, Honda, -8.832 seconds
5. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, -8.946 seconds
6. Giovanni Bussei, Ducati, -15.898 seconds
7. Kurtis Roberts, Honda, -20.833 seconds
8. Shawn Higbee, Suzuki, -23.377 seconds
9. Geoff May, Suzuki, -39.602 seconds
10. Mike Ciccotto, Suzuki, -46.474 seconds
11. John Dugan, Suzuki, -46.663 seconds
12. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki, -51.208 seconds
13. Brian Stokes, Suzuki, -51.873 seconds
14. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki, -1 lap
15. Scott Jensen, Suzuki, -1 lap


Provisional AMA Superbike Point Standings:

1. Mladin, 396 points
2. Yates, 371 points
3. Eric Bostrom, 350 points
4. Ben Bostrom, 347 points
5. Roberts, 345 points
6. Duhamel, 332 points
7. Pridmore, 280 points
8. Higbee, 275 points
9. Larry Pegram, 211 points
10. Vincent Haskovec, 199 points



More, from a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:

MID-OHIO RACE WIN FOR MLADIN – EXTENDS AMERICAN SUPERBIKE TITLE LEAD

Lexington, Ohio, USA – Three-times American Superbike champion Mat Mladin scored his eighth race win of the season and as a result has extended his AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship points lead after a thrilling days racing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Ohio.

Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) was forced to fend of a last lap challenge by Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts where the two riders swapped the race lead on a handful of occasions before Roberts crashed out of contention at turn eight, leaving Mladin to take the win, 6.14 seconds clear of privateer Jason Pridmore (Attack Suzuki). American Honda’s Miguel DuHamel placed third winning a close battle over teammate Ben Bostrom, and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates.

The win, Mladin’s 22nd AMA career victory and second at Mid-Ohio, gives the Australian a 25-point lead over teammate Aaron Yates, who finished fifth in today’s race, the first of two 26-lap AMA Superbike nationals scheduled for the weekend.

Today’s race was run in two stages after an accident forced race officials to bring out the red flag with eight laps remaining, with Mladin holding the race lead over Roberts and Pridmore. To that point, Mladin and Roberts had battled closely with Mladin holding the upper hand with track position. The restart saw any time advantage nullified leaving the field with a nine-lap sprint to the flag. Mladin again took control and led, but with just under two laps to run, came under immense pressure from Roberts. A mistake by Roberts on the final lap allowed Mladin to complete the lap with an unchallenged run to the flag.

“It was a two stage race, we were leading when the red flag came out with eight laps to go in the first stage, leaving us with a nine-lap restart,” said Mladin. “I led the restart till about a lap and a half to run when Kurtis (Roberts) came by me. We swapped places a couple of times on the last lap, but I ran a little wide on the exit of the Esses and he got by me again, but his race was done at the next turn when he crashed. It was a great race. The final lap passes were all clean moves and just finished off a great race.”

Earlier in the day, Mladin blasted his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to his 30th career AMA pole position edging out Roberts and DuHamel, with Pridmore completing the front row of the grid. Mladin’s time of 1:26.654, was just outside his existing Superbike lap record of 1:26.498 set in 2001 around the picturesque 3.86km (2.40 miles) Ohio circuit. Roberts (1:26.852) and DuHamel (1:26.936), where the only other riders to drop into the 1:26 bracket, with Pridmore’s best being a 1:27.072.

“Qualifying ended up being close, but we did a fast enough lap to get us pole position for the race. The point for pole, plus the points for leading the most laps in the race and the win itself has given us maximum points so far this weekend, so now we just need to do the same in tomorrow’s second race.”

Racing continues tomorrow with the second 36-lap AMA Superbike national scheduled for late in the afternoon.