Updated Post: Mladin Beats Duhamel, Roberts In AMA Superbike At Road America

Updated Post: Mladin Beats Duhamel, Roberts In AMA Superbike At Road America

© 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin came from behind to take his sixth AMA Superbike win of the season Saturday at Road America over American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel and Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts.

Mladin took the lead early, exchanged the top spot with Duhamel and Roberts through the middle of the 16-lap race, passed Duhamel to take the lead one last time in turn five on the final lap and held on to collect the 20th AMA Superbike win of his career by 0.280 second. Duhamel got second, with Roberts only 0.790 second behind Mladin in third.

Duhamel’s teammate Ben Bostrom finished a lonely fourth ahead of Ducati Austin’s Anthony Gobert, Attack Suzuki’s Jason Pridmore, Millennium Technologies/Kaufman Trailers’ Shawn Higbee, Corona Extra Suzuki’s Jordan Szoke, Hooters Suzuki’s Mike Ciccotto and Team Embry’s Geoff May.

Eric Bostrom pitted at the end of lap 14/beginning of lap 15 and returned to finish 13th.

Aaron Yates DNF with mechanical problems.

Provisional AMA Superbike Race One Results:

1. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 16 laps
2. Miguel Duhamel, Honda RC51, -0.280 second
3. Kurtis Roberts, Honda RC51, -0.790 second
4. Ben Bostrom, Honda RC51, -9.852 seconds
5. Anthony Gobert, Ducati 998RS, -25.154 seconds
6. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -39.616 seconds
7. Shawn Higbee, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -72.983 seconds
8. Jordan Szoke, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -80.108 seconds
9. Mike Ciccotto, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -81.742 seconds
10. Geoff May, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -81.787 seconds
11. Larry Pegram, Ducati 998RS, -91.489 seconds
12. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -91.489, seconds
13. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, -91.589 seconds
14. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -124.551 seconds
15. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki GSX-R750, -126.683 seconds
16. John Jacobi, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -131.055 seconds
17. Scott Jensen, Suzuki GSX-R750, -131.425 seconds
18. Mike Sullivan, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -140.352 seconds
19. Brian Stokes, Suzuki GSX-R750, -142.367 seconds
20. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
21. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
22. John Haner, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
23. Kevin Lehman, Yamaha YZF-R1, -1 lap
24. Monte Nichols, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
25. Tom Wertman, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
26. Doug Duane, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
27. Dr. Jeffrey Purk, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
28. Roger Hendricks, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
29. Eric Haugo, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
30. Brian Boyd, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
31. Kevin Hanson, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -2 laps
32. Jason Knupp, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -3 laps
33. Jeff Bostrom, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -3 laps
34. Steve Rapp, Suzuki GSX-R750, -8 laps
35. Michael Barnes, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -15 laps
36. Josh Hayes, Suzuki GSX-R750, -15 laps
37. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -20 laps, DNF, mechanical


Provisional AMA Superbike Point Standings:

1. Mladin, 272 points
2. Eric Bostrom, 257 points
3. Roberts, 250 points
4. Ben Bostrom, 248 points
5. Yates, 244 points
6. Duhamel, 219 points
7. Higbee, 183 points
8. Pegram, 182 points
9. Pridmore, 175 points
10. Haskovec, 159 points
11. Szoke, 139 points
12. Anthony Gobert, 126 points
13. Michael Barnes, 118 points
14. Ciccotto/May, TIE, 115 points
16. Scott Jensen, 93 points
17. Andy Deatherage/John Dugan, TIE, 82 points
19. Steve Crevier, 81 points
20. Jack Pfeifer, 77 points


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

MLADIN TAKES POLE THEN WINS OPENING SUPERBIKE RACE AT ROAD AMERICA

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA (Saturday, 7 June) – Mat Mladin not only returned to the winners podium today, but regained the points lead in the 2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship after a titanic three-way battle saw Mladin take the chequered flag in the first of the weekend’s double header Superbike races at Road America in Wisconsin.

Mladin’s 20th career AMA Superbike win was also his sixth for the season and sees him regain the number one position on the points table, fifteen points clear of Eric Bostrom (Team Kawasaki). Point’s leader coming into the round, Aaron Yates, was forced out of the race with mechanical problems and has slipped back to fifth on the point’s table.

It was a good day for Mladin and his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. Prior to the 16-lap Superbike race, he had scored his 28th career AMA Superbike pole position with a time of 2-min 15.159-secs for the 6.44km (4.00miles) Wisconsin circuit during the morning’s final qualifying session. Second fastest was Mladin’s teammate Aaron Yates (2:15.710), followed by Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda, 2:15.825) and Eric Bostrom (Team Kawasaki, 2:16.030).

The 16-lap Superbike race quickly turned into a furious high-speed battle between Suzuki mounted Mladin and the Honda’s of Miguel DuHamel and Kurtis Roberts, with each taking turn at holding the race lead. Mladin kept his best for last as his final lap produced an amazing new lap record of 2:14.740 which saw him pass DuHamel at Turn Five on his way to his sixth race victory of the season. At the end, just 0.79 of a second separated Mladin from DuHamel and Roberts.

“That was probably the best race that I’ve had for a long time,” said Mladin. “This year we’ve either won races by a long margin or have had tyre problems that have kept us out of it, so it was nice to go out there and race against a few guys. Mind you I wouldn’t want that every race, but every now and then would be good.

About half way round the final lap I was able to get by Miguel, then after that I just put my head down and did the fastest lap of the race,” added Mladin. “Obviously from the time we set on the last lap, the bike is working well. We took a few measures before the race to make sure the tyre was going to be OK, we didn’t have the best grip that we could have had and definitely didn’t have the ultimate set up with the bike, but it was the best we could do to get the bike and the tyres to last the race distance.”

“Honda do well here, so we were expecting a bit of a race from them, but we’ll see how we go when we get to a track with a few more corners in them. It did show however that the horsepower between the Honda and the Suzuki is quite similar which at the end is all good for the series.”

Heading into tomorrow’s second 16-lap Superbike race, Mladin holds a fifteen-point lead (272 – 257) in the championship over Eric Bostrom who finished thirteenth today after he made a late race pit stop. Roberts holds down third with 250; followed by Ben Bostrom (248), Yates (244) and DuHamel (219).


More, from a press release issued by Dream Team Ducati:

Dream Team Racing Ducati’s Larry Pegram was hoping for rain today after a strong 2nd in yesterday’s provisional qualifying. However, without a chance to find a dry setup this morning, Pegram, had to settle for 9th on the start grid. In the race Larry moved into 8th place where he remained for 12 out of 17 laps until his bike began to slow with a mechanical problem. At one point he was in 12th but on the last lap he was able to stay ahead of Vincent Haskovec to finish 11th.

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