Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin took a flag-to-flag victory Saturday in the AMA Superbike race at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. The win is the 21st Superbike win of Mladin’s AMA career (second all-time) but the first career win for the Australian at Laguna Seca.

The victory also puts Mladin back into the AMA Superbike Championship point lead by six points over Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom, who finished third today behind Mladin’s teammate Aaron Yates.

Yates, Bostrom and Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts fought over second through the second half of the 28-lap event. Yates got away from Bostrom through heavy traffic, and Roberts pitted on lap 24 with problems. Roberts returned to finish 11th, one lap down.

Ducati Austin’s Giovanni Bussei crashed out of the race entering the Corkscrew, and Attack Suzuki’s Josh Hayes fell off in turn three.

Both Bussei and Hayes walked away from their crashes.

AMA Superbike Race Results:

1. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 28 laps
2. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -8.132 seconds
3. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, -10.241 seconds
4. Ben Bostrom, Honda RC51, -14.040 seconds
5. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -24.583 seconds
6. Miguel Duhamel, Honda RC51, -40.802 seconds
7. Jordan Szoke, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -68.349 seconds
8. Shawn Higbee, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -83.044 second
9. Michael Barnes, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
10. James Randolph, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
11. Kurtis Roberts, Honda RC51, -1 lap
12. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
13. Mike Ciccotto, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
14. Chris Caylor, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
15. Geoff May, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
16. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
17. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki GSX-R1000
18. Mike Sullivan, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
19. Ricky Orlando, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
20. John Dugan, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
21. Jake Holden, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
22. Tom Montano, Ductai 998S, -1 lap
23. Chris Voelker, Ducati 998RS, -1 lap
24. Scott Jensen, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
25. Rob Mesa, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
26. Tom Wertman, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
27. Alan Schmidt, Szuuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
28. John Haner, Suzuki GSX-R750, -2 laps
29. Kim Nakashima, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -2 laps
30. Jeff Bostrom, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -2 laps
31. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki GSX-R750, -2 laps
32. James King, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -2 laps
33. Jason Knupp, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -2 laps
34. Alex McElyea, Honda CBR954RR, -2 laps
35. Robert Christman, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -10 laps
36. Josh Hayes, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -14 laps, DNF, crash
37. Giovanni Bussei, Ducati 998RS, -18 laps, DNF, crash
38. Marco Martinez, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -19 laps, DNF
39. John Scott Wilson, Suzuki GSX-R750, -19 laps, DNF
40. Brian Stokes, Suzuki GSX-R750, -20 laps, DNF
41. Garry Combs, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -21 laps, DNF
42. Shane Turpin, Yamaha YZF-R1, -23 laps, DNF
43. Rich Conicelli, Suzuki GSX-R750, -24 laps, DNF


Provisional AMA Superbike Championship Point Standings:

1. Mladin, 356 points
2. Eric Bostrom, 350 points
3. Yates, 345 points
4. Roberts, 321 points
5. Ben Bostrom, 320 points
6. Duhamel, 303 points
7. Higbee, 252 points
8. Pridmore, 251 points
9. Pegram, 211 points
10. Haskovec, 199 points


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

MLADIN TAKES AMERICAN AMA SUPERBIKE RACE WIN

Monterey, California, USA (Saturday, 12 July) – Three-times American Superbike champion, Australia’s Mat Mladin stormed away from the field to take a flag to flag victory in today’s twelfth round of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship being held at Laguna Seca Raceway, California.

Today’s victory was Mladin’s seventh aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 this year and surprisingly was his first at the 3.610km (2.2miles) Monterey circuit in his eight year AMA career that has seen him extend his win tally to 21.

More importantly, today’s win has moved Mladin back to the head of the AMA Superbike points table where he now has a six-point advantage over Team Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom (356 – 350).

Mladin had been the dominant rider throughout practice and qualifying, setting pole position for the 28-lap AMA Superbike national and lapped under the existing class record in the final two practice sessions.

Carrying his qualifying form into the race, Mladin quickly jumped to the race lead and held that position till the end. Teammate Aaron Yates, who sat alongside Mladin on the starting grid overcame a race long battle with Eric Bostrom to claim second, 8.132 seconds behind Mladin.

“It’s been a long time coming to get a win here at Laguna (Seca), but more importantly for us it was another win for the season and it puts us back in front on the points table,” said Mladin.

“I pushed it hard throughout the race. It’s been quite warm here today, so it gave us a great opportunity to see what the new Dunlops would do in these conditions as well as giving us an indication as to what we can expect from the World Superbike races tomorrow.

“I think everyone here knows how much importance we have placed on winning this race this weekend. It has been difficult for all of us preparing two machines for the two different championships, so to take that win was fantastic for all of us, so now we can turn our attention to the SWC races and see if we can do the same there.”


More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing Information:

AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship
Round 12: Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca

Temperature: 23 degrees
Climate: Sunny
Crowd: 30,000

Honda Riders Maintain Championship Positions

American Honda’s Ben Bostrom closed up on Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts for fourth place in the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship, despite tire problems for both in the 12th round of the championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca held in conjunction with the eighth round of the Superbike World Championship. American Honda’s Miguel DuHamel struggled with an unbalanced motorcycle, but maintained sixth in the championship.

The Honda trio ran together for the first seven of 28 laps around the picturesque Monterey, California circuit, close to the Pacific Ocean, with Roberts the first to break rank. Up to third on the 12th lap, he took over second on lap 15 and was closing on the race leader when he felt a vibration in his rear tire. The problem wasn’t structural, but a tire that had spun on the rim, sending ominous vibrations up through the chassis that he interpreted as terminal. Thinking it was going to come apart, Roberts rode it out until the 24th lap when he pitted for a new rear. He re-joined the race to finish 11th.

Ben Bostrom was consistent throughout en route to finishing just off the podium, though he felt he was capable of more. On the sighting lap, Bostrom sensed a problem with his rear tire. Thinking it might have been from a cool patch in his tire warmer, or a sticker on the rear tire, he and the team made the decision not to make a change. Once at racing speed, Bostrom realized it was a mistake. “In hindsight we should have changed it for sure. Instead we started the race with a tire with a bad hop on the left side.”

Miguel DuHamel took a calculated gamble on his suspension set-up that didn’t pan out. “I got the bike into a bad situation,” he said. “I’m a pretty big part of what goes on with the bike, so I take most of the blame.” Normally the most balanced motorcycle on the racetrack, DuHamel’s Honda RC-51 was anything but after he chose wrong on both the front and rear. The veteran French-Canadian ran a lonely sixth for almost the entire race.
“We brought it home, we made some good points. We’re heading to friendlier pastures, Mid-Ohio, and Virginia (VIR), tracks that I like.”

With six rounds remaining in the championship, Kurtis Roberts is in fourth place in front of Ben Bostrom and Miguel DuHamel.

Leading the championship is Suzuki’s Mat Mladin, the winner of today’s race. Mladin beat teammate Aaron Yates with Ben’s brother, Eric, third on the Kawasaki.

On Friday, Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke finished a season-best second in the Pro Honda Oils Supersport race, using a late race pass to take the runner-up position behind Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking. Teammate Roger Lee Hayden was fifth in front of Ben Bostrom and Miguel DuHamel.

Ben Bostrom, Fourth Place
At the beginning it would do a decent lap time only because it had a lot of grip exiting. As soon as the tire wore out, it wanted to spin all the way out. We just got a bad tire. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s happened two races in a row to us. Kind of a bummer. Mine had such a bad hop coming over turn one that the thing felt like it was just going to pop right here. I knew it had a hop from the first lap on.

Miguel DuHamel, Sixth Place
My problem was the lack of good input to the team to get a good bike this weekend. I wasn’t able to get a good set-up. We struggled all weekend, so usually we’re able to pull something good right before the race. We thought we had something good coming in here. It was overloading the front and the rear was too stiff and kept kicking up and down. It was moving quite a bit. It was doing this seesaw movement. The more it was overloading the front, the more it was pushing. I was trying to get the rear to slide and by the time I was able to do that, everybody was gone.

Kurtis Roberts, 11th Place
My rear tire was out of balance and it would vibrate. I thought it was coming apart. It would vibrate so bad we thought it chunked. It happened right when I got into second place, that lap when I was closing in on Mat (Mladin). Then, coming out of four, it vibrated all the way down the back straightaway so bad that I thought it was coming apart. I kept going for six, seven, eight laps.

Superbike:
1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
3. Eric Bostrom (Kawasaki)
4. Ben Bostrom (Honda)
5. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki)
6. Miguel DuHamel (Honda)
7. Jordan Szoke (Suzuki)
8. Shawn Higbee (Suzuki)
9. Michael Barnes (Suzuki)
10. James Randolph (Suzuki)
11. Kurtis Roberts (Honda)

AMA Championship Standings:
1. Mat Mladin (386)
2. Eric Bostrom (350)
3. Aaron Yates (345)
4. Kurtis Roberts (321)
5. Ben Bostrom (320)
6. Miguel DuHamel (303)
7. Shawn Higbee (252)
8. Jason Pridmore (251)
9. Larry Pegram (211)
10. Vincent Haskovec (199)